EDF
THE French energy giant EDF hired private investigators to spy on Greenpeace in Britain as the company was seeking to build the next generation of UK nuclear power stations. Inquiries by The Sunday Times have revealed how private detectives hacked into computer systems at a time when the environmental group was planning a legal challenge to EDF’s UK aspirations. It is also claimed that the investigators informally consulted contacts at MI5 about Greenpeace, including the possibility of it being “infiltrated” by eco-terrorists. The spying operation was authorised by senior executives at EDF’s head office in Paris and has sparked a French judicial investigation.
Sunday Times 26th Apr 2009 more >>
Millom
Six of Haverigg’s eight turbines actually fall within the proposed footprint of the Kirksanton nuclear power station, where RWE wants to build up to three reactors. The German energy giant confirms that they would have to be dismantled if the power station were built. The development will delight pro-nuclear anti-wind activists while dismayed environmentalists will see it as an all-too-obvious portent of a switch in government priorities from promoting wind to advancing the atom – and as proof that concentrating on nuclear will cripple renewable energy. “It beggars belief that, at a time when windpower has never been more vital to the UK, a viable wind farm is to be sacrificed on the altar of nuclear power,” said Martin Forwood of the campaign group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment.
Independent on Sunday 26th Apr 2009 more >>
Dungeness
A campaign group has raised concerns that the expansion of an airport would jeopardise plans for a new nuclear power station at Dungeness. The Lydd Airport Action Group (LAAG) wants to prevent proposals for the extension of the runway and a new terminal at London Ashford Airport on the Romney Marsh from going ahead.
Kent News 25th Apr 2009 more >>
Sizewell
Fifty people have gathered at a nuclear power station in Suffolk to mark 20 years since the Chernobyl disaster. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which has organised a “peaceful” protest at Sizewell said it wanted to highlight the dangers of nuclear power. The Government said new nuclear power stations could be built at 11 sites in England including Sizewell.
BBC 25th Apr 2009 more >>
Suffolk Evening Star 25th Apr 2009 more >>
East Anglian Daily Times 25th Apr 2009 more >>
Chernobyl
It exploded 23 years ago today more than 1,400 miles away, but it is still contaminating sheep in Scotland. The Chernobyl nuclear reactor near Kiev in Ukraine spewed a huge cloud of radioactivity over Europe, after it overheated and ripped apart on 26 April 1986 because of errors made by control room staff. It was the world’s worst nuclear accident. Now, according to the government’s Food Standards Agency (FSA), some 3,000 sheep are still subject to restrictions because they remain contaminated by Chernobyl in breach of the safety limit. They are at five farms covering about 7,000 hectares in Stirling and Ayrshire.
Sunday Herald 26th Apr 2009 more >>
Test Veterans
The People was the first newspaper to take up the case for compensating the H-bomb veterans whose lives were blighted by nuclear tests. Now, at last, the 8,000 still surviving from the bomb trials of the 1950s are on the brink of getting payouts of £30,000 each. Too little. Too late.
The People 26th Apr 2009 more >>
Trident
He’s not one of the usual suspects, and he didn’t mince his words. “Trident is no bloody use,” he said. “Let’s not waste money on it”. General Sir Hugh Beach, the former deputy Commander-in-Chief of UK Land Forces, was in Glasgow yesterday to talk about Britain’s nuclear bombs. The submarines based on the Clyde and armed with Trident nuclear warheads should not be replaced but immediately scrapped, he argued.
Sunday Herald 26th Apr 2009 more >>
North Korea
North Korea has started to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods at its nuclear arms plant, its foreign ministry admitted. The announcement came hours after a UN Security Council committee placed three North Korean companies on a UN blacklist for aiding Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programmes.
ITN 26th Apr 2009 more >>
Wales Online 25th Apr 2009 more >>
Activists
A long-running and intricate web of covert police attempts to spy on peaceful activists and infiltrate legitimate protest movements in Scotland has been uncovered by the Sunday Herald. Citizens protesting against nuclear bases on the Clyde have been offered cash for intelligence by Ministry of Defence (MoD) police, it has been claimed, while environmental activists report similar offers from Strathclyde Police. They all back up the revelation made yesterday that Strathclyde police offered to pay Tilly Gifford, an anti-airport protester with Plane Stupid, for inside information. She recorded two police officers making the offer.
Sunday Herald 26th April 2009 more >>
Climate
Ed Milliband warns today that he is “fearful” that the world may miss the opportunity to halt global warming and is calling for a Make Poverty History-style popular movement to push for a breakthrough at this year’s Copenhagen summit. He will travel to Washington this week for preliminary talks, amid concerns that Barack Obama’s ability to back genuinely ambitious cuts in carbon emissions could be hindered by domestic political opposition.
Observer 26th Apr 2009 more >>
Renewables
Scotland risks being left behind in the race for green technology by an epidemic of nimbyism holding up planning applications and threatening to derail government targets for renewable energy. While the UK and Scottish governments argue over the need for nuclear power, experts claim that numerous multi-million-pound projects which could create thousands of jobs and provide cheap and efficient power to millions of homes are being thwarted by a highly vocal opposition.
Observer 26th Apr 2009 more >>
It’s official: it’s getting windier down south. This unexpected quirk of climate change has given a much needed boost to offshore wind-farm developers. For those struggling to make the economics of hugely expensive wind farms work, more wind equals more money. Experts said that the waters off the coast of East Anglia and Essex could host many more wind farms as a result.
Observer 26th Apr 2009 more >>
Coal
Ed Miliband’s announcement on Thursday that, in future, such plants must be fitted with equipment to remove the gas, has laid down a whole
avenue of milestones. It is the single most important green measure yet by this Government. It is the first time that a Secretary of State for Energy has overridden the irredeemably pro-pollution position of his department. And, by establishing what can, and cannot, be built, it marks the end of laissez-faire energy policy in Britain. Not bad for one short lunchtime parliamentary statement. But there is more. The new measures are likely to trigger a rapid increase in the use of the technology cumbersomely entitled “carbon capture and storage” (CCS) in the United States and worldwide. They could give Britain a share of a lucrative market that it seemed determined to forfeit. And they make it much less likely that the energy company E.ON will build its controversial new power station at Kingsnorth in Kent.
Independent on Sunday 26th Apr 2009 more >>
