NDA
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has awarded TWI Ltd in Cambridge a contract worth almost £1m to demonstrate the capability of lasers in decommissioning nuclear facilities. The deal will see TWI, a materials engineering specialist, set up technology demonstrations to show how modern, high power lasers can be used to remove contaminated surfaces of concrete and cut up metal pipework and process vessels.
Business Weekly 30th July 2009 more >>
Radhealth
The KiKK study Childhood Cancer in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants found increased leukemias near all German nuclear facilities. The Environmental Health Sub-Committee of the West Cumbria Site Stakeholder Group raised the findings with COMARE and asked for its views. A one-page COMARE briefing was sent by Professor Alex Elliott, the COMARE chairman. The West Cumbria group sent a copy of the briefing to an independent consultant, Dr Ian Fairlie. He was concerned that the COMARE briefing generally sought to diminish the KiKK study. In his view, the briefing was unscientific in suggesting that COMARE’s lightweight ecological studies had more merit than the powerful KiKK case-control study. It was also less than transparent, as it omitted the findings of relevant epidemiology studies and gave a misleading interpretation of KiKK’s comments on confounders. Dr Fairlie wrote a letter accordingly to the editor of a UK scientific journal (which I cannot name) for publication. The editor contacted COMARE asking about the status of their briefing and was informed that the briefing did not represent COMARE’s formal position and that COMARE had not issued a formal statement on the KiKK study. This, in effect, amounted to a withdrawal of the chairman’s briefing.
Open Democracy 30th July 2009 more >>
The only realistic alternative to fossil fuels is nuclear power. It is cleaner, causing far less air pollution, and, contrary to popular opinion, safer. The Chernobyl accident caused about 4,000 premature deaths. Coal and oil don’t cause such spectacular disasters, but the work is dangerous and the constant stream of death and injury exceeds the toll of nuclear accidents.
Carlisle News and Star 30th July 2009 more >>
Hinkley
EIGHT workers at Hinkley Point nuclear power station were exposed to radiation after a corridor became contaminated last week.
This is the West Country 30th July 2009 more >>
Energy Bills
British Gas announced an 80 per cent surge in profits yesterday after steep falls in the wholesale cost of energy. At the same time Centrica, its parent, shrugged off calls for consumer price cuts, saying the cost of decarbonising Britain’s energy supplies would keep bills high for the foreseeable future.
Times 31st July 2009 more >>
Companies
Over the longer term, the group’s potential is enormous, particularly in nuclear. Rolls-Royce was a big winner from the Government’s £152m advanced manufacturing investment, launched this week, and one of the four new manufacturing sites to be built with its £45m slug will focus purely on nuclear.
Independent 31st July 2009 more >>
Sellafield
FIFTEEN workers have been axed by Studsvik at Sellafield. All the men have been working on a major project to decommission B204 – Sellafield’s original reprocessing plant. Studsvik UK’s president Sam Usher yesterday told The Whitehaven News: “Regretfully I can confirm that 15 workers are being made redundant as a result of the completion of our contract for decommissioning B204.”
Whitehaven News 29th July 2009 more >>
US
More than perhaps any other company, McKinsey has documented how an aggressive energy efficiency strategy sharply lowers the cost of climate action. Today they released their most comprehensive analysis to date of this country’s energy efficiency opportunity, “Unlocking energy efficiency in the U.S. economy.” Bottom line: If this country get serious about energy efficiency for instance, by passing a climate and clean energy bill like Waxman-Markey then we can sharply reduce existing emissions at a large net savings to the public and U.S. businesses. In fact the US can meet its entire 2020 emissions target with efficiency and cogeneration and lower its energy bill by $700bn
Climate Progress 29th July 2009 more >>
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has achieved his long-held plan of doing away with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Following conversations with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the White House, Senator Reid today announced that the administration and the Energy Department have agreed to cut off all funding to pursue a license application for the Yucca Mountain Project in the 2011 budget.
Environment News Service 30th July 2009 more >>
Bulgaria
Bulgaria may cancel construction of a 4 billion-euro ($5.5 billion) nuclear power station and sell shares in its state-run energy utilities to plug a widening deficit, according to Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Djankov.
Bloomberg 31st July 2009 more >>
France
French utility EDF aims for its 58 reactors to achieve an availability rate of 81 percent in 2009 and 85 percent by 2011, the firm CEO said. According to a Reuters estimate the current nuclear availability rate stood at around 70 percent by end-July.
Reuters 30th July 2009 more >>
Spain
Nuclear power production capacity resumed to normal levels in Spain, with the reconnection of two nuclear plants. The country’s eight nuclear reactors are expected to produce at full capacity until September, when nuclear plant maintenance starts again.
Argus Media 30th July 2009 more >>
Libya
Libya and Canada have signed a memorandum of intent on nuclear power, the fourth signed by Tripoli in the past two years. The memorandum foresees cooperation between the two countries in research and the mining, processing and transport of uranium, as well as its use in medicine and desalination projects.
Middle East Online 30th July 2009 more >>
India
India has launched its first indigenously built nuclear submarine, three decades after inaugurating the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme and following an 11-year construction process.
Jane’s Defence Weekly 30th July 2009 more >>
Aldermaston
The government’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston in Berkshire is advertising for a “virtual reality specialist” to use “serious gaming” to help train nuclear weapons scientists. One of the qualifications required is experience of computer games with good graphics like Crysis, the job advert says. Crysis, marketed by the California-based company Electronic Arts, is a “first person shooter” game in which players become part of an elite group of US soldiers on a mission to an island in the South China Sea. They rapidly become embroiled in a bloody battle with North Koreans, then monsters from outer space.
Guardian 31st July 2009 more >>
CCS
It was meant to be the world’s first demonstration of a technology that could help save the planet from global warming – a project intended to capture emissions from a coal-fired power station and bury them safely underground. But the German carbon capture plan has ended with CO2 being pumped directly into the atmosphere, following local opposition at it being stored underground. The scheme appears a victim of “numbyism” – not under my backyard.
Guardian 29th July 2009 more >>
Climate Progress 29th July 2009 more >>
Renewables
Supporters of workers occupying the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight today broke into the premises to deliver food, accusing the company of trying to starve the men into submission.
Guardian 31st July 2009 more >>
Energy Efficiency
TENS of thousands of households are to be offered advice on how to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, under a 15 million scheme announced yesterday. Experts will knock on all doors in each of ten chosen areas of Scotland, to offer to carry out an audit of how efficiently energy is being used, and means tested free or discounted insulation will be offered. The Scottish Government funded scheme will benefit up to 96,000 homes initially, and could then be rolled out to other areas over the next few years. Green groups warned yesterday the initiative did not go far enough.
Scotsman 31st July 2009 more >>
Herald 31st July 2009 more >>
