New Nukes
Councillor Audrey Doig (Letters, 1 July) misleads in stating that nuclear power is a mature technology. Quite the contrary, the latent energy of nuclear fuels has only begun to be unlocked with the current generation of once-through uranium-fuelled reactors. Future fast reactors will improve fuel burn from order 1 per cent to more than 99 per cent while abundant thorium can provide energy into the far future. If we are serious about displacing carbon from our economy while ensuring that electrical energy supply continues to grow for transportation and other purposes, nuclear power cannot be ignored for ideological reasons. By displacing coal from electrical energy production, nuclear power is by far the most cost-effective way of removing carbon and providing a baseload capacity to complement future renewables.
Scotsman 9th July 2009 more >>
As Congress contemplates the role of nuclear power in the United States’ future energy policy, the United Kingdom faces similar challenges and debates relating to nuclear new build. Lady Barbara Judge, chairwoman of the United Kingdom’s Atomic Energy Authority, discusses the country’s strategy for expanding its use of nuclear power to increase energy independence and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She addresses some of the fundamental issues facing nuclear new build and also explains how nuclear power will contribute to emissions reduction goals.
E&E TV 8th July 2009 more >>
Sizewell
The UK nuclear regulator has defended its decision not to prosecute licensee Magnox Electric for a 2007 leak in a water storage tank at the UK’s shut down Sizewell A nuclear power station. Had the leak continued to go unnoticed, some spent fuel might have been exposed to the air, risking a potential release of radioactivity. But the regulator argued that even then the fuel would have been sufficiently cooled.
Nuclear Engineering International 7th July 2009 more >>
Dungeness
A safety incident at Dungeness B nuclear power station forced the suspension of operations in a section of a plant. The incident on June 29 is understood to have taken place in a building away from the reactor, when a piece of rubber became trapped in a fuel coupling.
Telegraph 9th July 2009 more >>
Nuclear Engineering International 8th July 2009 more >>
Nuclear Terror
US president Barack Obama is planning to host a nuclear security summit in Washington next March. His deputy national security adviser, Mark Lippert, said the president announced the summit during a dinner with other G8 leaders in Italy. Mr Lippert said Mr Obama believes nuclear terrorism is the most immediate threat to US security and he wants to address issues like the break-up of black markets in nuclear materials and the detection and interception of materials in transit.
Ananova 8th July 2009 more >>
Decommissioning
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is funding a million pound research project to show how lasers can be used to handle radioactive materials during decommissioning.
Professional Engineering 8th July 2009 more >>
Low Level Waste
BOSSES at a Fylde landfill site today claimed their plans for the disposal of nuclear waste posed no threat to the environment. SITA UK, which owns the Clifton Marsh site, held an exhibition to reassure the public yesterday. The company has applied to the Environment Agency to take more very low level radioactive waste (VLLW) and low level radioactive waste (LLW) from a “wider range of nuclear facilities”
Blackpool Gazette 8th July 2009 more >>
Sellafield
Costain has secured a £297m nuclear contract at Sellafield for full engineering, procurement and construction of the Evaporator D project – one of the largest nuclear projects in the UK.
Building 8th July 2009 more >>
A NEW plutonium manufacturing plant alongside the existing Mox at Sellafield could create 5,000 jobs and £1billion of investment, Copeland MP Jamie Reed has told parliament. The call which the MP first made in The Whitehaven News last February has been repeated in a House of Commons energy debate. Mr Reed said Copeland and the country could not move forward without a Sellafield Mox Plant (SMP), and action needed to be taken either to safeguard or replace it to help Britain secure its own energy needs and stop reliance on other countries. The performance of the existing Mox plant is officially “under review” 10 years after being built at a cost of nearly £500 million but the bill has now soared to around £2 billion due to delays in discharging contracts.
Whitehaven News 8th July 2009 more >>
PRIME minister Gordon Brown has pledged his full backing for local Energy Coast projects to put West Cumbria on the crest of a new economic wave.
Whitehaven News 8th July 2009 more >>
US
President Barack Obama should be applauded for his decision to scrap commercial reprocessing. On 29 June, the president quietly cancelled a lengthy environmental review that was the first step in allowing the resumption of commercial nuclear reprocessing in the United States. Nuclear reprocessing chemically separates uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel so that it can be reused in specialized reactors. The same technique can be used to purify material for nuclear weapons, and it is partly for that reason that the United States decided to halt reprocessing in the 1970s.
Nature 9th July 2009 more >>
The Obama administration endorsed a revival of America’s nuclear industry yesterday in an effort to build forward momentum for climate change legislation before the Senate. The seal of approval for nuclear power a cause embraced by Republican senators came on day one of a full-on lobbying effort by the White House for one of Obama’s signature issues. Obama sent four of his top lieutenants to the Senate his secretaries of energy, interior, agriculture and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to try to drum up support for a global warming bill. The endorsement of a nuclear revival a generation after the last reactor was commissioned suggests the Obama administration is open to further compromises as it seeks to find a path through the Senate. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a climate change bill late last month.
Guardian 9th July 2009 more >>
U.S. nuclear utilities say they shouldn’t have to pay an estimated $769 million this year toward a waste repository since the U.S. is abandoning the Yucca Mountain site and hasn’t settled on another disposal plan.
Bloomberg 8th July 2009 more >>
UAE
The US would cancel a nuclear energy agreement with the United Arab Emirates if the Middle East nation were to violate any terms of the deal, an Obama administration official said today.
Guardian 8th July 2009 more >>
U.S. lawmakers expressed concern on Wednesday about the United Arab Emirates’ ties with Iran as they debated a U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement with the moderate Gulf state that is expected to go into force in October. Iran is one of the UAE’s biggest trading partners but lawmakers said the relationship also poses security risks.
Reuters 8th July 2009 more >>
Germany
The future of nuclear power in Germany is a key issue in campaigns by the two main political parties ahead of parliamentary elections on 27 September. The elections will produce a new government, led by the centre-right CDU or the centre-left SPD, which have been governing in an uneasy “grand coalition” since autumn 2005. The parties have differing views on the issue of nuclear power, which is attracting renewed public attention following an incident at Vattenfall’s Krummel plant earlier this month. The SPD is a staunch supporter of the nuclear phase-out law, emphasising risks such as waste disposal and nuclear accidents. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU is in agreement with the SPD in opposing the construction of new nuclear plants. But the CDU regards nuclear as a “bridging” technology. It wants to revoke the phase-out to give time for renewable power to become more cost efficient.
Argus Media 8th July 2009 more >>
Sweden
Sweden demanded on Wednesday that state-owned power utility Vattenfall provide an account of its work on nuclear safety after problems at one of its plants in Germany and security concerns at another in Sweden. The government’s request was made after Swedish authorities earlier on Wednesday ordered the utility’s majority-owned Ringhals nuclear plant, located south of the city of Gothenburg in south-west Sweden, to take steps to improve safety.
Yahoo 8th July 2009 more >>
Sweden is placing one of its three nuclear power plants under special supervision after years of neglecting safety procedures.
Daily Express 8th July 2009 more >>
Yahoo 8th July 2009 more >>
Iran
Iran’s domestic crisis in the aftermath of June’s disputed presidential election has dominated world headlines in recent weeks. But as the dust settles it is the international dimension of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s second term – and especially the future of the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme – that is concentrating minds in the US, Europe and Israel.
Guardian 8th July 2009 more >>
Nuclear Submarines
India is expected to launch a locally built nuclear-powered submarine later this month, making it one of only a handful of countries with the technology to produce such a vessel.
FT 9th July 2009 more >>
THE architect behind the government’s first full-scale strategic defence review for more than 10 years has hailed it as long overdue. Barrow MP John Hutton, who resigned as defence secretary last month, also maintained it would have no implications for the Trident replacement programme.
North West Evening Mail 8th July 2009 more >>
Climate
The world’s richest nations agreed last night to cut their carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 in a dramatic attempt to secure a new global deal to combat climate change. Leaders of the G8 group of countries also agreed to set a limit of 2C on global temperature rises, the first time they have imposed such a ceiling. In return, they urged developing countries including China and India to cut their emissions by 50 per cent over the same period. Green groups such as WWF and Oxfam argued the 2C aspiration was severely weakened by the lack of interim targets on how it should be achieved.
Independent 9th July 2009 more >>
Guardian 9th July 2009 more >>
Renewables
Small domestic wind turbines could provide enough clean electricity to power more than 800,000 UK homes, according to the Energy Saving Trust
(EST). Previous studies have suggested that small turbines in residential areas fail to generate enough power to justify their installation. While the new work still suggests houses in dense urban areas are poor sites, it identifies 450,000 suitable domestic locations across the nation. There are currently just 2,000 such turbines. The research, which provides the most accurate picture of wind speeds in the UK yet, is available to the public via (est.org.uk) where householders can enter their postcode.
Guardian 9th July 2009 more >>
BBC 9th July 2009 more >>
THE Northwest Regional Development Agency, Scottish Enterprise and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority have agreed to commission a £100,000 feasibility study to evaluate options for harnessing tidal energy on the Solway Firth.
Whitehaven News 8th July 2009 more >>
