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An international consortium is signing a multi-billion pound contract to clean up the Sellafield nuclear plant. Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) is taking over the shares in Sellafield Ltd formerly held by BNFL. The £22bn contract, which promises improved performance and efficiency, is expected to last up to 17 years. The deal is being struck on Monday.

The UK's renewable energy targets could prove both costly and risky, and nuclear energy is the most reliable viable low-carbon alternative, according to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. The committee's report - entitled The Economics of Renewable Energy - acknowledges government commitments to increase renewable energy use, but is sceptical as to whether the target of 15% renewables for the UK by 2020, proposed by the European Union (EU), can be met. It also warns that an over-reliance on intermittment power generation options, such as wind energy, could prove both costly and risky in terms of security of supply.

Few people know that convoys carrying nuclear warheads regularly travel along our roads, past our homes and schools. Containing plutonium and other deadly radioactive material, they are transported between submarine bases in Scotland and Berkshire's repair and maintenance facilities at Aldermaston and Burghfield. An accident involving and explosion or fire could cause a partial nuclear blast and result in lethal radiation contaminating the surrounding area.

Proposals are being considered for an underground nuclear waste disposal site in Cumbria. Cumbria County Council is considering "expressing an interest" in a formal government process to find a suitable location for a nuclear waste dump. But council chiefs stressed they were not committing to a site and any plan would be subject to the scrutiny of a full public consultation. Around 70% of the UK's high level nuclear waste is stored at Sellafield.

A WELSH Labour MP has accused the UK Government of covering up a deal that will land taxpayers with a multi-billion- pound liability in the event of a nuclear accident while a private consortium will reap the profits. Newport West MP Paul Flynn discovered that details of a contract to privatise the management of waste from the controversial Sellafield nuclear power station in Cumbria should have been placed in the House of Commons library in July. If they had been, MPs would have had 14 days in which to raise questions about the deal.

Radioactive liquid spilled into a river during maintenance work on a nuclear submarine, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The Royal Navy said up to 280 litres (62 gallons) of contaminated water spilled from a ruptured hose as it was used to pump out coolant from HMS Trafalgar at the Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth. The incident happened shortly after midnight on Friday and the contaminated liquid spilled into the River Tamar. An MoD spokesman said: "During a standard operation to transfer primary coolant from HMS Trafalgar to an effluent tank on the jetty, a hose ruptured, resulting in a leak of the coolant. A maximum of 280 litres of coolant were discharged from the hose on to the submarine casing, jetty and into the river Tamar.

Consultation has begun on plans to build a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset. French energy company EDF is proposing to build a third-generation plant on the 86 hectare site. A series of exhibitions, newsletters and meetings will allow people to submit their views on the proposals.

One of British Energy's biggest investors has so far declined to sell its stake to EdF, believing that the French company's £12.5bn takeover bid may yet fail regulatory hurdles. M&G, which owns 5pc of the UK nuclear power generator and helped block EdF's original offer, argues that the revised bid significantly undervalues British Energy.

Plans for Britain's future nuclear supply emerged in sharp focus yesterday after the French power giant EDF unveiled a £12.5bn deal to buy British Energy and build four new reactors in the UK. The state-owned company, already one of the UK's top six energy suppliers, plans to take over British Energy's eight nuclear generators, including Hunterston B and Torness in Scotland, and has identified six potential sites for its new model of water-pressurised reactor south of the border.

French energy giant EDF's UK subsidiary EDF Energy would not comment Wednesday on press reports that no deal would be reached with UK's Centrica over ownership of nuclear generator British Energy until after the European Commission ratified the French company's takeover bid. State-controlled EDF's Eur15.6 billion ($22 billion) takeover of British Energy was agreed September 24 by the boards of EDF and British Energy and is subject to UK and EC regulatory approval.

An inquiry into the removal of body tissue from Sellafield nuclear workers has been hit by concerns about the medical records of dead patients. Michael Redfern QC is heading a public inquiry into why samples were taken between 1962 and 1992 and whether next of kin were informed.

Business Secretary John Hutton has appeared to warn against imposing a windfall tax on energy companies. He told the Daily Telegraph the "right framework" was needed to ensure £100bn was invested in nuclear, renewables and clean coal power stations.

An inquiry into the removal of body tissue from dead Sellafield nuclear workers can examine the patients' medical records, a judge has ruled. Michael Redfern QC is heading a public inquiry into why samples were taken between 1962 and 1992 and whether next of kin were informed.

The grand plan for nuclear power in the UK has come to a grinding halt with EDF's decision to abandon buying British Energy It's not often that the blocking of a single deal brings a whole area of national policy to a grinding halt. Yet that is what has happened with the failed (for the moment) auction of British Energy (BE), our sole nuclear-power provider. When its sale to EDF, the French utility group, was halted on Thursday, government energy policy was derailed at the same moment.

Radioactive waste could be stored in a former opencast mine near Whitehaven. Recycling and waste management firm Sita UK said it is in discussions with Copeland Council about buying the site at Keekle Head. The company wants to re-use the derelict site for the "disposal of very low level radioactive construction and demolition wastes from Sellafield".

The entrance to Devonport Dockyard has been barricaded by a group of anti-nuclear campaigners. Police were called to the dockyard's Camel's Head gate in Plymouth at 0720 BST after protesters tied ladders together to block the entrance.

The British ambassador to Moscow and two of his diplomats were refused entry to a UK-funded nuclear fuel storage facility in Russia when they turned up on a scheduled visit, an embassy spokesman said on Friday.

It will take over 100 years before the toxic nuclear site at Sellafield is safe, it has been revealed. A Westminster report claims that the UK's largest atomic power-station, overlooking the Irish Sea, won't be completely clean until 2120.

Nigeria's Plateau State wants $100bn (£50bn) in compensation from the UK and Europe for environmental damage caused, it says, by mining in colonial times.

A recent published report on the possibility of exporting radioactive waste from the UK to Utah is reinforcing Rep. Jim Matheson's fear that more and more European countries, which already includes Italy, will want to pawn their nuclear waste off on the United States.