Nuclear Sites
POWER COMPANIES have agreed to pay at least £200m for land to build nuclear power stations in Britain, a much higher price than the government expected. The bidding went through the £200m figure last week in an eBay-style online auction being run by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The government agency owns land near three old reactor sites that are being sold to would-be developers of new stations. Such a high level of interest underlines the attractiveness of nuclear energy at a time when the renewables sector, particularly offshore wind, is faltering. Power companies warned the government this month that several big offshore wind projects would be scrapped unless they get immediate government aid. Building work is not expected to begin before 2013, making the government’s intention to have new nuclear stations up and running by 2017 appear difficult to achieve.
Sunday Times 29th Mar 2009 more >>
Sunday Express 29th Mar 2009 more >>
Three Mile Island
TMI still haunts the US reactor industry 30 years after the partial meltdown.
Climate Progress 27th Mar 2009 more >>
There are 103 reactors in sixty-four locations across the United States. None of these reactors were designed to last more than forty years. We are reaching that deadline. During the Bush years, the NRC relicensed forty of the country’s reactors. In those eight years, the NRC did not deny a single renewal request. This is unconscionably reckless behavior. The regulators of this industry would appear to be somnambulant hostages to the nuke operators.
The Nation 27th Mar 2009 more >>
Companies
French utility GDF Suez has gone to court in a bid to recover a 250 million euro ($335 million) tax imposed on nuclear power generators by the Belgian government.
Reuters 28th Mar 2009 more >>
Test Veterans
French victims of nuclear bomb testing are getting a multimillion-pound payout… while British veterans are still being ignored.
Sunday Mirror 29th Mar 2009 more >>
Iran
The clock is ticking on the clandestine Iranian nuclear programme. Despite a series of United Nations security council resolutions and mild western sanctions, the process of uranium enrichment to make a bomb will soon be complete. The experts do not agree when that day will come any time between nine months and three years is suggested – but come it will.
Sunday Times 29th Mar 2009 more >>
Climate
THE WORLD is heading for an unparalleled climate catastrophe unless rich and poor nations agree drastic cuts in pollution in just the next few months, the head of the European Environment Agency (EEA) is warning. Even if all the current promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions are honoured, the world will still see global temperatures rise by an average of four degrees centigrade by the end of the century, according to Professor Jacqueline McGlade, the EEA executive director. This is hot enough to make most of the world uninhabitable, killing or making refugees of billions of people in Asia, Africa and America.
Sunday Herald 29th Mar 2009 more >>
THE ECONOMIC system is broken, and attempts by governments to fix it by kick-starting growth and consumerism are “delusional” and “pathological”, the Westminster and Holyrood governments will be warned by their own advisers this week. A ground-breaking report by the leading environmental advisers to First Minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister Gordon Brown will deliver a damning verdict on capitalism and demand a radical shift to a fairer, more sustainable society. The report has been compiled by the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), a group of 19 experts chaired by Jonathon Porritt which advises Salmond and Brown on environmental issues. Entitled Prosperity without Growth?, it is to be published tomorrow.
Sunday Herald 29th Mar 2009 more >>
Renewables
Plans to make Scotland 50% reliant on renewable sources are ahead of schedule, new figures released by the Scottish Parliament today suggest. Current targets are to meet half the country’s electricity demand from renewables by 2020 with an interim target of 31% by 2011.
Observer 29th Mar 2009 more >>
Scotland’s plan’s to host the world’s largest tidal energy project have moved a step closer after Norwegian renewables giant Statkraft joined the consortium backing the £250m scheme. The project, which will create over 700 jobs, is to build a large data centre powered by tidal energy, in a remote area on the north Scotland coast dubbed the “Saudi Arabia of tidal energy”.
Observer 29th Mar 2009 more >>
