Hinkley
The European Commission has launched its public consultation over the UK’s proposed state aid to the proposed Hinkley C nuclear plant in Somerset – and in the process delivered a mighty broadside against the UK Government’s plans.
Ecologist 11th March 2014 read more »
New Nukes
Amid the condemnation of Russia and promises to curtail Putin’s influence on energy supplies, there are continuing plans to have the Russians build a nuclear power station in the UK. Hergen Haye, the head of new nuclear development at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, outlined the scheme to Edinburgh University students. He arrived in truth-telling mood. “I hope no one is recording this,” he said. “You can’t really trust a politician for longer than five years, as that’s when the next election is.” Politicos, they constantly change tack, Haye complained, citing Angela Merkel after Fukushima. This discourages investment. Haye, who is German, told of a hostility to nuclear in his homeland and said his role promoting it in the UK means he is never fully embraced there, even by his own family. “They throw things at me and call me immoral,” he said. “But they still love me.” Debatable on its face, but he must know.
Guardian 12th March 2014 read more »
Clearly there is something jarring about the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) boasting about its positive negotiations with the Russians over building a nuclear power station in Britain just as a summit is due to begin in London about what sanctions can be taken against Moscow over its involvement in the Crimea. If Vladimir Putin is threatening to once again use energy as a political weapon in the Ukraine by cutting off the country’s gas exports, then this is a bad moment to talk about state-owned Rosatom taking a critical stake in UK power infrastructure through the construction of an atomic plant. Western Europe is already 30% (and in past years 50%) dependent on Russian gas, while London now hosts the headquarters of Gazprom’s global gas trading operation. But surely Britain does not want to open itself up to further dependence on Moscow by allowing its electricity to be generated by Rosatom? Well, few people five years back would have believed state-owned Chinese firms would form key partners in the project to commission the UK’s first new nuclear plant in 27 years at Hinkley Point in Somerset, and yet that is now settled.
Guardian 12th March 2014 read more »
Vulcan
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has issued a correction in parliament to an answer concerning an incident at the Vulcan submarine reactor test site. A political row has broken out over a radiation problem at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) site adjacent to Dounreay in Caithness. Last week Mr Hammond said a radioactive discharge had been discovered at a test reactor in 2012. The Scottish government said it was not informed at the time of the incident. Mr Hammond has now corrected part of an answer he gave to a question from Labour MP Andrew Miller. The correction changes the line “there has been no measurable change in the radiation discharge” to “no measureable change in the alpha-emitting particulate discharge”.
BBC 12th March 2014 read more »
Companies
AMEC and Exelon Nuclear Partners have entered into a strategic partnership to explore opportunities in new markets across the international energy sector. The partnership is expected to focus on both the nuclear new-build and existing reactor marketplaces, providing an engineering, consultancy, project management and operations support service.
Energy Business Review 13th March 2014 read more »
Eon, Germany’s biggest utility, forecast a further steep decline in earnings this year and warned that political decisions to favour renewable energy could threaten the region’s energy security in the future, as it reported a 14 per cent drop in earnings for 2013. The company has shut down nearly 13 gigawatts of capacity, more than a quarter of its conventional fossil fuel and nuclear plant capacity, in Europe, as it reviews the profitability of generating energy from conventional sources. Renewable energy, which has preferential access to the grid, now accounts for around a quarter of electricity consumption in Germany. In a letter to shareholders Johannes Teyssen, chief executive, warned: “The situation will get increasingly out of balance if, for economic reasons, we shut down power plants that are actually urgently needed to ensure supply security.
FT 12th March 2014 read more »
Energy Costs
The UK government wants to reduce emissions from the power sector without breaking the bank. But there are a lot of uncertainties involved in predicting the future cost of power from nuclear, gas, or renewable sources, with analysts often getting things wrong. So how can policymakers know which estimates to trust, and which technologies to back? A report from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) seeks to understand why estimates often get thrown off track. It looks back over old predictions to identify a number of pitfalls such analyses fall into, with the hope of improving estimates in the future. the government may unexpectedly announce a commitment to a particular technology for ideological reasons, as has arguably been the case with nuclear power in recent years. Likewise, the government can sometimes go cold on technologies it once supported, reducing subsidy levels (as with biomass). Such decisions have a knock-on effect on how technologies develop, making it hard to predict how quickly costs will fall and by how much.
Carbon Brief 12th March 2014 read more »
Uranium
Canadian-based Cameco Corporation is the world’s second largest uranium mining company, with 27 uranium exploration programs in Australia. It has one active proposal to mine uranium − at Kintyre, an area excised from the Karlamilyi National Park in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Cameco has consistently promoted the fringe scientific view that exposure to low-level radiation is harmless. Cameco has sponsored speaking events by Canadian scientist Dr Doug Boreham, who argues that low-level radiation is actually beneficial to human health. (Dr Boreham has also travelled to Australia to promote these views in 2007 and 2010.) Those views are at odds with mainstream scientific evidence and expert assessment. For example: A 2010 report by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) states that “the current balance of available evidence tends to favour a non-threshold response for the mutational component of radiation-associated cancer induction at low doses and low dose rates.”
Medical Assopciation for the Prevention of War (Australia) 12th March 2014 read more »
Japan – Fukushima
Lady Barbera Judge. former chair of UKAEA, talks on BBC World Service’s Business Matters programme about her role advising Tepco post Fukushima on nuclear safety and PR, the role of Japanese culture in the disaster and how decommissioning Sellafield and Dounreay is costing a lot more than expected. Interview starts 16 mins into the programme.
BBC 13th March 2014 read more »
Due to stricter government safety regulations, 30 of Japan’s idled 48 nuclear reactors have no immediate prospects of restarting operations, at least in the near future, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey of utilities. Thirteen of those, mainly due to their age, are having particular difficulty in complying with the new standards, according to the survey, and are likely to be decommissioned.
Asahi Shimbun 12th March 2014 read more »
Three years after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe hit our TV screens, Paul Mobbs examines the still unfolding global disaster – and the motives of politicians whose love of nuclear power is stronger, than it is wise.
Ecologist 12th March 2014 read more »
China
China is on track to beat its 2020 nuclear target.
IB Times 12th March 2014 read more »
Ukraine
According to translated news sources within the country, Ukraine’s interim representative has threatened Russia with nuclear weapons, if Russia does not remove troops from within Ukrainian borders. Mikhail Golovko said in a live interview: “Russia can not win in this situation, it is a violation of all international norms and guarantees. If they are violated, we reserve the right to recover a nuclear weapon. Resume nuclear status and it will be quite different to communicate,” he said. Golovko said that Ukraine has all the necessary technology to recreate nuclear weapons, and for these purposes “would be 3-6 months”.
EU Reporter 12th March 2014 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
The best advice for surviving a nuclear bomb is to be somewhere else when it goes off. If that doesn’t work out for you, though, a recent study carried out at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provides some simple guidance for maximizing your chances of survival.
Gizmag 12th March 2014 read more »
Trident
Britain is to award firms millions of pounds worth of contracts for its submarine fleet, bringing it a step closer to the costly and controversial renewal of its Trident nuclear deterrent, an issue which has divided its coalition government. The country has been locked in debate over the merits of replacing the vessels carrying the deterrent – which currently consists of four ageing Vanguard-class submarines carrying Trident missiles – which would cost 20 billion pounds ($33 billion) at a time when the cash-strapped government is trying to cut back on spending.
Reuters 13th March 2014 read more »
Renewables
Subsidies for windfarms cost every household £25 a year, according to the Daily Mail today. Government figures show the Mail’s calculation is an overestimate, however. Conservative MP Stephen O’Brien has been asking a series of parliamentary questions about the cost of wind power. The Mail appears to have based its claim that windfarms add £25 to household bills on one of energy minister Michael Fallon’s answers, which gives a figure for the total cost of supporting windfarms in the UK. But the Mail need not have tried to do the maths. In another question, O’Brien asks directly how much windfarms add to consumer energy bills. Fallon answers the government estimates that cost is £18 – £7 lower than the Mail’s calculation. We look at why.
Carbon Brief 12th March 2014 read more »
Around 50 organisations sign open letter urging Communities Secretary not to remove council power to set clean energy standards for new homes.
Business Green 12th March 2014 read more »
Energy Efficiency
The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) is today warning that the UK must retrofit one million homes a year over the next 25 years if it is to end spiralling energy bills and curb carbon emissions. As the Chancellor George Osborne prepares to deliver his Budget on Wednesday 19 March, UK-GBC is urging him to make energy efficiency a top infrastructure priority and in doing so “rescue the ailing Green Deal”.
Edie 12th March 2014 read more »
Freedom of Information requests reveal that local authorities have suspended or cancelled energy efficiency improvements for over 54,000 households. The government has today been accused of leaving tens of thousands of homes without anticipated energy efficiency improvements, after it last year watered down the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme in an attempt to curb increases in consumers’ energy bills.
Business Green 12th March 2014 read more »
CCS
A $5bn facility to capture carbon and pump it underground could provide a lifeline for the dirtiest of fossil fuels, but many remain unconvinced. The EPA says the Kemper County Energy Facility offers a real-life example that it is possible to go on burning the dirtiest of fossil fuels and still make the cuts in carbon dioxide emissions needed to avoid a climate catastrophe. But with staggering costs – $5bn (£3bn) and rising – and pushback from industry and environmental groups who say carbon capture is an unproven technology, now even the company that built Kemper is having second thoughts about the future of “clean coal”.
Guardian 12th March 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The crisis in Ukraine has rekindled arguments that the U.S. should export shale gas, supposedly to diminish the threat posed by Russia’s “energy weapon.” Sadly, few seem to care about diminishing the threat posed by climate change, since it has become increasingly clear that LNG would make things worse. Multiple studies make clear that “by the time natural gas has a net climate benefit you’ll likely be dead and the climate ruined.”
Climate Progress 12th March 2014 read more »
EU politicians on Wednesday voted for tougher rules on exposing the environmental impact of oil and conventional gas exploration, while excluding shale gas. Member states such as Britain and Poland are pushing hard for the development of shale gas, seen as one way to lessen dependence on Russian gas, as well as to lower energy costs as it has in the United States. The plenary vote of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France follows a compromise deal on the draft law in December, which was struck only after negotiators agreed to leave out references to shale gas.
Guardian 12th March 2014 read more »
The threat posed to wildlife by fracking is laid bare today as a new report identifies vast swathes of environmentally sensitive land across Britain that could be excavated for shale oil and gas. The land covers tens of thousands of square kilometres and includes thousands of sites such as Morecombe Bay in the North West, one of the most important areas in Europe for hosting wintering birds, as well as the North York Moors and the Thames Estuary. An alliance of wildlife groups including RSPB and the National Trust is calling on the government to establish “frack-free zones” across the country to protect areas of particular environmental importance.
Independent 13th March 2014 read more »
BBC 13th March 2014 read more »
Telegraph 12th March 2014 read more »
