New Nukes
Tom Burke: The government is pinning its hopes on a nuclear renaissance to meet Britain’s climate change goals. Planning procedures are being eased and hidden subsidies offered. But the policy is based on a misunderstanding of nuclear power’s lousy economics, and will fail.
Prospect September 2008 more >>
Nuclear Waste
Some unsettling news appeared in the Independent over the weekend, which revealed that an Environment Agency report has said that containers at Sellafield (where most of the UK’s waste is stored) may not be as stable as was thought. The document effectively destroys Britain’s already shaky disposal plans just as ministers are preparing an expansion of nuclear power.
Greenpeace UK 26th Aug 2008 more >>
Companies
Japan’s Toshiba Corp and South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction will work together to build nuclear reactors to keep pace with demand, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday. Doosan would provide know-how on pressurised water reactors to Toshiba and Toshiba supplier IHI Corp. In return, Toshiba and its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse would use Doosan’s equipment in nuclear plants, company sources said.
Guardian 26th Aug 2008 more >>
Windfall Tax
Like it or not, we are all dependent on billions of pounds of investment from the energy sector over the next decade. The government has put the bill on renewables investment at £100bn over 10 years, and a new generation of nuclear reactors will not come cheap. Older generators have to be closed in the next seven years because of EU environmental legislation and the first nuclear station is unlikely to come on stream before 2018. There is a looming gap in our electricity output which will have to be filled by gas- or coal-fired stations – as yet unbuilt. Renewables will pick up some of the slack, but they are expensive to build, and many are stuck in the planning process.
Guardian 27th Aug 2008 more >>
Times 27th Aug 2008 more >>
Energy companies could escape a windfall tax on their huge profits if they do more to help people struggling to pay their fuel bills. Ministers will tell gas and electricity bosses that they want them to take further action to combat fuel poverty. Although they deny threatening a windfall tax, ministers say the firms’ response to their call will be taken into account when they consider growing demands by Labour MPs for a one-off raid to fund measures to help poor families meet their bills.
Independent 27th Aug 2008 more >>
Korea
The future of the international effort to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons was in doubt on Tuesday night after Pyongyang said it would suspend efforts to disable its nuclear facilities and would consider putting its Yongbyon reactor back into action. The announcement, which North Korea said was in response to Washington’s delay in removing it from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, comes at a time of uncertainty about the so-called “six party” talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, which involve US, China, Russia, Japan and the two Korean states.
FT 27th Aug 2008 more >>
Guardian 27th Aug 2008 more >>
Times 27th Aug 2008 more >>
ITN 26th Aug 2008 more >>
Telegraph 26th Aug 2008 more >>
Reuters 26th Aug 2008 more >>
Independent 26th Aug 2008 more >>
Express 26th Aug 2008 more >>
BBC 26th Aug 2008 more >>
Turkey
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, known to prize his reputation for plain speaking, yesterday lambasted environmentalists as “idle”, saying they “prance around” while doing nothing to protect nature. The diatribe was triggered by a spate of protests against government plans for more than 40 hydroelectric dams, the decision to build nuclear power stations, and fish farms which are said to be polluting beaches on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
Guardian 27th Aug 2008 more >>
