Skills gap and grid connections key hurdles in UK’s nuclear energy ambitions, says Great British Nuclear chair
Skills gap and grid connections key hurdles in UK’s nuclear energy
ambitions, says Great British Nuclear chair. Simon Bowen, chair of Great
British Nuclear, the organisation tasked with delivering the Government’s
long-term nuclear programme, has cited the skills gap and grid connections
as key issues faced by the nuclear energy sector on its road to achieving
Government targets.
Yorkshire Post 12th Oct 2023
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/skills-gap-and-grid-connections-key-hurdles-in-uks-nuclear-energy-ambitions-says-great-british-nuclear-chair-4369765 #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Court will hear appeal by environmental groups against Sizewell C nuclear power station

Sizewell C power station plans to be heard in court
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sizewell-c-power-station-plans-be-hear-court 9 Oct 23
THE future of the government’s Sizewell C nuclear power station will be decided at a hearing in the Court of Appeal next month, it was revealed today.
On November 1 and 2, judges will hear an appeal by campaign groups against a High Court rejection of a review of the decision by then business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to allow the development on the Suffolk coast to go ahead.
The development is being opposed by campaign groups Together Against Sizewell C (TASC), Suffolk Coastal Friends of the Earth and Stop Sizewell C.
They said the station’s huge consumption of water for its cooling system will threaten local domestic supplies, and that the project should have included a desalination plant.
TASC launched an appeal for funds and said: “Because of the short time-frame that has been forced on us we have little time to raise the £25,000 needed to cover the costs of our legal team for this appeal stage of the proceedings.” #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Critics are sceptical over County Council’s ‘nuclear engagement officer role’ funded by the industry
Debate ignites over County Council’s nuclear engagement officer role funded by the industry A step towards transparency or a compromise on impartiality?
By Daniel Jaines Local Democracy Reporter , My Local, Lincolnshire, 10 Oct 23
Lincolnshire County Council’s (LCC) job advert for a Policy and Engagement Officer, a role that will research the nuclear sector, has sparked controversy and concerns regarding impartiality and ethical considerations due to its funding by Nuclear Waste Services (NWS).
The job describes the role as a conduit between the council and the proposed Theddlethorpe Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in Lincolnshire and comes with a salary of £38,296-£42,503. The appointee will be tasked with maintaining an overview of the developments proposed by NWS, ensuring senior politicians and officers are briefed and engaged, thereby helping the council in its role as the principal relevant local authority.
This includes providing advice on the potential advantages and disadvantages of the proposed investment.
The officer will be responsible for ensuring that the local community is provided with balanced information and will coordinate with local and national authorities and organisations to manage and distribute the latest information about nuclear industry developments and waste disposal.
The role also involves advocating activities that enable both the council and the area to derive financial benefits from the proposed GDF through investments in critical infrastructure, business and employment supply chains, and community grants.
The advert notes that while the post is fully funded by NWS, it will operate independently of them, and the LCC has adopted a neutral stance on the GDF.
However, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) has expressed concerns, stating that the LCC’s understanding of the sector’s harsh realities is lacking, and that their motivations might be economically driven due to the long-term and uncertain nature of nuclear propositions.
The campaigners believe that LCC, by accepting funding from NWS, may be perceived as aligning itself with NWS or potentially compromising its impartiality in future nuclear-related decisions and policies.
The critics suggest that this funding could be seen as LCC getting “off the fence” and taking a side in the ongoing discussions and debates related to nuclear projects in the region.
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) English Forum, expressed his concerns about the direction in which the LCC is heading: “Whilst this may mean job security for the successful candidate, it must represent insecurity for the residents of Theddlethorpe, Mablethorpe, and Sutton.
“For the first duty listed for the post holder will be to act as ‘the main point of contact between the council and the geological disposal facility which is proposed by Nuclear Waste Services for Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire’.
“If NWS is indeed providing ‘permanent’ funding then it must remain of the view that, despite the clear local opposition to the proposal, a GDF might go forward for Theddlethorpe in the future. Otherwise, why would they invest?”
The Theddlethorpe site, currently under consideration for a GDF by NWS, has been met with significant opposition from the local community and elected members.
Ken Smith, a Theddlethorpe campaigner, has voiced that accepting funding from NWS suggests a bias on the part of LCC towards the GDF, rather than maintaining neutrality.
“In my view, it is totally unethical,” he said. “It gives NWS a direct line to councillors. They can claim independence as much as they like, but he who pays the piper calls the tune.”
He further emphasised the need for the council to encourage companies developing renewables, given Lincolnshire’s ideal location for such technologies………………….more https://mylocal.co.uk/lincolnshire/feed/120078/debate-ignites-over-county-council-s-nuclear-engagement-officer-role-funded-by-the-industry #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
PETITION: Stop calling uranium mined fuels “clean energy”
Scrap the rebranding of nuclear as “clean.” Even the very first step of the fuel cycle, the mining of Uranium is uniquely dirty and dangerous. The extraction of a finite resource which is far from “home grown.”
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced in July that “The UK’s nuclear renaissance begins with the launch of Great British Nuclear helping us deliver clean, reliable energy for generations to come.”
Future generations are being dangerously misled about the main product of nuclear power – nuclear waste. This will be just as dangerous to their lives as it is to ours. Using Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology, the total NDA (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) group carbon footprint for 2019/20 is 1,046,950 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)”. We believe much of this is indirectly looking after radioactive wastes at Sellafield………… #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Boss of Sizewell nuclear project calls for “curbing protestors powers’ to block them in the courts

Nuclear plant developer calls for limits on legal challenges. The
government should seek to accelerate major projects by curbing protestors
powers’ to block them in the courts the boss of Sizewell C says.
Times (not on the web) 9th Oct 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Labour should follow Welsh government and commit to nuclear weapon prohibition, fringe meeting hears
Labour Party Conference 2023
Morning Star 9 Oct 23
LABOUR should follow the example of its government in Wales and commit to signing the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Beth Winter told a packed CND fringe meeting today.
The Cynon Valley MP joined her colleague Bell Ribeiro-Addy in slamming the government’s warped priorities in committing to spend hundreds of billions on nuclear warheads at a time of soaring poverty.
The Senedd voted last year to back the UN treaty, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying the world needed to get serious about disarmament…………… more https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-should-follow-welsh-government-and-commit-to-nuclear-weapon-prohibition-fringe-meeting-hears #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes
Judicial review will hear appeal against UK govt’s consent for Sizewell C nuclear

Together Against Sizewell C is delighted to announce that we now have the
date for our judicial review in the Court of Appeal, a two-day hearing has
been set for Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd November 2023.
This will give our legal team the opportunity to present TASC’s appeal against Justice
Holgate’s refusal in the High Court of our judicial review of then
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to give development consent
to Sizewell C.
The unusually early date for the hearing is a result of
pressure from the government requesting the case be treated as a priority.
TASC continues to have the support of Suffolk Coastal Friends of the Earth
and Stop Sizewell C in this vitally important battle for the soul of the
Heritage Coast, however because of the short timeframe that has been forced
on us we have little time to raise the £25,000 needed to cover the costs
of our legal team for this appeal stage of the proceedings.
Crowd Justice 8th Oct 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #Nuclearfree #NoNukes
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-suffolks-heritage-coast-w/
Residents closest to Dounreay and Vulcan to be excluded from the nuclear emergency planning zone.

By Iain Grant, 06 October 2023 https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/nearby-homes-to-be-outside-of-dounreay-emergency-zone-for-fi-328741/ #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes
Residents closest to Dounreay and Vulcan are for the first time to be excluded from the emergency planning zone around the redundant nuclear sites.
It is being shrunk to reflect the perceived reduction in risk to the public presented by the adjoining plants.
The zone would be the focus of the response to what is considered a worst-case scenario involving a radiation release.
Up until the plug was pulled on Dounreay’s fast reactor programme in the mid-1990s, its zone extended to five kilometres. The equivalent at Vulcan was two kilometres.
Dounreay’s limit was subsequently cut to 1.5km and reduced further in 2020 when a new linked zone taking in both sites was set at 700 metres.
Class action launched against British Government over nuclear bomb tests in Australia

By A Current Affair Staff 7 Oct 23 https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/nuclear-bomb-testing-australia-class-action-british-government/199eafe9-c774-432e-99b2-f71a96ffb696—
It’s a scandal that has spanned decades as Australian and British servicemen sent to nuclear testing sites fight to be officially recognised for their service and suffering.
Between 1952 and 1963, Great Britain carried out nuclear bomb tests in Australia and the Pacific.
Doug Brooks was at the first one.
“The only thing we were told to do was turn our backs to the blast ground zero, cover our eyes with our hands and the blast x-rayed our hands we could see the bones,” he told A Current Affair.
Tony Spruzen was at the Maralinga test range in the remote outback of South Australia.
“The brightness was so much, it’s something like I never experienced before, I could see through my eyelids, I could see the bones of my fingers,” he said.
Doug and Tony are two of the rapidly diminishing number of veterans sent to the nuclear test sites.
In total 45 tests were conducted by Britain’s Ministry of Defence – 12 of those were in Australia at the blessing of the Menzies government.
There were 22,000 servicemen in the Pacific tests. 1500 are still alive.
Now there is a new class action against the British Government.
“Well, what’s prompted it is that we’ve discovered medical records do in fact exist for these servicemen,” lawyer Matthew Jury said.
“We have a copy of these records and what that tells us is the other medical records exist which the government has been concealing for 70 years so those surviving servicemen who want answers now know that those records exist so where and the government has been concealing them.”
Jury’s firm has launched the action class and he claims records reveal the radiation levels in the blood and urine of the servicemen.
“As they have grown older they have developed extreme and aggressive forms of cancer,” Jury said.
“There have been miscarriages and other birth defects which can’t be treated by their doctors because their doctors don’t have their full medical records.”
The British Ministry of Defence hasn’t responded to requests for an interview or statement.
Watch the full story in the video player above. [on original]
Lincolnshire: a green and nuclear promised land

buried in the small print in the accompanying Job Description are the words ‘the post is fully funded by Nuclear Waste Services’ and the post is described as ‘Permanent’.
https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/lincolnshire-a-green-and-nuclear-promised-land/ 6 Oct 23 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes
Lincolnshire County Council intends to ‘pursue nuclear schemes which respond to the growth of the sector’ by creating a specialist officer role to advise it, and Nuclear Waste Services seem keen to back it because they are paying their salary.
The authority has just placed an advertisement for a Policy and Engagement Officer who will ‘build our understanding of the sector, [to] prepare information about the growth of the sector, and [to] pursue schemes which respond to the growth of the sector’.
To the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities it is clear their understanding of the harsh realities faced by the sector is lacking as they reference the ‘proposed Geological Disposal Facility’, ‘the introduction of a fusion reactor’ and the ‘production of small modular reactors’ as though all are imminent.
If the motivation behind the appointment is primarily economic, then Lincolnshire County Council is labouring under a delusion, for pursuance of any of these propositions would be long-term and very uncertain.
The Theddlethorpe site is one of three that are known to be under active consideration by Nuclear Waste Services for the GDF; however, there is significant opposition from the local community and elected members, any siting will be subject to a promised ‘Test of Public Support’ in 2027, and even if taken forward it will be decades before it is built.
The earliest likely date that any practical fusion reactor, assuming that one can be made to work and is commercially viable, would be sometime in the 2050s. Despite the hype, every fusion experiment so far has required the expenditure of far more energy to start and sustain it than the amount of energy released at the end of it, and all these experiments have been of incredibly short duration.
And with reference to small modular reactors, it was only yesterday that Great British Nuclear recommended a set of designs to take forward. Now, in this nuclear version of a reality TV show, the contestants will face a three-year rigorous assessment by the Office of Nuclear Regulation, and those who survive will have to build a working prototype, build a factory to manufacture the parts, find a site or sites they deem suitable, secure site-specific permissions from regulators, planners, and government, avoid legal challenges from the local community, build the damned thing, and get it working. Sorry LCC – it’s going to be 2030’s at the earliest.
But if any motivation behind the appointment is the Council’s belief that nuclear is somehow the means to create ‘carbon free’ electricity to arrest climate change, their delusion is stronger still. For with over a decade at least to run before any possible earliest deployment of a working reactor in the county, the authority is clearly stepping away from its responsibility to do what it can now to mitigate its effects and for the people of Coningsby in Lincolnshire, who in July 2022, laboured under a temperature of 40.3 degrees centigrade, the hottest recorded in the UK, the wait will be especially bitter.
The NFLAs, wishing to be helpful, offer Lincolnshire County Council some alternate suggestions for duties for the appointed officer.
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA’s English Forum, explains:
“We would love to see the appointee help lower energy bills for the households of Lincolnshire, lower energy consumption, generate truly green, sustainable energy, and create jobs for the county, but new nuclear, which takes forever, costs a fortune, contaminates its surroundings, and leaves a deadly legacy of toxic nuclear waste, need not feature.
“Why? Because this officer should instead be seeking grants to install energy saving devices and insulation in the county’s most energy inefficient homes, many of which will be occupied by households in the greatest financial hardship, and, by working in partnership with communities, district and local councils, educational and medical establishments, social landlords and businesses, help install renewable energy technologies, such as a programme of roof top solar schemes, across the county.
“These activities would generate cleaner, cheaper electricity and create jobs in the short-term, not in the never ever”.
Will the job be repurposed to make this happen? The NFLAs think not as buried in the small print in the accompanying Job Description are the words ‘the post is fully funded by Nuclear Waste Services’ and the post is described as ‘Permanent’.
Councillor Blackburn concluded: “Whilst this may mean job security for the successful candidate, it must represent insecurity for the residents of Theddlethorpe, Mablethorpe, and Sutton.
“For the first duty listed for the postholder will be to act as ‘the main point of contact between the council and the geological disposal facility which is proposed by Nuclear Waste Services for Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire’.
“If NWS is indeed providing ‘permanent’ funding then it must remain of the view that, despite the clear local opposition to the proposal, a GDF might be go forward for Theddlethorpe in the future. Otherwise, why would they invest?
“I pity the people of Lincolnshire whose County Council appears to want to redesignate the county as a green, but nuclear promised, land.”
UK’s Nuclear Waste Service has said that a willing community could trump unsuitable geology.

NWS is on record as saying that a willing community could trump unsuitable
geology. Nuclear Waste Services have taken this decision to withdraw
Allerdale without carrying out seismic blasting in the Solway area to
‘investigate the geology.’
We believe that this is because of the
vigorous campaign we have led against the invasive and damaging seismic
testing by Nuclear Waste Services and the bad publicity this has generated
for the nuclear dump plans.
For more analysis and opportunities to resist
the ongoing nightmare of a massive, deep and very hot nuclear dump (or more
than one what with all the even hotter new nuclear waste this government is
planning) please visit our new campaign site Lakes Against Nuclear Dump
Radiation Free Lakeland 4th Oct 2023
Britain Has Run Out of Military Equipment to Give #Ukraine

A British military source told The Telegraph: ‘We’ve given away just about as much as we can afford.’
By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/04/britain-has-run-out-of-military-equipment-to-give-ukraine/
The UK has run out of military equipment that it can give to Ukraine, according to a senior British military source speaking to The Telegraph.
“We’ve given away just about as much as we can afford,” the unnamed source told the paper, adding that the UK had a role to play in encouraging other nations to continue arming Ukraine.
“We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition, and we’ve run dry on all that,” the source said.
The UK has been a staunch supporter of the proxy war in Ukraine and has led many escalations in NATO support, including the provision of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of 155 miles, and toxic depleted uranium ammunition for use with British-made Challenger 2 tanks.
The Telegraph report came after Ben Wallace, who resigned as defense secretary last month, said he urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to spend billions more so Britain could overtake Germany as Ukraine’s top supporter in Europe. The source speaking to The Telegraph said the onus should not be on London to provide the “billions” Wallace has called for. “Giving billions more doesn’t mean giving billions of British kit,” the source said.
The UK’s lack of arms for Ukraine is the latest sign that NATO support for the proxy war is fracturing. Poland recently declared it would no longer provide Ukraine with weapons over a grain spat, Slovakia elected a candidate who campaigned on ending military support for Ukraine, and Congress still has yet to authorize the additional $24 billion in spending on the war that President Biden is seeking.
Protesters call on Scottish Government to withdraw spaceport support
By Ross Hunter@_Ross_Hunter, Multimedia Journalist, 4 Oct 23 #nuclear #NoNukes #anti-nuclear #nuclear-free
CAMPAIGNERS are calling on the Scottish Government to withdraw support for new spaceports in Scotland.
Protesters from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and Drone Wars UK appeared outside Holyrood on Tuesday to highlight concerns about the environmental impact of the facilities and their role in bolstering militarism.
There are currently plans for at least five new spaceports in Scotland.
However, campaigners drew particular attention to three: the Saxa Vord spaceport in Unst, Shetland; the Orbex spaceport on the A’Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland; and a spaceport in North Uist being proposed by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar in conjunction with private military contractor QinetiQ.
Lynn Jamieson, the chair of the Scottish CND, said all the projects posed a threat to biodiversity.
She told The National: “The places where these rockets are set to be launched are very fragile ecosystems………………………..
“It is still carbon-based and putting it into the upper atmosphere will contribute to climate change, too.
“Taken over by militarism”
The Scottish Government has previously said that spaceports represent a “great opportunity”.
Indeed, ministers say that the country is well-placed to become “a leading European space nation”.
But Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman said that the industry in Scotland must not be permitted to prop up an increasingly militarised view of space……………………………………
A code of space ethics
Last year, the UK Government published its Defence Space Strategy and described space as the fifth operational domain of the military alongside cyber, maritime, air and land.
The report vowed to increase military spending – which has already increased by more than £8 billion since 2020 – in order to “protect and defend our national interests in and through space”.
The UK Space Agency has also said that spaceport facilities are vital for the launch of satellites to collect data on climate change.
But Peter Burt from the campaign group Drone Wars UK told The National that a code of space ethics must be drawn up before the spaceports begin accepting contracts from the Ministry of Defence.
“The fact is that a lot of spaceport investment is military investment,” he said.
“We already know we are in real trouble with climate change; we don’t need more data to tell us that – we need action to stop it.
“The UK Space Agency, instead of greenwashing its projects, needs to come up with a code of space ethics and use that to govern the kinds of projects it invests in.”
The campaigners have appealed to the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on nuclear disarmament to support their calls for the Scottish Government to oppose rather than support spaceports………………………………. https://www.thenational.scot/news/23831188.protesters-call-scottish-government-withdraw-spaceport-support/
Green Party candidate for Waverley Valley pledged to challenge UK Government over Sizewell C #nuclear

#anti-nuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes The prospective Green Party candidate for the new Waveney Valley
constituency has pledged to challenge the Government over the new Sizewell
C nuclear power station if he is elected to the seat.
Adrian Ramsay, the
party’s co-leader, said the twin reactor, which is set to cost £25 billion,
was “not yet a done deal” and said the Government was already reviewing
“other expensive projects”. He said: “Although the consent has been given,
Sizewell C is not yet a done deal. It is an extremely expensive project and
we have seen the Government thinking twice about other expensive projects
so there is an economic environment about where the money’s best spent.”
East Anglian Daily Times 3rd Oct 2023
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/23824502.waveney-mp-hopefuls-challenge-government-sizewell-c/
UK small #nuclear competition: Rolls Royce in, Bill Gates snubbed

CITY,AM NICHOLAS EARL 3 Oct 23 #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes
Bill Gates’ nuclear reactor design company Terrapower has not been shortlisted for the next round of the government’s competition for scaled-down power plants.
Industry vehicle GB Nuclear has selected six companies to advance to the latest stage, including rumoured front-runner Rolls-Royce which has already secured over £200m in government funding.
The remaining contenders also include EDF, GE-Hitachi, Holtec Britain, Nuscale and Westinghouse Electric.
These companies will be invited to bid for government contracts later this year, with successful companies announced next spring and contracts awarded in the summer.
Gates, the world’s fifth richest man and the co-creator of Microsoft, founded Terrapower in 2006.
He is currently the company’s chairman and is still their biggest investor, leading a £588.3m funding round last year.
The company has been pitching bespoke ‘Natrium’ reactors powered by high-assay low-enriched uranium and announced its intentions earlier this year to enter the UK race for projects.

However, Whitehall officials have reportedly been concerned over insufficient supplies to import at scale to meet demand for Terrapower reactors, as most of the uranium it needs is produced in Russia – which is under sanctions following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
City A.M. understands GB Nuclear wanted to prioritise the most ready-made technologies which could guarantee a final investment decision by the end of the decade.
Instead, Terrapower could feature in an upcoming consultation on advanced technology.
Small modular reactors are a cornerstone of the government’s plan to revive domestic nuclear energy and replace the country’s ageing fleet – with 85 per cent of the country’s current capacity set to go offline over the next 12 years.
……………………..Downing Street is targeting operational SMRs in the UK by the mid-2030s, with a £20bn cap being placed on the competitive process.
………………Downing Street is targeting operational SMRs in the UK by the mid-2030s, with a £20bn cap being placed on the competitive process. https://www.cityam.com/uk-small-nuclear-competition-rolls-royce-in-bill-gates-snubbed/
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