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Government loses nuclear power case
Press Association, Guardian
Environmental campaigners have won a high court ruling which will force the government to rethink its controversial decision to back the building of new nuclear power stations.
In a highly embarrassing ruling for the government, Mr Justice Sullivan said the review process used to decide whether to support the construction of new plants was “very seriously flawed” and “procedurally unfair”.
The case was brought by Greenpeace, which claimed that the government had reneged on its promise to carry out “the fullest public consultation” before making its decision.
(15 Feb 2007)
Japanese nuclear power steams ahead
Hisane Masaki, Asia Times
TOKYO – Japan’s New National Energy Strategy calling for increased use of nuclear power to generate electricity and, more controversially, the need to extract plutonium from spent nuclear fuel for future use to power reactors has run into trouble because of repeated accidents and mishaps at various plants.
So it was considered something of a victory for nuclear power generation when the Mihama-3 reactor in Fukui prefecture in western Japan resumed full-scale commercial operation on Wednesday, two and a half years after it was shut down in the wake of the nation’s deadliest accident at a nuclear power plant.
The 826-megawatt pressurized-water reactor, owned by the Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO), was shut down in August 2004 after a steam pipe on the non-radioactive side of the plant ruptured, scalding 11 workers, five of whom died. ..
Another key to the future of the nation’s nuclear-energy program is the fast-breeder reactor (FBR), which produces more fissile material than it consumes. But the prototype FBR Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui prefecture, has remained shut down since the liquefied sodium used to cool the reactor core leaked and burned in December 1995. The operator, then known as the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development (Donen), tried to cover up the extent of the accident. ..
(10 Feb 2007)
Israel considers building nuclear plant
Sharon Wrobel
Israel Electric Corporation CEO Uri Ben-Noon said on Sunday that Israel was considering building a nuclear power station to generate electricity.
At an IEC conference in Ramat Gan, Ben-Noon said that Gideon Frank, director of the Atomic Energy Commission, had told him that the possibility of generating electricity from a nuclear power plant was on the agenda and was being considered.
In reaction, National Infrastructures Ministry Director-General Hezi Kugler said that the issue was being debated but no decision on the issue had been made yet. ..
(11 Feb 2007)
