The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has formally advised the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate - the country’s nuclear safety regulator - that it plans to extend the operating life at Oldbury nuclear power station, the NDA said Wednesday. (more…)
E.ON UK has entered into a transmission connection agreement with National Grid for up to 1600MWe of new capacity at Oldbury.
The Oldbury-on-Severn site named in the agreement is owned by National Grid and is the location of a substation. The site is adjacent to the Oldbury nuclear power station, which is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and has two 225MWe Magnox units that are due to cease operation at the end of this year. (more…)
BUSINESS is being encouraged to capitalise on the demise of Wales’ nuclear power stations.
The Welsh Assembly Government is working with Magnox North to develop a local supply chain and identify a range of potential opportunities for local businesses.
It is hoped the measures will help businesses raise their game to ensure they have the capacity and capability to benefit from the decommissioning of nuclear power stations in the region. (more…)
Energysolutions and its partner Toshiba have offered to kick start the UK’s stalled nuclear clean-up programme - in return for being given the sites to build a new fleet of reactors.
At present French utility company EDF is leading the race to buy nuclear generator British Energy and start the new-build programme. But the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which owns the public sector’s old nuclear sites, has also put these on the block for firms interested in building new reactors. (more…)
The nuclear industry in Britain is killing billions of fish every year and taking a devastating toll of stocks, an Oxford University academic suggests.
The impact can be so severe in the worst-affected regions of the seas around Britain that death rates are equivalent to half the commercial catch for some species. (more…)
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority on Wednesday will appeal to industry for help in dealing with the UK’s 100-tonne stockpile of plutonium, and in deciding whether to treat it as waste or reuse it as fuel for nuclear reactors.
One option being considered is for the highly radioactive plutonium to be used to make fuel for a new nuclear reactor at Sellafield, where the plutonium is currently stored. But the question of whether the plutonium should be used or disposed of could reopen the debate on nuclear reprocessing and whether spent fuel from the next generation of nuclear reactors should be reused. (more…)
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. (more…)
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Britain is likely to face a shortfall in electricity generation within five to seven years, a report concludes. Energy and environment consultancy firm Inenco says that the number of nuclear and coal plants coming out of service over the period makes shortages likely. (more…)
Oct 11th 2007 , rom The Economist print editio
The shadow of an old accident haunts Britain’s nuclear revival
THIS is a big week in the government’s attempt to rehabilitate nuclear energy. Eight months after a court ruled that its first public consultation on whether to build more reactors had been misleading and unfair, its second attempt finished on October 10th. For a government with (until recently) a reputation for slick public relations, that date looks ill-judged. For it also marks the 50th anniversary of a fire at the Windscale nuclear reactor in Cumbria that was, until Three Mile Island in 1979, the world’s worst atomic accident (the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 dwarfs both). (more…)
The official cost of cleaning up 20 of Britain’s nuclear facilities will be more than £73bn, 16% higher than estimated last year, according to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority yesterday. The latest rise in clean-up costs came as the government completed consultation on whether to proceed with a new generation of atomic plants, with one potential operator arguing there was a “moral imperative” to allow more to be built. (more…)
