Decommissioning
PLANS to send radioactive metal from Sellafield to Sweden, via the Baltic Sea, have been criticised at a Swedish conference. Sixty representatives from environmental groups across Europe and North America met in Stockholm at the Coping with Nuclear Waste conference. It heard that in America there has been opposition from the public, steel and nuclear workers’ unions and the metal industries to the deregulation of nuclear waste.
West Cumbrian Times and Star 4th May 2007
Whitehaven News 3rd May 2007
Iran
Iran can legitimately use nuclear technology to produce energy, said International Energy Agency director Claude Mandil, even though Western nations fear Tehran is trying to arm itself with an atomic weapon. Nuclear enrichment is a very sensitive stage in the nuclear development process that can be used in the development of armaments, Mandil admitted during a press conference in Paris, adding he understood the fears expressed by many countries.
Interactive Investor 3rd May 2007
Reuters 3rd May 2007
Climate
Few issues are as divisive as nuclear power, and the furore over its use threatens to resurface as leading scientists meet in Thailand to thrash out a plan to reduce the impact of climate change. Nuclear supporters hail it a “clean” energy that will help lessen the world’s dependence on the polluting fossil fuels, gas, oil and coal, which spew damaging greenhouse gasses into the air and drive global warming. The potential of nuclear energy to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions is expected to be mentioned in a report being drawn up in Bangkok this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s top authority on the issue.
Sustainable Development International 3rd May 2007
Hinkley and Hunterston
British Energy has been granted safety approval to continue operating two of its nuclear power plants for a further 10 years. Both Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B – at Somerset and Ayrshire respectively – were closed last summer for repairs. Extension of the operating licence is subject to the completion of some remedial work at both plants. The company has agreed to a £4.5m programme of work with the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII).
BBC 3rd May 2007
THE chances of extending the life-span of Hinkley Point power station in Somerset for another decade have been given a boost. Industry regulator the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) has agreed a safety review of the plant until 2017, which effectively gives the power station a clean bill of health for ten years as long as £4.5 million worth of work is carried out at the site and its sister station Hunterston B, near Glasgow. Shares in the firm surged more than 5 per cent after the decision was announced. The company is considering whether to run the plant beyond 2011 and will decide by next March. Hinkley has been offline since September because of issues with its boiler tubes and graphite, but British Energy says it expects the plant to start running again this month.
Western Morning News 3rd May 2007
A furious row has broken out over claims that an unexpected cluster of cancer cases has been found near Hinkley Point nuclear power station. Anti-nuclear campaigners claim the death rate from breast cancer in one part of Burnham was 70 per cent above the national average for the 10 years to 2005.
Burnham Weekly 28th April 2007
Fusion
The holy grail for researchers in power generation is nuclear fusion. It promises the clean power of conventional fission with the safety of non-nuclear technology. One kg of fusion fuel would produce the same amount of energy as 10,000,000kg of fossil fuel. There are no chain reactions, no production of radioactive actinides and the radiotoxicity of fusion waste materials decays rapidly. But there are still two major hurdles to overcome. One is containing the tremendous heat given off by fusion, 100 million degrees centigrade; the other is generating sufficient power for the fusion process.
Engineer Live 3rd May 2007
New nukes Nuclear energy campaigner Sir Bernard Ingham yesterday warned that Britain plc would suffer dramatic consequences if the public’s attitute towards using the fuel did not shift.
Birmingham Post 3rd May 2007
Tony Blair wants to fast track plans for new reactors, leaving Gordon with the prospect of Labour rebellion. The Renewable Energy Association has called for a delay to the publication of the Energy White Paper so that the ambitious European targets recently agreed can be implemented.
Daily Mail 3rd May
Renewable Energy Association Press Release 2nd May 2007
Body Parts Scandal
A FULL investigation is being carried out into whether organs of dead workers from Dorset’s nuclear plant at Winfrith were removed for testing. The UK Atomic Energy Authority will go through records of its 20,000 employees to see if any of their tissue was removed and tested for radiation damage without informing families. This includes every member of staff who has worked at the Winfrith research site since it opened in 1957.
Dorset Daily Echo 3rd May 2007
TRADE Secretary Alistair Darling has announced the terms of the inquiry into the removal of tissue from the bodies of former nuclear workers, including one at Capenhurst.
Ellesmere Port Pioneer 2nd May 2007
Asia
Asia’s biggest economies – Japan, China, South Korea and India – are competing ferociously with each other to secure the energy imports they need to fuel their future growth. As their desperation grows, they need to take care this contest remains peaceful – whether it is played out in Siberia or the Gulf. Japanese power utilities, meanwhile, agreed this week to buy uranium from Kazakhstan to supply as much as one-third of the fuel for Japan’s nuclear power stations by 2010.
FT 3rd May 2007
