New nukes
Britain and France are set to sign an agreement this week calling for the construction of new nuclear power stations in the UK using French know-how. Environmental groups have condemned the deal as unnecessary.
Business Green 25th March 2008 more >>
A government minister will call today for a huge expansion of Britain’s nuclear power in what he predicts could be a £20bn economic bonanza that will create 100,000 new jobs and benefit the economy as much as North Sea oil. In an ambitious speech that will alarm the anti-nuclear lobby, John Hutton, the business secretary, will argue that the UK’s nuclear programme should go beyond replacing the existing stock of 23 reactors, which provide 20% of the country’s energy. Instead nuclear should contribute “a significantly higher proportion” of the nation’s energy needs in the years ahead, and Britain should aim to become a world leader in the development of nuclear power technology.
Guardian 26th March 2008 more >>
BBC 26th March 2008 more >>
FT 26th March 2008 more >>
Daily Mail 26th March 2008 more >>
Telegraph 26th March 2008 more >>
Thousands of extra jobs could be created if designs for a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK could be used around the world, a trade union claims. Unite wants the government and the nuclear regulator to license “global designs”, set at an international standard, for the new sites in this country.
Herald 26th March 2008 more >>
Builder and Engineer 25th March 2008 more >>
Brown will open the proverbial front door to French utility Electricity de France (EDF), and its burgeoning workforce, to come build and operate any new nuclear power stations here in the UK. They will claim that nuclear power is the bedrock of global energy security and a necessary tool in the fight against climate change, but do these claims stand up to scrutiny? Does political mantra really mean solid answers to the bigger questions on climate change and how to keep the lights on? Sadly not.
Greenpeace 25th March 2008 more >>
The UK government’s announcement in January, to give the go ahead for a series of new build nuclear power plants, is set to provide the industry with one of the most challenging design projects of the decade. Our existing nuclear power stations are utilitarian in design at best. What the design industry has now been given is a chance to change perceptions and create power stations that the nation can be proud of; that will enhance rather than spoil the landscape.
Engineer Live 26th March 2008 more >>
Forty countries are now revisiting, or contemplating, nuclear power. Russia announced this month that it expects to build as many as 42 new domestic reactors by 2030, compared to 31 running now. Its nuclear holding company, Rosatom, created in another fit of state-led industrial reorganisation, hopes to export another 60. Some of these will go to China, which has 11 reactors in operation and five more under construction. The plan is to increase Chinese nuclear generation capacity fivefold by 2020, and further triple it by 2030. In the US 30 new plants have been announced, and several developed countries are eyeing the replacement of existing reactors.
FT 25th March 2008 more >>
India
The US has stepped up its bid to persuade India to proceed with the civil nuclear deal between the two countries, amid fears in Washington that time to ratify the agreement could run out unless the Indian coalition government rallies around it soon. In a sign of the US administration’s impatience for progress on a deal it sees as a signal foreign policy achievement, President George W. Bush met Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister, in the White House this week.
FT 26th March 2008 more >>
India’s foreign minister has said that continuing fierce domestic opposition could delay a landmark US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal.
BBC 25th March 2008 more >>
US
Power producer NRG Energy Inc said it has formed a company to develop and invest in new nuclear energy projects in North America. Nuclear Innovation North America LLC will focus on marketing, siting and financing new nuclear projects, including the planned South Texas Project units 3 and 4, NRG said. Japan’s Toshiba Corp will be the primary contractor on all of the new company’s projects, NRG said in a statement. Toshiba will invest $300 million in the company over the next six years and will receive a 12 percent equity stake.
Reuters 26th March 2008 more >>
Interactive Investor 25th March 2008 more >>
Egypt
Egypt and Russia have signed a deal clearing the way for Russian involvement in building up Egypt’s nuclear power industry.
BBC 25th March 2008 more >>
Reuters 25th March 2008 more >>
Bahrain
The United States and Bahrain signed a deal Monday on peaceful nuclear energy cooperation, holding it up as a model for the Middle East that contrasts with Iran’s disputed atomic program.
Middle East Online 25th March 2008 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
The US mistakenly sent nuclear missile components to Taiwan in 2006, the Pentagon revealed yesterday, marking the second big failure of nuclear safeguards in recent years. The Pentagon accidentally shipped four fuses for the Minuteman missile instead of the helicopter batteries that Taiwan had ordered. No fissile material was included, but Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, has ordered an investigation.
FT 26th March 2008 more >>
Guardian 26th March 2008more >>
Telegraph 26th March 2008 more >>
Times 26th March 2008 more >>
Research Reactor
Britain’s last nuclear reactor for research and training will soon be shut after failing to secure enough commercial funding, it has emerged, just as government tries to encourage rapid growth in the industry. Imperial College London said its Consort reactor at Silwood Park in Berkshire was more than 40 years old and unsuited for modern nuclear research. But its closure highlights Britain’s shortage of nuclear research facilities.
FT 26th March 2008 more >>
Energy Policy
Letter: The news that Defra is refusing to support the go-ahead for Britain’s first supercritical clean-coal power station at Kingsnorth, against the recommendation of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), has highlighted the urgent requirement for a Secretary of State for Energy back in the Cabinet.
Independent 26th March 2008 more >>
Obituary
On 10 October 1957, at the age of 39, Thomas Tuohy was deputy to the general manager at the Windscale and Calder works of the Ministry of Supply (now known as Sellafield) when one of the “piles” – primitive nuclear reactors – making plutonium for Britain’s first atomic bombs overheated.
Independent 26th March 2008 more >>
