New Nukes
The HSE has announced that it would not recommend a wave of planned new nuclear reactors in the UK unless ‘significant’ design features are changed and safety flaws are addressed.
Hazard Ex 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Doubts have been cast on two nuclear reactors which the Government wants to power its planned new generation of nuclear power plants. Health and safety experts said they had identified a “significant” number of issues over the designs of the French EPR and US AP1000 designs. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said there was much more “detailed work” to do before they could be approved for use.
Cumberland News 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Unqualified welders and badly-mixed concrete are just two among 1,700 “quality deviations” that have dogged the construction of Europe’s first nuclear plant since Chernobyl. It has turned into a costly 2.3bn (£2.1bn) nightmare for Areva, the company, leading the severely delayed build at Olkiluoto, a tranquil, pine-forested island off the coast of Finland. But Rob Davies, director of UK new nuclear for the French state-owned group, insists Britain’s fleet of new reactors will not meet in the same fate. According to Mr Davies, Britain is at the forefront of Areva’s plans to show it can deliver a fleet of stations on time, in budget and without safety hitches. For the UK to meet its 2020 targets on cutting emissions –which may even be tightened at the Copenhagen summit next week – it will be vital for Areva to deliver a flawless reactor ready for EDF’s first plant in 2017.
Telegraph 1st Dec 2009 more >>
The Washington Post leading Page One with an article that detailed how the environmental movement, after 40 years of bitter opposition, now concedes that nuclear power will play a role in averting further harm from global warming. Mind you, not every environmental group has come around; but the feared and respected Natural Resources Defense Council in the United States has allowed that there is a place for nuclear power in the world’s generating mix and Stephen Tindale, a former anti-nuclear activist with Friends of the Earth in the United Kingdom, has said, yes, we need nuclear. For the nuclear industry which has felt itself vilified, constrained and damaged by the ceaseless and sometimes pathological opposition of the environmental movement, this changing attitude is manna from on high. No matter that the environmentalists, in opposing nuclear since the late 1960s have critically wounded the U.S. reactor industry and contributed to the construction scores of coal and gas-fired plants that would not have been built without their opposition to nuclear.
Oil Price 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Nuclear Research
Britain’s entire programme of nuclear research is under threat from a budget crisis at the Government’s physics agency, which could leave the country incapable of training the technicians required for new nuclear plants to meet energy needs. Nuclear physicists believe their field is especially vulnerable to a swath of cuts, due to be announced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council on December 16, to fill a £40 million black hole in its budget. As the agency’s spending commitments in particle physics and astronomy are largely fixed by binding international agreements, such as participation in the CERN laboratory and the Large Hadron Collider, nuclear projects are among the prime candidates for cuts.
Times 1st Dec 2009 more >>
Guardian 1st Dec 2009 more >>
New Scientist 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Dungeness
Letter: The existing stations will most definitely be underwater within 100 years due to natural coastal erosion. Its hardly common sense to build a monolithic new station which will be highly radioactive and therefore immovable for at least a thousand years is it ?
Hawkings Gazette 29th Nov 2009 more >>
Hinkley
Carol Vorderman, former host of the Channel 4 show Countdown, is backing a campaign to prevent scores of electricity pylons being erected across a 37 mile stretch of unspoiled countryside.
Telegraph 1st Dec 2009 more >>
Wylfa
As the world focuses on Copenhagen and the climate change theme, proposals for a Wylfa B nuclear power station on Anglesey, North Wales gather momentum as a major UK infrastructure project. Nuclear power is set to play a major role in the UK’s new balanced energy strategy and clearly the Wylfa site will be a notable contributor to achieving a low carbon economy. Over the coming years it is anticipated that the local island economy will see a massive injection of capital investment and this will enhance the growing reputation of the location as an “energy island” of diverse resources.
Profit Edition 1st Dec 2009 more >>
France
Alstom and Schneider Electric of France on Monday night trumped foreign rivalsGE of the US and Toshiba of Japan with a 4.1bn bid for the transmission and distribution arm of state-owned nuclear group, Areva. Areva’s supervisory board announced it would enter exclusive negotiations with the two French bidders after a marathon meeting lasting more than three hours.
FT 1st Dec 2009 more >>
India
Authorities investigating the deliberate leaking of a radioactive substance into drinking water at an Indian atomic plant say a disgruntled worker could be behind the safety scare. The state-owned atomic power company launched an inquiry into how radioactive tritium seeped into a water cooler and remained at levels dangerous enough to make 55 employees ill after they drank the contaminated water.
Guardian 1st Dec 2009 more >>
India will have a world-class heavy forging facility for future nuclear power plants after a joint venture by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T).
World Nuclear News 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and National Aluminum Company (NALCO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for collaboration with each other for setting up nuclear plants in India.
Energy Business Review 28th Nov 2009 more >>
India and Canada have reached an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation. The move will pave the way for supply of Canadian nuclear materials to Indian market for the first time in more than 32 years.
Energy Business Review 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Iran
The best that can be said about Iran’s announcement that it intends to build a further 10 uranium enrichment facilities is that at least we are now clear about its intentions.
Telegraph 1st Dec 2009 more >>
Iran has threatened to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a day after announcing plans to build 10 more nuclear sites.
Telegraph 1st Dec 2009 more >>
Iran faced mounting threats of sanctions yesterday over its plans to expand massively its uranium enrichment programme in defiance of an official rebuke from a rare coalition of world powers.
Times 1st Dec 2009 more >>
IRAN’S nuclear chief says his country’s announcement of more uranium enrichment was a retaliatory move after criticism from the United Nations.
Vice-president Ali Akbar Salehi told state radio Iran’s decision to build ten new uranium enrichment facilities was necessary to respond to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) resolution last Friday demanding Iran halt all enrichment.
Scotsman 1st Dec 2009 more >>
Iran had no intention of building 10 new nuclear facilities until it was strongly rebuked by the UN nuclear watchdog over its activities, the country’s nuclear chief said today.
Daily Mail 1st Dec 2009 more >>
Energy Efficiency
A conservation charity has called on the Scottish government to “rethink” its plans to eliminate fuel poverty. WWF Scotland wants ministers to drop their “means tested” approach to cutting fuel poverty in favour of street-by-street home refurbishments. It believes measures to cut consumption in every home would improve energy efficiency and lower heating bills. Figures published last week showed that there are now 600,000 families living in fuel poverty in Scotland.
BBC 1st Dec 2009 more >>
Renewables
The cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected according to new research. Tests show that 90% of existing solar panels last for 30 years, instead of the predicted 20 years. According to the independent EU Energy Institute, this brings down the lifetime cost. The institute says the panels are such a good long-term investment that banks should offer mortgages on them like they do on homes. At a conference, the institute forecast that solar panels would be cost-competitive with energy from the grid for half the homes in Europe by 2020 – without a subsidy. Incentive programmes for solar panels in Germany, Italy and Spain have created manufacturing volume that’s bringing down costs. Solar panel prices dropped 30% last year alone due to an increase in output and a drop in orders because of the recession. But Heinz Ossenbrink, who works at the institute, said China had underpinned its solar industry with a big solar domestic programme which would keep prices falling. There are large-scale solar plans in the US and India too.
BBC 1st Dec 2009 more >>
Climate
Sea levels will rise by twice as much as previously predicted as a result of global warming, an important international study has concluded. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) calculated that if temperatures continued to increase at the present rate, by 2100 the sea level would rise by up to 1.4 metres twice that predicted two years ago. Such a rise in sea levels would engulf island nations such as the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Tuvalu in the Pacific, devastate coastal cities such as Calcutta and Dhaka and force London, New York and Shanghai to spend billions on flood defences.
Times 1st Dec 2009 more >>
