British Energy
Senior executives from Britain’s power industry have begun lobbying Government ministers to ensure that at least one UK company is involved in some capacity in the takeover of British Energy. The nuclear company announced earlier this year that it would consider takeover approaches and is now understood to be holding talks with an array of suitors, including EDF of France, E.ON and RWE of Germany, and Iberdrola of Spain. Centrica is also in discussions with the company, but given the British company’s total lack of expertise in the nuclear industry, it is understood to be more interested in a partnership or acting as an equity investor alongside another buyer. The greatest concern surrounds EDF, the world’s largest nuclear power company that is also more than 80 per cent owned by the French state. It is understood that the company’s board gave the green light this week to the chief executive Pierre Gadonneix to make a bid for British Energy that could value the group at up to £9bn.
Independent 5th April 2008 more >>
Guardian 5th April 2008 more >>
A struggle for control of British Energy loomed Friday after it emerged that the nuclear generator was still in discussions with five European energy companies about a possible bid or other form of collaboration. The companies in the talks are EDF, the French state-controlled energy group; RWE and Eon of Germany; Spain’s Iberdrola; and Centrica of the UK.
FT 4th April 2008 more >>
Reuters 4th April 2008 more >>
Electricity prices could soar if EDF, the French electricity group, is allowed to take over British Energy, the UK’s main nuclear generator, in a £9 billion deal. Shares in British Energy leapt more than 7 per cent yesterday to 711p on hopes of an EDF bid. EDF’s board has given the green light to bid for all of the UK company, which recently said that it was in talks with several suitors.
Times 5th April 2008 more >>
The Tories yesterday gave their provisional support to a takeover of British Energy by EDF, clearing the political decks for Britain’s biggest power generator to switch to foreign ownership. Ministers face few Westminster hurdles to the potential sale of the nuclear power company, including the state’s 35 per cent stake, to a continental European energy company. “I don’t think [such a sale] is politically difficult now, though . . . there is a view that ‘let’s not let Johnny Foreigner get his hands on our British reactors’,” Lord O’Neill, the Labour peer and chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, told the FT.
FT 5th April 2008 more >>
New nukes
Countryside commentator John Sheard, a reluctant convert to nuclear power, asks if green pressure and political correctness will destroy some of the finest landscapes in England
Daelnet 4th April 2008 more >>
Terror
Attacks on nuclear power stations, oil and gas terminals, Canary Wharf and Heathrow’s control tower were being considered by leaders of the plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-flight, a court was told yesterday.
Times 5th April 2008 more >>
Telegraph 5th April 2008 more >>
Nuclear Skills
A £275m laboratory that could catapult Cumbria to the heart of the global nuclear industry has opened. The centre, based at Sellafield and run by Nexia Solutions, is set to provide the skills to underpin atomic energy production in Britain and the world. The National Nuclear Laboratory will provide training, research and development for the nuclear network.
PA 4th April 2008 more >>
North West Evening Mail 4th April 2008 more >>
BRITAIN no longer has the manufacturing capability or skills to handle the technology at the heart of the next generation of nuclear reactors – but Teesside firms are well-placed to cash in on 80% of the remaining work generated by any future programme. More immediately, they should be pitching for a share in the £2bn being spent each year on plant decommissioning, said Colin Walters, business development manager for nuclear energy with technology advisors TWI, which has a base in Middlesbrough.
Newcastle Evening Gazette 4th April 2008 more >>
Sellafield
Workers at three nuclear power sites in the North West, including Sellafield, could be balloted for their first industrial action in 19 years in a row over pay, union leaders have warned.
PA 4th April 2008 more >>
BBC 4th April 2008 more >>
Whitehaven News 4th April 2008 more >>
A LEGAL row has blown up between Sellafield Ltd and the UK’s engineering industry training organisation. The nuclear company is declining to pay a levy or tax for every one of its 10,000 employees. David Edwards, chief executive of the ECITB, said: “I can confirm that Sellafield Ltd (formerly BNG Sellafield Ltd) has lodged an appeal with the Industrial Tribunal against the training levy.
Whitehaven News 2nd April 2008 more >>
A CORRIDOR in the Sellafield nuclear waste sea disposal facility became contaminated after a leak. On Wednesday, March 19, liquid deriving from Sellafield’s sea discharge plant overflowed from holding tanks into a concrete room designed to contain and deal with overflow incidents. A small amount of liquid was also discovered in an adjacent concrete corridor.
Whitehaven News 2nd April 2008 more >>
Companies
SPECIALIST engineer Redhall Group is to expand into Europe after signing a deal with French nuclear services group Onet Technologies. Wakefield-based Redhall has reached an agreement with Onet, the leading French nuclear waste decommissioning company, to provide nuclear services to both British and European companies.
Yorkshire Post 4th April 2008 more >>
North Korea
US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill will hold talks in Singapore next week with his North Korean counterpart in a bid to end the hardline communist state’s nuclear weapons drive, the State Department said Friday.
AFX 4th April 2008 more >>
