Political nous and solid relationships will be key to winning the work
If anything is guaranteed to divide public opinion, it is nuclear energy. At one extreme there is a band that sees nuclear as a panacea for a carbon-free UK, at the other it is seen as a risky technology with an unresolved waste management issue that could burden future generations.
A nuclear plant built at a cost of £470m to provide atomic fuel to be used in foreign power stations has produced almost nothing since it was opened six years ago, the government has admitted.
The mixed oxide (Mox) facility at Sellafield in Cumbria - which was opposed by green groups as uneconomic - was originally predicted to have an annual throughput of 120 tonnes of fuel.
POWER companies are to be offered a new range of potential sites to construct nuclear power stations in Britain.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a government agency in charge of the £70 billion-plus clean-up of the UK atomic legacy, is expected to open talks shortly.
THE nuclear industry is an economic “basket case” and will continue to be a “financial albatross” for the taxpayer, the Government was warned today.
Labour’s Newport West MP Paul Flynn told the Commons the “immense” cost of cleaning up nuclear waste – which he said was £73 billion – was probably an underestimate. The bill would amount to £3,000 for every family in the country.
A LEADING member of the British atomic energy team involved in building the next generation reactor has urged Teesside engineers to get on board the programme, which could bring millions of pounds to the local economy.
Dan Mistry, fusion and industry manager for the British Atomic Energy Association, who will address a Partners4Engineering one-day event in Billingham on March 12, said: “The last thing we want is to lose this work to mainland Europe.”
The Czech Republic's ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) will seek a revision of their government pact with two other parties so that new nuclear power plants can be built, the Hospodarske Noviny newspaper reported on Thursday. The paper quoted the head of the lower house's economy committee, Oldrich Vojir, as saying that his party would propose building new nuclear blocs after a group of experts presents a report later this year on energy policy options.
German environmentalists won a battle in the fight against nuclear power, when a court ruled energy giant RWE couldn't extend the operating life of one nuclear plant by transferring unused capacity from another.
Amid an ongoing struggle over the future of nuclear power in Germany, a German court ruled that RWE could not extend production at its Biblis A nuclear reactor longer than originally foreseen by German law.
STOCKHOLM (Thomson Financial) - The UN's nuclear watchdog today noted improved security measures at a problem-prone nuclear plant in Sweden, but recommended a number of other steps to increase safety further.
The Forsmark nuclear plant on Sweden's east coast 'has introduced or extended several programmes contributing to improved operational safety,' Miroslav Lipar, head of International Atomic Energy Agency mission in Sweden, said in a statement.
The UK will help develop international policy on the use of nuclear power by joining the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, Business Secretary John Hutton said.
The GNEP is part of US president George Bush's "advanced energy initiative" and seeks to develop a worldwide consensus on enabling expanded use of economical, carbon-free nuclear energy to meet growing electricity demand.
The public will get the chance to hear the outline proposals for new nuclear power stations at Sizewell and Bradwell next month.
British Energy is arranging public meetings “to keep people informed on the decision-making process and to hear views on the impact this may have on the area”.
