New Nukes
OUTRAGED homeowners have vowed to abandon their village should a nuclear power station be built nearby. An action group has now been set up to fight plans to build the plant at Layriggs Farm in Kirksanton. A private vote carried out by campaigners found that 90 per cent of villagers said they would leave Kirksanton if the nuclear power station was built. Construction would leave 75 residents living less than half-a-mile from the plant. Furious homeowners crammed into the village hall yesterday to voice their fears at what marks the beginning of a two-year consultation process.
NW Evening Mail 25th Mar 2009 more >>
THE man charged with drawing up plans to protect the public from radiation accidents has warned about the dangers of building new nuclear reactors away from Sellafield. Cumbria’s emergency planning officer, David Humphreys, is critical of German company RWE’s proposal to construct reactors on farmland at Braystones, near Egremont, and Sellafield and Kirksanton, Millom. He is worried that local people in both Copeland communities could face unnecessary hazards. Mr Humphreys voiced his concerns at a public meeting in Whitehaven Civic Hall where Energy Coast Masterplan partners explained how they saw nuclear power as the blueprint for the area’s future success.
Whitehaven News 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Nuclear Research
THE University of Manchester has signed a collaborative agreement with the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) – based at Sellafield – to share knowledge and develop opportunities in a specialist field of the industry.
Whitehaven News 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Cumberland News 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Nuclear Engineering International 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Companies
Babcock International Group has acquired Bristol-based, Weir Strachan and Henshaw for £65m ($95m). BNS Nuclear Services will acquire the nuclear business while the other half of the company comprising the defence business is now being integrated into Babcock Marine.
Nuclear Engineering International 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Sellafield
SELLAFIELD’s operators face possible legal action from two site unions over the alleged use of “bribery and blackmail” to persuade thousands of industrial workers to accept a pay deal.
Whitehaven News 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Submarine
An explosion on board a nuclear submarine which killed two men was blamed on systematic failures by a coroner.
Birmingham Post 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Yorkshire Post 25th Mar 2009 more >>
India
GE Hitachi has signed agreements with the nuclear corporation of India as the companies prepare to collaborate on building multiple GEH-designed reactors in India.
Engineer 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Nuclear War
THE haunting threat of nuclear war which could have devastated one of Yorkshire’s most historic cities if a bomb strike had become a reality is being investigated by historians. York could have been razed to the ground after it was put on a hit list for nuclear attacks during the Cold War era of superpower tensions between the West and the Soviet Bloc.
Yorkshire Post 25th Mar 2009 more >>
Renewables
Britain’s ambition to become a global leader in renewable energy suffered a major setback last night when the world’s biggest investor in wind power said that it was slashing its investment programme. The announcement comes less than two months after ministers backed a string of huge gas-fired power stations, prompting concern that the Government cannot fulfil its promise of a green energy revolution. Iberdrola Renewables’ decision to cut its investment in Britain by more than 40 per cent, or £300 million enough to build a wind farm powering 200,000 homes is the latest obstacle to Gordon Brown’s target of generating 35 per cent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Times 26th Mar 2009 more >>
The latest setback to Britain’s goal of producing more than a third of its energy from renewable sources is the result of a global collapse in investment in green projects in recent months. The credit crunch has undermined developers’ ability to borrow to fund big wind and solar power schemes, while tumbling prices for conventional fuels like oil, coal and gas have undermined the economics of the renewables industry.
Times 26th Mar 2009 more >>
For wind power companies, the global downturn has been the perfect storm in every respect except wind. Paralysis in the credit markets has drained away investors’ cash. The increasingly desperate state of public finances across Europe has eroded the case for wind farm subsidies. And oil at $40 a barrel, down from $140 last year, is unbeatable on price as an energy source except by coal.
Times 26th Mar 2009 more >>
