The Guardian Online Article Title: “Ed Miliband to exempt Sellafield firms from Freedom of Information Act” published on Monday 17 November 2008

The NDA would like to correct misunderstandings and inaccuracies reported in the above Guardian Online article.

Sellafield Ltd, the company carrying out decommissioning and operational work at the Sellafield and Capenhurst sites, will transfer to private sector ownership on 24 November 2008 following a two year competition. However, ownership of the sites will remain with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which, as a Non-Departmental Public Body, continues to be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

The article goes on to allege that “a decision by Malcolm Wicks, the former energy minister to make the taxpayer liable for any accidents at Sellafield exempting the firm from the national requirement to pay the first £140m of any bill for leaks or radiation contamination”. This is simply not the case. In addition to the Site Licence Company having insurance for the £140m mentioned in the article (and a requirement of the Nuclear Installations Act), through the competition for the ownership of the company each bidder was asked to nominate a monetary sum above the £140m that it would be responsible for in the unlikely event of an incident of this magnitude occurring. All the bidders including the winner – Nuclear Management Partners Ltd - offered to meet some of these potential costs. Formerly, when these sites were in the public sector, all costs in relation to a major incident were to be met by the state purse. Now, the new private sector owners will share an element of the costs thus reducing the potential burden to the UK taxpayer.

The “exemption” in the article refers to companies from other countries that are part of the winning consortium and who are potentially exposed in their home courts despite the UK Government picking up costs above the £140 million limit established under the scope of the Nuclear Installations Act. In order to provide those companies with the same level of comfort as that established by law for UK-based companies the UK Government established an indemnity through Parliament.

NDA www.nda.gov.uk/news

BERR News

The Office for Nuclear development  was launched formally on 18 September 2008. The aim of the OND is to facilitate new nuclear investment in the UK.

The Forum, chaired by the Secretary of State, will bring together Government with key industry stakeholders to ensure that that there is regular and high level contact between all parties on the issues that matter the most to potential investors and operators. Read it all..

 British Energy News

British Energy has published their expectations for plans to build new nuclear plants in the south of England. British Energy is working hard to settle on a design for Sizewell and expect to have made a decision within the next 12 months. Read it all..

Rolls-Royce plc and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) today agreed to work together to assess Abu Dhabi’s industrial capabilities to support a potential civil nuclear power programme. The two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the work during a meeting in Abu Dhabi. Read it all..

Magnox South news Thursday 23 October 2008 

Berkeley site is celebrating after achieving all its performance based incentives (PBIs) for this year, with two completed before their due date. These are annual performance targets set by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

The PBIs have been related to its periodic safety review (PSR). The PSR is a legal requirement of the nuclear site licence which constitutes a 10 yearly review of the adequacy of the site safety case and provides justification that it is safe to operate the site for the next 10 years.

The workforce has been working extremely hard to meet the tight timescales imposed by the NDA and by our regulator the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII). The submitted PSR document contains  recommendations for physical works that will need to be undertaken on site to meet the site’s safety case. Read it all..

Luke Dicicco, PR & Communications Manager for West Lakes Renaissance and Cumbria Vision

REGENERATION organisations West Lakes Renaissance and Cumbria Vision have welcomed the announcement that Nuclear Management Partners Ltd (NMP) will become the new owners of Sellafield, as an important step in establishing West Cumbria as Britain’s Energy Coast^TM.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has entered into a “Transitional Agreement” which will see shares in Sellafield Ltd transferred from British Nuclear Fuels Limited to NMP - which comprises of Washington International Holdings Ltd., AMEC and AREVA NC. The transfer is scheduled for November 24 and will see NMP officially become the Parent Body Organisation for Sellafield, charged with decommissioning the site of the world’s first nuclear power station.

Read it all..

Babcock is celebrating a record order book and a robust market positions and they have now published their half year report ended 30^th September 2008.

The results for the Nuclear division have been particularly strong and reflect the significant market presence of BNS Nuclear Services as well as the strength of the current operational support markets. Compared with the first half of 2007/8 the division benefited from the integration of Strachan & Henshaw’s civil nuclear activities and full contribution from INS.

Read it all..

• Record year to date trading performance
• 2008 group EBITA margin in excess of 6.5% confidently expected
• Continued strength in demand, led by Natural Resources order book up 12% this year
• Over £600 million average net cash expected in 2008 after year to date acquisitions,
  share buybacks and business disposals 

Chief Executive Samir Brikho said:
“Demand for our services has remained strong and we are confident of delivering a margin in excess of 6.5 per cent this year. Our clients remain focused on long-term fundamentals and we continue to see a strong and diverse range of attractive prospective contracts across the business.
“AMEC’s net cash position is exceptionally strong. We look to the future with measured confidence and continue to monitor opportunities for growth through selective acquisition.”

Read it all..

Nov 11 (Reuters) - The B2 turbine at British Energy’s Sizewell nuclear plant was gradually returning to service on Tuesday, a spokesman for the company said.

Both the B1 and B2 turbines at the 594 megawatt Sizewell plant tripped late on Saturday, but the B1 turbine came back on line on Monday.

“It’s ramping back up,” the spokesman said. “We begin with a certain percentage and gradually return to full load.” (Reporting by Barbara Lewis)

Lisa Bimendi was the lucky winner of the iPod Touch. When I called her to tell her the good news she said she had planned to buy an iPod this weekend. Read it all..