Nuclear-&-Uranium

By John Vidal, The Guardian Environmental activists have occupied the site of what is planned to be Britain’s first new nuclear power station since 1995, and on Friday accused EDF of “ignoring democracy” and starting work on the £10bn project without permission to build the station. Eight people have occupied the semi-derelict Langborough farmhouse on land due to be cleared within weeks to make way for the twin-reactor Hinkley Point C power station. The £100m preparatory earth works, which were formalised today in Paris with David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy signing an agreement, will remove a volume of soil and rock four times the volume of Wembley stadium from the 500ha site, destroy a site of special scientific interest and several historic buildings. ...

By Agence France-Presse Thousands demonstrated in Tokyo on Saturday against nuclear power generation, 11 months after a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel prize winner for literature, told a central rally at Yoyogi Park, “Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants will be borne by generations to come.” “This must not be condoned by human beings. It is against ethics,” the 77-year-old novelist said. ...

By Agence France-Presse The U.S. approved its first new nuclear power reactors in decades on Thursday, despite objections from the country’s top regulator that safety issues raised by last year’s Fukushima meltdown were not fully addressed. Commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 to approve the construction of two 1,100 megawatt Westinghouse-Toshiba AP1000 at power generator Southern Co.’s existing nuclear facility in Vogtle, Georgia. The dissenter was the NRC chairman, Gregory Jaczko, who argued for the need for “binding commitments” that the builders would implement design fixes to fully address risks exposed by the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant after the March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster. ...