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Nuclear companies in cash crisis?

A Greenpeace blimp hovers over  the EPR site at Olkiluoto in Finland

A new report out today casts doubt on the ability of the nuclear industry to deliver its promised new reactors.

French companies EDF and Areva, who are at the forefront of the new worldwide reactor design and building programme, have been making serious investments in foreign markets where they hope to build new reactors, including here in the UK. As a consequence they are heavily in debt. Read more »

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New nuclear sites: have your say

Proposed sites of new nuclear power stations
Proposed sites of new nuclear power stations. See below for key

Do you live in the vicinity of one of these 11 locations, which are being proposed as potential sites for new nuclear power stations? Happy about it? If not, then you've got less than three weeks to read and respond to the information provided by the companies bidding to develop each site as part of the government's 'consultation' process.

Not only that, but if you take the information contained in the 'have your say' guide on the  government's website, you'll run the risk of being seriously misled over issues as fundamental as how much  nuclear actually contributes to the UK's energy mix, and how and where the spent fuel will be disposed of.

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Government knocks the wind out of renewables

wind.jpg

Two breaking stories neatly illustrate the flawed logic which still lurks at the heart of UK energy policy. First up is that German energy utility RWE's bid to build a new nuclear plant near Kirksanton in Cumbria will mean dismantling an existing wind farm on the site. While at the other end of the country, 600 workers at the Vestas Blades wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight could be facing redundancy.

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Quelle horreur – the plots thickens around the EDF scandal

On Tuesday morning I received a call from my colleagues in Paris inviting me to pop over and see them as they had had some worrying news that they needed to share. So the next day, long before the sun was stirring and the local rooster was warming his vocals, I was on my way to St Pancras heading for a lunchtime appointment in 20th Arrondissement. It turns out that the French state owned energy company Electricité de France (EDF), who have allegedly been spying on Greenpeace since 2004, are more involved in the scandal than it initially appeared.

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Meaningless French letters

Niall: taking the wind out of EdF's sails
Niall: taking the wind out of EdF's sails?

Fellow press officers Graham and James have already written about how they spend their days. I spend mine in a similar way. So now I've got to pad this piece out for another hundred words or so.

Which is pretty much the opposite of what I normally do.

Many of the campaigners here hold a wealth of knowledge and expertise in their tip-top brains. I then take their carefully considered words, which are based on scientific evidence, honed by years of expertise, and butcher it into a couple of sentences that a fourteen-year-old should understand. So, rather than padding out, I, erm, pad in.

But some people might already know that. Not because they've got a fine feeling for the life of a press officer, thanks to James and Graham. But because they're spying on us.

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EDF caught spying on Greenpeace in France

With echoes of that fantastic/horrifying nuclear thriller Edge Of Darkness (don't wait for the film, see the original TV series), energy giant EDF has been busted for spying on our colleagues at the Greenpeace in France.

Five people have been indicted by the French courts, including two EDF security executives, a computer expert and the head of a private investigation firm. The charge: attempting to hack into Greenpeace computer systems in France.

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EDF staff charged with spying on French government office

London HQ seeks assurances that UK office not bugged by French nuclear group
1 Apr 2009

Top staff at nuclear energy giant Electricite de France (EDF) have been charged on suspicion of spying on Greenpeace.

Two security chiefs at the French government-owned company are accused of conspiring to hack into Greenpeace computer systems in France. Three others have also been charged, including a computer expert and the head of a private investigation firm. The computer expert has already admitted the charge.

The head of Greenpeace UK is today seeking assurances that EDF, who are the front-runners to build new nuclear reactors in Britain, have not been spying on staff at Greenpeace's London offices.

EDF confirmed yesterday that authorities had searched their premises and an investigation had been opened for "fraudulent intrusion into computer systems".

EDF have recently bought British Energy, owners of almost all of the UK's nuclear power sites, and have an intense interest in shifting the nuclear debate in Britain.

John Sauven, head of Greenpeace UK, said: "We want to know if EDF have been spying on us.

"Their staff are already facing spying charges in France, and they've got a very obvious stake in the future of nuclear power in the UK.

"We back cutting-edge renewable energy projects, while EDF openly admit that such schemes would scupper their nuclear plans.

"So it's now very much up to EDF to say if they've been using underhand tactics in this country."

The spying revelations have already caused a furore in France, with national media covering the story widely. In 1985 the French government accepted responsibility for the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, in which one crew member died.

Gordon Brown's brother, Andrew, is head of media relations at EdF.

ENDS

Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255

Romain Chabrol, Greenpeace France: +31 6 88 88 18 27

Coverage in Le Monde

Coverage on AFP

Notes:

In 2008, Gordon Brown's public consultation on nuclear power was found to be fixed by the market research company which carried out the polling, according to the official trade body.

The previous year, Greenpeace won a High Court ruling which overturned an earlier consultation on nuclear power. Mr Justice Sullivan called the first consultation "manifestly unfair" and "unlawful", adding that it was "seriously flawed" and "manifestly inadequate" because insufficient information had been made available by the Government for participants to make an "intelligent response".

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Scale back investment in wind, EDF and EON tell Miliband

offshore wind at work

Prepare to be unsurprised. Very unsurprised. Those lovable energy giants EDF and E.ON have put their collective boots into government plans to generate 35 per cent of our electricity from renewable sources.

According to their submissions to the latest energy consultation, the figure is not only unrealistic but also damaging to alternative schemes such as nuclear plants. So damaging that, um, they may be forced to drop their plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK unless the government scales back its targets for wind power.

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Planned nuclear reactors will produce seven times more hazardous waste

2 Feb 2009

Nuclear waste from the reactors likely to be built in the UK will be up to seven times more hazardous than that produced by existing reactors.

The admission was made in an 'environmental impact assessment' report by nuclear company Posiva. Posiva are responsible for managing the waste which will be produced by the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) currently being constructed in Olkiluoto, Finland.

And an independent nuclear consultant has warned that this will increase the costs of nuclear energy, as waste storage and safety expenses will rise above expected levels.

Normandy in France is the site of the only other EPR being built in the world. It is the design that French government-owned EdF will attempt to build in Britain. Last week, French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced that a second EPR would be constructed in France.

Independent nuclear consultant John Large said: "This means that not only will spent nuclear fuel produced by the EPR be more dangerous than is acknowledged by the French nuclear industry, but also storage and disposal will be more expensive than the industry and governments proclaim, and will increase the overall cost of nuclear energy.

"The French nuclear companies Areva and EDF, which aggressively market the EPR as safe and cheap, have completely ignored the implications of the increased hazards."

The EPR is designed to extract more energy from nuclear fuel than current nuclear reactors. But this causes the amount of radioactive substances in spent fuel to increase disproportionately. If the fuel is disposed of by burying it in an underground nuclear waste dump, in the long-term, the largest health risk comes from a hazardous substance known as iodine-129. The amount of iodine-129 produced by the EPR is seven times as large as that of a current operating reactor.

Nathan Argent, head of Greenpeace's energy solutions unit, said: "Nuclear power is fast becoming the most expensive form of electricity, and revelations like this should be cause for alarm amongst both investors and taxpayers.

"Instead of being hoodwinked by the vacuous promises of the nuclear lobby, government and industry should instead be making a clever investment in energy efficiency. This would create tens of thousands of British jobs, and also tackle fuel poverty and climate change in the fastest possible way."

ENDS

The full Posiva report is available online - the relevant information is on page 137.

Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255.

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Rhetoric vs reality

Yesterday: "I want British companies and British workers to seize the opportunity and lead the world in the transformation to a low carbon economy and I believe that we can create in modern green manufacturing and service one million new jobs" - Gordon Brown.

Today: British Energy is sold to French nuclear company EDF for £12.5 billion, exporting thousands of potential UK jobs to France, dealing a hammer blow to our chances of meeting our legally binding Renewables Obligation. 

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