Radwaste
Government today welcomed delivery of an initial geological report for West Cumbria. The study looked at the Copeland and Allerdale areas, where a local Partnership is talking to Government about the siting process for a deep geological disposal facility for nuclear waste. The screening does not show where a facility would eventually be located, but is simply intended to avoid unnecessary work in areas which are clearly unsuitable based on high level geological exclusion criteria.
DECC 28th Oct 2010 more >>
A NUMBER of West Cumbrian sites have been deemed ‘unsuitable’ for a future disposal facility for nuclear waste. A major communications and engagement programme will now be launched in Cumbria to give people the chance to find out about the Government’s search for somewhere to build an underground repository for the country’s higher activity radioactive wastes. The West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership is looking at whether West Cumbria should take part in the search for a site, without any commitment to eventually host a geological disposal facility.
Whitehaven News 28th Oct 2010 more >>
The whole of the western Lake District would be suitable for burying radioactive waste, according to a study released today. A scientific report examining the geology of the area only rules out an area west of the Lake District, running from St Bees Head on the coast, up to the Solway Firth. The rest of the area, covered by Allerdale and Copeland Councils, should not be ruled out for waste burial.
Grough 28th Oct 2010 more >>
HUGE parts of West Cumbria are unsuitable for an underground radioactive waste dump, a geological survey has found. The BGS survey has officially ruled out a tract of land along the coast from St Bees Head to Maryport, along the Solway coast and inland as far as Cockermouth and Egremont, up to Wigton and Carlisle.
West Cumberland Times and Star 28th Oct 2010 more >>
The Lake District could become a ‘dumping ground’ for the nuclear industry, environmentalists fear, after the Government failed to rule out England’s largest national park to bury radioactive waste. Ben Ayliffe, senior energy campaigner at Greenpeace, said the report showed “almost anywhere in the Lake District could become a dump for the UK’s radioactive waste”. “It’s hard to imagine a more tragic legacy to Britain’s nuclear folly than vats of lethal nuclear waste being stored around Keswick or Scafell Pike. It’s certainly not the sweeping vistas that would have inspired Wordsworth or Coleridge,” he said. “And dumping this stuff underground is no solution anyway – wherever it is. So we certainly shouldn’t be creating any more nuclear waste. There are much better ways of producing electricity.”
Telegraph 29th Oct 2010 more >>
Guardian 29th Oct 2010 more >>
BBC 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Times 29th Oct 2010 more >>
A leaked European Commission draft report says Europe should solve the problem of handling nuclear waste by making industry pay to stash it deep underground, where it will be overseen by independent watchdogs.
Reuters 28th Oct 2010 more >>
New Nukes
A new report, Nuclear Lessons Learned, analyses the strengths and weaknesses of several recent nuclear projects including Sizewell B, Olkiluoto 3, Flamanville 3 and Sanmen and Haiyang, two AP1000 plants under construction in China. It seems to offer practical advice to ensure that the construction and operation of any new nuclear power plants in the UK in future progresses smoothly and economically.
Chemical Engineer 28th October 2010 more >>
Bradwell
LAND earmarked for a new nuclear power station in Bradwell is up for sale. EDF Energy own the land, across the water from West Mersea and next to the former power station, but are unable to build on it because of an agreement as part of the Government’s nuclear strategy. The agreement means EDF Energy can’t build on Bradwell and Sizewell so will have to sell the land which has been shortlisted as a prime nuclear site. Marjorie Barnes, spokesman for EDF Energy, said: “The sale process of EDF land at Bradwell, as per the undertaking EDF Energy made to the UK government as part of the acquisition of British Energy, has commenced and is ongoing. “In accordance with this, any sale agreed will be conditional on the ratification of the Government’s Nuclear national policy statement and on EDF Energy obtaining planning consent for two European pressurised water reactors (EPR) at its site at Sizewell.” Campaign group Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (Banng), with considerable support in West Mersea, are trying to stop a second power station being built on the site.
Clacton Gazette 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Oldbury
Oldbury Power Station has at last taken its last ever delivery of nuclear fuel. Reactor One first produced electricity in November 1967 whilst Reactor Two started generating in April 1968. At the time it was expected that it would run for 25 years but against the advice of independent nuke experts and continuing and growing problems like the depleted graphite, it has struggled on – many of us believing that money and profit has overidden the safety concerns. Ministers and power companies once predicted the first new nuclear power station would be in operation by 2017. That has now slipped to 2018. Further delays seem inevitable. This is just not the way to tackle climate change which needs serious investment now in energy efficiency.
Ruscombe Green 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Wylfa
On the 21st October Wylfa Site’s Reactor 2 was successfully brought back into service following its biennial outage, which commenced in April 2010. In the lead up to the 2010 outage, Reactor 2 had completed 323 days of continuous generation since its last unplanned trip in May 2009. Since its last biennial outage in 2008, Reactor 2 has contributed a sent-out generation of approximately 5350 GWhrs up to the start of the 2010 outage.
Magnox North 27th Oct 2010 more >>
Sellafield
THE Civil Nuclear Constabulary which guards Sellafield is holding a training exercise at the nuclear site. It starts on Monday and last for six weeks. Police officers in the CNC carry firearms in defence of Sellafield where security plans cover the potential for terrorist attack. Residents are being told in advance about the exercise “as some pyrotechynics are being used.” A CNC spokesman said: “This specific training will take place within specified areas up until December 10 and will not have an impact on public roads or the day-to-day running of Sellafield.”
Whitehaven News 27th Oct 2010 more >>
TOP line changes have been made among the Nuclear Management Partners directors who run Sellafield. Carol Johnson, who chairs the board of Rosehill Theatre Trustees, is returning to the United States to take on a new role at Hanford nuclear site, Washington State. West Cumbrian Paul Foster,43, will succeed her as director for Infrastructure at Sellafield.
Whitehaven News 27th Oct 2010 more >>
THE Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is responsible for decommissioning Sellafield, has survived the cuts. The NDA has been told its government funding will be maintained at current levels over the next four years – this will be around £3 billion a year and spent across its 19 UK nuclear sites. Sellafield has received £1.5billion for the current year and unions maintain this should have been enough to prevent a voluntary redundancy programme which has seen 800 job losses. The Authority pledges to continue to spend the lion’s share on cleaning up Sellafield but chief executive Tony Fountain said: “In funding these vital performances of work at Sellafield we will expect to see continued improvements in efficiency and performance across the site.”
Whitehaven News 27th Oct 2010 more >>
Nuclear Investment
Right now the nuclear industry is mobilizing countless resources in an effort to convince the world that nuclear energy is a necessary part of solving our energy needs in the face of climate change. In reality, any investment in nuclear energy actively undermines real energy solutions to climate change by diverting huge amounts of urgently needed resources away from investment in the clean, safe and renewable power we must develop. Until recently the role that commercial banks play in the nuclear energy sector hasn’t been well understood. Most banks are happy to publish figures on their annual investment in renewable energy, while the amount they are investing in dangerous, dirty energy sources like nuclear they prefer to be kept secret – but no more: The veil of secrecy has now been lifted thanks to the research done by a group of NGOs and public advocacy organizations, including Greenpeace International. It reveals the top financial institutions that are involved in bankrolling dangerous, dirty nuclear energy – just at the time when we need investment in clean, safe, renewable energy technologies. Last week our activists in France, Turkey, Luxembourg and Russia revealed banking group BNP Paribas as the top bankroller of the nuclear industry – investing more than any other bank in the world.
Greenpeace International 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Russia/Reprocessing
Mayak, still one of the biggest nuclear facilities in Russia, reprocesses about 200 tons of spent fuel annually. An extraction process called PUREX (plutonium and uranium recovery by extraction) is used to separate those two elements from spent fuel. But the process, Bodrov said, creates 22,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste for every cubic meter of spent fuel. A combination of past nuclear accidents and the accumulation of wastes from more than six decades of nuclear activities at the site have made the area surrounding Mayak one of the most contaminated in the world, with significant concentrations of strontium, cesium and plutonium found within a 100-kilometer – or 60-mile – radius of the facility.
Common News 13th Oct 2010 more >>
Germany
Despite public protests and angry diatribes from the opposition, the German government on Thursday took the first major hurdle in a parliamentary vote toward extending the lifespans of nuclear power plants. The bill passed comfortably 308 to 289, but theoretically the government had 332 votes on its side. The discrepancy is indicative of how divisive the issue is. In the parliamentary debate prior to the vote on extending the lifespans of Germany’s nuclear power plants, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the opposition engaged in a no-holds-barred exchange of accusations and counter-accusations.
Deutsche Welle 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Lawmakers from chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition voted in favour of prolonging the life of Germany’s 17 nuclear power stations, setting the scene for a potentially bitter legal battle before the country’s highest court. “You’re dividing the country on a point over which it was already united,” Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, pledging to overturn the lifetime extension should his party regain power in the 2013 election.
FT 29th Oct 2010 more >>
Morning Star 28th Oct 2010 more >>
BBC 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Iran
The United States and its European allies are preparing a new offer to Iran on a possible nuclear fuel swap that would include tougher conditions than those Tehran rejected last year, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.
Reuters 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Intelligence operations are vital to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the head of MI6 Sir John Sawers has claimed.
Telegraph 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Middle East Onloine 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Kazakhstan
The secret centre of the Soviet nuclear weapons programme is to make nuclear fuel for China, under a deal signed during a visit to Paris of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Kazakh President.
The Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Kazakhstan, once known only as “2A” and unmarked on maps, was where the Soviet Union developed and built much of its nuclear arsenal, and has retained a high level of expertise in handling uranium and rare earth metals. Under the deal signed on Wednesday between Areva, France’s nuclear company, and Kazatomprom, the world’s largest producer of uranium, Ulba will be the site of a new fuel fabrication joint venture – the first for the French company outside Europe and North America.
Telegraph 28th Oct 2010 more >>
Trident
Two-thirds of Scots are opposed to replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system, according to a poll. The survey found 67% did not want the Government to spend money on the weaponry while it was cutting budgets for conventional forces. The YouGov poll was carried out as Westminster’s Strategic Defence and Security Review announced the closure of RAF Kinloss and created uncertainty over the future of RAF Lossiemouth, Fort George and the Army’s Edinburgh HQ. SNP MSP Bill Kidd said: “People are struggling to understand, at a time when budgets are being slashed by Tories and LibDems in London, why renewal of these weapons has not been ruled out completely.” Dr Alan Mackinnon, chairman of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said the majority of Scots did not want money spent on new weapons of mass destruction.
Herald 28th Oct 2010 more >>
