US Weapons
A UNITED States Air Force B-52 bomber was mistakenly loaded with five nuclear warheads during a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana, it emerged yesterday.
Scotsman 6th Sept 2007 more >>
Times 6th Sept 2007 more >>
Guardian 6th Sept 2007 more >>
FT 6th Sept 2007 more >>
Telegraph 6th Sept 2007 more >>
Independent 6th Sept 2007 more >>
Daily Mail 6th Sept 2007 more >>
BBC 5th Sept 2007 more >>
Hartlepool
The Hartlepool 1 nuclear power reactor operated by British Energy has been closed since September 5.
Reuters 6th Sept 2007 more >>
Bulgaria
Italy-based electricity company Enel has been short listed, along with five other firms, to take part in a joint venture to build an E7 billion nuclear power plant in Bulgaria. The companies short listed include Electricite de France, Suez’s Electrabel, E.ON AG, RWE AG and CEZ.
Energy Business Review 5th Sept 2007 more >>
Low level waste
COMMUNITY projects in West Somerset look set to get cash handouts to compensate for the risk of having a radioactive waste site on their doorstep. At a meeting of West Somerset Council’s cabinet committee last night (Wednesday), members were due to examine a proposal gain community benefits’ from a proposal by Magnox Electric to create a low-level radioactive waste site at Hinkley Point. Members will be asked to allow council leaders to join with counterparts at Sedgemoor Council and negotiate with the company in a bid to create a common good fund’.
This is the West Country 5th Sept 2007 more >>
Somerset Country Gazette 5th Sept 2007 more >>
US and Australia
US President George W. Bush says nuclear power is a key to tackling climate change, along with new energy technologies. “If you truly care about greenhouse gases, then you’ll support nuclear power,” Bush told a news conference with Howard today. “After all, nuclear power enables you to generate electricity without any greenhouse gases.” Howard backs nuclear energy in the fight against climate change, but Australia has no nuclear power plants and there is widespread public opposition to nuclear power in Australia. During a bilateral meeting on today, Howard and Bush agreed to a “joint nuclear energy action plan” involving cooperation on civil nuclear energy, including research and development, and technical training. Howard also said Australia would join the US-sponsored Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, under which member countries agree to supply fuel for nuclear power plants.
Daily Mail 6th Sept 2007 more >>
Finland
Flawed welds for the reactor’s steel liner, unusable water- coolant pipes and suspect concrete in the foundation already have pushed back the delivery date of the Olkiluoto-3 unit by at least two years. Olkiluoto-3, the first nuclear plant ordered in Western Europe since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, is also more than 25 percent over its 3 billion-euro ($4 billion) budget. If Finland’s experience is any guide, the “nuclear renaissance” touted by the global atomic power industry as an economically viable alternative to coal and natural gas may not offer much progress from a generation ago, when schedule and budgetary overruns for new reactors cost investors billions of dollars. The U.K.’s Sizewell-B plant, which took nearly 15 years from the application to build it to completion, opened in 1995 and cost about 2.5 billion pounds ($5.1 billion), up from a 1987 estimate of 1.7 billion pounds.
Bloomberg 5th Sept 2007 more >>
Energy Review
Talking of consultations, this weekend sees the government’s latest attempt at democracy when it brings together 1,000 people to give them lots of information and then ask them whether nuclear power is needed. If they say yes, the government has the perfect excuse to go ahead with a new programme of power stations. But will this exercise be much fairer than the last ones that the high court dismissed? Who is to give what information? Who, indeed, are these 1,000 people. Answers to Paul Dorfman, of Warwick University, who will be convening a group of leading academics to examine how the exercise is conducted. More at nuclearconsult.com.
Guardian 5th Sept 2007 more >>
NATO
Nato could play a role in protecting critical energy infrastructure – aides cited nuclear power stations as an example – when there was a specific high-level threat.
FT 6th Sept 2007 more >>
