General Election
The Liberal Democrats have today hinted that their opposition to a new fleet of nuclear power plants is likely to be non-negotiable in the event of the party holding the balance of power in a hung parliament. With a series of polls over the weekend all pointing towards a hung parliament, attention is increasingly shifting to the deals that will have to be brokered to form a coalition government.
Business Green 26th Apr 2010 more >>
Nuclear power is one of the starkest differences, with the Labour Government and the Tories embracing it as part of a low-carbon future because it produces virtually no CO2 in generating electricity. However, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens both rule out a generation of new nuclear power stations that the other parties are contemplating. It was expensive, said Mr Hughes, would take too long to come on-stream, the waste couldn’t be dealt with safely, and would undermine investment in renewables: “It’s a completely foolish delusion. We don’t need it and we shouldn’t have it.”
Independent 27th Apr 2010 more >>
All three parties have mooted some sort of infrastructure bank to help tempt the private sector into big new projects. And reforms to the way renewable energy installations such as offshore wind farms are remunerated are in the offing. But the financial firepower of the private sector remains stunted by the credit crunch, and the costs of investing in fleets of new wind turbines and nuclear plants are daunting. Given the scale of Britain’s budget deficits, the public sector can hardly fill the gap. Regulator Ofgem has suggested mechanisms to transfer some of the risk of this investment to the consumer, but utilities analyst Peter Atherton of Citi is sceptical about the UK’s ability to deliver. Complicating the debate even further is the prospect of a hung parliament. Any alliance involving the Liberal Democrats will have to come to terms with the party’s staunch opposition to nuclear power. While the LibDems rightly point out that new nuclear is unlikely to be on-stream before the end of this decade, some experts see it as crucial to meeting longer-term carbon-reduction targets.
Daily Mail 27th Apr 2010 more >>
Science Test for Lib Dems Climate Policy: While this is all very good in theory, I’m sceptical about their ability to achieve this in practice, especially given that their “fully-costed manifesto” sets aside just a little over a billion for this in 2010-11, with more than half of that to be spent on replacing buses and insulating public buildings, and only around £400m invested in upscaling renewable energy supplies.
Guardian 27th Apr 2010 more >>
Companies
AMEC has signed a major contract with EDF Group to support its Architect Engineering operation for the proposed delivery of four new EPR nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point and Sizewell in the UK. The contract will run for 11 years, with an option to extend for a further four.
The Engineer 26th Apr 2010 more >>
Sizewell
Around twenty activists from the Stop Nuclear Power Network have held a ceremony on the beach in front of Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk (England) this afternoon to mark the 24th anniversary of the world’s worst ever civil nuclear disaster, at Chernobyl (Ukraine). They are looking to highlight the risk of a similar catastrophe happening in Suffolk, due to a reactor meltdown or major radioactive waste incident.
Stop Nuclear Power 26th Apr 2010 more >>
PROTESTERS holding a four-day camp on the beach near Sizewell Nuclear Power Station have claimed the event has helped forge links with residents.
East Anglian Daily Times 26th Apr 2010 more >>
Chernobyl
Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility. The book, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,” was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.
Environment News Service 26th Apr 2010 more >>
24 years ago today, the world woke up to news of the Chernobyl disaster – the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Our photo essay looks back at the event and its devastating consequences.
Independent 27th Apr 2010 more >>
Low Level Waste
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate Jill Perry has submitted an objection to Sita Endecom’s proposal to bury low level nuclear waste at Keekle Head in Copeland. Her objection to the proposal to bury one million cubic metres of radioactive waste at Keekle Head near Pica comes on the 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Endecom plan to send 12 lorry loads of waste a day to the site, during its 50 year operation. The lorries are not just from nearby Sellafield but also from other parts of the UK, causing unreasonable disturbance and risk to the local population. The Company accept that if their planned dump goes ahead there will be risks to local people or “receptors”, as radioactivity will dissolve, get into the water supply – and may reach the local population.
Get Noticed Online 26th Apr 2010 more >>
Nuclear Research
Namtec (National Metals Technology Centre) and NAMRC (Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) are planning a two-day conference at the Oulton Hall Hotel in Leeds on 29-30 June. The Nuclear: Metals and Manufacturing Conference features a full itinerary of high-profile speakers from the nuclear industry and will focus on the current drive towards Generation III+ nuclear power stations in the UK.
Engineering Talk 27th Apr 2010 more >>
Emergency Planning
WIDESPREAD panic is expected to be avoided during the next nuclear emergency safety exercise on Portland tomorrow. Last month islanders feared they were under a nuclear attack when loud hailers were used by organisers of a Nuclear Accident Emergency Exercise and by Wessex Water workers at the same time. Residents feared bombs were going to drop as confusion took hold of parts of Fortuneswell.
Dorset Echo 26th Apr 2010 more >>
Slovakia
A consortium comprising Areva and Siemens Energy will supply digital supervision, protection and control (I&C) systems for units 3 and 4 of the Mochovce nuclear power plant in Slovakia.
Energy Business Review 27th Apr 2010 more >>
Russia
RUSSIA is in the process of building a prototype floating nuclear power station for deployment in the Arctic. The hull is being constructed in the St-Petersburg Baltiysky Zavid yard. It will have two nuclear reactors installed on board, making it capable of producing 70MW electricity.
Lloyds List 27th Apr 2010 more >>
Ukraine
Russia’s prime minister made what he described as a “large-scale offer” late on Monday to Ukraine, urging both countries to merge their vast nuclear power generation businesses, and hinting that together they could benefit from joint electricity exports to foreign markets.
FT 27th Apr 2010 more >>
Italy
Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi discussed trade issues, including plans to jointly build a nuclear power plant in Kaliningrad, with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, yesterday.
Independent 27th Apr 2010 more >>
Trident
Senior Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes has said today (26 April) that his party may choose to decommission all the UK government’s nuclear weapons if they take power. His comments display a different emphasis to party leader Nick Clegg’s focus on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system with a cheaper set of nuclear arms.
Ekklesia 26th Apr 2010 more >>
Clegg again insisted that the Trident nuclear deterrent – the biggest single item of military expenditure – had to be included in the strategic defence review of overall military spending and policy. Gordon Brown and David Cameron were “stuck in the past, determined unquestioningly to renew the Trident missile system exactly as it is right now, regardless of whether the world has changed, regardless of whether we can afford it, regardless of whether there are now alternatives”, he said. The Tories accused Clegg of “mass confusion” over Trident, releasing an article he wrote for the party newspaper, Lib Dem Voice, in 2007, in which he dismissed proposals to introduce a smaller and more mobile nuclear weapons system to replace Trident – one of the main options now being proposed by the Lib Dems.
Guardian 27th Apr 2010 more >>
