Britain has a stockpile of plutonium and uranium that, if converted to fuel, could be worth nearly £160 billion and power three nuclear reactors for 60 years, scientists say.
The future of the stockpile - largely left over from burning fuel - will be decided by ministers over the next year, The Times has learnt. Its value is estimated as the equivalent of 2.6 billion barrels of oil.
The consortium with a £20bn contract to clean up Britain's Sellafield nuclear plant has been handed a blank cheque by the Government to pay for future accidents there.
A new generation of nuclear power stations could be built in flood-risk or "environmentally protected" areas, under proposed rules set out by the Government today.
Green safeguards are listed among "discretionary" criteria ministers intend to use to decide where to put the controversial reactors - not those that would instantly rule out a site. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is believed to want up to eight new reactors as part of a global "renaissance of nuclear power" to help end reliance on fossil fuels.
Irish people are exposed to higher levels of radiation than previously thought, with the latest figures from the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) showing nine per cent greater exposure than had been recorded.
The most comprehensive study ever undertaken by the RPII has found that Irish exposure to radiation is more than one third higher than the international average and that the cancer causing gas radon is the primary source of radiation exposure in Ireland.
Top-secret consignments across Channel are halted as a result of IoS investigation
PEOPLE living near the Dounreay nuclear plant say they will fight plans for a waste dump close to their homes, despite the scheme winning the conditional backing of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
Sepa says it supports proposals for a £110 million underground low-level radioactive waste store – the first of its type in Scotland – provided seven planning conditions are imposed to protect people and the environment.
French nuclear companies are hoping to play a central role in the government's plan to build a new generation of reactors. At home, however, the industry has been buffeted by a series of mishaps. Angelique Chrisafis reports from Bollène
SCOTLAND'S environment regulator has given a boost to plans to build a new low-active nuclear dump at Dounreay.
The £110 million scheme earmarked for ground adjoining the former fast-reactor complex is being fought by residents of the small adjoining settlement at Buldoo. But the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on Wednesday gave notice of its conditional backing for the development.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The British ambassador to Moscow and two of his diplomats were refused entry to a UK-funded nuclear fuel storage facility in Russia when they turned up on a scheduled visit, an embassy spokesman said on Friday.
Ambassador Anthony Brenton was in the Arctic port of Murmansk on Thursday to visit a British navy ship that was there to take part in a Russian Naval Day celebration.
A VETERAN anti-nuclear weapons protester has chained herself to the gates of a nuclear power station.
Irene Willis, 62, from Buckland, Shoebury, was one of eight environmental activists protesting outside Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk.
They are protesting about the risks to health and safety from nuclear power stations and the nuclear fuel cycle.
