Theenergynet's Favorite Links on uk from Diigo

CLEAN-UP JOB THAT WILL TAKE MORE THAN 100 YEARS

Fri, 16 May 2008 18:31:03 -0000

As the Government gives the go-ahead for a new generation of power plants, MARTIN BOOTH takes a look at what will happen to Oldbury nuclear power station as it nears the end of its life after 40 years of service.

Tags: nuclear energy fuel-cycle n-waste uk

Posted by: theenergynet

Commanding heights (2) | Nuclear diplomacy | Economist.com

Fri, 16 May 2008 18:26:29 -0000

British Energy proves a slow sell

EVEN today, 13 years after it was built, Britain's newest nuclear-power station looks futuristic, with its landmark white containment dome and the blue haze of Cerenkov radiation in the cooling pond. In contrast to the huge furnaces needed to burn coal, a reactor core at Sizewell B roughly the size of a smallish lorry produces 3% of Britain's electricity. But its construction was so controversial—sparking one of the longest planning inquiries ever—that, after it was finished, nuclear power was abandoned for a generation.

Tags: nuclear energy development uk nuke.news

Posted by: theenergynet

Whitehaven News: Tenders sought for new N-waste storage ideas

Fri, 16 May 2008 18:08:09 -0000

As revealed in The Whitehaven News, the option of storing spent fuel in underground vaults, is becoming a possible alternative to reprocessing for Britain’s expected fleet of new nuclear reactors and a graphic illustration of the mountain of spoil, as large as the Egyptian pyramids, that would be created by an underground repository has been reproduced by a Welsh council that feared such a repository coming to Wales.

Tags: nuclear energy fuel-cycle n-waste uk

Posted by: theenergynet

The nuclear factor - Greenlife - News - Manchester Evening News

Fri, 16 May 2008 08:07:06 -0000

THEY are the slumbering beasts which this government is bringing back from the brink of extinction.

Some regard nuclear reactors as a dangerous relic from the last century, others view them as the only viable option for large-scale, carbon-free electricity generation.

Tags: nuclear energy development uk nuke.news

Posted by: theenergynet

EDF faces challenge over nuclear technology - Times Online

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:07:21 -0000

EDF, the French utility, could face a legal challenge over the technology it has decided to use in building Britain’s latest generation of power stations.

EDF announced last May that it planned to employ Areva, the French nuclear energy group, but its decision, which was made without giving rival reactor manufacturers an opportunity to bid for the contract, could be illegal under European law, according to Ros Kellaway, partner and head of EU competition law in Eversheds

Tags: nuclear energy legal edf uk

Posted by: theenergynet

The Sunday Herald - Leukaemia and nuclear power: what’s the secret?

Tue, 06 May 2008 09:23:09 -0000

THE UK government has made an 11th-hour intervention in the long-running dispute between the Scottish NHS and anti-nuclear campaigners over the release of childhood leukaemia figures.\n\nJustice secretary Jack Straw's department was given leave to intervene earlier this month when the landmark case reached the House of Lords.

Tags: nuclear energy uk health safety

Posted by: theenergynet

BBC NEWS | UK | Nuclear threat sparked tea worry

Tue, 06 May 2008 08:56:12 -0000

The threat of a nuclear attack on the UK in the 1950s caused concern over the supply of tea, top-secret documents which have now been released reveal.

Government officials planning food supplies said the tea situation would be "very serious" after a nuclear war.

Tags: nuclear n-weapons history secrecy uk

Posted by: theenergynet

Nuclear reactors will cost twice estimate, says E.ON chief - Times Online

Tue, 06 May 2008 08:46:16 -0000

The Government has vastly underestimated the cost of building a new generation of nuclear power plants, according to the head of the world's largest power company.

Wulf Bernotat, chairman and chief executive of E.ON, the German energy giant that owns Powergen, has told The Times that the cost per plant could be as high as €6 billion (£4.8 billion) - nearly double the Government's latest £2.8 billion estimate.

His figures indicate that the cost of replacing Britain's ten nuclear power stations could reach £48 billion, excluding the cost of decommissioning ageing reactors or dealing with nuclear waste. “We are talking easily about €5 billion to €6 billion [each],” Dr Bernotat said.

Tags: nuclear energy development economics uk

Posted by: theenergynet

Anti-nuclear protester to lead parade - Scotsman.com News

Tue, 06 May 2008 08:11:19 -0000

BRITAIN'S leading anti-nuclear protester is set to head this year's Edinburgh May Day parade tomorrow.
Pat Arrowsmith has been invited to Edinburgh to mark the 50th anniversary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

She has been an active protester since the 1950s, when she led the first march to an atomic weapons factory in Aldermaston.

Tags: nuclear energy protests scotland uk

Posted by: theenergynet

The Local - Swedish-UK nuke power deal goes bust

Tue, 06 May 2008 08:08:57 -0000

So far the Swedish government has kept pretty quiet about the state-owned energy company Vattenfall’s plans to buy up British Energy, a nuclear power company. But now Industry Minister Maud Olofsson has brought Vattenfall’s acquisition plans to a halt, splitting the governing Alliance parties in the process.

Tags: nuclear energy uk sweden nuke.news

Posted by: theenergynet

DIAMOND to tackle UK nuclear waste issues

Fri, 02 May 2008 19:09:00 -0000

The long-term problem of how to manage and dispose of Britain’s nuclear waste is to be tackled by a UK consortium headed by the University of Leeds.

Over the past 60 years, Britain has established 20 nuclear sites and facilities, as part of its civil nuclear programme. These are now managed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Current estimates of the cost of decommissioning the sites and handling waste management and disposal stand at around £70 billion.

Tags: nuclear energy n-waste fuel-cycle uk

Posted by: theenergynet

I Was An Atomic Test Guinea Pig (from Oxford Mail)

Fri, 02 May 2008 19:08:14 -0000

A pensioner who says he was a "guinea pig" during atomic bomb tests in the 1950s is suing the Government.

Ex-serviceman Derek Connelly, of Churchill Road, Kidlington, says he was made to stand just wearing his shorts and socks to witness nuclear and hydrogen bombs being set off in the Pacific Ocean 50 years ago.

Tags: nuclear n-weapons vets exposure contamination

Posted by: theenergynet

Chernobyl shows nuclear power danger: MEP - icWales

Fri, 02 May 2008 18:54:30 -0000

TWENTY two years on from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, MEP Jill Evans says the anniversary serves as a timely reminder of why nuclear power must be phased out.

Ms Evans visited the site of the nuclear power plant two years ago with a group of MEPs and met local people whose lives were shattered by the disaster as well as people who are now working to secure the site.

Tags: nuclear energy chernobyl history safety

Posted by: theenergynet

The UK's First Hydrogen Fueling Station Opens | EcoGeek

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:34:43 -0000

Last week saw the opening of the first hydrogen fuelling station in England. The station is based at Birmingham University, where experiments are being carried out to test the viability of hydrogen in transport applications, as part of Birmingham’s ‘Science City’ hydrogen energy project.

Tags: energy energy.news hydrogen uk

Posted by: theenergynet

Veterans from Lincolnshire who fear they were used as human guinea pigs in British nuclear tests have joined a legal fight for millions of pounds in compensation. Three former Cold...

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:35:21 -0000

Veterans from Lincolnshire who fear they were used as human guinea pigs in British nuclear tests have joined a legal fight for millions of pounds in compensation.

Three former Cold War servicemen from the county have joined forces with the Atomic Veterans' Group, which has issued a High Court writ against the Ministry of Defence.

Tags: nuclear n-weapons uk contamination fallout

Posted by: theenergynet

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Tayside and Central | Nuclear test veteran to sue MoD

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:17:11 -0000

A Royal Navy veteran from Dundee is suing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over the radiation he was exposed to during atomic bomb testing.

John Gilchrist, 72, was involved in two tests at the Montebello Islands off north western Australia in 1956.

Tags: nuclear n-weapons fallout contamination compensation

Posted by: theenergynet

500 YEAR NUKE CURSE - Sunday Mirror

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:05:21 -0000

A major scientific study into the families of soldiers used as guinea pigs in Britain's first nuclear tests shows they will suffer acute health problems for TWENTY generations.

Relatives of up to 22,000 servicemen who witnessed tests in the 1950s have been cursed with massive genetic damage which will be passed on for at least 500 years.

Tags: nuclear n-weapons vets uk health

Posted by: theenergynet

Government ordered British troops to crawl through radioactive fallout - Sunday Mirror

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:00:56 -0000

Government scientists ordered British troops to crawl through radioactive fallout in a deadly series of experiments.

They had to scramble on their hands and knees through the dust left by four nuclear bombs to "ensure as much contamination as possible gets on to their clothes".

Tags: nuclear n-weapons uk health vets

Posted by: theenergynet

Russian Feud Goes to Court in London - New York Times

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:59:33 -0000

LONDON — A long-running feud between two of the richest post-Soviet entrepreneurs reached the High Court in London on Friday.

The court began hearings on a $2 billion lawsuit by Boris Berezovsky, self-exiled in London since 2000, against Roman Abramovich. The two so-called oligarchs amassed fortunes in Russia during the privatization of state-owned assets in the 1990s, when the country’s first post-Soviet president, Boris Yeltsin, oversaw a large sell-off of the Soviet Union’s principal industries, including oil and gas.

Tags: nuclear security uk russia scandal

Posted by: theenergynet

Battle Plan To Stop Dumping In Mines (from The Northern Echo)

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:58:09 -0000

BATTLE lines are being drawn up to stop a firm dumping waste in disused anhydrite mines running below a town.

Patrick Jenkin, Margaret Thatcher's Environment Secretary in 1985, gave Billingham, near Stockton, an assurance that nuclear waste would not be tipped in the exhausted underground workings below the town, following a community battle.

Tags: uk ireland nuclear energy fuel-cycle

Posted by: theenergynet