New Nukes
The communique promises to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of nuclear development projects … to share information on nuclear safety, security and waste management, action which could be extended to other European partners.” This is seen within the Business and Enterprise Department and the French delegations as an important signal that the French and UK nuclear industries can work closely as Britain prepares to expand its nuclear industry. Britain will lean on French nuclear industry skills at least in the initial stage of expansion.
Guardian 28th March 2008 more >>
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed on Thursday to cooperate on civil nuclear technology, improving French companies’ chances of leading the UK’s nuclear power push.
Christian Today 28th March 2008 more >>
NUCLEAR power will top the agenda at a UK-France summit between Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy today.
Edinburgh Evening News 27th March 2008 more >>
Several media reports in advance of the summit between the two leaders had indicated that the deal would outline plans for construction of new reactors in the UK, but the summit declaration contains only a vague commitment to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of nuclear development projects…through our nuclear regulators working closely together to share information on nuclear safety, security and waste management.” Such cooperation “could be extended to other interested European partners,” the declaration adds. But how this might improve on existing cooperation between European nuclear regulatory bodies through the Western European Nuclear Regulators’ Association (Wenra) was not outlined in the declaration.
Nuclear Engineering International 27th March 2008 more >>
Reuters 27th March 2008 more >>
TEES engineering companies have welcomed Business Secretary John Hutton’s claim that Britain must “significantly expand” its nuclear power production for the sake of national security and combating climate change.
Newcastle Evening Gazette 27th March 2008 more >>
From a windswept corner of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, Japan Steel Works Ltd. controls the fate of the global nuclear-energy renaissance. There stands the only plant in the world, a survivor of Allied bombing in World War II, capable of producing the central part of a nuclear reactor’s containment vessel in a single piece, reducing the risk of a radiation leak.
Bloomberg 13th March 2008 more >>
There’s much talk these days about how everything from solar energy to wave energy and giant offshore wind farms are “the future”. And maybe they are. The problem is just that if you are over 40 they aren’t very likely to play a particularly big part of your future. For the foreseeable future at least, cutting carbon emissions and creating energy security in the West really means going nuclear.
Money Week 27th March 2008 more >>
The UK Government’s declaration that it wants to expand Britain’s nuclear capacity so it becomes the nation’s new North Sea oil was derided by the SNP as “madness”. Mike Weir, the SNP Energy Spokesman at Westminster, said the minister had “succumbed to a severe bout of March madness in proposing a massive expansion of nuclear power in the UK”. He claimed Gordon Brown’s Government was becoming “increasingly obsessed with the illusion that nuclear power is the silver bullet’ to tackle climate change”, which was crazy given the problems associated with atomic power, such as the disposal of nuclear waste. He added: “Rather than chase the illusion of a nuclear quick fix’ the UK government needs to put serious effort into developing renewable resources. Thankfully, Scotland has an SNP government that will prevent this nuclear madness spreading north of the Border.”
Herald 27th March 2008 more >>
Reprocessing
It seems clear that recycling remains a very live issue in the nuclear sector, indeed with an apparent push from several quarters to pursue it more vigorously in the future. Used fuel management is a huge and still growing business and options are being sought that hit a variety of requirements, certainly not merely economic but also considering environmental, resource sustainability and non-proliferation objectives.
Nuclear Engineering International 22nd March 2008 more >>
Nuclear Waste
Ian Jackson’s analysis of waste costs: The £8.2 billion waste disposal cost, spread across 10 new reactors, amounts to £820 million per reactor, equivalent to 41% of each reactor’s expected £2 billion capital cost. Business models for nuclear generation assume back end costs of only 5% for decommissioning and waste management. As a result, the NDA may need to fix repository waste disposal prices in the range from £500 million to £1000 million (£50 million to £100 million per new reactor) for new build to remain economically viable. The bottom line is that nuclear energy utilities probably need fixed waste disposal ‘prices’ for repository disposal capped somewhere in the range from £12,200 to £24,400/m3, but the NDA’s true marginal ‘cost’ is nearer to £67,000/m3, and the commercial ‘value’ of the repository asset could approach £201,000m3 if operated as a fully private sector venture.
Nuclear Engineering International 27th March 2008 more >>
New nuclear power stations will not be built unless the government fixes the market price for dealing with waste, according to a nuclear industry expert today. And rigging the price will, say Greenpeace, mean that taxpayers will have to subsidise new nuclear power stations.
Greenpeace 27th March 2008 more >>
The government says the decision on building new nuclear reactors will be entirely up to the market and utility companies will have to pay their “full share” of decommissioning and waste management costs, but Gordon Brown is going to have to cook the books like a cordon bleu chef if wants to attract new investment.
Greenpeace 27th March 2008 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed last week to trim France’s force de frappe to under 300 warheads, half its maximum cold-war tally. Keeping the deterrent up but warhead numbers down puts France in line with America, Russia and Britain. Of the five recognised powers, only China is thought still to be adding to its arsenal.
Economist 27th March 2008 more >>
Blacknest was set up in the early 1960s to house a group of scientists charged with trying to develop techniques to identify nuclear explosions anywhere around the world, whether happening in the atmosphere, underground or underwater.
BBC 28th March 2008 more >>
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a full inventory of US nuclear arms after parts of ballistic missiles were mistakenly sent to Taiwan.
BBC 28th March 2008 more >>
Times 28th March 2008 more >>
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern T.D. today said that the threat of international terrorism had deflected attention away from the pressing issue of nuclear disarmament. Speaking in Dublin, Minister Ahern said there needed to be renewed focus on nuclear disarmament despite the pressing issue of terrorism.
eGov Monitor 27th March 2008 more >>
North Korea
North Korea warned Friday that US delays in resolving the nuclear dispute could slow down work to disable its plutonium-producing atomic plants.
AFX 28th March 2008 more >>
Terror
Vehicles passing through major ports and the Channel Tunnel are to be screened for radioactive material in a bid to combat “nuclear terrorism”. The plan was within a Franco-British communiqué after French President Nicolas Sarkozy held talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London. A Home Office spokesman said the intention was to screen all major points of entry to the UK from France.
BBC 27th March 2008 more >>
Dounreay
Equipment and techniques used in the decommissioning of a Scottish nuclear power research complex have attracted international interest. A patent has been applied for a pump and camera used to drain the final dregs of hazardous liquid from a reactor at Dounreay in Caithness. It could potentially be used in the clean-up of French sites. Scandinavians have also been watching closely how a deep shaft containing toxic waste has been isolated. About 900 tonnes of sodium which once flowed in the circuits of Dounreay’s Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) were pumped out.
BBC 27th March 2008 more >>
THE Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is being urged to redouble its efforts to help the Far North cope with the rundown of Dounreay.
John O Groat Journal 26th March 2008 more >>
A PIECE of radioactive plastic found buried on Dunnet beach is currently being analysed by scientists at Dounreay.
John O Groat Journal 21st March 2008 more >>
Egypt
By signing a deal this week with Russia, Egypt is pushing forward with its desire to stay at the head of a nuclear family Arab nations are creating to counterbalance Iran and Israel. A handshake between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday sealed the nuclear cooperation deal that looks set to cause some concern in the West.
Middle East Online 27th March 2008 more >>
Companies
Suez is interested in an industrial cooperation with British Energy BGY.PA rather than a purely financial investment in the UK nuclear power producer, the head of the French utility said on Thursday. “If we can play an industrial role, let’s talk about it … but if this is strictly a financial role, then we are not interested,” Suez Chief Executive Gerard Mestrallet told reporters on the sidelines of a nuclear conference in Paris.
Reuters 27th March 2008 more >>
Suez, the French utility planning to merge with Gaz de France, said yesterday it will not buy a stake in British Energy but would be interested
in reaching a deal to develop and produce reactors with the Scottish-based nuclear power provider.
Herald 28th March 2008 more >>
A Spanish commercial court has ordered Electricité de France to clarify its intentions toward Iberdrola, the owner of ScottishPower, after months of speculation that the French power company is planning to make a takeover bid for its Bilbao-based rival.
Herald 27th March 2008 more >>
Windscale
THE man who led heroic efforts to put out the Windscale Fire in 1957 and prevent Britain’s worst atomic accident from becoming even more serious has died in Australia at the age of 90.
Whitehaven News 26th March 2008 more >>
