Nuclear

It's official: nuclear recycling plant is a staggering waste of taxpayers' money

Posted by jossc — 7 April 2009 at 3:48pm - Comments

Sellafield

Backers of the controversial MOX plant at Sellafield, which promised to turn toxic waste into a useable fuel that could be sold worldwide, had claimed the plant would make a profit of more than £200m in its lifetime, producing 120 tonnes of recycled fuel a year.

But an investigation published in today's Independent newspaper reveals what the government has been trying to keep secret - that technical problems and a dearth in orders has meant it has produced just 6.3 tonnes of fuel since opening in 2001.

Since building work began in the 1990s the plant has absorbed over £1 billion in public subsidies - money which could have been far better invested in developing renewable energy projects.

Article tagged as: mox fuel, nuclear power, plutonium, sellafield

EDF caught spying on Greenpeace in France

Posted by jamie — 2 April 2009 at 4:16pm - Comments

With echoes of that fantastic/horrifying nuclear thriller Edge Of Darkness (don't wait for the film, see the original TV series), energy giant EDF has been busted for spying on our colleagues at the Greenpeace in France.

Five people have been indicted by the French courts, including two EDF security executives, a computer expert and the head of a private investigation firm. The charge: attempting to hack into Greenpeace computer systems in France.

Article tagged as: EDF, france, nuclear power, renewable energy, surveillance

Brown's mixed signals on nuclear

Posted by jossc — 20 March 2009 at 12:44pm - Comments

International security consultant Martin Butcher

Martin Butcher gives his reaction to the Prime Minister's recent policy speech on the future of Britain's nuclear arsenal. Martin is a consultant on international security issues and a Nato policy analyst for the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy. This article first appeared in Comment is Free on 17th March.

Gordon Brown's speech today at Lancaster House exposed a fundamental contradiction at the heart of government policy on non-proliferation. The prime minister sees the importance of a world free of nuclear weapons because it is the only way of guaranteeing "that our children and grandchildren will be free from the threat of nuclear war". And yet, his government is committed to the development of a new generation of submarine-based nuclear weapons to replace Trident, thus maintaining Britain's status as a nuclear weapons state for half a century.

Article tagged as: disarmament, gordon brown, NPT, nuclear weapons, peace, trident

Scale back investment in wind, EDF and EON tell Miliband

Posted by jossc — 17 March 2009 at 3:54pm - Comments

offshore wind at work

Prepare to be unsurprised. Very unsurprised. Those lovable energy giants EDF and E.ON have put their collective boots into government plans to generate 35 per cent of our electricity from renewable sources.

According to their submissions to the latest energy consultation, the figure is not only unrealistic but also damaging to alternative schemes such as nuclear plants. So damaging that, um, they may be forced to drop their plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK unless the government scales back its targets for wind power.

Article tagged as: EDF, energy review, eon, nuclear power, renewable energy, wind power

Ship of fools sails off laden with nuclear fuel

Posted by jamie — 6 March 2009 at 1:14pm - Comments

Greenpeace volunteers protest as a container of plutonium nuclear fuel is driven past in Cherbourg, France

Mention Cherbourg and what springs to mind? Brigit Bardot skipping through the rain with a song on her lips, twirling one of those famous umbrellas? Sadly, that was all a long time ago and the quaint port of Jacques Demy's masterpiece is now a major link in the fuel chain for Japan's nuclear power stations.

Yesterday, a shipment of plutonium mixed oxide (Mox) fuel left France bound for Japan. It's the first shipment of Mox fuel to Japan in eight years, and the largest shipment of plutonium the world has ever seen - 1.8 tonnes of it in fact, enough to make 225 nuclear weapons.

Article tagged as: france, japan, mox fuel, nuclear fuel, nuclear power, pacific heron, pacific pintail, plutonium

Nuclear waste company says, "Whoops, some of our files are missing"

Posted by jamie — 17 February 2009 at 2:12pm - Comments

Greenpeace volunteers protest about plutonium shipments between the UK and Japan

Back in 1999, Greenpeace was protesting about plutonium shipments destined for the Mox plant at Sellafield. Now the plant may have to close © Greenpeace/Sims

In the 'funny if it weren't so scary' category we have the advert which ran last week in the Whitehaven News, the local paper for west Cumbria where Sellafield is to be found. As reported in the Guardian at the weekend, LLW Repository Ltd - the company which has recently taken over managing the site - have found there are significant holes in records detailing what radioactive waste was dumped in the repository at nearby Drigg; so they're appealing for people who worked at Sellafield in the 60s, 70s and 80s to rack their brains and fill in the gaps. 

Article tagged as: mox fuel, NDA, nuclear power, nuclear waste, sellafield, videos

New nuclear reactor's waste is seven times more hazardous

Posted by jamie — 3 February 2009 at 12:47pm - Comments

The construction site of the EPR reactor at Olkiluoto, Finland

The waste from this EPR in Finland will be seven times more hazardous than existing nuclear reactors © Greenpeace/Cobbing

Thanks to Justin at Nuclear Reaction for allowing us to reproduce this scandalous story:

Following the French government's announcement that it wants to build a second EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) comes the news that the nuclear waste produced by this so-called state of the art reactor is far more dangerous than that of ordinary reactors.

Article tagged as: EPR, finland, iodine 129, nuclear, nuclear power, olkiluoto, posiva

New nuclear reactor's waste is seven times more hazardous

Posted by jamie — 3 February 2009 at 12:47pm - Comments

The construction site of the EPR reactor at Olkiluoto, Finland

The waste from this EPR in Finland will be seven times more hazardous than existing nuclear reactors © Greenpeace/Cobbing

Thanks to Justin at Nuclear Reaction for allowing us to reproduce this scandalous story:

Following the French government's announcement that it wants to build a second EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) comes the news that the nuclear waste produced by this so-called state of the art reactor is far more dangerous than that of ordinary reactors.

Article tagged as: EPR, finland, iodine 129, nuclear, nuclear power, olkiluoto, posiva

Wooden spoons all round for the nuclear industry

Posted by jamie — 5 January 2009 at 6:23pm - Comments

The papers have been filled with reviews of the year and we're barrelling into awards season, so it's only fitting that we have some awards of our own. My colleagues over on the very entertaining Nuclear Reactions have been staging their own award ceremony, "to recognise those who have help make the nuclear industry the over-subsidised and under-scrutinised joke it is today".

Article tagged as: climate change, nuclear power

Deep Green: Atomic renaissance interrupted

Posted by jamie — 3 December 2008 at 2:32pm - Comments

Deep Green - Rex Weyler

Here's the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler -author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own, and you can sign up to get the column by email every month.

The nuclear industry has hitched a ride on the climate change bandwagon, proclaiming that nuclear power will solve the world's global warming and energy problems in one sweeping "nuclear renaissance."

As you might expect, there's a catch. Nuclear energy faces escalating capital costs, a radioactive waste backlog, security and insurance gaps, nuclear weapons proliferation, and expensive reactor decommissioning that will magnify the waste problem.

Article tagged as: about, activism, climate change, nuclear power, nuclear waste, rex weyler
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