Moorside
This weekend a consultation into the building of a £10 billion nuclear power plant in West Cumbria gets underway. It could bring 21,000 jobs to the region, but anti-nuclear campaigners are protesting against the plans. Watch Samantha Parker’s full report.
ITV 15th May 2015 read more »
NuGen are entering into a ten-week consultation with people in West Cumbria, about the prospect of building Europe’s largest new nuclear plant in the region. Samantha Parker asked Sandy Rupprecht, the company’s CEO, whether voices from the community will have any real impact on the decision.
ITV 15th May 2015 read more »
We’ve been asking people in Whitehaven what they think about the prospect of a nuclear power site – the largest new plant in Europe – being built at Moorside: The response was largely positive, with people citing the potential benefits to the west Cumbrian economy. However, there is also a large amount of opposition to the plans, and a petition called ‘Stop Moorside: Biggest Nuclear Development in Europe’ has more than 7,000 signatures.
ITV 15th May 2015 read more »
ITV 15th May 2015 read more »
THE public consulation into what could be Europe’s largest new nuclear power site near Sellafield will open tomorrow. The facility, which would cost an estimated £10 billion, would have three reactors on the site at Moorside. Plans for the site and what it would mean for the area will be presented at NuGen’s Moorside Information Centre in Whitehaven Civic Hall on Saturday from 10.30am to 3pm. It is the first of 21 consultation events taking place across the county. Fergus McMorrow, NuGen’s planning lead in Cumbria, said: “We’ve spent a long time carefully planning these events so that the people close to the proposed site can come and speak to us, ask any questions they may have and register their views on the Moorside Project.” The 10-week consultation period runs until July 25.
North West Evening Mail 15th May 2015 read more »
Energy Costs
Using the Government’s own contract prices for nuclear power and wind power we can demonstrate how nuclear power is more expensive than both onshore wind AND offshore wind. Based on a very plausible set of assumptions set out below (if anything which gives the benefit of doubt in favour of nuclear power), then we arrive with a set of costings over 45 years of £73 for onshore wind, £78 per MWh for offshore wind and £83 per MWh for nuclear power. This is based on current costs, and of course we know that wind power’s costs are declining whilst nuclear power costs seem to be rising. We can see that both onshore wind and offshore wind are cheaper over 45 years even before we take the considerable advantage given to nuclear power by the loan guarantee on offer and also that the prospect of cost reductions is much stronger in the case of wind power than nuclear power. Recently wind power’s cost have gone down whilst nuclear power cost appear to be increasing.
Dave Toke’s Blog 15th May 2015 read more »
Seven solutions to the clean energy budget crisis – none of which is attractive. Incoming energy and climate change secretary Amber Rudd faces a daunting challenge as she faces warnings the government’s crucial clean energy support budget is under intense pressure. The revelation this week that the budget for supporting new clean energy projects through to 2020 may have already been exhausted will have sparked fears across much of the renewable energy sector – fears that were not alleviated by the government’s failure to reject predictions from think tank Policy Exchange that the so-called Levy Control Framework (LCF) budget may have been spent. Policy Exchange’s imminent report will serve to focus minds on a challenge for the renewable energy that has been building for some time. Even if the report is overly pessimistic, as some within the clean energy industry believe, there is a widespread belief that there is insufficient money in the LCF budget to deliver all the renewables projects in the pipeline. A number of projects will miss out on crucial support contracts, and the number of losers will only increase if Policy Exchange’s analysis of the current budget is accurate.
Business Green 15th May 2015 read more »
Energy bills will rise even more than expected to pay for wind farms and solar panels because ministers have underestimated the cost of green subsidies, a leading think tank has warned. Ministers are on track to overshoot a budget for renewable energy subsidies that is already due to reach £7.6 billion by 2020, the analysis by Policy Exchange finds. The subsidies are paid for through levies on consumer bills, which official estimates suggest will rise to £141 per household each year by the end of this decade if ministers stick within the Treasury-set spending cap. But the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has repeatedly overs hot the budget and is likely to do so again unless ministers scale back their plans, Policy Exchange finds. Ministers are expected to award a new series of subsidy contracts for projects such as wind farms as soon as this autumn – but the analysis suggests there may be no money left to do so.
Telegraph 15th May 2015 read more »
Politics
Critics expected the Prime Minister to drop all green pretensions. Instead, it looks as if he may use his renewed authority to bring back the huskies. Freed from the Lib Dems, dependent – through his small majority – on an awkward squad of climate-sceptic MPs, he was expected to appoint an unenthusiastic minister to run the Department of Energy and Climate Change, or even to abolish it altogether. Instead, he promoted probably the most committed candidate available: Amber Rudd, formerly a junior minister there. Rudd has starkly warned of the “devastating” likely impact of global warming and championed renewables: as we reported yesterday, she now promises to “unleash a new solar revolution” across the country. And, as a former banker and aide to George Osborne, she will carry much more weight with the Treasury than her Lib Dem predecessors, Ed Davey and Chris Huhne. Perhaps even more significant is the substitution of the little-known Greg Clark for Eric Pickles – main casualty of the reshuffle – as Communities Secretary. While the heavyweight outgoing minister seemed to make it a personal mission to dismantle every measure for energy efficiency in any buildings he could find, the thoughtful Mr Clark – a highly regarded shadow energy secretary in opposition – has shown that he appreciates their value.
Telegraph 16th May 2015 read more »
Infrastructure
Will there be new nuclear plants? Some con-fusion. The answer to this question depends on when the first such plant, Hinkley Point C, to date the only one to have a DCO, gets the green light for construction to start. This depends on final agreements being concluded between the UK government, EDF Energy and the China General Nuclear Power Corporation. Until that happens, the seven others earmarked in the National Policy Statement (Wylfa, Moorside, Sizewell, Bradwell, Oldbury, Heysham and Hartlepool) are unlikely to proceed full steam (or boiling water) ahead. What is the UK strategy on climate change? Less spin. While the UK has signed up to high-level promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear power is being held up and onshore wind is out of favour, the Conservatives having promised local approval (i.e. veto) in their manifesto. Offshore wind (despite some very large projects getting consent) and other technologies such as wave, tidal and solar are unlikely to make up the difference – and do not produce the reliable ‘baseload’ electricity that nuclear (or carbon captured fossil fuel generation) does. The strategy needs to show a clear path towards a low carbon energy future, as it doesn’t at the moment.
BDB Law 15th May 2015 read more »
Radhealth
A difficult decision faced Futaba, Japan this January. The vacant town, located within the Prohibited Zone created after the Fukushima nuclear leak in 2011 (which continues to spill toxic effluent into the Pacific Ocean), was asked to host a radioactive materials storage facility, for the bags of radioactive topsoil and debris that have been sitting in fields around the area for years. The exiled municipal authorities agreed – perhaps sealing the fate of the city even should it be cleared one day for repopulation. One of the difficulties is that there are a dozen ways to measure the severity of ionising radiation. The two SI units are the Gray (Gy), which indicates an actual dose received, and a Sievert (Sv), which is the dose equivalent, a joule of energy per kilogram. The residents of Talesh Mahalleh, for example, receive an average dose of 10 mGy per year – 10 times the International Commission on Radiological Protection’s recommended limit from artificial sources. One house clocked in at 131 mSv per year, or more than 80 times the world average. In theory, one Sievert confers a 5.5% increased probability of cancer. Effects are more severe for fetuses and children, and are much milder for the elderly – unless that one Sievert is delivered over a very short timespan, in which case radiation poisoning leads to death within days for anyone.
Guardian 15th May 2015 read more »
US
Five years after Beyond Nuclear released its investigative report on leaking nuclear reactors, nothing has changed and nuclear plants are still allowed to leak first and fix later….or possibly never. These were the findings of the newly released and updated report, Leak First, Fix Later: Uncontrolled and Unmonitored Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Power Plants. The only change is that industry now reports leaks, but only voluntarily and after they happen. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission continues to do nothing to enforce their prevention.
Beyond Nuclear 15th May 2015 read more »
Iran
Iran is optimistic that it can reach a final nuclear deal with world powers, its foreign minister said in an excerpt of an interview with Germany’s Spiegel magazine published on Friday.
Reuters 15th May 2015 read more »
Canada
Last week, a panel appointed by the federal Minister of the Environment and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in 2012 provided the Minister with its final report on the review of Ontario Power Generation’s proposed Deep Geologic Repository for Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Wastes. The Joint Review Panel (JRP) recommended that the federal minister approve the proposed repository, despite the expert evidence they heard throughout the public hearings about numerous technical uncertainties, and in the face of large and growing public opposition. The JRP conclusions are flawed. We are writing to the Government of Ontario, as the sole shareholder of the proponent, Ontario Power Generation, to request that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) be directed to withdraw its proposal and that the Government of Ontario initiate a needs assessment with respect to the storage and management of low, intermediate and high level radioactive wastes at OPG owned and/or operated reactors.
Nuclear Waste Watch 15th May 2015 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear disarmament, as envisioned in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has simply not occurred, according to senior United Nations official Angela Kane who cites a “growing impatience” by the non-nuclear-weapon States for the nuclear-weapon States to disarm.
UN News Center 12th May 2015 read more »
A US federal appeals court has ordered the immediate release of three anti-nuclear activists, including an elderly Catholic nun, the group’s lawyer says. Attorney Bill Quigley says he hopes they will be released within days. Last week, sabotage convictions against Sister Megan Rice, 85, Michael Walli, 66, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 59, for breaking into a Tennessee nuclear facility in 2012 were overturned. But it upheld guilty verdicts for damaging government property.
BBC 16th May 2015 read more »
Renewables
This morning I was shocked to read a report by the UK’s Renewable Energy Association which finds that the UK met 19.2% of its electricity demand with renewable energy in 2014. This is the result of a 20% increase in renewable energy output over the previous year, and evidence that the UK is joining the rest of Western Europe (with the notable exceptions of the fossil-fueled Netherlands and atomic France) in moving to renewable energy.
Energy Media Society 15th May 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Amber Rudd seeks to unleash ‘solar revolution’ in new role as Energy and Climate Change Secretary. Former Climate Minister Greg Barker says new ministerial team faces daunting job in managing tight renewables subsidy budget. The new Energy and Climate Change Secretary has reportedly vowed to “unleash a solar revolution” across Britain that would encourage millions more homes to install solar panels on their roofs. Amber Rudd told her local newspaper that she was keen to see an expansion of the domestic solar industry under this Parliament.
Business Green 15th May 2015 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News. includes news of North Tyneside Council and Carmarthenshire County Council planning to install solar panel on 2,000+ council houses each.
Microgen Scotland 15th May 2015 read more »
Climate
The star of the new Mad Max movie, Fury Road, has spoken of the film as a cautionary tale which offers a premonition of a world ravaged by drought and hardship unless global warming is addressed.
Guardian 14th May 2015 read more »
