New nukes
British utility group Centrica is sceptical about construction of new nuclear power plants in Britain, despite government efforts to lower some hurdles facing nuclear energy, a company official said on Wednesday.Gearoid Lane, director of gas and electricity procurement at Centrica, told an energy conference that huge costs and lengthy construction and life cycles were putting investors off.
Reuters 6th Dec 2006
Uranium
Kalahari Minerals PLC confirmed that joint venture partner Extract Resources Ltd has been formally granted a prospecting licence to explore for nuclear fuel in Namibia.
Interactive Investor 6th Dec 2006
BNFL
The restructuring of British Nuclear Fuels has helped the Treasury to reduce its finan-cing requirements for the current fiscal year – even though the government will sell more gilts into the market than originally expected.
FT 7th Dec 2006
Nuclear skills
Twenty years ago it was the bogeyman of the green movement; now some see nuclear energy as our best hope of avoiding global meltdown. Nuclear power is back on the agenda. And so is nuclear education. Tens of millions are being spent on research institutes, centres, and masters and doctoral programmes covering every aspect of the science.
Independent 7th Dec 2006
India
A top US official is due in India on Thursday for talks expected to focus on a landmark nuclear co-operation agreement between the two countries.
BBC 7th Dec 2006
Iran
James Baker and Lee Hamilton have delivered a superb, blunt account of the US’s “dire” and “deteriorating” predicament in Iraq. Options have not yet been exhausted, they say, although none may now succeed; they have identified the few potentially workable ones that remain. In saying that Iran’s nuclear ambitions should be dealt with separately, in the United Nations Security Council, it ducks the central problem: that the US wants Iran to help to achieve stability in Iraq but does not want to pay the price Iran has implicitly asked — to tolerate its nuclear ambitions.
Times 7th Dec 2006
Trident
Letter from various doctors: Today Medact publishes a damning report on the devastating health effects of the nuclear weapons which may be part of a new Trident system, outlined in the government White Paper on Monday. Britain’s New Nuclear Weapons — Illegal, Indiscriminate and Catastrophic for Health details the health effects from blast, heat and radiation of a one-kilotonne nuclear bomb and challenges any notion that “sub-strategic” warheads could be “discriminate” or have “surgical” use.
Times 7th Dec 2006
Leicester South MP Peter Soulsby said he was “totally and utterly” opposed to Tony Blair’s plan to spend between £15 and £20 billion on up to four submarines carrying nuclear warheads.
Leicester Mercury 6th Dec 2006
Various letters.
Independent 7th Dec 2006
