Nuclear news Monday 1 August and Sunday 31 July

Don't nuke the future

Garma festival: Indigenous leaders call for land ownership settlement, slam land rights 'failures' - Indigenous leaders at the Garma festival in northeast Arnhem Land have called for land ownership settlement, slamming the 'failures' of the Land Rights Act and Native Title Act that have allowed mining companies access to indigenous land.

 

Uranium prices remain below cost of production, recovery is years away
July 27, 2016. Uranium prices continue to hover at an eleven-year low, with the commodity’s collapse to the price weeks ago failing to inspire any renewed buying interest, and according to a recent forecast from UBS, a turnaround in the market could be years off.

Offshore wind powers ahead as prices drop 30% below nuclear
July 19, 2016. The cost of offshore wind power in the North Sea is 30% lower than that of new nuclear, writes Kieran Cooke - helped along by low oil and steel prices, reduced maintenance and mass production. By 2030 the sector is expected to supply 7% of Europe's electricity.

Trump, Putin and Brexit signs another world war is coming
July 30, 2016. The rise of Trump and Putin plus the shock outcome of the Brexit vote are signs the world is hurtling towards nuclear war. Here's why.

Coup attempt in Turkey raises a nuclear concern at US air base
24 July, 2016. Incirlik Air Base was an operational centre of the attempted coup. It is also America's largest foreign stockpile of nuclear weapons.

France

EDF board member resigns, attacking Hinkley Point nuclear project as financially 'risky'
A board member of EDF has quit ahead of its meeting to approve the Hinkley Point nuclear plant, calling the project "very risky" and suggesting it could drag the French utility giant into an "abyss".

French nuclear company EDF to get cash infusion
The French government has said it will go ahead with a 4-billion-euro share issue for state-controlled electricity firm EDF. The move will help finance the construction of two controversial nuclear reactors in the UK.

Japan

Japan Atomic again flubs maintenance checks at Monju reactor
July 22, 2016. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency again failed to conduct checks on a device at its experimental Monju fast-breeder reactor and overlooked a warning signal from a maintenance management system for about three months.

Japan business lobby says Abe govt can't rely on nuclear energy
July 22, 2016. Japan's use of nuclear power is unlikely to meet a government target of returning to near pre-Fukushima levels and the world's No.3 economy needs to get serious about boosting renewables, a senior executive at a top business lobby said.

South Africa

Is Eskom building a case for nuclear power?
July 28 2016. IT IS disconcerting that Eskom is advising the government to freeze a globally acclaimed renewable energy programme based on a perceived misunderstanding of the benefits of the renewable energy independent power producer (IPP) programme.

North Korea
North Korea admits 'our nuclear weapons aren't a threat to the UK'
July 22, 2016. The rogue state claimed that Theresa May's comments on the nuclear threat that Kim Jong-un poses were "absolutely astonishing"

UAR & South Korea

South Korea signs $880 million nuclear reactor staffing deal in UAE

July 25, 2016. The reactors, still under construction, are Korean-designed and made.

UK

Bradwell & Sizewell futures unclear after delayed Hinkley decision
A late move by the government to review all of the component parts of the proposed nuclear power deal in the region has cast doubt that it will go ahead in its current form.

Nuclear power plants must be value for money, say MPs
26 July 2016. Future nuclear power projects in Wales must be value for money and create jobs where they are built, MPs have said.

Campaign against Anglesey nuclear train transporting radioactive waste
24 July 2016. Demonstrations have been held against radioactive waste being transported by rail along the North Wales coast.


Russia, China and South Korea 'should be invited to build UK nuclear plants'
23 July 2016. Russian, Chinese and South Korean nuclear companies should be offered subsidy contracts to build reactors in the UK if they are cheaper than other projects already under development, a prominent nuclear lobbyist has said.

US

Georgia Power gets green light on new nuclear plant
State energy regulators gave Georgia Power Co. the go-ahead Thursday to start laying the groundwork for a new nuclear power plant south of Columbus, Ga.

 

New York could show the way to rescue U.S. nuclear plants
New York state and nuclear power have never been best friends, but the state is expected to decide as soon as Monday on a proposed subsidy plan that could furnish the rest of the country with a model for saving a struggling industry while reducing carbon emissions
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/7215800581468107011

Times Union Editorial: A hefty nuclear subsidy
New York's proposed clean energy plan includes billions in nuclear plant subsidies.

Why San Onofre's nuclear waste stays on the beach
Policy stalemate leaves toxic spent fuel stranded
July 22, 2016. Some 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste at the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is all stored up with no place to go.

US must stop playing with nuclear hellfire
26th July 2016. Thanks to an increasingly aggressive US foreign policy pursued over decades, NATO nuclear missiles and armed forces are poised on Russia's border, writes Conn Hallinan - forcing it to abandon its 'no first use of nuclear weapons' pledge in view of the massively asymmetrical threat it faces. The world must step back from the brink of nuclear annihilation.

NASA books nuclear-certified Atlas 5 rocket for Mars 2020 rover launch
July 25, 2016. CAPE CANAVERAL - America's next Mars rover, a $2.1 billion nuclear-powered vehicle to search for evidence that life once existed there, will be launched to the Red Planet in the summer of 2020 by a powerful Atlas 5 rocket.