New Nukes
At a New Economics Foundation conference, Jeremy Leggett, chairman of Solar Century and one of the UK’s most respected proponents of renewable energy, gave a clear message that renewables are the only way the UK can meet the climate challenge safely, cheaply, and in time. “It’s amazing the propaganda that’s being pushed out for nuclear and against renewables,” he said. “They say renewables can’t do the base load but it’s utter rubbish. How do I know? Because the Germans have done it already. In 2008 they mixed and matched renewables and ran the country on them at scale and in different weather conditions. We can do it here with imagination – and we will.” “The problem is simple,” added Julia Davenport, chief executive of Good Energy, an organisation that develops the demand and supply of renewable electricity within the UK. “The Government has asked the wrong companies how to meet the targets – they’ve asked the companies that sell electricity to save electricity. We want to see the companies that deliver low energy to be the ones that are incentivised.”
Green Wise 28th Oct 2009 more >>
Hinkley
THE construction of the next generation of nuclear reactors being proposed for Hinkley Point in Somerset, could open up supply chain opportunities worth billions for firms in the region. The Nuclear Industry Association has organised an event being held tomorrow at Loxton, in Somerset, to spell out the business benefits that the decommissioning of two reactors at Hinkley Point and the construction of two new reactors could bring to the region.
Plymouth Herald 30th Oct 2009 more >>
South West Business 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Campaigners fighting plans to put a new 400,000-volt electricity line through the North Somerset countryside are holding a public meeting to rally support against the proposal. Nailsea, Wraxall and Backwell residents have launched the Save Our Valley campaign to fight off plans by National Grid to create a new overhead line from Bridgwater to Avonmouth to bring electricity from the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point onto its transmission network.
Western Daily Press 30th Oct 2009 more >>
A public meeting is to be held when residents can learn more about the power lines.
Burnham-on-sea 29th Oct 2009 more >>
A JACK-UP platform sighted off Barry’s coastline was an energy firm’s seabed investigation exercise for Hinkley Point on the opposite side of the Bristol Channel. Excalibur, as the structure is called, is drilling investigation boreholes in the Hinkley Point area for eight weeks moving regularly between planned points.
Barry and District News 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Oldbury
PEOPLE living in Oldbury are being encouraged to start thinking about the future of the village. Situated on the banks of the River Severn, Oldbury could be mistaken for a sleepy rural spot, however, with plans for a potential new nuclear power station gaining momentum and growing concerns about affordable housing, community leaders want residents to start speaking out.
Gloucestershire Gazette 30th Oct 2009 more >>
AGRs
INCREASING graphite core inspection requirements led to a British Energy review of how to approach the inspection of its AGR reactor channels without extending reactor outages. The requirement had changed from an inspection of a few channels per reactor per year to 20 channels at one of the reactors every six months. In addition, British Energy had just 18 months to implement a solution successfully.
Your Nuclear News 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Sellafield (reactor site)
NDA sells the land.
The Engineer 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Sellafield (Reprocessing)
Campaigners from Norway protest against Sellafield at Westminster The group claimed the quality of the radioactive waste is poor and they fear there will be an accident at the site. Frank Storelv, from Oslo, said 90 per cent of wind blows from the south west and if there was an explosion or accident at Sellafield, one or two days later the radioactive waste would be carried to the west coast of Norway. Mr Storelv said: “It would be 50 times more radioactive waste from a Sellafield explosion than Chernobyl. The Norwegian government is writing to the environment minister to set out concerns over the situation. We want Sellafield closed down and a decision has to be made here in parliament.”
NW Evening Mail 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Uranium
Letter from Marianne Birkby: The insane push for new nuclear build is also having devastating effects worldwide. From the Grand Canyon to Lapland to Australia, indigenous communities around the world are fighting thousands of uranium mining claims. On the 7th November there will be a demonstration against a uranium claim for an area bigger than a hundred square km in Ranua and Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. In Finland the French nuclear company Areva (partner in nuclear crimes in Cumbria) is trying to enforce their mining plans in the sparsely populated North after being driven away from southern Finland’s countryside.
Ecologist 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Proliferation
Letter from David Lowry: Your revelations about Iraq’s modern-day atomic aspirations raise the question whether the UK nuclear industry – with encouragement of the government, now all reborn atomic aficionados – will seek to gain a foothold in the re-emerging Iraqi nuclear industry. The UK, in exporting nuclear technology in the past, not only provided the base for Iraq’s nuclear industry, but also Iran’s. Do Gordon Brown and David Miliband really know what they are doing in promoting unfettered nuclear sales worldwide?
Guardian 31st Oct 2009 more >>
Low Level Waste
Councillors are concerned their town will become “the highway to the dump” if a low-level nuclear waste site eight miles away gets the go-ahead. Corby councillors passed an emergency motion on Thursday opposing movement of nuclear waste through the borough to a proposed site at King’s Cliffe until guarantees on safety are met.
Northants Evening Telegraph 31st Oct 2009 more >>
Submarines
Campaigners are expected to rally in Plymouth today (31 October) to demonstrate against plans for a nuclear waste plant in the city centre. It is thought that if the plans go ahead then the plant would store dismantled reactor components from the UK’s nuclear submarines, possibly for several decades until a long-term disposal site can be constructed. The issue has caused heated debate in Plymouth for months. The leader of Plymouth City Council, Vivien Pengally, recently added his voice to those opposing the plan.
Ekklesia 31st Oct 2009 more >>
Iran
Iran has not yet given its response to a U.N.-drafted nuclear fuel deal and is ready for more talks based on “economic and technical concerns,” official news agency IRNA quoted an informed source as saying Friday.
Reuters 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Middle East Online 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Israel has cautiously welcomed a proposal to deal with Iran’s enriched uranium, calling it “a positive first step” toward denying Tehran the means to make nuclear weaponry.
Herald 30th Oct 2009 more >>
Czech Republic
Russian nuclear engineering firm Atomstroyexport said on Friday it has submitted qualification documents to Czech power group CEZ in a tender competition to build up to five nuclear reactors for the firm. CEZ declined to detail how many companies submitted documents but said it expected to whittle down the contenders to a shortlist at the beginning of 2010.
Interactive Investor 30th Oct 2009 more >>
US
The chief executive of Exelon Corp, the largest U.S. nuclear power generator, said an additional $50 billion in government loan guarantees for nuclear power would be enough to spark the industry to build new plants. The current nuclear loan guarantee program of $18.5 billion could be expanded if utilities and lawmakers who back the industry win new incentives in U.S. climate legislation.
Reuters 29th Oct 2009 more >>
Disarmament
Moscow and Washington want to sign a nuclear disarmament treaty before US President Barack Obama receives his Nobel Peace Prize on Dec 10, a Kremlin source has claimed.
Telegraph 31st Oct 2009 more >>
Climate
European leaders agreed for the first time today that the price tag for tackling global warming would amount to 100bn (£89bn) a year by 2020, up to half of which would need to come from taxpayers’ money in the developed world. But mired in wrangling over how to split the European share of the bill among 27 countries and how much Europe collectively should spend, they failed to agree on urgent short-term funding for combating climate change in the developing world.
Guardian 31st Oct 2009 more >>
