Hinkley
UK should think again about Hinkley Point nuclear power station: The economics of EDF’s project looks less and less desirable. EDF may have signed an outline agreement with the government in 2013. But last week it announced the plant would not come on line in 2023 as planned. That is because the group has yet to agree a final deal with its Chinese partners on the split of their investment. The government should seize the chance offered by this pause to look at the whole misconceived project again.Cash-strapped EDF may find it challenging to finance its side of the bargain. But from the perspective of the UK consumer the terms look even less desirable. Few would bet on wholesale electricity prices holding steady at double their present level for the next half century. Some experts even hypothesise that they might fall, both magnifying the scale of the subsidies and making them permanent. Meanwhile the cost of alternative low carbon sources, such as solar, and better battery technology, is falling fast.Any sensible nuclear strategy must surely involve proven technology and reasonable costs. EDF offers neither. The two EPR reactors it is building in Europe have suffered huge cost overruns and delays. The group has spent £2bn on Hinkley Point before a brick has been laid. Granted, the government says that the French group and its partners will bear responsibility for any overruns. But this promise may yet be tested. Some of the debt to finance construction will bear a government guarantee. Before finally signing on the dotted line, ministers should take a fresh look at the underlying assumptions for the project in the light of changing circumstances, then publish and defend them. If the economics does not make sense, it should consider scrapping the deal and retendering it, this time on a properly competitive basis and with more stringent criteria. Backing out of Hinkley Point might upset the French and embarrass the government. But a wish to spare ministerial blushes is no excuse for saddling the country with costs it cannot afford.
FT 9th Sept 2015 read more »
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said on Tuesday he was confident that a plan to build new nuclear power generating capacity at the Hinkley Point power station would go ahead. “I am pretty confident that we are going to be able to do a deal, but we are still in the negotiations,” Osborne told a panel of lawmakers in Britain’s upper house of parliament. The British government and French power group EDF are trying to finalise the project which is due to include Chinese investors. Osborne said he was due to visit China in the coming weeks and that the president of China was due to visit Britain in October, allowing further discussion about the project.
Reuters 8th Sept 2015 read more »
Wylfa
PAWB calls on Natural Resources Wales to halt the consultation on an application to them by Horizon Nuclear. The purpose of the application is to seek permission to sink boreholes in the rock under the sea at Porth y Pistyll between Wylfa nuclear power station and Cemlyn. Their aim is to assess the rock as a foundation for building a landing jetty to import building materials for two huge new nuclear reactors and all the auxiliary buildings on the site nearby. Serious defects in Horizon Nuclear’s consultation is undermining the whole process. Although a fortnight’s extension has been secured for the consultation until September 17 that is totally unsatisfactory.
People Against Wylfa B 8th Sept 2015 read more »
Bradwell
On 25 August, a team from BANNG met with key officers from the Environment Agency, David Griffiths, Team Leader (South) and Karl Littlewood, Nuclear Regulator (South). The main item for discussion was the application by Magnox to extend its permit for discharges arising from the dissolution of radioactive fuel element debris (FED) from Bradwell for a further 24 months. BANNG argued that as the original permit for discharges to be carried out for 12 months had already expired, a new permit should be applied for and not a variation to the original. The EA said that the original permit had not expired only the time-limit of 12 months. Discharges arising from FED dissolution would, therefore, continue until 2017, with the site entering Care and Maintenance in 2018, instead of at the end of 2015 as had long been promised.After the meeting BANNG’s Chair Andy Blowers said: ‘It is clear that the EA have every intention of granting this extension despite objections. We are naturally disappointed but I cannot say we are surprised’.
BANNG 9th Sept 2015 read more »
Radhealth
Federal regulators are pulling the plug on a five-year study of the risk of cancer in communities around six U.S. nuclear plants and a nuclear fuel site. Remaining work on a pilot study would take too long, at more than three years, and cost too much, at $8 million, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. It said any releases that occur “are too small to cause observable increases in cancer risk near the facilities.” The commission already has spent $1.5 million. And completing the pilot study and subsequent nationwide reviews could take eight to 10 years, the agency said.
Seattle Times 9th September 2015 read more »
Nuclear Research
The University of Sheffield has today (9 September 2015) celebrated the official opening of its new £3m advanced nuclear materials research facility, Materials for Innovative Disposition from Advanced Separations (MIDAS).
University of Sheffield 9th Sept 2015 read more »
Uranium
An Australian governmental committee has recommended that uranium sales to India should only be allowed to proceed after its concerns about non-proliferation, nuclear regulation and safeguards have been addressed.
World Nuclear News 9th Sept 2015 read more »
Global Nuclear
Global nuclear capacity will continue expanding in the coming decades – but a slow pace. That’s according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It stated the sector has overcome challenges such as low fossil fuel prices, a slower world economy and the legacy of the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan. However, the growth is still slow since the incident in 2011, the report added. The world’s nuclear generating capacity is estimated to expand by between 2.4% and 68% by 2030.
Energy Live News 9th Sept 2015 read more »
Kazakhstan
Lady Judge: Nuclear power can now sweep the developing world – safely. With everyone fixated on the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, it is regrettable but perhaps understandable that the world has missed a crucial moment in the history of nuclear non-proliferation. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the government of Kazakhstan and a host of other international actors have agreed a deal to create the first truly international nuclear fuel bank, a move with huge potential for economic development and for nuclear non-proliferation. After approving the idea in late 2010, the IAEA and Kazakhstan have agreed to set up a low enriched uranium (LEU) bank. It will be owned and operated by the IAEA, with Kazakhstan footing the daily operational costs.
City AM 10th Sept 2015 read more »
China
China has an unsettling nuclear deterrence strategy.
Business Insider 10th Sept 2015 read more »
The construction of a nuclear power plant in Kenya based on the Hualong 1 design will be examined under a memorandum of understanding signed between China General Nuclear (CGN) and the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board (KNEB).
World Nuclear News 9th Sept 2015 read more »
France
[Translated from French by David Smythe]. The two reactors at Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin), France’s oldest nuclear power plant, will not be closed before the end of 2018, the time at which EDF will put into service its third generation reactor at Flamanville (Manche). The closure, initially promised by François Hollande for the end of 2016, then “around the end of the five-year term” (that is, spring 2017), will be delayed by at least a year and a half, Ségolène Royal, minister of ecology and energy, confirmed on Tuesday 8 September. Since the promises made by Hollande, first as candidate for then as president of the Republic, the government estimates that the law on energy transition voted in Parliament in July has changed the deal. Henceforth, the law provides for a ceiling on nuclear electricity capacity at its present level of 62.3 gigawatts. “The law will be applied, it is straightforward because there is now effectively a ceiling on the production of electricity by nuclear means” declared Mme. Royal at Strasbourg. “That is to say, when Flamanville opens, Fessenheim must close.” The Alsatian power plant, connected to the network in 1977, has a capacity of 1800 megawatts, and the EPR a capacity of 1650 megawatts. But after the outcry created by Ségolène Royal’s announcement, a government source said on Tuesday night that the closure of the Fessenheim plant “between now and the end” of the five-year term on 2017 “remains the target”. Ségolène Royal “did not mention 2018 for the closure of Fessenheim”, the source confirmed.
Le Monde 8th Sept 2015 read more »
As the traditionally strong French nuclear power industry continues to be plagued by technical and financial difficulties, the government has sought to cut nuclear power in favor of renewables. French Environment Minister Segolene Royal sparked rebuke Tuesday (08.09.2015) by tying shutdown of the country’s oldest nuclear plant to the opening of an EPR reactor that has been delayed for six years already.
Deutsche Welle 9th Sept 2015 read more »
US – solar
GTM Research and Solar Energy Industries Association (or SEIA, the national trade organization for America’s solar energy industry) released its Q2 2015 report showing that the country has exceeded 20 gigawatts of solar electric capacity in the first half of 2015—enough power for 4.6 million homes. This could make 2015 on track for another banner year. So while 2014 already smashed records, it looks like 2015 is poised for even better growth.
Ecowatch 9th Sept 2015 read more »
Japan – Fukushima
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has begun pumping up groundwater from around reactor buildings with the aim of releasing it into the sea.
NHK Sept 3rd Sept 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has confirmed plans to remove a key part of the feed-in tariff for renewable energy schemes, despite vast opposition to the proposals. A four-week consultation into removing preliminary accreditation from the feed-in tariff closed today (9 September), having received almost 2,400 responses. Pre-accreditation essentially allows renewable energy producers to have certainty over the subsidy they receive for the energy they produce, before a project has planning permission and a grid connection. The rules were implemented to mitigate the declining feed-in tariff rate, which could impact later investment in projects.
Edie 9th September 2015 read more »
Renewables – small wind
Finance firm Scottish Equity Partners has said it will invest up to £9m in a scheme to erect as many as 200 wind turbines across the Highlands and Islands. The project to create the single-turbine sites would be led by Hamsin Wind. Farmers and other landowners would install the small turbines near their properties.
BBC 10th Sept 2015 read more »
Herald 10th Sept 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Environmentalists should keep cool heads over fracking, says Friends of the Earth’s former climate campaigner. Bryony Worthington – now Labour shadow energy minister – says fracking will create less CO2 than compressing gas in Qatar and shipping it to Britain. But she insists shale gas should only be developed if its emissions are captured and stored underground. The current FoE position is that more fossil fuel exploitation will further destabilise the climate. Nonetheless, Baroness Worthington’s intervention may prove a significant. She is a professional climate and energy analyst, and one of the architects of the UK’s radical Climate Change Act.
BBC 10th Sept 2015 read more »
The UK government has added its weight to a behind-the-scenes lobbying drive by oil and gas firms including BP, Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil to persuade EU leaders to scrap a series of environmental safety measures for fracking, according to leaked letters seen by the Guardian.
Guardian 10th Sept 2015 read more »
CCS
The study concluded that storage of carbon dioxide could be optimised by injecting CO2 at two points simultaneously. A new technique for securing and storing carbon dioxide could help to unlock the North Sea’s “vast” CO2 storage potential, researchers claim. Experts around the world have been looking to develop techniques for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
BBC 10th Sept 2015 read more »
Billions have been spent on schemes to deal with CO2 emissions but expectations have not been met. Today it is just a scrubby field next to the enormous Drax coal and wood pellet power station in the English county of North Yorkshire. But in a matter of months, this could be the spot where the UK finally gives the go-ahead for what has become one of the world’s most perplexing tools in the quest to combat climate change: a carbon capture and storage plant. The stubbly ground would make way for a jumble of pipes and tanks that would trap carbon dioxide from a new coal power station and push it out to be stashed deep below the North Sea before it has a chance to warm the atmosphere. At least, that is the plan. In practice, no one is holding their breath given the troubled history of carbon capture. Few technologies have had so much money thrown at them for so many years by so many governments and companies, with such feeble results.
FT 9th Sept 2015 read more »
Oil and gas companies could be forced to pay millions of pounds to help combat climate change under a “polluter pays” plan debated in Britain’s Parliament. Companies that import or extract oil and gas in the UK would have to pay for a portion of their fuels’ carbon dioxide content to be stored underground under an amendment put forward to an energy bill before the House of Lords. Labour, Lib Dem and crossbench peers backing the measure say it would revive faltering efforts to develop a carbon capture and storage industry in the North Sea, where companies have been struggling with a collapse in oil prices. The idea has prompted concern at Oil & Gas UK, the industry trade group, which says it could harm North Sea operators.
FT 9th Sept 2015 read more »
