BNFL Privatisation
FLUOR, the US engineering group that wants to buy Britain’s main nuclear decommissioning business, says it will walk away from the privatisation process if ministers do not restore faith in it. Alan Boeckmann, chairman and chief executive of the Texas-based Fluor Corporation, will visit Britain in the next two weeks to make this point to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL).
Times 4th September 2006
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd is expected to rebuff a bid of up to 400 mln stg for its nuclear waste clean-up arm British Nuclear Group, according to a report. Yesterday, the Financial Mail on Sunday claimed that support services firm Serco Group PLC is teaming up with Fluor’s US rival Bechtel to bid for BNG.
Interactive Investor 4th Sept 2006
Telegraph 4th Sept 2006
Serco, the services company, plans to compete for the nuclear clean-up of Sellafield, but would rather not have to join a consortium vying to buy British Nuclear Group, the government-owned specialist in decommissioning. The company said yesterday: “Serco has experience in nuclear safety management and we also run the Atomic Weapons Establishment and therefore we have a proven track record and a great interest in competing for nuclear decommissioning contracts.”
FT 4th Sept 2006
Trident
BLUNDERS at Britain’s nuclear bomb bases on the Clyde rose dramatically last year, provoking fears about the safety of extending the lives of the Trident submarines stationed there. Internal reports from the Royal Navy obtained by the Sunday Herald reveal that the number of serious or significant “nuclear safety events” at Faslane and Coulport, near Helensburgh, has doubled. There were 45 such incidents between June 2004 and May 2005, twice the average for the previous four years.
Sunday Herald 3rd August 2006
RobEdwards.com
Campaigners against nuclear weapons are preparing for a major escalation of their protests ahead of a decision on replacing Britain’s nuclear deterrent. Daily blockades of Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Firth of Clyde are being planned for an entire year, in place of just two mass events in each of the past six years.
Herald 4th Sept 2006
Oldbury
ENGINEERS at Oldbury atomic power station are still awaiting the go ahead to restart an allegedly clapped out nuclear reactor. Station chiefs expressed confidence last month that regulators would give the green light for the station’s number 2 reactor to be returned to normal service. But the approval has so far failed to materialise, prompting further claims that the ageing power station is too worn out to make it even to its scheduled final shut down in December 2008.
Thornbury Gazette 1st September 2006
Bristol Evening Postc 1st September 2006
Iran
Iran’s rulers delivered an uncompromising message on Sunday to Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, insisting on their legal right to nuclear power and refusing to suspend uranium enrichment as a precondition for negotiations over their controversial programme.
FT 4th Sept 2006
Telegraph 4th Sept 2006
Times 4th Sept 2006
BBC 3rd Sept 2006
New nukes
MSP MARLYN GLEN is set to clash with First Minister Jack McConnell over whether to embrace nuclear energy in Scotland. According to a weekend report, a policy U-turn by Mr McConnell on nuclear technology is expected in next year’s Labour manifesto for the Holyrood election. Until now the First Minister has backed a blanket ban on new nuclear power stations north of the border because of concerns about how to deal with radioactive waste.
Dundee Courier 4th Sept 2006
Dounreay
A beach near Dounreay power station has become Britain’s first officially acknowledged radioactive public landscape after pieces of plutonium fuel rods were found there. Signs warning visitors of the radiation dangers have been posted on the beach, and last month a potentially carcinogenic 4mm fragment of fuel rod was found — the latest in a series of discoveries involving radioactive material.
Telegraph 4th Sept 2006
