British Energy
British Energy Group, the UK nuclear power producer that is considering takeover offers, said full-year profit fell 28pc because of production shutdowns. Net income in the year ended March 31 dropped to £335m from £465m a year earlier, the company said today.
Telegraph 28th May 2008 more >>
Liverpool Daily Post 28th May 2008 more >>
Interactive Investor 28th May 2008 more >>
The fragility of British Energy’s ageing fleet of nuclear reactors, producer of a sixth of the nation’s energy, has been pushed back to the top of the public agenda after a second reactor in as many days shut down unexpectedly. The company confirmed that its Hunterston B7 reactor at Largs, Ayrshire, tripped in the mid-afternoon, a day after its Sizewell B reactor in Leiston, Suffolk, capable of powering more than 1 million homes, shut down suddenly, triggering blackouts across large swathes of the country.
Independent 29th May 2008 more >>
Guardian 29th May 2008 more >>
Times 29th May 2008 more >>
Britain faces the danger of repeated blackouts as clapped-out and crumbling power stations suffer a series of failures, it was claimed yesterday. More than 500,000 homes lost electricity for several hours after two major sites shut down suddenly on Tuesday. Lights were dimmed in millions of homes as seven generating units at other power stations broke down too. Problems continued yesterday when the Hunterston nuclear power reactor in Scotland failed. That meant ten of British Energy’s 16 nuclear generation units were out of service either for maintenance or through faults.
Daily Mail 29th May 2008 more >>
British Energy has enhanced its attraction as a bid target with full-year results that beat analysts’ expectations, despite a fall in pre-tax profits of nearly a third.
Telegraph 29th May 2008 more >>
Sizewell
Hundreds of thousands of homes suffered power cuts after a fault caused an unplanned shutdown at the Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Suffolk.
BBC 27th May 2008 more >>
New Nukes
Gordon Brown has said the UK needs to increase its nuclear power capacity – raising the prospect of plants being built in new locations. The prime minister said that with oil prices soaring, it was time to be “more ambitious” for nuclear plans.
BBC 28th May 2008 more >>
FT 29th May 2008 more >>
Independent 29th May 2008 more >>
Times 29th May 2008 more >>
Metro 28th May 2008 more >>
Daily Mail 29th May 2008 more >>
The prime minister has promised a big expansion of nuclear power, a move that is warmly welcomed in some quarters.
BBC 29th May 2008 more >>
Reacting to Gordon Brown’s comments that the UK needs to increase its nuclear power capacity, Robin Oakley, head of Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaign, said: “This looks like nothing more than a clumsy attempt by Brown to talk up British Energy’s share price. The nuclear industry has had a woeful 24 hours that must be shaking confidence in this outdated technology.
Greenpeace UK 28th May 2008 more >>
Construction costs for power plants have more than doubled since 2000, according to new index data to be released Tuesday, and inflationary pressures will continue to put the squeeze on electricity prices. The findings are bad news for consumers and utilities alike, and help explain why power-plant development has become something of a quagmire in the U.S. — with no type of plant emerging as a reasonably priced option that can meet rising demand for electricity.
Wall Street Journal 27th May 2008 more >>
Nuclear Skills
A £3.5m state-of-the-art centre for training nuclear experts has opened its doors in Gloucestershire. British Energy, at Barnwood near Gloucester, has set up a Nuclear Power Academy to train the next generation of industry professionals.It will be responsible for overseeing the standard of people working in power stations across the country.
Western Daily Press 29th May 2008 more >>
BBC 28th May 2008 more >>
NDA
Campaign groups warned that clean up and decommissioning costs were spiralling out of control after the NDA admitted the £73bn cost was set to rise.
Aberdeen Press and Journal 29th May 2008 more >>
Yorkshire Post 29th May 2008 more >>
Herald 29th May 2008 more >>
Western Telegraph 28th May 2008 more >>
Milford Mercury 28th May 2008 more >>
THE cost of the NDA’s nuclear clean up is set to rise well above the current £73bn, according to interviews screened nationally by the BBC on Tuesday. Jim Morse a senior director with the NDA was interviewed and admitted the clean-up was “sure to go beyond £73 billion.”
Whitehaven News 28th May 2008 more >>
Paul Brown, author of Voodoo Economics and the Doomed Nuclear Renaissance, says: “The nuclear dream has turned into an economic and security nightmare for the British taxpayer. The extent of the problems at Sellafield has not been fully explained to the public; nor have the potential knock-on effects for the whole nuclear industry. But research shows the situation is getting rapidly worse.”
Guardian 29th May 2008 more >>
Irish Times 29th May 2008 more >>
US Waste Management
Increasingly, people are coming to the conclusion that the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada might never open. Former Louisiana Senator J. Bennett Johnston, “the lawmaker perhaps most responsible” for advancing the plan for a permanent waste repository at Yucca, now says the “project should never have been billed as a place to hold waste indefinitely,” reports Lisa Mascaro. Johnston admitted, “You can’t absolutely prove with certainty what’s going to happen in 10,000 or 100,000 years.” The U.S. Department of Energy will soon “deliver its long-awaited application to license the site.” The department currently projects “that Yucca could start accepting waste by 2020.” Meanwhile, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) industry group “has been quietly chatting with small, primarily rural communities to gauge their interest in hosting a temporary waste facility.” Neither NEI nor Johnston “will admit that Yucca Mountain is dead … but they would like to have a backup plan.”
PR Watch 22nd May 2008 more >>
UAE
US-based nuclear energy firm Thorium Power has disclosed that its previously announced consulting and strategic advisory service agreements are with a United Arab Emirates government entity involved in that nation’s evaluation of a domestic nuclear energy program.
Energy Business Review 28th May 2008 more >>
France
Construction problems at a new-generation nuclear reactor in France have prompted a partial suspension of work at the site, at the request of France’s nuclear safety agency, the agency said Wednesday. Concrete-pouring at the site of the Flamanville-3 reactor on the Normandy coast was halted May 21, said Thomas Houdre, head of the nuclear safety agency’s division in the French region of Caen.
IHT 28th May 2008 more >>
Slovakia
Environmental group Greenpeace will lodge a legal challenge to Slovak authorities’ go ahead for the completion of two nuclear power stations in the country’s west, a representative said Wednesday. The organisation will complain to the supreme court against the go ahead for completion of Mochovce’s third and fourth reactor without prior environmental impact assessments being carried out.
Yahoo 28th May 2008 more >>
Russia
Russian crackers attacked the websites of a local nuclear power plant last week shortly after planting false rumours of an accident at the facility. Internet forums were buzzing with bogus reports of “radioactive emissions” emanating from the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant near St Petersburg and an evacuation of locals at the same time official websites were knocked offline, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports.
Channel Register 28th May 2008 more >>
Italy
A2A SpA chairman Giuliano Zuccoli said his group is studying the idea of the creation of a consortium of producers and consumers to build nuclear power generation plants in Italy.
AFX 28th May 2008 more >>
Submarines
The Clyde-based nuclear attack submarine which collided with an underwater rock in the Red Sea on Monday could be scrapped if damage to her sonar is judged to be too expensive to repair, according to Whitehall sources.
Herald 29th May 2008 more >>
