Horizon
Areva, the French state-owned nuclear power group, faces the threat of a competition investigation by the European commission if it wins a hotly-contested contract to build UK reactors. Detailed legal documents drafted by a competitor and seen by the Guardian state that Areva will secure a market monopoly which should trigger a sector inquiry if the company wins the contest to build a reactor at the Wylfa site on Anglesey. Horizon, the British nuclear joint venture owned by the German power groups E.ON and RWE, is also planning a reactor for Oldbury in Gloucestershire. Horizon will decide the winner of the competition for Wylfa, in which Westinghouse, owned by Toshiba of Japan, is bidding against Areva. The document argues that awarding the contract to the world’s largest reactor builder will have a detrimental effect on UK jobs.
Guardian 4th March 2012 more >>
Hinkley
Anti-nuclear protesters have said sorry that an MP was asked to apologise after paying their camp a visit, which was in another MPs constituency. MP for Wells Tessa Munt visited the protest camp on the site of the proposed Hinkley C power station, supporting the campaign against the reactor, which is in the constituency of MP Ian Liddell-Grainger. Mr Liddell-Grainger complained that she had breached Parliamentary convention by not letting him know. The protesters say they are sorry Ms Munt had to apologise, but insisted their campaign went beyond parliamentary boundaries.
Western Daily Press 3rd Mar 2012 more >>
BRIDGWATER MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has hit out at a LibDem MP for ‘trespassing’ on the Hinkley C site to visit anti-nuclear protestors. The Conservative has accused Tessa Munt of acting illegally and being a ‘publicity-hungry lunatic’ after Youtube video footage showed her visiting the power plant in his constituency.
This is the West Country 4th Mar 2012 more >>
Radwaste
Radiation Free Lakeland has invited councillors to join them on a walk up Englands highest mountain on March 10th to experience the scale of the proposed geological dump. Many councillors have expressed apologies at not being able to walk that far and sent their best wishes.
Radiation Free Lakeland 2nd Mar 2012 more >>
Japan
At a clean-up site above Oruda primary school on the outskirts of Fukushima city, local council workers and volunteers are engaged in a mass clean-up operation. The work is anything but sophisticated: conventional gardening tools, brush cutters, rakes and brooms are used to move the topsoil ready to be bagged up and taken to the dump site. This waste is of the low level variety; typical background radiation readings in the area around the school are lower than levels which occur naturally elsewhere in the world. Yet concerns remain.
BBC 5th Mar 2012 more >>
Japan’s science ministry suppressed a report that predicted the release of radiation from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in March of last year. Four days after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Yoshiaki Takaki, the then-science minister, met with senior members of the government and ministry officials and decided not to release to the public data from the national System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI), according to leaked internal documents. Predictions on the amount of radiation that had already been released from the crippled reactors, as well as further radiation that might escape into the atmosphere “could by no means be released to the public,” says the document, according to Kyodo News. Dated March 19, the document predicts that clouds of radioactivity could be released from the plant and spread across northern and central Japan, including Tokyo.
Telegraph 5th Mar 2012 more >>
Iran
Barack Obama has admonished Israel for “too much loose talk of war” with Iran and said the world has a responsibility to give sanctions an opportunity to discourage Tehran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Guardian 5th Mar 2012 more >>
Telegraph 5th Mar 2012 more >>
Today, President Obama and Israels prime minister are to discuss the most momentous decision they will ever make what to do about Irans nuclear threat.
Telegraph 5th Mar 2012 more >>
Trident
IN DISCUSSIONS about increased powers for the Scottish Parliament, or devo-max, as a substitute for independence, it seems to be a habit to say that foreign affairs and defence could be left to Westminster. This implies that they are of so little importance that they could be left to a parliament in which Scottish members are, at present, outnumbered ten to one. The most obvious of these is the insistence of successive Westminster governments to keep the base for nuclear submarines at Faslane and Coulport on the Clyde. They even intend to renew the submarines at great cost, said to amount to £100 billion. Part of this will fall on the Scottish taxpayer. There have been reports recently that there are flaws in the safety arrangements and that these flaws are a dangerous risk to a heavily populated area of Scotland.
Scotsman 5th Mar 2012 more >>
The UK’s plans to spend more than £25bn on a new nuclear deterrent are “nonsensical” and should be scrapped because there is no foreseeable threat to the country, says a study published on Monday. The paper, from CentreForum, an independent liberal thinktank, says the government is sleepwalking into taking a costly and illogical decision when the army, navy and air force are being squeezed by budget cuts. It urges the immediate retirement of Trident with all the saved money being reinvested to upgrade the military’s conventional weapons.
Guardian 5th Mar 2012 more >>
