The Government is planning to flog some or all of its share of the uranium company Urenco, it announced yesterday.

Urenco enriches uranium which is used for fuel in nuclear power stations around the world. It has around 50 customers across 18 countries which makes up roughly 31% of the global market share.

Any cash raised is likely to go towards reducing the UK’s deficit. The Government says it will only agree to a sale which falls in line with commitments to stop nuclear weapons spreading.

Business and Energy Minister Michael Fallon made the announcement after the Government was given the nod to go ahead from the Dutch government and German utilities RWE and E.ON which own the rest of Urenco.

Mr Fallon said: “Urenco is a world leading, high technology company with strong earnings and the time is right for government to sell its stake. It makes good commercial sense now and is consistent with our position that assets should be sold where ownership itself does not deliver any policy objective.

“Our priority is to ensure taxpayers’ money is being used in the most effective way to boost economic growth. Any sale will make sure we deliver value for money and protect the UK’s security and non-proliferation interests,” he added.

North Korea today said it wants to reopen a closed nuclear reactor. The state-owned news agency KCNA reported it would be restarted for both electricity and military uses.

Tensions have recently been stoked between North and South Korea after Pyongyang threatened to invade its southerly neighbour and strike nearby US military bases.

The mothballed facility has been closed since 2007 following six-party talks involving China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the USA, while its cooling tower was demolished a year later.

The Yongbyon nuclear plant is a small gas-cooled natural uranium fuelled Experimental Power Reactor of about 25 MWt at Yongbyon, on the west coast 55 km north of Pyongyang, according to the World Nuclear Association website. The research site suggests it “exhibited all the features of a plutonium production reactor for weapons purposes and produced only about 5 MWe”.

The United States’ nuclear regulator has rejected an application to build a new nuclear reactor in the state of Maryland on the East Coast.

As the two year anniversary of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster was remembered yesterday, the USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission are reported to have denied a licence for a third nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs power station.

Commentators said they rejected the plans on the grounds too much of the reactor would be owned by a foreign firm, which would go against the Atomic Energy Act. This prohibits foreign ‘ownership, control or domination’ of a US nuclear reactor.

UniStar Nuclear, the firm which applied for a licence, is wholly owned by French energy firm EDF, which is 85% owned by the government of France. Calvert Cliffs-3 was to be an EPR reactor manufactured by the French firm Areva, also 85% owned by the French government.

Nuclear waste.

No one wants it but we need to stick it somewhere and yesterday the good people of Cumbria or more accurately their councillors said NO. Funny that. You could say it’s a no brainer, after all who wants nuclear waste buried at the bottom of the garden? But actually the decision in Cumbria is surprising and as Ed Davey put it “disappointing”.

More than a decade ago I was filming in Cumbria at the height of the Foot and Mouth epidemic. Huge swathes of the countryside were closed off and the air was full of the stench of burning cattle. Economically it hit the region hard but there was one saving grace Sellafield.

The nuclear industry has had its home from home in Cumbria for decades and the people I met then and on subsequent visits have always said how much they love, yes love having nuclear on their doorstep. Apart from farming and tourism there is not much else in the area apart from the nuclear industry.  With the plants, ancillary staffing and supply chain it is the biggest employer in the region. During Foot and Mouth it was the only thing keeping the economy going.

So, if an area where generations now have worked and lived side by side with nuclear and are on the whole in favour of it have rejected nuclear waste, what now?

Geology is a tricky thing, you need to ensure it is solid enough to keep the waste secure for eons but also accessible enough to dig into and create the huge infrastructure needed for nuclear disposal. Yes there are thousands of jobs that can be created building a nuclear disposal centre and in other nations they are a source of employment and even create small communities. In parts of Scandinavia and Japan they are well under way building more of these depositories without complaint.

If we need nuclear, which we do. We will need nuclear waste dumps. Where we build them is a headache for Ed Davey et al but to be fair in general the risks from such a site are less than the radiation we get from our mobiles, they will provide lots of employment – it’s just a pretty big PR job to convince anyone to build it in their back yard.

Hitachi has bought Horizon Nuclear Power from RWE and E.ON for £700m. The deal will be completed at the end of November and the Japanese giant plans to start its nuclear new build programme straight away.

Two British companies will be involved in the project; Babcock International and Rolls-Royce have signed MOUs to join Hitachi to plan and deliver the programme which will carry on where Horizon left off when the scheme was mothballed in March. Hitachi will build two to three 1300 MW plants at each of Horizon’s sites at Wylfa, Anglesey and Oldbury, Gloucestershire, with the first plant generating by 2025.

Hiroaki Nakanishi, President of Hitachi, Ltd. said: “I am extremely pleased that we have been successful in acquiring Horizon Nuclear Power. Today starts our hundred year commitment to the UK and its vision to achieve a long-term, secure, low-carbon, and affordable energy supply. We look forward to sharing Hitachi’s corporate vision and nuclear business policy with the management and employees of Horizon and working harmoniously with UK companies and stakeholders for the delivery of this vital part of Britain’s national infrastructure and the creation of a strong UK nuclear power company.”

Today’s deal was predicted for sometime and was clearly received with relief by government. Energy Secretary Ed Davey said: “Hitachi bring with them decades of expertise  and are responsible for building some of the most advanced nuclear reactors on time and on budget, so I welcome their commitment to helping build a low carbon secure energy future for the UK.  I particularly welcome Hitachi’s firm commitment to involve the UK supply chain and local workforce.

“New nuclear isn’t only about keeping the lights on and emissions down, it’s an industrial strategy with big potential wins. The Nuclear Industry Council I’m announcing today will play a crucial role in this and I believe there’s the potential for the UK to become globally recognised as the go-to place for the next generation of nuclear.”

The bosses of EON and npower also welcomed the deal and the opportunity for them to ditch a nuclear programme that they claimed had become unaffordable. Many have speculated the real reason they scrapped Horizon was pressure from their German parent companies who have to operate in a nation that’s turned its back on nuclear.

RWE npower Group CEO, Volker Beckers said: “A huge amount of work has already been done by Horizon’s highly skilled workforce and today’s announcement is a clear signal that the work done has significant value and that Government policy on new nuclear for the UK is on the right track. It’s an excellent deal for all concerned. RWE has invested more than £3.4bn into new lower carbon infrastructure for Britain over the last three years, more than any other energy company. That has given us not only the largest operational portfolio of renewable energy technologies in the country, but also the largest and most efficient fleet of gas-fired power stations.“

His counterpart at EON Tony Cocker added: “Throughout this process we have been clear that new nuclear developments have a vital role to play in helping the UK produce the low carbon electricity it will need. As is clearly shown by the daily actions of our 12,000 UK colleagues, E.ON will continue to give 100% commitment to this country and our customers. Last year we invested over £1billion and our current developments including Blackburn Meadows, a £120m state of the art biomass plant in Sheffield and Rampion offshore wind farm near Brighton that could see up to £2bn invested, prove beyond doubt that we will play our part in helping to transform the UK’s energy infrastructure.”

Once the deal is signed Hitachi will apply for a licence under the Generic Design Assessment process as governed by the Office for Nuclear Regulation. It claims the project will create around 6000 jobs during construction and a further 1000 permanent jobs when the power stations are operating.

A hideous row over spending on nuclear power has been brewing in the energy sector for quite some time.

Now it threatens to burst into the open air like a mushroom cloud over the new Energy Bill. That is, if it hasn’t already.

SSE’s chief executive Ian Marchant took the bold move of penning an article about how “opaque negotiations between Whitehall and Paris” are seeing the price for new nuclear power set “completely at the wrong level”.

You wonder whether he would have written the same article if his firm still had its stake in NuGen, but as it’s now full throttle renewables for SSE, the Scotch firm’s boss is clearly desperate to get his voice heard.

It’s a breath-taking swipe at rival supplier EDF, as he slaps a big old question mark over high prices for nuclear power – and goes to show just how tense the stakes are for suppliers right now.

Just imagine if energy summits were actual fights. It’s almost too easy to picture the Scottish supplier’s boss grappling a huge broadsword, brandishing it at de Rivaz’s delicate French fencing foil.

Although I hear Vincent is actually a cycling fan, marking that analogy null and void. Can you see Marchant perched on a bike versus the French boss in a Tour de France-style competition?

Unlikely – although this race for the best deal in the Energy Bill is certainly turning out to be a trial of endurance. The big question is: who will be the first across the finishing line?

The UK Government must follow Japan’s footsteps and “ditch” nuclear power in support for renewables. That’s according to an environmental group following the Japanese Government’s announcement last week to stop using nuclear power by 2040.

Andrew Pendleton, Head of Campaigns at Friends of the Earth said: “Britain should follow suit. We’ve got a bounty of renewable energy at our fingertips that’s already falling in cost and which, together with energy saving and smart technologies, can meet our electricity needs.

“Whatever obstacles the Chancellor throws in the way, Ed Davey must ditch costly gas and new nuclear and switch to clean British energy from our wind, sun and sea – providing thousands of new jobs.”

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has rebuked Iran for ignoring its request to let inspectors visit Iranian sites suspected of nuclear weapons activity.

The International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution yesterday expressing “serious concern” over Iran’s enrichment of uranium and refusal to let inspectors into some sites.

Russia and China were persuaded to join with the other members of the so-called P5+1 group – the United States, Britain, France and Germany – to put forward the resolution.

Most of the 35 nations on the IAEA board backed the resolution put forward by the six world powers, with only Cuba voting against the motion, while three countries – Egypt, Ecuador and Tunisia – abstained from the vote.

One US official told the Board there was a possibility Iran was trying to mask its nuclear activities in one of the sites which provoked the IAEA’s motion.

Ambassador Robert Wood, Acting US Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna said: “Iran has been taking measures that appear consistent with an effort to remove evidence of its past activities at Parchin.”

However Iran denies being stubborn, with Ali Asghar Soltanieh, its envoy to the IAEA telling reporters after the vote such a resolution will only “complicate the situation and jeopardise the co-operative environment”.

Investors believe the Government’s energy policy is based on a “lie”, a backbench Labour MP has claimed.

Barry Gardiner, one of the fiercest MPs to sit on Parliament’s energy watchdog, claimed investors believe the Government isn’t being forthright when it suggests energy is going to become cheaper.

In a calm, less fiery speech than viewers of the Parliament’s select committee hearings have come to expect, made at the Energy Event he said: “I was speaking to the investment community, major hedge funds and investors in the energy sector a month ago. One of them simply said the problem is, the government’s energy policy is based on a lie. I think he was actually too generous: it’s not based on a lie, it’s based on at least three.”

Firstly, he said, “The Government wants people to believe their electricity will become cheaper. It will not. It will become much more expensive.”

He then suggested the Government is wrong to claim new nuclear power stations can be built without dipping into the public purse: “If you look at the associated risks, capital, construction, development, it will not be built without absolutely upfront overt government subsidies.”

He suggested the Government was trying to sneak subsidy to nuclear power “covertly” through mechanisms in the Energy Bill such as the Energy Performance standard and subsidising the price of carbon.

He claimed the third “lie” is that Government is “neutral” and doesn’t pick favourites in energy: “Last year the OECD announced that in 2010 the UK subsidised fossil fuels by £3.6 billion. In last year’s budget, the Chancellor announced a further £65million to oil and gas in 2011… In contrast the total subsidy paid to onshore wind in 2010 was just £400million.”

However DECC was adamant new nuclear power won’t need a helping hand. A spokesman said: “We need investment in a diverse energy mix that is secure, low carbon and affordable. New nuclear will play a role in this, without public subsidy.”

Iran needs to step-up its energy generation from renewable sources and nuclear to cut its reliance on fossil fuels.

GlobalData made the comment in its latest report, which shows that 90% of the 264,625GWh of electricity generated last year came from oil, gas and coal.

With the country’s implementation of its Renewable Energy Power Purchase Act, Iran’s renewable energy generation is expected to rise to 3,493GWh by 2020 from 551GWh this year.

Nuclear power capacity is also expected to increase from 915MW last year to 1,830MW by 2020 following the construction of its first nuclear plant, which is expected to come into operation this year.

However, the report claims 86% of the nation’s predicted energy production for 2020 is still expected to come from fossil fuels.