Plutonium
Monbiot: Duncan Clark’s article in the Guardian today should cause even the most determined anti-nuclear campaigner to think long and hard about the choices that confront us. He reveals that Prof David MacKay, chief scientific adviser to the UK government’s energy department and author of Sustainable Energy: Without the Hot Air, has endorsed a remarkable estimate. The UK’s stockpile of nuclear waste could be used to generate enough low-carbon energy to run this country for 500 years. GE Hitachi has offered to build a fast reactor to consume the plutonium stockpile at Sellafield, though not yet the whole kit (the integral fast reactor). It has offered to do it within five years, and to carry the cost if it doesn’t work out. This is the proposal the government is now considering. I would like to see it go further and examine the case for the full works: an integral fast reactor (incorporating a reprocessing plant) that generates much more energy from the waste pile. After I first wrote about integral fast reactors, Ruth Balogh, the nuclear issues campaignercorrect for West Cumbria & North Lakes Friends of the Earth, sent a furious letter to the Guardian.
Guardian 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
A generation of “fast” nuclear reactors could consume Britain’s radioactive waste stockpile as fuel, providing enough low-carbon electricity to power the country for more than 500 years, according to figures confirmed by the chief scientific adviser to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc).
Guardian 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Radwaste
Letter Stuart Haszeldine: The possibility of burying radioactive waste for a million years is a long-standing and contentious issue in Cumbria. That was decisively rejected after a £400million scientific investigation during the 1990s. Neither the rocks nor the science have changed since then. The security and performance of this repository is extremely questionable. It is predicted by the disposal agencies own studies that radioactive gas is likely to return to the surface within just tens of years. It is predicted by my own research that groundwater flowing past underground radioactive waste will return to the surface within only thousands of years. This groundwater will return to the surface much faster, within a few decades, if hot temperature, high level waste is also buried. That heat will also make the land surface rise. No earthquakes or extra rainfall are needed. A fundamental problem with this public information exercise is that no rival viewpoints are funded to be heard. If the elected councillors make a decision to participate in further site investigations, it becomes increasingly difficult for a disenfranchised local community to reverse out of the process. Readers wishing to know more could visit www.mrwsold.org.uk or attend lectures at Cockermouth School 7.30pm this evening (Thursday) or at Queens Hall in Keswick School at 6pm tomorrow (Friday).
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Tim Knowles: Martin Forwoods letter on the subject of nuclear waste policy is strong and well argued. He asks questions of me in relation to positions taken by the county council on the management of different categories of radioactive wastes and what he views as inconsistencies. I can understand his view, which highlights the complexity and variety of nuclear-related tasks undertaken by, or expected of, West Cumbria. The repository (MRWS) issue is important because, as is always said, 70 per cent of the higher level wastes by volume, are already stored at Sellafield. I dont really know if local people think that taking on the responsibility for hosting a huge underground disposal facility in exchange for moving this material out of its current location to what experts say will be a safer place, coupled with taking waste and spent fuel from other areas of the UK into such a deep repository, is acceptable to them. I also dont yet know whether the negative impacts on Cumbria of hosting such a facility can be counterbalanced by promised Government benefits.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Letter: it may be the case that Professor Smythe is over-prescriptive in his analysis of geological suitability as it relates to specific sites which could be found in West Cumbria. If this is the case, we need to understand this fully and why. To have Professor Smythes contribution as to the geological unsuitability of West Cumbria limited to 15 minutes when he wanted 45 minutes is unreasonable when faced with a decision that will have implications for this county for at least the next 20,000 years thats about 3 times longer than the earliest recorded human civilisation. We also need to understand that West Cumbria would not be the ideal geological choice for a GDF if all of the UK was open for suitable geological selection. The process of volunteerism is then a political one, rather than one based on the best of scientific principles. We have to accept this and as to how and why this has evolved.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Letter: All other counties in Britain have firmly rejected volunteering to look for a repository site. Copeland, Allerdale and Cumbria councils have now placed West Cumbria in to a railroading process. I didnt volunteer for that. The decision to do this is far too important for these councils to have acted without first consulting the people of West Cumbria properly by means of a straightforward referendum. Where is the independent inquiry for something of this magnitude? West Cumbrian councils are now so blatantly in bed with the nuclear industry, both politically and financially, that their lack of impartiality and integrity is now clearly evident.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
New Nukes
Ministers misled parliament over the need to build a new fleet of nuclear power stations, distorting evidence and presenting to MPs a false summary of the analysis they had commissioned, a group of MPs and experts alleged in a report published on Tuesday.
Stop Hinkley 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
NFLAs
ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners have blasted a cash-strapped council for terminating its membership of a body dedicated to fight the growth of nuclear power stations and the development of nuclear weapons. Gwynedd Council has been a member of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities forum for 30 years. But last night the authority confirmed it would terminate its membership from April because it cant afford the subscription.
Daily Post 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Politics
The Crown Prosecution Service will announce whether Mr Huhne and Vicky Pryce, his former wife, face criminal charges. Mr Huhne and Miss Pryce are not expected to learn of their fate until shortly before the 10am statement by Keir Starmer, the countrys most senior prosecutor. David Cameron and Nick Clegg are said to agree that Mr Huhne will be removed from his Cabinet post if he is charged with a criminal offence.
Telegraph 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Oldbury
Horizon has today announced that it has completed the purchase of land which is key to the development of its proposed new nuclear power station near Oldbury-on-Severn in South Gloucestershire. The land is being purchased by Horizon Nuclear Power Oldbury Limited from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), under terms agreed in the 2009 land auction.
Nuclear Matters 31st Jan 2012 more >>
Hinkley
Concerns over the weakness of infrastructure exposed by the planned new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point have been officially lodged by Taunton Deane Borough Council. The council, which broadly supports the new station, Hinkley C, has voiced its concerns in representations to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) which will decide the application. In its submission, the council backed the new reactor in principle, recognising the potential economic and social benefits it will bring. But it said it had reservations over the impact on local roads: junctions 25 and 26 on the M5, the A358 and the A38 corridor between Taunton and Bridgwater as well as the roads across the Quantock Hills to the coast.
Western Morning News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
A long awaited report published by an organisation associated with National Grid says pylons are cheaper than burying power cables. But campaigners have taken heart as it is not as expensive as the power giant had originally claimed and they have already found evidence in favour of their arguments.
Cheddar Valley Gazette 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
COMMUNITIES in Sedgemoor are set to receive a share of £30 million from EDF Energy designed to limit the impact of preparation works at Hinkley Point C.
This is the West Country 1st Feb 2012 more >>
Three consortia are reportedly competing for a contract relating to the delivery of a new nuclear power plant in Somerset, which will offer a major fillip to civil engineering recruitment. It is anticipated that the £1.2 billion of civil engineering works for EDF’s Hinkley Point C plant will commence in 2013 and take three years to complete, during which time they will generate at least 1,500 new jobs in construction.
Career Structure 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Contaminated materials
Government experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency are expected to finalize a draft code of conduct this week to monitor the trans-boundary movement of scrap metal and semi-finished products that may inadvertently contain radioactive material, the Bureau of International Recycling said Tuesday. Currently the scope of the code of conduct includes both ferrous and all nonferrous metals as scrap and semi-finished products, the BIR said.
Platts 31st Jan 2012 more >>
Waste Transport
The transport licence that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) issued to Bruce Power to ship 16 radioactive steam generators to Sweden will expire on February 3, 2012. Bruce Power had planned to use Swedish company Studsvik to decontaminate the radioactive waste and sell the scrap metal back onto open markets. The most radioactive parts of the generators would be transported back to the Great Lakes and stored near its nuclear power plant on Lake Huron.
Council of Canadians 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Dounreay
SEPA has announced its intention to hold a public consultation on the proposed solid low level radioactive waste disposal facility at Dounreay. DSRL applied to SEPA in November 2010 for an authorisation to disposal of solid low level waste in the new disposal facility, which is currently under construction. The public consultation is expected to take place in March.
DSRL 31st Jan 2012 more >>
An engineer who sneezed sending his dentures plunging to the bottom of a nuclear reactor was turned down for compensation. The claim for the false teeth, which may well still be at the bottom of the reactor, was revealed by Dounreay heritage officer, James Gunn, in this month’s issue of the Dounreay News.
Edie 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
NDA
A new report examines how the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority can better integrate the management of higher activity waste from the clean-up of its sites in the UK, including Dounreay. The NDAs draft strategy development programme is open to comment until February 24. In Scotland, national policy is for the management of higher activity waste in near-surface facilities. In England and Wales, it is by geological disposal. It is imperative that we ensure the very best use of these facilities as and when they become available, states the report.
DSRL 23rd Dec 2011 more >>
Nuclear Research
MORE money spent on nuclear research can help stop the brain drain of talent from West Cumbria, it has been stressed following a House of Lords inquiry. Copeland Councils Strategic Nuclear & Energy Board is examining the impacts for the area following the inquiry carried out by the House of Lords Science & Technology Committee. The inquiry findings are seen to be critical of the governments investment in research and development. It concluded that the government was not doing enough to maintain and develop UK nuclear research and development capabilities and associated expertise to ensure nuclear is a viable option for the future.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Sellafield
SELLAFIELD security became even tighter this week as a new guard force started its duties helping to protect the nuclear site. The commercial Guard Force, employed by Mitie Total Security, is in addition to the Civil Nuclear Constabulary whose officers are licensed to carry weapons. The Mitie force will not be armed for its guarding and search duties. Sellafield Ltd, which awarded the Mitie contract, said: It has brought about a considerable number of employment opportunities in the local areas with over 90 per cent of the personnel employed in phase one from West Cumbria.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
EXPERTS predict that Copelands planned nuclear power station could see the area benefit to the tune of a staggering £9 BILLION. The projected investment is based on todays prices only and could prove even higher. On top of the £9 billion reactor spend can be added another £11 billion the potential value of the decommissioning contracts which Sellafield Ltd has so far placed with companies of all sizes.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
SUPPLYING electricity underground from Sellafields planned new nuclear power plant will cost up to £20 million per kilometre more than it would from large overhead pylons, a new report shows. The huge extra costs have sparked fresh fears of 180ft high pylons being erected across parts of the Lake District National Park so electricity can be transmitted to the national grid from Sellafield and Cumbrian wind farms.
Whitehaven News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
US
A severe accident at a US nuclear power plant would not be likely to cause any immediate deaths, while the risks of fatal cancers caused by such an accident would be millions of times lower than the general risks of dying of cancer, a long-running research study has found.
World Nuclear News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
IB Times 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Russia
Having spent five years combining its nuclear power, engineering and research enterprises into the single entity of Rosatom, the Russian government now sees privatisation of the firm as part of a plan for industrial modernisation.
World Nuclear News 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Japan
LIKE walking onto a disaster movie set. That is how Dumbarton man Ian McKinley described visiting one of the contaminated villages near the stricken Japanese Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Last March, the plant was hit by a post-earthquake tsunami which caused widespread damage to the surrounding area. Since then Dr McKinley, a leading expert in nuclear waste management, has supported the planning of decontamination of areas affected by radiation and the management of resulting wastes.
Lennox Herald 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Japanese governor Tokihiro Nakamura believes nuclear power is vital for the resource-poor land, but even he says the central government must put safety pledges in writing before he’ll agree to restart off-line reactors — a sign of the tough battle ahead to repair tattered public trust after the Fukushima crisis.
Reuters 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Researchers in Sweden are investigating ways to maximise the recycling of nuclear fuel for fourth-generation power systems. The 9.4m euro project, headed up by the Chalmers University of Technology, aims to produce safe fuel that can be 80% recycled, compared to current levels of 1%. Fourth generation power systems can lead to a reduction of the amount of high-level, long-lived nuclear waste to a tenth of what it is today, while energy output can increase hundredfold. Many researchers believe the new technology will have a commercial breakthrough within 20 years.
Edie 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Iran
Irans suspected nuclear weapons installations are vulnerable to possible military strikes, Israels vice-premier has warned. Moshe Yaalons comments contradict an assessment shared by foreign experts and Israeli defence officials that it would be difficult to strike the underground targets.
Scotsman 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
A senior International Atomic Energy Agency inspector spoke on Wednesday of a “good trip” to Tehran and said his team will return in late February. IAEA mission chief Herman Nackaerts said that he had engaged in “three days of intensive discussions” with Iranian officials.
Morning Star 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Finland
Finland could invest in a second EPR nuclear power plant, despite the time and cost overruns that have dogged its first project at Olkiluoto. Finnish project company Fennovoima has named the EPR supplied by Areva as one of two preferred bidders for a new nuclear project at Pyhajoki on Finald’s west coast, reports World Nuclear News. The other shortlisted option is a so-called advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) from Toshiba.
Utility Week 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
