‘Vague assurances’ to Ireland on post-Brexit nuclear safety ‘not worth much’
‘Vague assurances’ on post-Brexit nuclear safety ‘not worth much’
Fianna Fáil expresses concerns about Britain’s capacity to maintain standards, Brian Hutton
Julian Assange’s 6 years of confinement in Ecuadorian Embassy in London
2,192 Days of Confinement: Assange’s 6 Years in Ecuadorian Embassy in Numbers, https://sputniknews.com/europe/201806191065516777-assange-6-years-embassy-london/
June 19 marks six years since the founder of WikiLeaks entered the building of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He hasn’t stepped foot outside it since.
Julian Assange has been residing at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, where he sought refuge while facing sexual assault allegations in Sweden.
981 days have passed since the Metropolitan police removed dedicated 24/7 guards from outside the Ecuadorian Embassy on October 12, 2015.
“Like all public services, MPS resources are finite. With so many different criminal, and other, threats to the city it protects, the current deployment of officers is no longer believed proportionate,” a statement by the Met police said.
865 days since the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) ruled in a majority decision that Assange was being detained inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London arbitrarily and was allowed to leave.
READ MORE: UN Ruling on Assange’s Illegal Detention Explained
396 days since the allegations were dropped by Swedish prosecutors, but the Wikileaks founder would still get arrested if he left the embassy’s premises — by the UK police — for failing to surrender to the court in 2012.
158 days since Assange was granted Ecuadorian citizenship and subsequently the UK was asked to recognize the whistleblower as a diplomatic agent. Had the British agreed — it would have given Assange immunity to finally leave the embassy.
However, the UK refused the request, meaning he remains confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy, which has been found “dangerous physically and mentally” and “a clear infringement of his human right to healthcare.”
83 days since the whistleblower’s access to the Internet was cut off “in order to prevent any potential harm.”
“The government of Ecuador has suspended the systems that allows Julian Assange to communicate with the world outside of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London… The measure was adopted due to Assange not complying with a written promise which he made with the government in late 2017, whereby he was obliged not to send messages which entailed interference in relation to other states,” the government of Ecuador said in a statement.
Julian Assange fears extradition to the United States to be prosecuted for espionage after his website leaked classified US data.
Satellite photo indicates that Russia is upgrading a key nuclear weapons storage site
Is Russia upgrading nuclear bunker? Nine News,
UK govt providing $billions for Wylfa nuclear power project, but Hitachi still scrambling for more money from Japan and USA
Nikkei Asian Review 16th June 2018 , Hitachi continues to search for ways to share the burdens of building a British nuclear power plant and now is sounding out the Development Bank of Japan and several Japanese power companies about taking stakes in the
project, a high hurdle as many are still struggling with the heavy financial fallout from the 2011 meltdown at Fukushima.
The cost projection for the project on the Welsh island of Anglesey has ballooned to 3 trillion yen ($27.1 billion). To keep it commercially viable, the British government pledged on June 4 to arrange the entire 2 trillion yen in necessary loans, twice its original offer. In addition, 900 billion yen is to be invested in the Hitachi subsidiary responsible for developing and building the plant, with 300 billion yen coming from a consortium of Japanese companies and the Japanese government.
The DBJ is considering an investment as a government-affiliated financial institution. Chubu Electric Power, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings, Kansai Electric Power, Chugoku Electric Power and Hokuriku Electric Power are some of the utilities being approached
about taking small stakes in the project, as well as Japan Atomic Power. Hitachi is also asking the utilities for technical support.
Japan Atomic Power already plans to support such aspects as operation and maintenance of the U.K. plant with U.S. energy provider Exelon. Tepco and Chubu Electric both operate in Japan boiling water reactors, the same type that will bebbuilt on Anglesey. But winning participation from these companies will not be an easy task. Tepco must raise 16 trillion yen of the 22 trillion yen needed to decommission the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and compensate victims of the meltdown. The company has said it will improve profitability to do so, but such efforts are still in the preliminary stages.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-Deals/Hitachi-seeks-Japanese-partners-in-building-27bn-UK-nuclear-plant
Resounding “No” to nuclear waste dump, from Czech rural community
JAROMĚŘICE NAD ROKYTNOU VOTES AGAINST NUCLEAR WASTER STORAGE SITE http://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/jaromerice-nad-rokytnou-votes-against-nuclear-waster-storage-site Ruth Fraňková17-06-2018
The inhabitants of Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou, a village in the Vysočina region between Bohemia and Moravia, voted overwhelmingly against the construction of a nuclear waste storage site on their land in a referendum on Saturday.
Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou is one of nine Czech locations being considered by experts for the purposes of a nuclear waste store. About 45 percent of the village’s inhabitants took part in the vote, which makes the referendum valid.
Nuclear Industry Association still struggling with inconvenient truth that Brexit is bad for their industry
Industry body welcomes progress on international nuclear agreement as Brexit looms http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/business/Industry-body-welcomes-progress-on-international-nuclear-agreement-as-Brexit-looms-31636156-0808-499c-bb14-5cb07e604c04-ds
But the Nuclear Industry Association says there remains a lot to do to secure Britain’s nuclear sector before it leaves Euratom.
Progress on a voluntary agreement that will continue to allow officials to keep tabs on and inspect UK civil nuclear facilities including Sellafield post-Brexit, has been welcomed by an industry group.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board of directors has approved the UK Voluntary Offer Agreement, which if ratified as expected later this summer, will see the UK continue to share information on its civil nuclear facilities and allow inspections by IAEA officials.
The IAEA works to ensure the peaceful use of nuclear energy and has safeguards in place with nuclear weapons states such as the UK. At present the sharing of information and inspections go through the European Commission and its agency Euratom.
The UK is set to leave Euratom in March 2019 at the same time it exits the European Union.
The Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) has been pushing the Government to secure agreements with bodies including the IAEA, to ensure current agreements do not break down post-Brexit.
The NIA’s chief executive Tom Greatrex welcomed the IAEA’s approval of a replacement agreement as a “step in the process towards creating a domestic regime to replace current Euratom functions”.
He said: “It is the first in a series of international agreements which need to be negotiated, agreed and ratified with a number of third countries, and the practical arrangements relating to the UK’s safeguarding regime need to be finalised – including recruitment, training, systems and equipment.
“There has been significant progress over the last few months, but there remains a lot left to do.
“Industry continues to work with government to assist in this process, but it remains of critical importance that the government finalise negotiations on a transitional framework for the UK before it leaves the EU and Euratom in March 2019, to minimise the risk of future arrangements not being ready at the time the UK ceases to be part of Euratom.”
Concerns has also been expressed in Cumbria over the UK’s exist from Euratom.
Barrow and Furness MP, John Woodcock has been a long-standing critic of the move, which he says has potential to hurt the industry in the county.
Prime Minister Teresa May said she is keen to retain some links with Euratom post-Brexit.
In a speech last month Mrs May said she would “willingly” make a financial contribution to allow Britain’s to “fully associate” itself with Euratom’s R&D programme and Horizon Europe research and innovation programme – the successor to Horizon 2020.
15th June Forum to discuss nuclear weapons travelling on A34 UK
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/16292903.Forum_to_discuss_nuclear_weapons_travelling_on_A34/
A FORUM to discuss nuclear transportation and how councils can deliver low carbon energy instead will be held in Oxford today.
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities organisation will hold its summer seminar on nuclear transports – as nuclear weapons currently travel up and down the A34 – nuclear transparency and promoting low carbon energy.
The local government voice on nuclear issues wants authorities to adopt anti-nuclear policies and encourage them to be part of a mixed energy supply over the next 40 years.
The city council’s NFLA representative, John Tanner, said: “I am thrilled that Nuclear Free Local Authorities are meeting in Oxford to discuss nuclear safety and local energy scheme.
“Lots of people don’t know that nuclear weapons regularly travel up and down the A34.”
He added: “It’s also important to remember that green energy, produced locally, can be a lot more economical than large-scale nuclear power.”
The forum will take place at Oxford Town Hall from 10.30am to 1pm.
Safety measure for World Cup – Russia halts nuclear waste transport
World Cup puts break on nuclear transport, A load of containers with spent nuclear fuel from Andreeva Bay on the Kola Peninsula will have to wait because of a general ban on transport of dangerous goods in Russia during the Football World Cup. https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/ecology/2018/06/world-cup-puts-break-nuclear-transport Thomas Nilsen, 14 June 18, June 14, 2018
Russia puts priority to safety and doesn’t want any potential lethal substances moving around during the four weeks with World Cup when tens of thousands of football fans are commuting by railway to different cities.
In the north, the ban now delays a shipment of nuclear waste that otherwise would be on its way to Mayak north of Chelyabinsk in the South Urals.
Head of Rosatom State Nuclear Corporation’s international technical assistance project, Anatoly Grigoryev, says three railway sets already have departed to Mayak this year. «The fourth is ready, but we can’t send it because transport of dangerous goods during the World Cup is prohibited,» Grigoriyev says to Interfax in an interview reposted by Rosatom.
From Andreeva Bay near Russia’s border to Norway, the containers with old uranium fuel from Cold War submarines are shipped to Murmansk, where they are loaded over to a set of special rail-wagons. From Murmansk, the train follows Russia’s railway lines south through Karelia towards St. Petersburg and Yaroslav before heading east towards the Urals, a distance of more than 1,600 kilometers.
Mayak reprocessing plant is located between the cities of Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg. The last is one of the cities where football matches will be played.
Anatoly Grigoryev assures that the load of nuclear waste containers from the Murmansk region will be shipped to Mayak as soon as the World Cup is over by mid-July.
Last June, a top brass of Russian and Norwegian politicians, diplomates and nuclear safety experts cheered and waved as the first load of containers set out to sea from Andreeva Bay. Since the 1990s, Norway has spent tens of millions of euros to support preparing for the nuclear waste removal from the site to start.
In Murmansk, nuclear safety expert with the Bellona Foundation, Andrey Zolotkov, says this is the first time to his knowledge transport of nuclear waste has been put on break for such reason as a international tournament.
«I don’t recall any such thing. This is most likely due to keeping the railway routes free from such cargos because of all the [football] fans on the move,» Zolotkov says to the Barents Observer. Additional to Bellona, Zolotkov has for many years been working on board the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet’s transport- and storage vessel «Imandra».
From Murmansk, the nuclear waste cargo-train follows the same tracks, and through the same big cities, as ordinary passenger trains.
«After all, we are just talking about a one month delay,» Andrey Zolotkov explains pointing to the many-years it will take to remove all spent nuclear fuel elements from Andreeva Bay.
A total of about 22,000 such uranium fuel elements where stored in three rundown concrete tanks. That is equal to about 100 submarine reactor cores.
Anatoly Grigoryev with Rosatom estimates it will take about 10 years to remove it all from the Kola Peninsula to the Mayak plant.
Jordan knocks back Russia’s $10 billion nuclear power plant , but contemplates”small floating reactor”
In a blow to the international business interests of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Jordan has scrapped a plan to build a $10 billion nuclear power plant with Moscow’s help.
Jordan’s Atomic Energy Commission, the JAEC, said on Monday that the project, after three years of study and consideration, had collapsed over disagreements on how to finance the the build, which would have included two nuclear reactors built by Rosatom.
But canceling the larger plant, said the JAEC, doesn’t mean Jordan won’t be working with Russia on any nuclear projects at all. According to the commission, it’s possible that Rosatom would furnish the Mediterranean nation with small modular reactors instead.
On Monday, the commission said in a statement that the larger project was off because the commercial loans Rosatom wanted Joran to secure to finance construction would drive up the cost of the electricity the plant would eventually produce.
………Without specifically mentioning the cancellation of the larger plant, Rosatom said in a statement on May 27 that it and JAEC had decided to “intensify and step up” cooperation on small modular reactors and form a joint feasibility study for such a project based on 
Russian designs.
Yet what these reactors might consist of remains somewhat mysterious. Russia has signed agreements with other countries for work on small-scale reactors, most recently Sudan, to which it vaguely promised to build a floating nuclear power plant.
…… Rosatom repeatedly said that foreign customers would flock to Moscow to order floating nuclear power plants of its own.
Those orders have yet to materialize, but that hasn’t stopped Rosatom from repeating the mantra that floating plants will be a prime offering to its foreign customers. Whether an offer to build Jordan a floating plant will come to pass remains unknown. But increasingly, the notion of floating plants seems synonymous with Rosatom’s small reactor development schemes. http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2018-06-jordan-turns-down-a-rosatom-plant-but-dangles-possible-small-reactor-collaboration-with-russia
Centrica wants to sell its nuclear industry stake, but it’s hard to attract buyers
Centrica aims to sell UK nuclear stake by end of 2020 , Nasdaq, By Susanna Twidale, LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) – Centrica plans to sell its 20 percent stake in eight British power plants by the end of 2020, but has yet to start marketing the assets, the company’s CEO said on Thursday
France’s EDF owns the other 80 percent of the nuclear plants ……….
Analyst have said it could be difficult to attract buyers for the nuclear assets, with large financials shying away from nuclear investment and half of the plants expected to close in 2024.
Last week Britain said it would consider investing in a new plant to be built by Japanese company Hitachi in northern Wales, with private investors reluctant to take on the huge costs of new nuclear power infrastructure. https://www.nasdaq.com/article/centrica-aims-to-sell-uk-nuclear-stake-by-end-of-2020-20180614-00256
Fears in Isle of Man community over dangers of new Wylfa nuclear power station
Fears over new atomic plant Isle of Man Today, 14 June 18 The new secretary of the Mannin branch of the Celtic League is calling on the Manx government to oppose plans for a new nuclear power station on Anglesey.
Wylfa nuclear plant, located just 35 miles from the southern coast of the Isle of Man, closed in 2015 after more than 40 years of service.
Now the Westminster government has announced that public money will be invested into a multi-billion pound replacement…….
Allen Moore, who was appointed branch secretary of Celtic League Mannin last month and is also the organisation’s environmental officer, believes the Manx government should oppose the project.
He said: ’Opposition to the nuclear policies of the UK and French governments remains a core concern of the Celtic League. Those governments have built many of their nuclear power stations in or close to Celtic countries, and none more so than around the Irish Sea. It is to be hoped that the Manx Government does express concerns to the UK about the new Wylfa power station development. The MHKs were elected to represent us, after all.’
Mr Moore said we need to look after the environment to ensure that we survive, both here in the Isle of
Man and worldwide.
He explained: ’I was four months old at the time of the Windscale fire. If that had been even worse we wouldn’t have survived in the Isle of Man.
’At best, we would have had to be evacuated, and now the UK might be talking about the Windscale Generation as well as the Windrush Generation.
’There is a perception in some quarters that nuclear power produces clean energy and doesn’t cost much once the power station is built.
’However, as is being seen with the older generation nuclear power stations, decommissioning these plants is hugely expensive, including finding a safe way of disposing of and securing the radioactive material. What are we leaving future generations?’
The Manx government’s declared policy is to seek the complete closure of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant and to oppose the operation of any nuclear facility which is the source of radioactive pollution.
The government laboratory conducts independent monitoring of environmental radioactivity levels in the Isle of Man.
Reports suggest estimated construction costs for Wylfa have risen from £10bn to as much as £20bn. The UK govt may cover a large proportion of that funding. http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=41170&headline=Fears%20over%20new%20atomic%20plant§ionIs=NEWS&searchyear=2018
Systemic failures in France’s Flamanville nuclear project
Challenges 8th June 2018 [Machine Translation] EPR plant in Flamanville: does EDF really control its
construction site? While China has inaugurated its first EPR reactor,
delays are accumulating on the site of the EPR Flamanville in the Channel.
Defects noted at the end of March on strategic welds will further postpone
the opening of the plant “at least a few months” according to the Nuclear
Safety Authority.
In Flamanville, we are facing systemic failures. It is no
longer a matter of simple problems that add up to each other. It is in
these terms that Mycle Schneider, an independent Canadian expert and
co-author of an annual report on the nuclear industry, draws the alarming
report of the Flamanville shipyard. On May 31, EDF announced a delay of
several months in the construction of the EPR plant due to welding defects
on pipes. A new setback that will delay the commissioning of the plant. And
this is mainly due to a long series of problems since the launch of the
project in December 2007.
https://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/centrale-epr-de-flamanville-edf-maitrise-t-elle-vraiment-son-chantier_592774
British nuclear industry threatened by exit from EU, without the Euratom safeguards
Brexit without trade deal is ‘worst-case scenario’ for nuclear industry, Utility Week 12 June 18
David Blackman
Withdrawing from the EU without a trade deal would be the “worst-case scenario” for the nuclear industry, Tom Greatrex has warned.
The Nuclear Industry Association chief executive told a conference in London, organised by Chinese atomic energy company Ocean Energy last week, that the Brexit transition period would be “crucial” to the sector, which depended in turn on whether the UK is able to strike a trade deal with the EU.
“No deal is the worst-case scenario for our industry because of the specific nature of the Euratom treaty,” he said, referring to the EU-wide framework for safeguarding nuclear materials and labour.
Greatrex also raised alarm bells over the impact of Brexit on the industry despite the steps taken by colleges in Somerset to train local people to work in the Hinkley Point C plant.
…….Labour peer Lord Hanworth echoed Greatrex’s concerns about the industry’s skilled labour pipeline, citing as a particular worry the government’s failure to make a decision so far on Rolls Royce’s bid to develop a small modular reactor programme.
Rolls Royce could “no longer sustain” the project in the face of “considerable uncertainty”, he said: “If they have to walk away from the project, Britain will lose part of its nuclear engineering competence. “
The peer also highlighted concerns expressed by Hinkley Point C’s developer EDF about the shortage of steel fixers and concrete pourers.
Thousands protest against uranium mine in Spain
Mining.com 10 June 18 Valentina Ruiz Leotaud Spanish media are reporting that between 3,000 and 5,000 people hailing from different cities in Spain, as well as from Portugal and France, rallied this weekend in Salamanca to express their rejection to a uranium mine being built in the Retortillo municipality.
Tons of water poured in by planes, to major wildfire inside the Chernobyl ‘dead zone’
Large fire ravages Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, tons of water poured in by planes https://www.rt.com/news/428807-chernobyl-exclusion-zone-fire/
The fire inside the Chernobyl ‘dead zone,’ which is now part of Ukraine, started on Tuesday morning, when dry grass was ignited, local emergency services said in a statement. The wildfire subsequently reached a forest, where up to 10 hectares (24 acres) are now in flames.
Some 29 vehicles and 126 personnel have been dispatched at the scene, with several planes and helicopters dropping water from the sky on the area engulfed by wildfire.
The zone saw another large blaze last year, which scorched 25 hectares (60 acres) of land.
Chernobyl became the site of one of the biggest nuclear disasters in history, when a local power reactor blew up in 1986, leading to massive contamination of the surrounding area. The severely damaged reactor was sealed off by a protective ‘sarcophagus’ of steel and concrete, while the nearby town of Pripyat had its 50,000 population evacuated. Today, Pripayt is a ghost town. The so-called ‘exclusion zone’ was imposed around the site of the disaster, banning visitors.
Current winds are not blowing residual pollution towards the country’s capital Kiev, local authorities said, noting that radiation levels remain normal.
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