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"AN £80m loan to support the civil nuclear supply chain has been cancelled as part of spending cuts announced by the government. The loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was announced by the former Labour government before the election, but has fallen victim to the review of spending decisions taken since January. Copeland MP Jamie Reed said: "This is a very serious blow for the UK nuclear industry and begs the question does the new government actually know what its doing and does it want nuclear ? "The signs are not good, confusing at best."

"Easter 1958: some 10,000 people marched from London to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston to protest against Britain's first hydrogen bomb tests. Fast forward to the Easter weekend this year and people have come together from across Britain - some of whom protested in the original march - to participate in the 50th anniversary event. Rowenna Davis, interested to find out whether anti-nuclear campaigners are 'noble or naive', went along for the ride The snow didn't stop them coming. Half a century since the first march to Aldermaston in 1958, members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament were going back to the base to protest against the government's plans to renew Trident, the UK's nuclear weapons system. And this time I was going with them. As a general rule, anti-nuclear protesters are considered to be the most unrealistic of all campaigners - and I wanted to see for myself whether they were noble or naive. "

Government will ease the way for extra plants but not provide subsidies, energy minister Charles Hendry to tell industry chiefs Energy minister Charles Hendry will today set out the government's support for new nuclear power, in the face of opposition from the Tories' coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats. Hendry will tell the Nuclear Industry Forum that there is a role for new nuclear plants, provided they do not require public subsidies."

"Anti-nuclear protesters have reacted angrily to a report which suggested the burial of nuclear waste is the only safe method of disposal. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority wants communities to volunteer to host underground repositories in return for investment in community projects. Copeland council, Allerdale council, Cumbria County Council and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority are discussing the possibility of having a geological waste facility, which would provide long-term storage for highly-active nuclear waste from across the UK, in Copeland or Allerdale. The authorities have argued that, due to the existing economic and environmental impacts on the region, it is vital west Cumbria is involved in the process that decides what happens. But members of Radiation Free Lakeland, an activist group run by Marianne Birkby, have branded a potential site "the worst possible option" for the region."

Four potential sites for new nuclear power stations have been proposed as the government's process for choosing suitable locations starts in earnest. Sellafield in Cumbria, Bradwell in Essex, Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Wylfa in Anglesey have been named by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The criteria on which sites will be judged will be published on Tuesday, with a decision due later this year.

New scientific evidence made the link between participation in Britain's 1950s nuclear tests and ill-health and established the case for compensation, the High Court heard today. Benjamin Browne QC, speaking for around 1,000 servicemen who took part in the programme in the South Pacific, said that the Government had satisfied itself as to the validity of the Rowland study of a small group of New Zealand test veterans, which proved that most if not all of them suffered genetic effects due to radiation exposure.

A request from a council for cash from nuclear firms bidding to build a new power station in Hinkley, Somerset has angered protesters. Campaigners claimed the move shows a "conflict of interest". Sedgemoor District Council has written to EDF and British Energy asking for £750,000 to help pay for the planning work to consider the application.

The UK Atomic Weapons Establishment, which makes and maintains the warheads for Britain's nuclear missiles, has come under the control of US companies after the government sold its one-third stake. Ministers were accused last night of trying to conceal the change in ownership after failing to make an announcement to parliament. Jacobs, an engineering company with headquarters in Pasadena, California, announced late on Wednesday in the US that it had bought the government's holding in AWE. The stake was put up for sale last year after ministers decided to break up BNFL, the state-owned group, which included AWE.

The Cumbria Cabinet's complete reversal of any semblance of democracy is worthy of the most agile circus acrobat. The nuclear acrobatics continue in the news reports justifying the decision to bury high level nuclear waste by saying : "This is the option being taken in the US at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, where highly radioactive fuel will go underground. The Yucca Mountain project involved URS Washington, a key partner in Sellafield's parent body organisation NMP". Sounds wonderfully cosy and reasurring doesn't it? But the truth is somewhat different with lawsuits against URS Washington and deep disposal of high level nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain now off the agenda because of contamination risks to the regions water, soil and air.

A Thurso Church of Scotland minister is calling on the Scottish Government to end the long-standing uncertainty over what is to happen to the country's intermediate active nuclear waste. The Rev Ronnie Johnstone said a decision is long overdue about what is to be done with the stockpiles of waste at Dounreay and other sites. Mr Johnstone said people in the far north want a clear steer on whether the debris is to remain indefinitely on site, or is to be sent to a national waste dump. He said the situation is muddied by the contradictory positions of the UK and Scottish Governments and Highland Council.

Ministers tell servicemen who witnessed 1950s test explosions they should have claimed years ago Ministers have been accused of blocking compensation claims brought by hundreds of nuclear test veterans who believe they developed cancers and other illnesses after being forced to witness atomic bomb experiments in the 1950s and '60s. Despite pay-outs to former servicemen in the US, France and China, Britain has told its veterans there is no case for offering compensation, and that there is no scientific justification for a full investigation into birth defects suffered by the veterans' children and grandchildren.

The Ministry of Defence has criticised the monitoring of radiation hotspots on a Fife beach, carried out by environment watchdog Sepa. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said 39 radioactive items were detected in September at Dalgety Bay. Radium from wartime aircraft is thought to have been in landfill used when the foreshore was reclaimed.

WORKING practices at Sellafield are to be put under the microscope. Experts are being called in from Nuclear Management Partners' consortium companies in the US and France, as well as the UK, to scrutinise and assess methods being used across six core areas of the huge site over the next three months. It is a fundamental part of a 100-day plan. Changes are expected as NMP bids to get the best out of an annual £1.3 billion contract and the chance to earn a £50 million fee. Thirteen separate teams split into groups of six to eight people will look closely at the work and how it is being done.

What is Prince Andrew's new year's resolution? Not, it seems, to be any less controversial than he was in 2008. This column has learnt of a plan to hold a gala lunch on 5 February at Buckingham Palace for heavy hitters in the nuclear industry, which is, according to critics, a startlingly fraught arena for a member of the royal family to enter. The lunch is to be hosted by the prince as the UK's special representative for international trade and investment, the idea of the job being that he can use his royal clout to promote Britain abroad, although providing a publicity boost for nuclear energy within the UK is a departure.

The economics of new nuclear power stations for the UK do not add up. It is not possible to achieve what the Government says it will do - build a new generation of nuclear stations in England without public subsidy.

* Rolls Royce, Balfour Beatty to work with France's Areva * Companies sign deals to build new UK nuclear plants LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Engine maker Rolls Royce and construction group Balfour Beatty said on Thursday they had would work with French nuclear reactor builder Areva to build a new generation of British power stations. The agreement cements growing Anglo-French cooperation to replace Britain's ageing nuclear power plants after France's EDF (EDF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's biggest nuclear energy producer, agreed in September to buy British Energy, and with it Britain's nuclear power industry, in a 12.5 billion pound ($18.4 billion) deal. "Rolls-Royce and Areva have agreed a memorandum of understanding and will work together on supply chain development, manufacturing and engineering services," Rolls Royce said in a statement.

Widespread doubts about the ability of nuclear power companies to bring a new generation of reactors on stream at the right time and on budget were raised yesterday within an industry that the UK government is relying on to meet its climate change and energy security goals. EDF, the French power company that has positioned itself as a leading player in the market, admitted that its new European Pressurised Reactor programme at Flamanville in France was already 20% over budget, while delays continue to plague a Finnish facility, the only other new plant under construction in Europe.

The nuclear industry has hitched a ride on the climate change bandwagon, proclaiming that nuclear power will solve the world's global warming and energy problems in one sweeping "nuclear renaissance." As you might expect, there's a catch. Nuclear energy faces escalating capital costs, a radioactive waste backlog, security and insurance gaps, nuclear weapons proliferation, and expensive reactor decommissioning that will magnify the waste problem.

Energy firms will refuse to pass on all of the savings they make on cheaper wholesale gas and electricity to consumers, one of the UK's top energy bosses admitted this weekend. The warning, issued by Paul Golby, chief executive of Eon UK, came after a week in which the price of oil tumbled to just above $40 a barrel. As the government demands that the banks give borrowers the benefit of the latest cut in interest rates, energy companies are also coming under increasing pressure to cut customers' bills.

A series of public meetings is to be held next month to discuss the possibility of building a new nuclear power station at Dungeness. British Energy and environmental consultants Royal Haskoning will be on hand to answer questions from people living on Romney Marsh. The site, on the Kent/Sussex border, is being considered for a new reactor.