Waste Transport
Local anti-nuclear campaigners will march around the perimeter of the Olympic Park this Saturday, 10 July, and stage a symbolic ‘die in’ to highlight the threat posed by the regular movement of nuclear waste trains through London, including through the Olympic site. The trains carry highly dangerous, radioactive waste from power stations in Southern and Eastern England to Sellafield, passing through inner London. Trains from Sizewell nuclear power station travel along the North London Line which passes through the Olympic Park, just a few dozen metres from the Aquatics Centre.
CND Press Release 8th July 2010 more >>
Nuclear Waste
According to a report from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the UK’s nuclear waste deep store scheme could be operational by 2040, but current budget cuts could result in the plans being delayed. In the report, issued by the waste management agency, it states that only two Cumbrian authorities have shown interest in becoming deep permanent repository sites. The cost of developing such a structure is an estimated £4bn. The report, entitled Geological Disposal: Steps Towards Implementation, is being used as a roadmap for NDA’s outlines and objectives in terms of the time frame given by the previous government back in 2008. The UK is behind several other countries in Europe, which have already implemented the technology as a means of securing nuclear waste deposits. Finland aims to have the Onkalo repository it is building accepting nuclear waste by 2020.
Recycle.co.uk 6th July 2010 more >>
Copeland MP Jamie Reed is warning the Government not to cut the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority budget amid fears it could have “profound” consequences on the nuclear industry. Mr Reed was last night demanding answers from Energy Secretary Chris Huhne over concerns raised by the NDA that plans for the £4bn nuclear repository could be shelved because of Government cuts. Departments have been told to prepare for cuts of up to 40 per cent to try to reduce Britain’s £155bn deficit. NDA’s repository project director Alun Ellis has warned cuts of this scale could effectively suspend the repository scheme.
Carlisle News & Star 8th July 2010 more >>
NW Evening Mail 8th July 2010 more >>
Companies
GDF Suez is examining the possibility of picking South Korean nuclear technology for future projects after losing an Abu Dhabi contract last year to a South Korean consortium, the French utility said on Thursday. The consortium headed by state owned Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) in December won the Middle East’s biggest ever energy contract to build and operate four nuclear reactors for the United Arab Emirates, beating U.S. and French rivals.
Reuters 8th July 2010 more >>
Dungeness
Damian Collins MP: I take the view that as the building would be on only 1% of the land in the protected area around Dungeness, Rye and Romney March that this work could not be seen as damaging to the whole site. In our difficult economic times when we are all being asked to make sacrifices, we might need to extend this to the vegetated shingle as well.
Gazette Online 9th July 2010 more >>
Hinkley
EDF Energy, the company behind the development, commissioned a report by the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development to look into the benefits of another nuclear reactor at Hinkley. They concluded that Somerset could make a £100m a year during construction, and £40m a year once Hinkley C was operating; employing 5,000 people during the construction and 900 people permanently.
BBC 8th July 2010 more >>
DESPITE widespread opposition to overhead cables National Grid intends to set up community forums to pinpoint the exact location of the pylons. NG is inviting local people to join one of the Hinkley Point Connection community forums which it says will help shape its plans for a new power line.
Nailsea People 7th July 2010 more >>
EDF Energy unveils ‘Preferred Proposals’ for Hinkley Point C and sets out how local feedback played key role in shaping plans. Developer launches 12-week stage-two consultation believed to be the most extensive and wide-ranging ever for a British nuclear power station.
EDF Energy 9th July 2010 more >>
In the space of 48 hours this week, BAM, one of the country’s largest construction services groups, saw a £100m, six-school rebuilding contract with Somerset County Council slip through its fingers. THen Bridgwater suddenly became a brighter place. EDF Energy, the power giant, revealed how it would spend £500m in the town and wider region over the next eight years as part of the construction of a new nuclear power station at nearby Hinkley Point. When the Government gives the new nuclear “fleet”, as the potential plants are known, the final go ahead, EDF plans to employ 5,000 construction workers, either directly or through its contractors, on the site. Their task to first move some 4m cubic meters of material and then building the plant and its support infrastructure. The company believes at least 50pc of those workers will be locals, either working on the site or supplying it: “The butcher, baker to nuclear reactor rod maker,” as Somerset Chamber of Commerce chief executive Rupert Cox cheerily puts it.
Telegraph 9th July 2010 more >>
Iran
Turkey still sees a chance of Iran doing a nuclear fuel swap on the basis of an agreement reached with Turkey and Brazil in May, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday.
Yahoo 8th July 2010 more >>
Germany
Eager to pacify the country’s nuclear energy concerns, outraged at proposals to introduce a nuclear fuel tax, Germany’s coalition government has now reportedly indicated that it is open to the idea of finding alternative revenue streams. Although Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Sch uble has made clear that the amount of revenue sought by the government is non-negotiable (EUR9.2bn over the course of the next four years), he has, nevertheless, revealed that he is flexible as regards the precise means of obtaining it. Currently in dialogue with the country’s energy companies, the government is believed to be considering a proposal whereby companies would issue corporate bonds, the proceeds of which would flow directly into the state treasury, and a common energy fund established. In return, the government would agree to an extension of the working life of nuclear power stations.
Low Tax 8th July 2010 more >>
Burma
Evidence continues to surface suggesting Myanmar’s possible interest in launching a covert nuclear power program with potential North Korean assistance.
Oil Price 8th July 2010 more >>
Solar Revolution
Ulrich Beck: The Deepwater Horizon disaster should make us look to the sun, and start a revolution in how we meet our energy needs. “Deserts into solar power” should be our slogan now.
Guardian 6th July 2010 more >>
A report released Thursday states that solar developers already are offering to sell utilities electricity for 14 cents per kilowatt hour or less. Yet Duke Energy and Progress Energy are moving forward with plans fornuclear plants that would generate electricity at a higher cost: 14 cents to 18 cents per kilowatt hour.
“The bottom line is: Solar power is now cheaper than new nuclear power, particularly in North Carolina,” said Jim Warren, executive director of the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network. The report is the organization’s latest salvo in its campaign against new nuclear and coal-fired plants.
News Observer 9th July 2010 more >>
The European Union could obtain 92% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2050 while cutting carbon emissions by 95% compared with 1990, according to a report. An extra 2tn (£1.7tn) worth of investment would be needed by the middle of this century but that could easily be outweighed by 2.65tn of fuel cost savings, argues Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council.
The report, Energy (R)evolution: Towards a fully renewable energy supply in the EU, claims a mixture of existing technologies plus the widespread adoption of electric cars and demand reduction initiatives would allow a dramatic change in energy requirements without a huge reduction in quality of life. The report was given credibilitytoday by Germany whose the Federal Environment Agency said it could derive all of its electricity from renewables by 2050. The country already gets 16% of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources – three times higher than the level it achieved 15 years ago. “the nuclear power sector in Europe still benefits from direct subsidies, government loan guarantees, export credit guarantees, government equity input and subsidised in-kind support,” it argues while saying the EU needs to ensure nuclear waste comes under the “polluter pays” principle more fully.
Guardian 8th July 2010 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Letter: I FEAR David Purves does not understand the logic of a nuclear deterrent. The point of their existence is, paradoxically, that they never be used. In this respect the UK’s deterrent has been successful for more than 60 years. In preventing western Europe being overrun by the belligerent communist East in the post-Second World War period the deterrent he abhors gives critics the freedom and right to say what they wish in 2010.
Scotsman 9th July 2010 more >>
