Nuclear power in Europe

Nuclear power is re-emerging as a concern for our times, both as a generator of energy and as part of a defence strategy. Today it seems to stand for the failed utopian promises of modernism and a fresh hope for a carbon-free future. The contradictions that lie at its core have provided a rich source of questioning for artists, scientists, ecologists and activists for many years. The Arts Catalyst’s exhibition NUCLEAR: art & radioactivity explores these intricacies through two new commissioned works by Chris Oakley and Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou. (more…)

This must take the record for the trippiest data-center build anywhere, ever: It’s an old nuclear bunker 30 meters below central Stockholm, and its new conversion for one of Sweden’s biggest ISPs has made it truly 007-worthy. Check it: it has simulated daylight, greenhouses and waterfalls, there’re German submarine engines rigged as emergency backup generators, plus there’s 1.5 megawatts of cooling for the servers. Oh, and it can survive a hydrogen bomb attack. (more…)

The EU needs to invest more in research if it is to meet its climate-change targets.

The world will need to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050 to minimise climate-change impacts, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said, an awesome challenge that once again underlines the importance of investing in the next generation of renewable energy. (more…)

The Sellafield body parts inquiry has hit a major legal hitch after a doctor suggested his patients’ medical records should remain confidential – even though they are dead.

Michael Redfern QC is leading an inquiry into claims organs and tissue were secretly removed from workers at Sellafield and other nuclear plants without the knowledge of bereaved loved ones. (more…)

Sophos has discovered a widespread spam campaign that claims that a powerful explosion occurred at a nuclear power station located in the suburbs of London on the afternoon of the 9th September.

Samples intercepted by SophosLabs reveal that the emails claim to contain images in an attachment called victims.zip. In fact, clicking on the attachment will not open any pictures of the supposed explosion but will instead run a Trojan horse detected by Sophos as Troj/Agent-HQE. Once installed, the hackers can use the malware to spy on the victim’s computer and steal information for financial gain. (more…)

PALOMARES, Spain: The rest of the world has mostly forgotten, but the brush with nuclear Armageddon is seared on the minds of locals here and still niggles, 42 years later.

On the morning of Jan. 17, 1966, a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber returning from a routine Cold War alert mission exploded during airborne refueling, sending its cargo of B28 hydrogen bombs plummeting toward earth. One went into the azure waters of the Mediterranean and three others fell around this poor farming village, about 200 kilometers, or 125 miles, east of Granada. (more…)

On September 5, the Emergencies Ministries of Belarus and Russia will consider an opportunity to conduct joint exercises at the Smolensk Nuclear Power Station, BelTA learnt from Press Secretary of the Emergencies Ministry of Belarus Vitaly Novitsky. (more…)

MOSCOW. Aug 29 (Interfax) - Generating Unit No. 2 of the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant has been reconnected into Russia’s electricity grid after routine safety maintenance, Russia’s nuclear power plants operator, Rosenergoatom, said in a press release.

All of the plant’s four generating units are currently in operation. (more…)

ANKARA, Turkey: Turkish police on Saturday detained 29 foreigners and three Turks during a peaceful protest against plans to build a nuclear power plant near a Black Sea port city.

The police broke up the protest in front of the governor’s office and “forcibly took” the protesters to a police station, said Niklas Hartmann of European Youth for Action, an environmentalist group. (more…)

Macedonia, under international regulations applying to countries with nuclear waste, must construct a depot to store radioactive materials. However, opposition by residents of potential locations has thwarted the country from complying with the requirement. The struggle to find a depot site has continued for five years.

The latest case attracting public attention is that of Sopiste Municipality, outside Skopje, which refuses to allow construction of a depot on its territory. The facility would store residues from devices using radioactive elements — such as old lightning rods or laboratory and X-ray residue. Currently, temporary dumps in unsafe urban locations, namely, the grounds of the Brazing Institute and former Radioisotope Centre, contain the country´s nuclear waste. (more…)