New Nukes
CHRIS HUHNE, the Liberal Democrat energy secretary, last night signalled a softening of his opposition to nuclear power, insisting he was no “ideological ayatollah”. Huhne, who once described nuclear power as a “failed” technology, claimed that plants would be built despite the government’s refusal to subsidise the industry. “It is very clear from the coalition agreement that there will be a new generation of nuclear power,” he said in an interview with The Sunday Times. He said the likely rise in gas and oil prices over the next few years would make nuclear more attractive to private finance. “They are looking at the likely rise in the carbon price. That will provide an incentive to all low-carbon and zero-carbon forms of energy.”
Sunday Times 30th May 2010 more >>
Radhealth
Scotlands first, longest and most disputed Freedom of Information case has ended up keeping vital cancer statistics secret. After two investigations by the Scottish information commissioner, Kevin Dunion, plus appeals to the Court of Session in Edinburgh and the House of Lords in London, numbers that might shed light on the links between childrens blood cancer and radioactive pollution have been kept under wraps. The Scottish Green Party, which made the original request, is frustrated and annoyed. The Scottish Health Service, which fought to keep the information confidential, sounds relieved. Back at the start of 2005, Michael Collie, a researcher for the then Green MSP, Chris Ballance, asked the Scottish Health Service for the annual incidence of childhood leukaemia in every census ward in Dumfries and Galloway from 1990 to 2003. They wanted to test widespread suspicions that the debilitating and potentially fatal cancer could be caused by radioactive contamination. Plutonium from the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria washes up on the Solway coast, and has been detected around the shoreline. Mr Dunion has conducted a second investigation, the results of which were sent to those involved last week. This time he agreed with the House of Lords, and ruled that the information as requested should not be released.
Sun Herald 30th May 2010 http://www.heraldscotland.com:80/news/transport-environment/longest-foi-battle-ends-in-defeat-over-cancer-data-1.1031334
Radioactive Waste
AREVA, the French nuclear energy company, admitted Friday that their contract to ship nuclear waste to Russia has been halted four years early, ending this July. Transports Greenpeace has tirelessly highlighted, taken action against and lobbied to have ended. But , where to now with all their dangerous waste? AREVA says it plans to let the, ahem, “stocks” build up in their facilities at home.
Greenpeace 29th May 2010 more >>
NPT
Israel says it will not take part in a conference aimed at achieving a nuclear-arms free Middle East, proposed at a UN meeting in New York. Nearly 200 nations, signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), backed plans for the meeting in 2012.
In a document agreed at the talks, Israel was singled out for criticism.
BBC 29th May 2010 more >>
Israel was the big loser in the nuclear review conference in New York – and Iran the big winner. The cause of nuclear non-proliferation was haltingly served in that the conference did reach a consensus, unlike the last time, and a number of watered-down measures were agreed to seek ways of strengthening the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). But overall, there was not the decisive strengthening that some states wanted.
BBC 29th May 2010 more >>
An alliance of nine UK Churches has expressed disappointment at the failure of nuclear weapons states to agree deadlines for actions on nuclear disarmament.
While the Churches welcomed progress made on discussions on the Middle East and a declaration by the UK on the number of warheads, they were highly critical of the refusal of the nuclear powers to agree timeframes for future discussions at the conference in New York, which ended today.
Ekklesia 29th May 2010 more >>
Middle East
Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline. The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.
Sunday Times 30th May 2010 more >>
Renewables
Plans by communities and landowners to build small wind farms could soon be driven by a government loan fund that would pay for planning applications, the Sunday Herald can reveal. Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead is understood to have tasked civil servants with developing proposals that would enable communities and other small developers to make planning applications to their councils without having to risk hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process. Based on ideas put forward by Mackies ice cream chairman and community wind proponent Maitland Mackie, this is seen as removing what many believe is the main barrier to developing small wind projects. Mackie has long argued that such a scheme would prevent profits from being mopped up by the large utilities.
Sunday Herald 30th May 2010 more >>
Power plants fuelled by organic matter such as food waste, wood chips and sewage could be given higher priority than wind farms as the new government tries to transform the electricity sector. The Lib-Con coalition’s energy policy announcement placed emphasis on technologies such as anaerobic digestion, which captures gas from decomposing food and human waste, and other biomass generation methods. Conspicuously absent was any specific mention of onshore wind farms, which are often sited in the rural constituencies that are traditional Conservative strongholds. The coalition’s plan to hand greater planning powers to communities will further hinder onshore development, said industry sources.
Sunday Times 30th May 2010 more >>
