THORP
Sellafield’s Thorp reprocessing plant will not be shut down, staff have been told. There had been fears about its future after the failure of an essential 50-year-old piece of equipment. Evaporator B had to shut down after an increase in radioactivity levels. But bosses said that it had been fixed and would be returned to service by the end of the week.
Carlisle News and Star 28th May 2009 more >>
National Nuclear Laboratory
Energy and Climate Change Minister, Mike O’Brien, today announced the appointment of Richard Maudslay CBE as Chairman of the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL).
Wired.gov 28th May 2009 more >>
Finland
The massive power plant under construction on muddy terrain on this Finnish island was supposed to be the showpiece of a nuclear renaissance. The most powerful reactor ever built, its modular design was supposed to make it faster and cheaper to build. And it was supposed to be safer, too. But things have not gone as planned. After four years of construction and thousands of defects and deficiencies, the reactor’s 3 billion euro price tag, about $4.2 billion, has climbed at least 50 percent. And while the reactor was originally meant to be completed this summer, Areva, the French company building it, and the utility that ordered it, are no longer willing to make certain predictions on when it will go online.
New York Times 28th May 2009 more >>
Canada
Canada said on Thursday it wanted major international firms to buy some or all of the nuclear reactor business run by government-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt told a news conference she accepted the conclusions of a official review that said AECL could not thrive in its current form. The review said the alliance would run the commercial activities of AECL’s Candu nuclear reactor division, which it said was too small to survive by itself. Ottawa could retain either a majority or a minority stake, it added.
Interactive Investor 28th May 2009 more >>
World Nuclear News 28th May 2009 more >>
North Korea
Moves to intercept shipping bound for Pyongyang are back under discussion after North Korea tested a second nuclear device on 25 May. The UN security council is reportedly considering adding to the sanctions agreed after the regime detonated its first nuclear weapon in October 2006. One of the options may be to authorise military interdictions under the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a loose “coalition of the willing” created in 2003 during the Bush administration.
Guardian 28th May 2009 more >>
THE news that North Korea had carried out a second underground nuclear test, on May 25th, nearly three years after what it claimed was its first, and that it created a bigger bang this time, drew swift international condemnation. The United Nations Security Council speedily condemned the nuclear effrontery. Even China, a supposed friend of the rogue regime, piled in. Unabashed, the forces of Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s oddball dictator, subsequently fired off a handful of short-range missiles for good measure.
Economist 28th May 2009 more >>
HE HAS been coaxed, cajoled, censured and sanctioned. Yet whenever it suits North Korea’s boss, Kim Jong Il, he spews out new threats. For years he has managed to extort cash, oil and other goodies for then quietening down, only to behave even more threateningly next time. Can nothing be done to make this serial rule-breaker blink?
Economist 28th May 2009 more >>
A draft resolution being circulated among key Security Council members strongly condemns North Korea’s nuclear test and urges U.N. members to begin enforcing previously approved sanctions against Pyongyang.
Guardian 28th May 2009 more >>
NORTH Korea is ready to sell nuclear bombs to al-Qaeda, experts warned yesterday. As the crisis over the rogue regime’s nuclear bomb explosion deepened, former diplomats said there was a clear and present danger from the Pyongyang government. Graham Allison, former US defence minister under Bill Clinton, said the international community regularly underestimated North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s willingness to do the unexpected. Sanctions Allinson, now an expert on international affairs at Harvard University, said: “Could this guy believe he could sell a nuclear bomb to Osama bin Laden? Why not?” The warning came as North Korea said it was ready for war over the threat of sanctions from the United Nations.
Daily Record 27th May 2009 more >>
Climate
World carbon emissions must start to decline in only six years if humanity is to stand a chance of preventing dangerous global warming, a group of 20 Nobel prize-winning scientists, economists and writers declared today. The United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December must agree to halve greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 to stop temperatures from increasing by more than 2C (3.6F), the St James’s Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium concluded.
Times 28th May 2009 more >>
Renewables
United Utilities (UU), the UK’s largest listed water company supplying seven million people in the North West of England, is planning to sell surplus gas to the National Grid. United is a big user of energy, mainly for pumping, and consumes about 0.3 per cent of the country’s electricity. To help to cut carbon emissions and fuel costs, UU is stepping up investment in combined heat and power (CHP) engines. They use the methane gas by-product of wastewater treatment to generate electricity to power sewage works. Philip Green, chief executive, said that he hoped the company would shortly be in a position to make an announcement. “We are already a leader in this area and are looking at whether we can put gas back into the National Grid from our processing plants as well as using it ourselves,” he said.
Times 29th May 2009 more >>
