Nuclear skills
A skills shortage threatens to derail Britain’s nuclear decommissioning and new building programme, the industry’s biggest trade union has warned. Prospect, the engineering, science and management union, said the poaching of staff is already endemic among engineering and other companies ahead of a £50bn-plus dismantling bonanza and the final go-ahead for a second generation of nuclear power stations. The Nuclear Industries Inspectorate, which regulates safety at UK plants, has admitted that it is already finding it difficult to recruit and believes this is a common problem across this energy sector.
Guardian 31st May 2006
Students in Lancashire will be able to study how to carry out the crucial task of closing nuclear plants. The University of Central Lancashire (Uclan) has launched the country’s first Foundation Degree in Nuclear Decommissioning.
BBC 30th May 2006
Iran
The United States is “glad” about Iran’s stated wish to restart talks with leading European nations over its nuclear enrichment program, a White House spokesman said Tuesday.
EU Business 30th May 2006
Iran said on Tuesday it wanted to resume nuclear negotiations with the EU and could even talk to Washington if its arch-foe “changed behaviour”. Tehran also said it was willing to negotiate on the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges it uses for research, but stressed it would not stop running the devices entirely as the U.N. Security Council has called for.
Reuters 30th May 2006
BBC 30th May 2006
Sellafield
The European Court of Justice has ruled that Ireland breached EU law by taking Britain before a United Nations tribunal in relation to the Sellafield nuclear plant.
Guardian 31st May 2006
FT 31st May 2006
Irish Sun 30th May 2006
BBC 30th May 2006
UTV 30th May 2006
Reuters, 30th May 2006
The Minister for the Environment says a ruling by the European Court of Justice makes it easier for Ireland to pursue its goal of closing Sellafield. The court says the Government acted illegally by taking a case against the nuclear facility to the UN. But the Government says the decision now puts the onus on the European justice system to deal with matters like Sellafield.
Irish Sun 30th May 2006
US
In the week after President Bush’s visit to a nuclear power plant, a major new national opinion survey will show that nuclear power is far less popular among Americans (including conservative voters) than the renewable energy alternatives of wind power and solar energy. The survey also will show strong bipartisan skepticism about the costs and delays associated with a major build-up of nuclear power plant operations in the United States.
PRNewswire 30th May 2006
New nukes
ENVIRONMENTAL activists have been protesting against nuclear power. Members of Bromley Greenpeace stood in Orpington High Street and handed out leaflets about the proposed building of nuclear power stations. Campaigners also talked to shoppers about trains travelling through the borough which carry nuclear waste from nuclear power stations, including Dungeness in Kent, to the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria.
Bromley Newsshopper 30th May 2006
