New Nukes
As France presses ahead with building more next-generation nuclear reactors, new evidence emerged Friday to suggest that industry and governments may be unprepared to handle the increasingly toxic waste that will result. an anti-nuclear group said that information it gleaned from industry reports – publicly available but which have received little attention so far – show that waste from the EPR will be more radioactive by a factor of seven because more uranium is burned up. That will make it more expensive to handle and store safely, according to Greenpeace, which provided the details on Friday to the International Herald Tribune.
IHT 30th Jan 2009 more >>
Greenpeace International Press Release 31st Jan 2009 more >>
French energy giant EDF has already announced it wants to build four new plants here. And German power groups want to invest £20bn building four of their own. Meanwhile, in America, where no new plant has been built for 30 years, nuclear could make a grand return. Indeed, there are 17 applicants seeking approval to build 26 nuclear plants in America.
Money Week 30th Jan 2009 more >>
However, whereas I believe firmly that the Government is totally wrong on both Stansted and Heathrow, they are on the side of the angels when it comes to nuclear power stations. Sizewell in Suffolk and Bradwell in Essex should get new reactors – they’re in the right place and are supported by their relevant local MPs John Gummer (Suffolk Coastal) and John Whittingdale (Maldon & Chelmsford East).
East Anglian Daily Times 30th Jan 2009 more >>
Professor Blowers says the criteria amount to nothing less than a means of trying to justify putting a new generation of mega power stations and spent fuel waste stores on existing coastal sites most of which are likely to become submerged during the next century under the impact of sea level rise and storm surges. His paper, published in the TCPA’s distinguished monthly Journal, Town & Country Planning, is available here.
no2nuclearpower 31st Jan 2009 more >>
Sellafield
A radioactive leak in a pipe connected to the decrepit Magnox reprocessing facility at Britain’s Sellafield site, officials said, in what was rated on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) as a 1 – or an “anomaly” on of the scale’s seven point system. To qualify as an accident, the leak would have had to weigh in at a four. Seven on the INES scale is considered a “major accident.” The anomaly, however, is “very worrisome,” said Nils B hmer, Bellona’s nuclear Physicist. The leak sprang from a pipe connected to a ventilation canal that transports waste products from the aged Magnox reprocessing facility. According to Sellafield’s owners, no personnel came into contact with the radiation. There is no evidence to suggest that there is any contamination outside the Sellafield site as a result of this incident. After the leak was discovered, the surrounding area was evacuated of personnel. Workers ran across the leak during routine work procedures at the Magnox facility.
Bellona 29th Jan 2009 more >>
Because the future is nuclear, it is only right that Gordon should take a personal interest in the way our installations operate. And thus he went to Sellafield last week. So far, so good. There was, we now learn, a little local difficulty on the day the PM came to call: a radioactive leak that meant a walkway had to be cordoned off and a building closed. The whole thing is now the subject of a board of inquiry but it didn’t spoil his trip. These things happen. We must look forward.
Guardian 30th Jan 2009 more >>
Norwegian environmental lobby groups and lawmakers are expressing growing disquiet about plans by the British authorities to build several new nuclear power stations – including one at the controversial Sellafield site. They say they will press the Norwegian government to raise the issue with the UK government, according to Norwegian newspaper reports. The UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority on Friday announced it was expecting to choose four sites as suitable for consideration under the UK government’s Strategic Siting Assessment programme. The process is being used to assess the suitability of certain locations for new nuclear reactors.
Offshore 247 27th Jan 2009 more >>
More workers could walk out next week in sympathy, including hundreds of contractors at Sellafield, the country’s biggest nuclear power plant. 900 contractors at Sellafield plan to meet before work on Monday to discuss taking industrial action in support of Lindsey workers. The firms said it was confident a walkout “would have no impact on safety, security or production.”
Telegraph 31st Jan 2009 more >>
Bradwell
A top scientist has used Ribena to demonstrate how nuclear waste was dealt with at a power station. A court has heard how there was an alleged leak of nuclear waste from a site at Bradwell power station for 14 years before the problem was discovered. The owners of the former power station face a total of 11 charges, brought under the 1993 Radioactive Substances Act, of unlawfully allowing waste to leak from a decontamination unit.
Essex Gazette 29th Jan 2009 more >>
Hartlepool
A POWER station reactor is back on line after a brief shutdown earlier this week. Reactor One at Hartlepool Power Station was taken out of action at 6pm on Tuesday. But the problem was not believed to be related to the reactor itself. The Mail understands that work was being carried out on conventional equipment within the station and the 605-megawatt unit was brought back on line early yesterday. The unit had spent 15 months out of action.
Hartlepool Mail 31st Jan 2009 more >>
Scotland
As a result of their ideological opposition to nuclear power, the Nationalists have had to turn to continuing coal power for a base supply. But this has left the SNP increasingly facing questions over the fact that coal power stations pump huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and are not the best way to tackle climate change.
Scotsman 31st Jan 2009 more >>
Nasa scientist Dr James Hansen called for Alex Salmond to abandon any plans to allow new coal-fired power stations to be built in Scotland. He urged that any such stations should be built only if they were fitted with technology – which does not yet exist – to capture and store carbon dioxide, the dangerous greenhouse gas. The Scottish Government has said it is intending to allow new fossil-fuel power stations, as long as they are “ready” to add the technology at a later date.
Scotsman 31st Jan 2009 more >>
Nuclear Waste
REGULAR loads of nuclear waste are travelling along Cheshire roads, it has been revealed. Emergency services went on full alert after a trailer carrying a load of low-level waste from Sellafield Ltd’s Capenhurst decommissioning site to its repository at Drigg in Cumbria became unhitched from the HGV tractor towing it near the junction of the A41 and the A5117 at Great Sutton.
Chester Evening Leader 30th Jan 2009 more >>
The Ministry of Defence has criticised the monitoring of radiation hotspots on a Fife beach, carried out by environment watchdog Sepa. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said 39 radioactive items were detected in September at Dalgety Bay. Radium from wartime aircraft is thought to have been in landfill used when the foreshore was reclaimed. The MoD said aspects of Sepa’s research seemed to be based on “assumptions rather than actual evidence”. Dalgety Bay was the site of a World War II airfield, where many aircraft were dismantled.
BBC 30th Jan 2009 more >>
Emergency Planning
EMERGENCY services will be on high alert as Moreton-in-Marsh prepares to become a scene of nuclear devastation next week. The Fire Service College is hosting Exercise Senator to test the Ministry of Defence and civil emergency response to a simulated crash of an RAF VC10 aircraft carrying special nuclear material used in defence programmes. The initiative is planned for Wednesday, but residents have been reassured no radioactive contaminants will be used.
This is Gloucestershire 31st Jan 2009 more >>
Europe
The EU Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, said negative public opinion limited the use of nuclear energy in Europe, but said he would push it as far as he could.
EU Business 30th Jan 2009 more >>
France
Greenpeace condemns the announcement made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday evening that a new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) is to be built in Penly, France. It is Greenpeace’s belief that building yet another reactor is entirely illegitimate and dangerous.
Greenpeace International Press Release 30th Jan 2009 more >>
Turkey
The only company bidding, to build Turkey’s first nuclear reactor, the Russian-Turkish JSC Atomstroyexport-JSC Inter Rao Ues-Park Teknik joint venture, offered a price of 21.16 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Current electricity prices in the country vary between 4 cents and 14 cents per kWh.
Today’s Zaman 20th Jan 2009 more >>
Iran
To see Iran’s foreign minister participating on various panels at Davos you would almost think that he represented a normal country, not a pariah state whose nuclear ambitions are scaring the wits out of the rest of the world.
Times 30th Jan 2009 more >>
India
India is to open its nuclear sites to UN inspectors in advance of the lifting of a 34-year embargo on atomic trade with New Delhi.
Telegraph 30th Jan 2009 more >>
