Nuclear Liability
Britain’s energy ministry proposed on Monday implementing a 1.2 billion euro ($1.63 billion) liability cost per nuclear site on generators to cover the consequences of accidents. The proposal aligns British law with a pan-European treaty signed in 2004, which set out that nuclear power station operators should face a minimum of 700 million euros in costs payable in case of an accident.
London South East 25th Jan 2011 more >>
World Nuclear News 25th Jan 2011 more >>
Belfast Telegraph 25th Jan 2011 more >>
NPSs
The government of UK is in preparations to submit a final list of sites suitable for new nuclear power plants to the parliament. This preparation is in line with the country’s strategy to help the country meet climate change obligations by making way for a new nuclear fleet.
Energy Business Review 25th Jan 2011 more >>
Energy Efficiency News 25th Jan 2011 more >>
The Energy Committee said it was “sceptical” that Britain’s target of switching on two nuclear power stations a year between 2020 and 2025 would be reached. The UK needs a huge number of new nuclear power stations to make up for the coal-fired stations being switched off over the next decade. However, the committee warned that the Coalition’s new planning system did not appear to be capable of making sure the 12 new stations are located in the right places to be linked up to the electricity grid. “Hooking up this amount of nuclear and other generation to the national grid poses an unprecedented challenge,” said Tim Yeo, its chairman. “Two plants a year is a very high target to reach. The [system] lacks any real framework for coordinating the process of siting and linking up the new power stations.” The MPs’ report also cast doubt on current plans to make sure there is a deep hole for disposing of radioactive waste within 110 years. It called on the Government to insist that there are sufficient interim ways of storing the material before allowing new plants to be built.
Telegraph 26th Jan 2011 more >>
Dungeness
A petition asking for Dungeness to be considered as a future site for generating nuclear power has been delivered to 10 Downing Street. The previous government dismissed it as one of 10 new nuclear power stations in 2009, on environmental grounds. The petition was handed in by the local Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe, Damian Collins.
BBC 25th Jan 2011 more >>
Hartlepool
A POWER station is set for an extra £50m investment. And that’s just one of a string of good news announcements for the plant. Staff at Hartlepool’s nuclear site are on a high after a series of positive developments – all in the last month. The plant produced more electricity than any other EDF Energy-owned site in England last year. It is also due to get a £50m injection in the next three to four years on top of its normal annual investment of £20m. Thirdly, the plant’s lifespan has also been extended from 2014 until 2019.
Hartlepool Mail 25th Jan 2011 more >>
Hinkley
As the consultation closed energy and climate change minister, Chris Huhne, toured and gave his full backing to two potential nuclear power station. Mr Huhne toured the Hinkley B nuclear site in Somerset and viewed the location for another nuclear fuelled power plant.
Edie 25th Jan 2011 more >>
The new £8m Energy Skills Centre at Bridgwater College should be able to provide the staff needed to build a new nuclear power station if it goes ahead.
BBC 25th Jan 2011 more >>
Britain’s energy chief has come under yet more pressure to provide a simple payout system for communities seeking financial compensation for hosting nuclear power plants.
The development came as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne paid a visit to the site of the proposed Hinkley C nuclear power station in Somerset yesterday. He also opened a multi-million pound Energy Skills Centre at Bridgwater College, aimed at training local nuclear workers for the future. His visit marked the end of public consultation on the Government’s National Policy Statement on nuclear energy.
This is Somerset 25th Jan2011 more >>
Environmental pressure group, Kick Nuclear, is calling for the closure of Hinkley Point nuclear power station in West Somerset. This follows the publication of an independent report claiming that land surrounding the site could be contaminated with up to 10 tonnes of highly toxic enriched uranium. Kick Nuclear says the implications are so serious that the plant’s operator, British Energy, should not allow employees to continue working on the site. The organisation is also demanding that parent company, EDF Energy, halts all preparatory construction work on adjacent land earmarked for two new reactors.
Bristol Indymedia 24th Jan 2011 more >>
Stop Hinkley January Newsletter.
Stop Hinkley 25th Jan 2011 more >>
Floating/underwater reactors
There seems to be between the Russian and French nuclear establishments a race to see who will design and operate the most absurd and perhaps most dangerous new type of nuclear reactor. Regular readers of this blog are familiar with the emerging issue of the floating nuclear reactors the Russian Federation is currently building to tug, lease and/or sell in various parts of the world, in order to produce electricity in remote regions and facilitate the development of subseabed mining, water desalination and other energy-hungry activities. (For more information on this Russian scheme click on “Floating nuclear reactors” in the right-hand column). But today I’ve learned in the French newspaper Le Figaro that a French engineering firm is developing underwater nuclear power plants in partnership with the French nuclear giant AREVA, the French utility company EDF and the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Le Figaro describes the project as a “low-cost” nuclear reactor. Of course, the one million megawatts question is whether low-cost for the operator means high-cost for the environment.
Chez Remi 20th Jan 2011 more >>
Nuclear power may not be clean enough to be included in some studies about the feasibility of renewable energy, but some countries are so determined to get off fossil fuels in favor of nuclear power that they are studying how they can place nuclear reactors on the ocean floor
Discovery News 25th Jan 2011 more >>
Plutonium
The dream of “closing” the fuel cycle through advanced fuel-cycle and reactor technologies lay dormant for decades, briefly reappeared under the previous US administration, but now seems to be undergoing something of a third coming. Frank von Hippel says historical experience should warn us against being seduced once again. He is a professor of public and international Affairs at Princeton University, and co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials.
Nuclear Intelligence Weekly 24th Jan 2011 more >>
Korea
U.S. President Barack Obama told North Korea to stick to its commitment to abandon atomic weapons, throwing his support behind ally South Korea ahead of talks to try to calm tension on the divided peninsula.
Yahoo 26th Jan 2011 more >>
Iran
Sanctions have not held up Iran’s nuclear programme and it could produce bombs within two years, Israel’s new top spy said on Tuesday, staking out a conservative timeline in the face of rosier U.S. assessments.
Telegraph 26th Jan 2011 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Russia’s lower house of parliament ratified Tuesday a landmark nuclear disarmament treaty with the United States, the first such weapons pact in the post-Cold War era.
CNN 25th Jan 2011 more >>
Saudi Arabia
With vast oil reserves that are far from exhausted, Saudi Arabia, facing rising domestic energy demand that could cut into its oil exports, has decided to explore nuclear and renewable energy, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Monday.
Middle East Online 25th Jan 2011 more >>
