New Nukes
Debate: This house believes the world would be better off without nuclear power. Tom Burke says: The fact that private investors have never been willing to take the economic risk of nuclear power is a clear warning to treat all assertions about its costs with some suspicion. Ian Hore-Lacy says Sources of power capable of providing continuous, reliable supply on a large scale have never been more needed, and the modern qualifier on that is that they must avoid carbon-dioxide emissions. Vote now.
Economist 9th April 2011 more >>
Is the UK Government turning its back on renewable in favour of nuclear? Following recent proposals from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to dramatically reduce the tariff paid to those with solar PV (photovoltaic) energy schemes generating more than 50 kW, power experts at IMS Research are questioning the viability and future of solar energy in the UK. “Limiting solar power to small scale installations means the sector will simply never take off, other than creating a niche industry. And while countries such as Japan, Italy, Germany, China and the U.S. have said that they will be giving greater financial support to solar power and already have substantial solar PV capacity in place, the UK government has taken the opposite approach, making it clear that nuclear energy is definitely part of the plan for power generation in the UK.”
Renewable Energy Focus 8th April 2011 more >>
Tell me that you didn’t watch the footage of recent events in Japan and think, if only for a moment, “How would we cope?” I know I did. Tell me that you didn’t watch those pictures of new-born babies being scanned for radiation, the starving families in the sports stadium and toothless old men still tending livestock in the otherwise deserted villages near Fukushima and ask yourself, “What if ?” I bet you did, too. And tell me that you don’t want a wind turbine anywhere near your house because it will spoil your view, produce background noise and might interfere with your TV reception. (That would be practically everyone with a proposed wind farm in their back yard.) Now tell me whether you would rather live 500 metres from a wind turbine or a kilometre downwind of a nuclear power plant. Not fair?
York Press 8th April 2011 more >>
EPR
French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) president Andre-Claude Lacoste said on Wednesday that he “could not rule out” a moratorium on the third generation EPR nuclear reactor under construction at Flamanville in Normandy, northern France.“If the question of a moratorium is raised, and we have raised it, then it will be on the construction of Flamanville 3,” he said. The reactor has cost over € 5 billion to build and has run into delays and cost over-runs. Mr. Lacoste said the reactor, whose engineering works were led by the French electricity giant EDF, was “very compromised.”
Flash News 1st April 2011 more >>
EDF has requested that the EPR reactor being built at Flamanville is considered “priority” as part of the national audit on nuclear safety in France said the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN).
Reuters 8th April 2011 more >>
Hinkley
CAMPAIGNERS fear new Government proposals could make it easier for National Grid to secure planning permission for a corridor of pylons across the Somerset Levels. As previously reported in the Weekly News, the National Grid has proposed the overhead pylons to take electricity from the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to an electricity substation in Avonmouth. Current planning guidelines say overhead lines should avoid major areas of “highest amenity value”, but the Government now wants to relax these rules so that planning inspectors only have to “bear in mind” these issues of amenity.
This is the West Country 8th April 2011 more >>
Sellafield
A band of Scandinavian anti-nuclear protesters set up camp at Sellafield yesterday to protest about the site’s operations. It coincided with a visit to the site by Norway’s environment minister and the mayors of two Norwegian districts. Under the banner of Neptune Network, the protesters raised a flag outside Sellafield’s main gates as workers came in and out and later moved to set up a small base camp near the railway sidings. Meanwhile, Norway’s environment minister Erik Solheim and the mayors were being shown round the site by Sellafield bosses who hoped to allay any fears they might have over operations at the former nuclear power plant. It was a private visit requested by the minister himself and arranged before Japan’s nuclear disaster. But Neptune Network is worried about the potential effects of an accident at Sellafield on Norway and Scandinavia in general.
Carlisle News & Star 8th April 2011 more >>
Chernobyl
Inside a deserted classroom the eerie silence casts a chilling spell which is broken only for a second when a gust of wind blows through the broken panes of a rotting window. This is Pripyat – a Soviet era town that was abandoned in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago. Hundreds of gas masks are scattered on the ground, meant for the inhabitants who fled, never to return. And in a desolate fairground a huge Ferris wheel looks sadly down on crashed dodgems and broken swings.
Daily Mirror 9th April 2011 more >>
Japan
Many are too busy or tired to talk and Tokyo Electric Power – the utility responsible for the plant and its radiation-leaking reactors and cooling ponds – bars journalists from the complex. But two staff from technology group Hitachi who are finished for the day pause for a moment to explain that they have been drafted in to help pump water into the crippled plant’s reactor buildings. Radiation dosage limits mean workers can only spend 10-15 minutes in the vicinity at a time, they say, but insist that the risks appear manageable. Beyond the bright lights of the sports complex, visitors get a flavour of the situation within the 20km exclusion zone thrown up around the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Villages – some battered by the tsunami – lie dark and empty. Dogs left behind by their owners when they fled roam the roads. An abandoned chicken pecks half-heartedly in a gutter. For Fukushima’s nuclear hinterland, this is the new normal.
FT 8th April 2011 more >>
Telegraph 9th April 2011 more >>
Nearly one month after Japan’s devastating nuclear accident, atomic energy experts, regulators and politicians around the world are still puzzling over a basic question: How much danger is still posed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant?
New York Times 8th April 2011 more >>
Radioactive water spilled from pools holding spent nuclear fuel rods at the Onagawa power plant in Miyagi Prefecture following the strong earthquake late Thursday, the nuclear safety agency said Friday. At the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant or at another plant in Fukushima Prefecture, meanwhile, no new problems have surfaced since the magnitude 7.1 aftershock of the deadly March 11 quake. While the spent fuel pools at the Onagawa plant and the Higashidori nuclear power station in Aomori Prefecture, both operated by Tohoku Electric Power Co., lost their cooling functions for 20 to 80 minutes after the quake, the temperature hardly rose, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. A small amount of contaminated water spilled on the floor.
Kyodo News 8th April 2011 more >>
IB Times 8th April 2011 more >>
Telegraph 8th April 2011 more >>
Japan’s foreign minister, Takeaki Matsumoto, will co-chair a special ASEAN-Japan Ministerial Meeting in Jakarta today. The summit has ostensibly been called to discuss Southeast Asian aid to Japan in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. There is, however, a hidden agenda to the meeting. Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto will be representing the interests of the International Nuclear Energy Development of Japan Company (JINED), reassuring potential Southeast Asian clients of the safety of the nuclear power plants which JINED is marketing throughout the region.
World Socialist Web 9th April 2011 more >>
It could take months or years to learn how damaging the release of dangerous isotopes has been to human health, food supplies, marine life and the surrounding countryside. The inability of Japanese authorities to regain full control of the plant will make villages nearby uninhabitable for a long time, drive people further away and risk damaging relations with neighboring countries. For the global nuclear industry, the accident following the massive earthquake and tsunami will leave lasting sores. Some projects will be abandoned; some existing plants will close; costs will climb.
IB Times 8th April 2011 more >>
China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday it was concerned by Japanese moves to discharge contaminated water into the sea from a quake-crippled nuclear plant and urged its neighbour to protect the marine environment.
IB Times 8th April 2011 more >>
Japan’s anti-nuclear movement, small and ignored by the general public, is gaining traction as a crisis at a tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant drags on for weeks with no clear end in sight.
Reuters 8th April 2011 more >>
Security has been stepped up around the homes of senior managers of Tokyo Electric Power Co. after death threats against company personnel were posted on the internet.
Telegraph 8th April 2011 more >>
Japanese reactor maker Toshiba says it could decommission the earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in about 10 years, a third quicker than the US Three Mile Island plant.
BBC 9th April 2011 more >>
Germany
Germany’s utility companies want “swift and complete” abolishment of nuclear power in the wake of the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima reactors, says their umbrella organization. The technology should be phased out by 2020 or at the latest by 2023, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, BDEW, said Friday following a board meeting.
Washinton Post 8th April 2011 more >>
US
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied Unistar a license to build a new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power station in Maryland due to its foreign ownership, said the watchdog group Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
Reuters 8th April 2011 more >>
A spokesman for a Washington nuclear power plant has said that a small amount of hydrogen gas trapped in a pipe ignited in a brief, six-inch flame Thursday when workers cut into the pipe, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
IB Times 8th April 2011 more >>
Iran
The Russian company that built Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant said Friday it has started reloading fuel into the reactor, more than a month after the fuel was ordered removed because of contamination concerns.
Washington Post 8th April 2011 more >>
Submarines
A rating guarding Britain’s flagship nuclear submarine who shot dead a Royal Navy officer and left another critically injured was wrestled to the ground by civic dignitaries. Able seaman Ryan Donovan, who was wearing body armour and camouflage gear, fired several rounds before he was overpowered by Royston Smith, the leader of Southampton city council. Cllr Smith, 46, said he reacted after he felt a bullet whistle past his head.
Telegraph 9th April 2011 more >>
Herald 9th April 2011 more >>
Daily Mail 9th April 2011 more >>
Independent 9th April 2011 more >>
Guardian 8th April 2011 more >>
