NDA
Safety standards will be compromised during Britain’s £70 billion programme to clean up the radioactive mess left by the nuclear industry, trade unionists have warned. Scientists and engineers from within the industry have said that short-term competitive contracts awarded by the government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) would undermine safety procedures and put the public at risk. The NDA is inviting multinational companies to bid for three-year contracts to clean up old nuclear complexes like Dounreay in Caithness and Sellafield in Cumbria. Until now the sites have been run by government agencies.
Sunday Herald 28th May 2006
Rob Edwards’ website
Various letters, including one from the Norfolk Green Party wondering what in Laden’s reaction to Blair’s nuclear plants would be.
Independent on Sunday 28th May 2006
New nukes
French company EdF is pushing for the contract to build the first new nuclear station in the UK if the Government gives the go-ahead.
Sunday Express 28th May 2006
Letter from David Lowry: Was Eon power chief Paul Golby being entirely frank in telling Andrew Davidson that his company “would be happy to build and run new nuclear plants without subsidy”? (“Eon rides into the corridors of power”, last week).
Sunday Times 28th May 2006
Scotland
Opinion piece by Mike Weir MP, SNP Westminster Energy spokesperson: Blair tells us that we must have new nuclear power stations otherwise we will become dependent on imported gas. Brian Wilson attacks me for pointing out that far from being dependent on imported gas, Scotland produces seven times more gas than we use (‘The Nationalists are wasting energy on political opportunism’, Comment, May 21). Surely some inconsistency here? By the Prime Minister’s own logic, an independent Scotland would have no need for nuclear power stations.
Scotland on Sunday 28th May 2006
Nuclear Wespons
Hans Blix presents the final report of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission to the United Nations on Thursday. The Pentagon’s plan to set off the biggest controlled conventional blast in military history in the Nevada desert the following day, has, however, been indefinitely postponed, because of fears over the possible spread of radiation-laced soil in the air. The test site is 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Sunday Telegraph 28th May 2006