Hunterston
The nuclear industry’s attempt to clean up its image in support of Tony Blair’s promised new programme of reactors has been marred by some dirty washing. The Sunday Herald can reveal that the laundry at Hunterston nuclear power station in North Ayrshire has sprung a leak. Radioactive water escaped from a tank, causing it to be shut down. The revelation is described as “very worrying” by anti-nuclear campaigners, who are calling for an independent investigation. But British Energy, the company that runs Hunterston, dismisses the leak as a “relatively minor occurrence”.
Sunday Herald 6th August 2006
RobEdwards.com 6th August 2006
Energy Review
Key consultants working on the government’s controversial energy review, which recommended a new generation of nuclear power stations, have strong links to the nuclear industry. Experts on both sides of the debate criticised the use of AEA Technology, formed by the privatisation of the Atomic Energy Authority, to handle hundreds of submissions to the review’s public consultation earlier this year. The company has sold most of its nuclear businesses, but still has a nuclear waste unit, and senior executives and staff have links to the old authority and other parts of the nuclear industry.
Observer 6th August 2006
Foreign companies are in pole position to scoop tens of billions of pounds in contracts to build new nuclear reactors and decommission old ones. The trade union Amicus has expressed concerns that UK firms will also miss out when Britain’s state-owned nuclear companies are sold off later this year and the lucrative contracts are handed out.
Independent on Sunday 6th August 2006
Letter from Keith Allott: WWF put in a detailed submission to the UK Energy Review which included commissioning independent consultants ILEX Energy Consulting to look at our future electricity needs. Its report concluded that if we improved energy efficiency and increased and diversified our use of renewables we would not need to build any new nuclear power stations. This is the same conclusion that the government reached in its 2003 Energy White Paper.
Scotland on Sunday 6th August 2006
Nuclear Weapons
The precise locations of dozens of secret military and spy bases are to be revealed on Ordnance Survey maps for the first time, ending one of the last remaining legacies of the Cold War.
Independent on Sunday 6th August 2006
