Calder Hall
After 47 years of generating electricity the four 50 year old towers at Sellafield’s Calder Hall site in Cumbria, England, are to be demolished. A demolition team will use explosives to bring down the 289ft towers, which were opened by the Queen on October 17, 1956. Sellafield faced years of criticism and after a public consultation, permission was given in June of 2005 to decommission Calder Hall, which had stopped generating electricity back in 2003.
Product Review 29th Sept 2007 more >>
Two 50-year-old cooling towers at Sellafield’s Calder Hall site in Cumbria have been razed to the ground after 47 years of generating electricity.
Sky News 29th Sept 2007 more >>
Finland
Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) reiterated that it has no intention of sharing the costs resulting from delays in the construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor with the plant’s supplier Areva. Analysts have estimated the cost of the overruns at 1.5 bln eur, half the reported 3 bln value of the project. The plant is not expected to open until 2011, compared with the initially scheduled date of 2009 (6years instead of 4). So it is 50% over budget and taking 50% longer than planned.
Forbes 28th Sept 2007 more >>
Nuclear Finance
With this week’s application to build a new nuclear plant – the first in the US in nearly 30 years – the industry says it is on the verge of a nuclear power renaissance. Over the next 15 months, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects a tidal wave of similar permit applications for up to 28 new reactors, costing up to $90 billion to build. But the renaissance may be less robust than it looks. Even if the projects are successful and building proceeds at breakneck speed, the lead times are so long and costs so high that it’s unclear that the US can build enough nuclear plants to make a dent in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. They’re so financially risky, experts say, that the only reason building plans are under way is that the federal government has stepped in to guarantee investors against loan defaults.
Christian Science Monitor 28th Sept 2007 more >>
Energy Efficiency
All high-energy light bulbs will be removed from sale in Britain within four years under a pioneering deal between the Government and major retailers. Bulbs rated at 150 watts will be taken off the shelves as early as January under the voluntary agreement launched yesterday by a string of high street names. Millions of 100-watt bulbs will be removed a year later, with all incandescent lights phased out by 2011, under the timetable agreed by the stores. Green campaigners welcomed the move, which is aimed at replacing millions of lights with low-energy fluorescent bulbs, but said the Government needed to act sooner to remove high-energy bulbs.
Independent 28th Sept 2007 more >>
Russia
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the world’s second largest radiation accident, at Mayak in the Southern Urals, Greenpeace Russia has released a special report about the ongoing impacts of the Mayak tragedy. On the anniversary itself, Greenpeace will join local people in a protest rally in the nearby city of Chelyabinsk, to call for the relocation of those still living in contaminated areas and an end to Russia’s plans to import and reprocess even more foreign nuclear waste at the Mayak site.
Greenpeace International Press Release 28th Sept 2007 more >>
Greenpeace background media briefing on Mayak more >>
North Korea
A U.S. envoy said Saturday negotiators were working to narrow a gap between how far North Korea is willing to go to close down its nuclear facilities and what the U.S. wants the reclusive communist country to do.
Guardian website 29th Sept 2007 more >>
Talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear ambitions shifted focus on Saturday to U.S. energy assistance for the impoverished state, despite cooled expectations that the session could set targets for disarmament.
Mirror 29th Sept 2007 more >>
Iran
The world’s big powers on Friday gave Iran a new deadline of late November to rein back its nuclear programme or face heightened sanctions, but also asked Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, to work on reaching a deal with Tehran.
FT 29th Sept 2007 more >>
Daily Mail 29th Sept 2007 more >>
The international furore over Iran’s nuclear programme and the prospect of a tightening of United Nations sanctions have acted as a deterrent to long-term development plans, both public and private. So more funds are going into the housing sector, which is less dependent on imports.
FT 29th Sept 2007 more >>
U.S.-hosted high-level talks on imposing new sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program opened Friday, although there was little sign the Bush administration and its European allies can persuade Russia and China to drop opposition to such a move.
Guardian website 28th Sept 2007 more >>
Scotland
Letter from Kerr MacGregor: David Cairns, deputy Scottish Secretary in London, does not appear to be aware that a combination of renewables (wind, hydro, tides and biomass) can provide a predictable and steady source of electricity. He is also unaware that previous decisions on nuclear were disastrous for Scotland. Dounreay is probably the worst energy decision made in the UK. It produced virtually no electricity and the clean-up costs are enormous. Meanwhile, the decision to build Torness killed the Scottish coal industry and led to Scotland losing out on renewable energy jobs. Non-nuclear Denmark has more than 25,000 wind energy jobs while Scotland has only a few hundred.
Herald 29th Sept 2007 more >>
Winfrith
UP to 110 jobs face the axe at Winfrith if decommissioning cash for the former nuclear site is slashed by nearly 30 per cent. A spokesman for Winfrith said it and sister site Harwell in Oxford-shire had been given a recent update on likely funding for 2008-2010 by the Nuclear Decomm-issioning Authority. This showed that joint funding for the two United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority sites could drop from £84.6 million for 2007-2008 to only £60 million annually after that, although this level still had to be officially confirmed.
Dorset Echo 28th Sept 2007 more >>
