Nuclear Liability
Letter from Prof Bary Jones: Your report “Nuclear clean-up costs face big rise” in January 25’s Financial Times indicates the way in which the government’s Janus-faced policy on new nuclear power plants threatens to generate the kind of moral hazard that was revealed, so sharply, in the financial bubble that preceded the crash of 2007-08. Any limit on liability for the costs of nuclear accidents, albeit at a much higher level than currently, eases the burden on nuclear operators. If the government reinsures those costs, in the absence of commercial insurers, then the nuclear operators will be absolved of most, if not all, of the ultimate liability. Both moral hazard and implicit subsidy are inherent in such a situation.
FT 3rd Feb 2011 more >>
Westinghouse
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will seek public comment later this month for Westinghouse Electric Co’s proposed AP1000 nuclear reactor, the agency’s chairman said on Wednesday. The Westinghouse reactor is the choice of utilities seeking NRC approval to build 14 nuclear power plants. Westinghouse is part of Toshiba Corp.
Reuters 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Planning
The government published no fewer than 33 assessments of the impact of the Localism Bill on Monday. The assumptions made in costing the impacts of the Bill give a useful indication of the take-up of the Bill powers that the government expects, as well as other information about how the Act will operate.
Bircham Dyson Bell 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Sellafield (New Reactors)
A NEW power station planned for Sellafield would bring around 800 permanent jobs on top of 5,000 construction workers and an extra 1,000 when engineering shutdowns take place, it was announced this week. NuGeneration Ltd, the consortium which plans to develop the Sellafield station with up to three reactors, predicts a multi-billion pound investment for West Cumbria.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
NUGENERATION Ltd, the consortium behind the plans to develop a new nuclear power station at Sellafield, has formally launched its operations in West Cumbria.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Sellafield
SELLAFIELD has a new man at the top. From tomorrow (Friday) Todd Wright takes over as the nuclear site’s “public face” as managing director from fellow American Bill Poulson. Mr Poulson is returning to the United States to take up a different role with parent company Nuclear Management Partners after two years in charge.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Hinkley
A new short film made for Stop Hinkley to publicise the scandal of EdF’s preliminary works application.
You Tube 30th Jan 2011 more >>
Man in the street on EDF.
You Tube 9th Dec 2010 more >>
Sizewell
By 7am this morning several campaigners masked as fish locked themselves together across the entrance of Sizewell A and B. They claim that the nuclear operators and the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) have not taken the possibility of flooding and coastal erosion at the Sizewell plants into proper consideration.
Stop Nuclear Power 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Indymedia 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Norwich Evening News 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Lowestoft Journal 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
East Anglia Daily Times 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
BBC 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Heart FM 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
SIZEWELL B power station is expected to be offline for a few days for safety reasons, owner EDF said. Workers detected low levels of oil on a reactor cooling pump and shut the reactor at 4am this morning. EDF believes the outage will only last “a few days” and engineers are on site carrying out investigations. A spokeswoman for EDF said: “We took the decision to take Sizewell B offline at 4am on 1 February following indications of low levels of oil on a reactor cooling pump.
East Anglia Daily Times 1st Feb 2011 more >>
Evening Star 1st Feb 2011 more >>
Wylfa
Cllr Rhian Medi said the arrival of thousands of workers for the construction of Wylfa B would put added pressure on the police.
The ratepayers of Anglesey should not have to pay for any extra policing required, she said. Constable Pritchard said he was “concerned” that the Civil Nuclear Constabulary could leave the current Wylfa site when it closed and return only when Wylfa B became operational.
Holyhead & Anglesey Mail 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Scotland
Prof Colin McInnes: Current plans are for the 5 TW-hr of energy produced by onshore wind in 2008 to grow to almost 20 TW-hr by 2030. At the same time the 14.3 TW-hr of nuclear energy produced by Huntertson B and Torness in 2008 will vanish by 2030. The sole result of this energy transition is that we will have substituted 15 TW-hr per year of compact, base-load nuclear energy for the same quantity of diffuse, intermittent wind energy. In the process we will have expanded onshore wind farms fourfold and disfigured many unique Scottish landscapes.
Caledonian Mercury 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
Europe
Europe must bridge a €2.2trillion (£1.9trn) “carbon capital chasm” if it is to meet 2020 carbon emissions reduction targets. The EU needs to invest €2.9trn in changes to its buildings, energy and transport infrastructure to reduce emissions. And given the state of public finances most of that will have to come from financial institutions, a study from Accenture and Barclays Capital said.
The headline number is equivalent to about 2 per cent of Europe’s GDP, while finance to the low-carbon sector has fallen by around three-quarters since before the global financial crisis. But with tweaks to government policy and new financial instruments such as “green bonds”, the 2020 target can still be met, Accenture’s managing director of sustainability, Peter Lacy said.
Independent 3rd Feb 2011 more >>
Radhealth
Letter from Marianne Birkby: Will the government be issuing a life-and-death health warning to Cumbria? If proposed nuclear developments go ahead the population of Cumbria will increase in a relatively short space of time by tens of thousands. There have been many studies looking into the reason for increased cancers and blood disorders in the vicinity of nuclear installations. The government has dismissed all those studies which point to radioactive emissions as the cause and has accepted the findings of those studies which point to “population mixing.” By its own blinkered criteria, a responsible government would therefore be issuing public health warnings.
Morning Star 31st Jan 2011 more >>
Terror
Al Qaeda is attempting to stockpile ‘dirty’ radioactive explosives that could be used to target British troops or for a larger urban attack, it has emerged. New diplomatic documents released by WikiLeaks show that U.S. intelligence personnel have been informed of terrorist attempts to acquire dangerous amounts of uranium and plutonium.
Daily Mail 3rd Feb 2011 more >>
Map of the incidents of suspected nuclear smuggling around the world as revealed by Wikileaks diplomatic cables.
Telegraph 3rd Feb 2011 more >>
Nuclear Skills
YOUNGSTERS can learn about becoming a Nuclear Marine Engineer at a course at HMS Sultan. Working alongside professional engineers, 50 students will work in teams, taking part in practical workshops and lectures and spending time in a laboratory learning about radiation and gamma ray spectroscopy. The course from July 19 to 22 is for 13 and 14-year-olds and includes visits to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and HMS Alliance – pictured – to offer students an insight into real-life engineering.
Portsmouth News 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
US
An astounding 200 billion gallons of water withdrawn from America’s water supply each day and four metric tons of high-level radioactive wastes for every terawatt of electricity produced by nuclear reactors, even though there is no long-term storage solution in place. These are just two of the little understood and largely “hidden” water, health and other costs from U.S. coal and nuclear electricity production detailed in a new analysis released by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., for the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI) think tank.
Sustainable Business 31st Jan 2011 more >>
India
The opposition against the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant in Ratnagiri district gained a little more momentum on Monday. Doctors and environmental activists addressed about 300 people at the Vanamali Hall at Dadar on Monday on the possible effects of radiation arising from a nuclear power plant. Project affected people of the Tarapur Atomic Power Station, the oldest in India, shared their experiences and grievances related to the project.
Hindustan Times 1st Feb 2011 more >>
Belarus
Russia and Belarus will sign a long-discussed agreement to build a 2000 MW nuclear power plant in Belarus in the first quarter of 2011, Belarus’ prime minister Mikhail Myasnikovich has announced.
Modern Power Systems 28th Jan 2011 more >>
Nuclear Arms Race
A NEW arms race could plunge the world into nuclear war, according to leaked documents. A secret US security briefing has warned hostility between India and Pakistan poses the greatest risk. But the US security briefing from 2008 also warns that North Korea, Syria and Iran are all developing long-range missiles.
Express 3rd Feb 2011 more >>
Daily Mail 3rd Feb 2011 more >>
Telegraph 3rd Feb 2011 more >>
Why does Pakistan keep heaping up nuclear weapons like a woodcutter piling logs? American intelligence assessments now estimate that Pakistan has over 100 weapons, more than India, and at least twice as many as it had only four years ago. It is even suggested that Pakistan could quite soon overtake Britain as the world’s fifth largest nuclear power. Pakistan has come a long and dismal way since Zulfikar Ali Bhutto reportedly vowed in 1972 that “even if we have to eat grass we will make nuclear bombs”.
Guardian 3rd Feb 2011 more >>
Disarmament
US President Barack Obama has signed an arms treaty with Russia that would reduce the nations’ nuclear arsenals and bolster verification mechanisms.
BBC 2nd Feb 2011 more >>
