New Nukes
The nuclear industry “owes a lot” to the Labour Party, MP Jamie Reed told a told a fringe meeting in Brighton on Sunday. “Every single major investment and decision made about this industry in this country has been made by Labour governments,” the Labour parliamentarian claimed. And Lord Hunt of Kings Heath told the audience that Britain had been given a rare second chance to develop its nuclear industry. Speaking at an event sponsored by the Nuclear Industries Association, the energy minister said it was a “critical moment” for energy supplies. Lord Hunt confirmed that the government would soon publish a national policy statement on energy, which would set out the sites for new nuclear plants. “It will not specify exactly where, but will specify the list of sites where we think nuclear development could take place,” he said. But Martin O’Neil criticised the minister for the time taken on the statement, which had left industry “disappointed”. “There should have been a national policy statement on nuclear and energy by the end of July so the proper consultative process could take place before the events of April and May,” he said referring to the impending election.
Politics.co.uk 29th Sept 2009 more >>
NW Evening Mail 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Hinkley
EDF Energy has announced its planned investment in new nuclear build in the UK, with the intention to build four new EPR reactors by 2025. It is expected that Hinkley Point will be the first new nuclear build, a major investment in the South West. As a result, an event has been arranged by the Nuclear Industry Association sponsored by the Department of Climate Change, EDF Energy and the SW Regional Development Agency, who are appealing for local firms to come along to find out about the significant supply chain and employment opportunities that will be available at all levels. The event is aimed at civil, mechanical and electrical engineering firms and associated service providers of all sizes, and small and medium sized businesses will be welcomed. Best Western Webbington Hotel, Loxton, Somerset Friday 30 October 2009, 09.00 – 16.00
Aboutmyarea 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Sizewell
THE head of security at Sizewell B nuclear power station told the court on Monday how he arrived at work to find five protestors chained together and blocking an approach road to workers. Philip Perry told Lowestoft Magistrates’ Court that he arrived at the scene just before 8.30am on July 24, 2008, to find four women and a man locked together on the road, which he said was on private land owned by British Energy.
Lowestoft Journal 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Wylfa
Anglesey Aluminum Metals Ltd., Holyhead, Wales, has submitted an application for approval of a 299-megawatt biomass power plant to be located near the company’s aluminum smelter and possibly power it, according to Stephen Cox, biomass engineer with the company.
Biomass Magazine 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Dungeness
Agents in Kent have come under fire for failing to mention in their particulars the fact that a £247,000 bungalow backs on to one of Europe’s largest power stations, at Dungeness.
Estate Agent Today 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Mirror 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Telegraph 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Nuclear Testing
The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk in eastern Kazakhstan from 1949 until 1989 without regard for their effect on the local people or environment. The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for years by Soviet authorities and has only come out since the test site closed in 1991. Semipalatinsk is a reminder of the high price paid by the people of Kazakhstan for Soviet nuclear weapons.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 28th Sept 2009 more >>
Waste Transport
High-level radioactive waste from used nuclear fuel sent to the UK for reprocessing will be returned to its country of origin under a program to begin this financial year, the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has announced.The program will see approximately 1850 containers of waste returned over a 10-year period, including some containers being returned in accordance with UK government policy on waste substitution whereby the UK returns a greater amount of high-level waste to the customer but retains a radiologically equivalent amount of low- and intermediate-level waste in the UK for long term management.
World Nuclear News 29th Sept 2009 more >>
India
India announced the world’s boldest nuclear power development plan yesterday, saying that it could boost its atomic capacity by 12,000 per cent by 2050 to end crippling power shortages while limiting carbon emissions. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, predicted that India could produce 470 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2050, compared with the 3.8GW currently produced by its 17 reactors. India’s target is almost five times the current nuclear power capacity of the United States the world’s biggest producer with 100GW, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It far outstrips predicted US nuclear capacity in 2050 as well as China’s plans previously the world’s most ambitious to increase the power generated by its reactors from the current 9GW to about 300GW by that year.
Times 30th Sept 2009 more >>
BBC 29th Sept 2009 more >>
India’s prime minister today signalled a huge push in nuclear power over the coming decades, using an untested technology based on nuclear waste and the radioactive element thorium. India has an ambitious three-stage nuclear programme which it sees as a “silver bullet” to its dire energy shortage. At present 400m people cannot light their homes and the country imports 70% of its oil. Delhi says that it will be able to surmount these considerable problems and generate clean green power with an atomic programme that “virtuously recycles” the plutonium waste that reactors produce. This radioactive isotope takes thousands of years to be rendered safe and dealing with it is the greatest challenge facing nuclear energy’s proponents. The Indian plan turns this waste into fuel. Using thorium, which is abundant in the country, combined with plutonium, the country aims to produce power and “breed” stockpiles of uranium. It is a technology that no other country has mastered – and many have dropped – but India still has more than 2,000 scientists working on the technical problems. However campaigners said “if climate change is the problem, nuclear power is not the answer”. SP Udayakumar, convenor of India’s Alliance for Anti-Nuclear Movements, questioned whether the technology India was pushing would ever be ready. “The nuclear technology the prime minister talks about is not proven. If we start going ahead then the issue is the amount of carbon emitted by building, maintaining, operating and decommissioning nuclear plants means that (nuclear power) is a hugely polluting technology. If it does not work then we are left with waste that takes 24,000 years to become safe. It is a gamble we will pay for generations to come.”
Guardian 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Spain
Spain’s top energy official said on Monday the country had enough spare generating capacity to phase out nuclear power stations in the medium term, in line with government policy. In recent years, Spain has subsidised renewable energy in order to cut its heavy dependence on fuel imports and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is now the world’s third-biggest producer of wind power and the second-biggest of solar. Nuclear power is unpopular in Spain and both major political parties ruled out building new plants in last year’s elections.
Yahoo 28th Sept 2009 more >>
Planet Ark 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Germany
Germany’s nuclear phase-out policy looks set for revision after Angela Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), won the German federal elections by a comfortable majority. It is now likely that Germany’s 17 nuclear power plants – all due to be shut down by 2022 – will have their lives extended for ten to fifteen years.
Nuclear Engineering International 28th Sept 2009 more >>
Euractive 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Iran
IRAN yesterday said it would refuse to discuss a newly declared nuclear plant at forthcoming international talks and cautioned Western powers it could curb co-operation further if they repeated “past mistakes”.
Irish Examiner 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Herald 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Telegraph 30th Sept 2009 more >>
OFFICIALS FROM the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany will sit down at a table with Saeed Jalili, Iran’s nuclear negotiator, in Geneva tomorrow and Friday, for their first talks since July 2008.
Irish Times 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Disagreements between western agencies over the design of a nuclear warhead have been severe. The US maintains the position set out in a 2007 national intelligence estimate on Iran. This judged “with high confidence” that Iran halted weaponisation in 2003 and with “moderate confidence” that it had not resumed it as of 2007. Others have clearly had doubts about the claim. Israel has long believed that weaponisation resumed in 2005 after a direct order from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Financial Times has learnt that British intelligence services have come to the same view: that Ayatollah Khamenei’s halt order in 2003 was removed “in late 2004 or early 2005”.
Irish Times 30th Sept 2009 more >>
FT 30th Sept 2009 more >>
On 25 September President Obama accused Iran of building a secret second uranium enrichment plant. Iran said it was a pilot plant. What is known about the second enrichment plant?
BBC 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Iran has said it is not willing to discuss its “nuclear rights” during an upcoming meeting with the five permanent UN Security Council members.
BBC 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Iran’s admission that it is enriching uranium at a second nuclear site was greeted with alarm in the halls of Washington and in American newsrooms on Friday. Obama has long warned about the “existential threat” that Iran poses to the US and its allies. Concern over a nuclear Iran is understandable for those who are committed to the abolition of nuclear weapons, and for those who worry about the danger that nuclear proliferation poses for human survival. It should be noted, however, that the Obama administration does not share those concerns. US officials have always been preoccupied with how to prohibit enemy states from developing these weapons, while ensuring maximum US and allied maneuverability in keeping such weapons, and even in using them when deemed necessary.
Middle East Online 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Obama declared, ‘Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow’. The truth required him to say all nations ‘with the exception of Israel’. Until an American President is prepared to abandon the double-standard at the heart of US policy, there can be no hope for peace in the Middle East and far beyond.
Middle East Online 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Trident
The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has been criticised for avoiding the issue of Trident in his speech to the Labour Party conference yesterday (29 September). Although he referred to the need to work with other states on nuclear non-proliferation, Brown failed even to mention the Trident nuclear weapons system, despite increasingly vocal opposition to its renewal.
Ekklesia 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Submarines
Russia’s state-run civilian nuclear power corporation ‘Rosatom’ will dismantle 191 out of 198 decommissioned nuclear submarines by 2010, a company report said Tuesday. ‘As of today, 198 nuclear submarines have been decommissioned from the Navy. The disposal of about 25 submarines is not yet over; many of them are in the process of disposal. By the end of 2010, 191 nuclear submarines will have been dismantled,’ said Yevgeny Yevstratov, Rosatom deputy general director. Russia has signed cooperation agreements on the disposal of decommissioned nuclear submarines with the US, Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and Norway.
Irish Sun 29th Sept 2009 more >>
