New Nukes
Giant US engineering group Fluor is teaming up with Japan’s Toshiba to build the first new nuclear power stations in the US in two decades. The agreement could cement the relationship between Fluor and Toshiba in the UK, where the two are bidding for the multi-billion-pound contract to clean up the Sellafield nuclear site in West Cumbria. Toshiba and Fluor are also in talks about teaming up to bid for contracts to build nuclear power stations in Britain.
Telegraph 28th August 2007 more >>
WHEREVER you stand on the issue of nuclear power, Hugh Richards of the Welsh Anti Nuclear Alliance is right to raise financial concerns about the nuclear programme, which it is very likely that the UK Government will endorse. Despite assurances that no public money will be involved in funding any future nuclear power stations, it is clear from evidence elsewhere in the world that such projects have a tendency to cost far more than original estimates. It is therefore understandable that questions will be raised about the financial viability of any future power station projects in Britain.
Western Mail 27th August 2007 more >>
Iran
Nicolas Sarkozy gave warning yesterday that unless the West redoubled its efforts to curb Teheran’s nuclear ambitions it could lead to “an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran”.
Telegraph 28th August 2007 more >>
Times 28th August 2007 more >>
Iran on Monday offered some cooperation with an International Atomic Energy Agency probe of an alleged secret uranium processing project linked by U.S. intelligence to a nuclear arms program.
Guardian website 28th August 2007 more >>
Iran has resolved U.N. questions about tests with plutonium, a key fuel for atomic bombs, and the International Atomic Energy Agency considers the matter closed, according to the text of an IAEA-Iran accord released on Monday.
FT website 27th August 2007 more >>
Africasia 27th August 2007 more >>
Australia
Australia and the US will sign a joint pact on nuclear power agreeing to share research and expertise.
Mathaba 28th August 2007 more >>
Russia
RUSSIAN bombers which have resumed their Soviet-era practice of flying long-range patrols near NATO airspace are not carrying nuclear weapons, a senior air force chief in Moscow said yesterday.
Scotsman 28th August 2007 more >>
Chernobyl
ON APRIL 26, 1986, reactor number four exploded at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. It was to become the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power, as the explosion and resultant fire scattered radioactively-contaminated fallout over a wide area.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle 27th August 2007 more >>
Jordan
King Abdallah II yesterday called on Jordan to accelerate the launch of a civil nuclear programme, with the aim of ending energy imports, according to a government statement.
Interactive Investor 27th August 2007 more >>
Uranium
Niger Uranium, a mining business spun off from Uramin, which has been taken over by Areva, the French state-owned nuclear group, will unveil plans to float on Aim this week. Uramin management is running Niger Uranium, formed as a joint venture between Uramin and Northwestern Mineral Ventures of Canada to develop uranium projects in Niger.
FT 28th August 2007 more >>
Non-nuclear industry
A NEW radioactive waste dump to store deadly polonium-210 – the isotope used to murder former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko – is being planned in Scotland. The offshore oil industry wants to bury hundreds of tonnes of toxic drilling waste on the mainland. But critics claim the plan poses a serious health hazard to members of the public. Polonium-210 is already a major contributor to critical public doses of radiation from shellfish such as mussels and whelks. In its pure form, it is more than a million times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide, the poison once used to execute prisoners in gas chambers, and can cause fatal internal injuries or cancer. Polonium-210 is one of several radioactive isotopes in the oil waste.
Sunday Herald 26th August 2007 more >>
Consultation
The way government consults with the public has significantly changed since a high court decision by Mr Justice Sullivan ruled that the 2006 Energy Review consultation was “misleading”, “seriously flawed”, and “manifestly inadequate and unfair. A new web-site will try to provide clear and independent information and analysis of nuclear part of the new Energy Review public consultation, and ask the kinds of questions that may need to be answered, including: how will significant “what if” issues – such as nuclear fuel supply and manufacture, vulnerability to attack, waste, radiation risk, decommissioning, reactor siting, costs of electricity-generating technologies, true renewable and energy efficiency modelling – be taken into account during the consultation? Will the consultation be directed by the government, and how will information about these issues be presented?
Nuclear Consult website 27th August 2007 more >>
