Category Archives: Nuclear power

Albanese condemns Dutton’s pledge for mass public service cuts ‘only in Canberra’

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Opposition leader’s comments suggest close to two-thirds of capital’s public service roles – which include many key agencies – would be slashed

Peter Dutton has pledged to cut almost two-thirds of Canberra’s federal public servants if elected, in a move Anthony Albanese has criticised as “outrageous”.

In a testy press conference in Tasmania on Thursday morning, the opposition leader batted away questions about not visiting a single proposed nuclear power station site, as well as confusion over shifting positions on migration targets, tax breaks for electric vehicles and Coalition support for recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

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Most Australians would be concerned about nuclear power station built nearby, survey shows

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Exclusive: Survey by Griffith University found 38% of respondents extremely concerned by the prospect of a reactor being built near their home

A majority of Australians do not view nuclear power favourably, and would be concerned if a plant was built near them, according to a new survey shared exclusively with Guardian Australia.

The new figures come as the Coalition battles to regain momentum in the final two weeks of the election campaign. The Coalition has pledged to build taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors at seven sites around Australia in a bid for more “reliable” power than could be achieved with renewables firmed by storage such as batteries and pumped-hydro, using gas as a back-up.

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Trade unionists, conservationists and church groups unite against Dutton’s nuclear plan

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Seven Regions Nuclear Free alliance launches campaign representing groups who oppose the Coalition’s proposed nuclear reactors in their communities across Queensland, NSW, SA, Victoria and WA

Trade unions, conservationists, First Nations groups, church congregations and community organisations have launched a coordinated campaign against opposition leader Peter Dutton’s plan for nuclear reactors across Australia.

The Coalition has pledged, if elected, to build seven nuclear reactors to replace retiring or retired coal sites naming Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Liddell and Mount Piper in New South Wales, Port Augusta in South Australia, Loy Yang in Victoria, and Muja in Western Australia.

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Peter Dutton’s nuclear power plan could lead to major electricity shortages, analysis says

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Coalition’s proposal overestimates the reliability of Australia’s ageing coal generators, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says

Peter Dutton’s plan to build less renewable energy and keep Australia’s coal plants running longer has overestimated the reliability of ageing generators and could lead to major electricity shortages, according to a new analysis.

The Coalition has pledged to put taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors at seven sites around Australia and has pointed to modelling by Frontier Economics that shows the country’s ageing coal fleet would need to take up the slack in electricity generation while they are built.

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Victorian Liberal leader distances state party from Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal: ‘Our focus is gas’

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Exclusive: Brad Battin says he had a conversation with the federal opposition leader about the ‘language’ he would use about plans to build a nuclear reactor in eastern Victoria

The Victorian opposition leader says he discussed the language he would use to distance the state party from the federal Coalition’s campaign to build a nuclear reactor in the Latrobe Valley, telling Peter Dutton “it’s your campaign”.

The Loy Yang coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley east of Melbourne is one of seven proposed sites for the federal Coalition’s proposal to build nuclear reactors, the centrepiece energy policy the federal Liberal leader will be taking to the 3 May poll.

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Community groups furious Coalition nuclear plan would go ahead even if locals oppose it

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Opponents of policy say locals should be ‘very angry’ they will not be able to veto generators in their towns despite Coalition promise to consult them

There is a “growing backlash” to the Coalition’s nuclear plan, with community groups furious at the lack of consultation and angered that the policy would not give local communities the power of veto and that nuclear plants would be built regardless of local opposition.

Opponents say pro-nuclear lobby group Nuclear for Australia has been hosting information sessions but that they make it overly difficult for people to attend, make it hard to ask questions, and are not able to answer those questions that are posed.

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Unsafe for Russia to restart Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, says Ukraine energy chief

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Energoatom CEO, Petro Kotin, says ‘major problems’ need to be overcome before it can safely generate power

It would be unsafe for Russia to restart the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and would take Ukraine up to two years in peacetime if it regained control, the chief executive of the company that runs the vast six-reactor site has said.

Petro Kotin, chief executive of Energoatom, said in an interview there were “major problems” to overcome – including insufficient cooling water, personnel and incoming electricity supply – before it could start generating power again safely.

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‘They’re everywhere’: workers warn of rat infestation at Somerset nuclear plant

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Unions urge energy giant EDF to take action as concerns mount over health of construction staff

Workers building the troubled Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor in Somerset have raised concerns that the construction site is overrun by rats.

The Unite and GMB trade unions are understood to have warned the developer, the French energy giant EDF, that urgent action is needed because the rodents are “everywhere”.

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‘Apoplectic’ environment groups halt Coalition attack ads to take aim at Albanese over species’ ‘death warrant’

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Exclusive: Australia’s top green organisations suspend anti-nuclear power ads to fund campaign against Labor’s move to protect salmon industry

Australia’s leading environment organisations have abruptly suspended advertising campaigns attacking the Coalition’s plan to introduce nuclear power and are instead funding ads accusing Anthony Albanese of signing “the death warrant” of an endangered species.

The shift from criticising the Coalition to Labor on the cusp of an election campaign was agreed by the bosses of green groups – including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, the WWF Australia and the Climate Council – at what campaigners described as an emergency meeting on Saturday.

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Proposed nuclear power plants in Queensland could not access enough water to prevent a meltdown, research finds

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About 1,000 times the combined capacity of Wivenhoe and Boondooma dams was required to cool Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors in 2011

Proposed nuclear power plants in Queensland would not have access to enough water to stop a nuclear meltdown and could strain capacity on drinking water and irrigation supplies even under normal operations, research has found.

Analysis by the Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) has found that one of the two nuclear reactors proposed for the sunshine state under the energy plan that the Coalition will take to the upcoming federal election would require double the water currently used by the existing Callide coal-fired power station. The other, Tarong, would use 55% more water than its existing coal station.

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Trump’s demand that US could take over Ukraine’s reactors is not credible

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US president’s plan for American firms to run power plants is unrealistic and is opposed by Putin and Zelenskyy

As a demand, it is Donald Trump at his most confusing. The American president appears, at least according to Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, to have told Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday that “American ownership” of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants would be their best protection in future – although the Ukrainian president said on Thursday that “the issue of property, we did not discuss”.

Of the four, the most significant, and the one that Trump has repeatedly referred to in the past week, is the vast, six-reactor Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. It is Europe’s biggest nuclear generator, located on the southern bank of the Dnipro River. Before the full-scale Russian invasion it produced about 20% of the country’s electricity but it is now on the frontline of Europe’s largest war since 1945.

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Sellafield nuclear site taken out of special measures for physical security

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Site in Cumbria can now return to routine inspections but concerns remain over cybersecurity

The UK nuclear industry regulator has taken Sellafield, the world’s largest store of plutonium, out of special measures for its physical security – but said concerns remained over its cybersecurity.

Guarding arrangements at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria have improved enough to allow for routine inspections from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), rather than requiring “enhanced regulatory oversight”.

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Australia’s new chief scientist open to nuclear power but focused on energy forms available ‘right now’

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Prof Tony Haymet says nuclear industry will need to ‘rebuild their social licence’ while noting solar and wind are ‘incredibly cheap’

Australia’s new chief scientist has said he is open to the prospect of nuclear power playing a role in the country’s energy mix, but remained focused on forms of energy that were “available to help us right now”.

On his first day in the job, Prof Tony Haymet said new energy-intensive technologies like artificial intelligence could be powered by renewables, but that he thought serious discussions about nuclear in Australia were likely to be years away.

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Tulip Siddiq questioned over multibillion-pound embezzlement allegations

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Treasury minister denies claims by Bangladesh that she helped broker corrupt deal with Russia to build nuclear plant

The Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq has been questioned by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team after Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission accused her and family members of embezzling billions for a nuclear power plant.

The Labour MP, who denies allegations that she helped broker a deal with Russia to build the energy project, reportedly told a government official that she was the victim of a “political hit job”.

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Nuclear energy debate draws stark gender split in Australia ahead of next year’s election

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Survey finds 25 percentage point gender gap across all age brackets on whether nuclear power would be positive for the country, with majority of men saying it would

New data points to a stark gender split in attitudes towards nuclear energy, with women much more likely to say they don’t support it or think the risks are too great.

Research company DemosAu surveyed 6,000 people on behalf of the Australian Conservation Foundation and found 26% of women thought nuclear energy would be good for Australia, compared with 51% of men.

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Iran and Europe seek to break nuclear impasse before return of Trump

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Talks held in Geneva as Iran looks to avoid potential snapback of UN sanctions over nuclear programme

Iran and the so-called E3 grouping of the UK, France and Germany have agreed to continue holding talks in the near future in an attempt to find a way out of an impasse over Tehran’s nuclear programme, in what may be the last chance of a breakthrough before Donald Trump takes up the US presidency again.

Trump, who pursued a policy of “maximum economic pressure” against Iran during his first term, returns to the White House on 20 January.

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Iran says it could end ban on possessing nuclear weapons if sanctions reimposed

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Comments made after nuclear inspectorate board passed motion censuring Iran for building uranium stockpile

The nuclear debate inside Iran is likely to shift towards the possession of its own weapons if the west goes ahead with a threat to reimpose all UN sanctions, the country’s foreign minister has said.

Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in an interview that Iran already had the capability and knowledge to create nuclear weapons, but said they did not form part of its security strategy. He also said Tehran was prepared to keep supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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Latest Russian airstrikes on Ukraine threaten ‘catastrophic power failure’

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Targeting of substations connected to three working nuclear plants risks nuclear catastrophe in Europe, says Greenpeace

Ukraine’s power network is at “heightened risk of catastrophic failure” after Russia’s missile and drone attack on Sunday, Greenpeace has warned, raising fears about the safety of the country’s three operational nuclear power stations.

The strikes by Moscow were aimed at electricity substations “critical to the operation of Ukraine’s nuclear plants” and there is a possibility that the reactors could lose power and become unsafe, according to a briefing note prepared for the Guardian.

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Plan to dispose of nuclear waste from Aukus submarines unanimously rejected by Adelaide council

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City of Port Adelaide Enfield’s mayor says she hadn’t received correspondence about storage or disposal before or after bill passed federal parliament

Plans to dispose of low-level nuclear waste from Aukus submarines at an Adelaide naval facility have been unanimously opposed by the local council for the area, who say they weren’t consulted.

The Osborne naval shipyard, 25km north of Adelaide CBD, and HMAS Stirling at Garden Island 50km south of Perth in Western Australia, have both been designated as “radioactive waste management facilities” for nuclear waste from Aukus submarines under the Australian naval nuclear power safety bill, which passed parliament in October.

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Robot retrieves radioactive fuel sample from Fukushima nuclear reactor site

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Plant’s owners hope analysis of tiny sample will help to establish how to safely decommission facility

A piece of the radioactive fuel left from the meltdown of Japan’s tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been retrieved from the site using a remote-controlled robot.

Investigators used the robot’s fishing-rod-like arm to clip and collect a tiny piece of radioactive material from one of the plant’s three damaged reactors – the first time such a feat has been achieved. Should it prove suitable for testing, scientists hope the sample will yield information that will help determine how to decommission the plant.

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