A UK Government big-hitter met nuclear chiefs who want to plough billions of pounds into two or three new reactors in North Wales.

International Atomic Energy Agency and the Japanese govt host a ceremony to mark the designation of the Response and Assistance Network (RANET) Capacity Building Centre in Fukushima - site of the 2011 nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl, caused by a magnitude-9.0 quake and tsunami which killed up to 20,000 people. The Centre will be home to several IAEA activities aimed at enhancing emergency preparedness and response capacity. The Centre's first activity, an IAEA RANET workshop, begins tomorrow

Event Start Date: 2013-05-27

Event End Date: 2013-05-27

Event URL: http://www.iaea.org/

THE BUSINESS and Energy Minister has hailed plans to build a multi-billion pound nuclear power station near Oldbury after it was announced the plant would create £6,000 jobs during construction.

THE life expectancy of Wales' oldest nuclear reactor could be prolonged with a possible 15-month extension now on the table, it emerged yesterday.

The Wylfa "reactor one" in Anglesey was expected to stop producing power in 2014 but may now continue until December 2015.

Plans are subject to a Periodic Safety Review (PSR) approval but Magnox want the 42-year-old reactor to make the most of an remaining fuel that could generate electricity before closure.

A new nuclear power station is set to be constructed adjacent to the existing reactor by Japan's Hitachi.

Reactor two at the same plant was shut down last year.

THE Welsh Government will do everything in its power to ensure Wales gains the maximum benefits from Wylfa B Economy Minister Edwina Hart said yesterday.

BORN in Aberdeen, Norman Baker MP, pictured, certainly understands the importance of energy, and the economic impact it can have on an area.

Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, East Sussex, since 1997, he was appointed to his current role when the coalition was formed three years ago.

Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation

More power plants are needed in the South to prevent blackouts like the one that hit the region on Tuesday night, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) said yesterday.

The European peace movement of the 1980s, one of the greatest popular mobilisations in history, coined many innovative slogans. One of them was, "Nuclear war can spoil your entire afternoon!" This severe, deliberate understating of the danger of mass destruction looming over the world was calculated to shake citizens of their complacency to become "active today" (in the anti-nuclear movement), not "radioactive tomorrow". Now, in a judgment giving the green light to the Kudankulam nuclear project, our Supreme Court tells citizens, without a hint of irony, that they must put up with "minor inconveniences" such as exposure to radiation, which causes cancer or genetic damage and is always harmful, because enormous "economic scientific benefits" (sic) will come from nuclear power, which "remains as an important element in India's energy mix".

The UN nuclear watchdog can send its inspectors to Iran's Parchin military site but it should first specify the borders and limits of its demands which fall outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday.

"If the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) has a request outside our undertakings under the NPT and Safeguard Agreements - and the request for visiting Parchin is one of such demands - these extra requests should have a (specified) framework in which the actions should take place," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi stressed.

Japan's nuclear watchdog said yesterday that one reactor was sitting directly above an active tectonic fault, effectively ruling out a restart forever.

Martin Li

martin.mouse@163.com

A PROPOSED coal-fired power plant that has drawn criticism for its potential location in Baguang, on Dapeng Peninsula in eastern Shenzhen, has only received a permit for preliminary research from the National Energy Administration (NEA), Shenzhen’s development and reform commission announced on its Weibo yesterday evening.

THE situation is really quite serious. We will have to keep our coal-fired power stations open and get fined by the EU," says UK energy expert, Prof Ian Fells.

Speaking from his home in Gosforth, he continued: "By 2015 we will be vulnerable. For the last four years the Government has been sitting on its hands doing nothing, and this is really unacceptable."

Back in 2004 Prof Fells warned of the UK's looming energy crisis and he followed this up in 2008 with a 50-page paper elaborating on his views.

Its publication was picked up by various media outlets and he recounts: "I appeared on Radio Four with Lord Hutton (Government minister with responsibility for energy security issues) where I was accused of being an alarmist.

WYLFA nuclear power station could generate electricity until the end of 2015 - potentially securing more than 600 jobs for another 15 months.

The Anglesey nuclear plant secured permission in October 2010 to extend the operational life of the two reactors to December 2012.

WYLFA nuclear power station could generate electricity until the end of 2015 - potentially securing more than 600 jobs for another 15 months.

The Anglesey nuclear plant was due to end operations no later than September 2014. Now there is the potential to go beyond that date and keep generating until December 2015. BUSINESS P32

The Science and Technology Ministry is focusing on safety of nuclear power use while trying to minimize its impact on the environment.

CHENNAI, May 20 -- The contribution of nuclear energy in the overall energy mix, including coal, hydro, wind and solar, may rise to about 25 per cent by the year 2050, said P R Vasudeva Rao, Director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), here on Sunday.

Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Executive Council has allocated Dh330 billion for the implementation of major development projects over the next five years in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, a good part of which would be invested towards the development of the emirate's Western Region.

CHENNAI, May 19 -- Expressing commitment to India's nuclear energy programme, Nikolay Listopadov, Consul General of the Russian Federation in south India, assured all cooperation to the other units in the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP).

THE chairman of an influential Commons committee warned the high price of new nuclear power stations would be worth paying for cheaper energy bills over the long term.

CHANDIGARH: In what can be seen as a green signal to the upcoming 2,800 MW atomic power project in Gorakhpur village of Fatehabad district in Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by farmers against the plant.