Hinkley
François Hollande has renewed his support for the controversial nuclear project planned by the French energy company EDF at Hinkley Point in Britain. “I am in favour that this project goes ahead,” the French president told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday. “It’s very important to understand that we need a high-performance, highly secure nuclear industry in France, and that we cannot let others take over terrain, including on exports, that has been French up to now,” he said.
Guardian 17th May 2016 read more »
France24 17th May 2016 read more »
City AM 17th May 2016 read more »
The French government has reiterated its support for EDF’s plan to build an £18 billion nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Speaking less than a week after S&P and Moody’s downgraded the credit rating of EDF over the impact of Hinkley Point on the company’s shaky finances, President Hollande expressed his backing for the scheme, which he said would protect French jobs and exports. EDF is struggling with debts of 37 billion euros and its market value has shrivelled to 22 billion, down from more than 100 billion in 2007. Critics of the project to build two French- designed EPR reactors at Hinkley Point fear that it could bankrupt EDF. Projects to build the same type of reactor in Finland and at Flamanville in Normandy have run billions of pounds over budget and are years behind schedule. Mr Hollande said that France would push ahead with a 4 billion refinancing of EDF, which is expected to include the sale of state stakes in Renault and airports at Nice and Lyons.
Times 18th May 2016 read more »
Stop Hinkley Campaign calls for a renewables Plan B for Hinkley.
No2NuclearPower 17th May 2016 read more »
Moorside
NuGeneration’s project to build a nuclear power plant of up to 3.8 GWe gross capacity at Moorside in West Cumbria will be the first opportunity for lenders to enter the UK’s nuclear power program, CEO Tom Samson told World Nuclear News in an interview. Samson spoke on the side of the conference Nuclear Energy’s Role in the 21st Century: Addressing the Challenge of Financing that was held in Paris last week. The event was jointly organised by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation (IFNEC). A joint venture between Toshiba and Engie, NuGen says it combines the strengths of its two globally-recognised parent companies, with proven operating and engineering experience, and AP1000 nuclear reactor technology provided by Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba. Sanmen 1 in China’s Zhejiang province is expected to be the first AP1000 to begin operating. Four AP1000 reactors are being built in the USA – two each at Vogtle and Summer – while three AP1000s are also proposed for the Moorside site.
World Nuclear News 17th May 2016 read more »
NUCLEAR chiefs have admitted there will be a one-year delay in production of the first power from a proposed new plant for West Cumbria – before the facility has even secured planning permission. Campaign group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (Core) claims the delay is NuGen’s “belated realisation that its original timetable was just pie in the sky”. NuGen responds however that the start date was planned many years in advance and the newly-announced date change is due to elements “out of its control”.
NW Evening Mail 17th May 2016 read more »
AS bosses behind plans to build a nuclear power station in Cumbria reveal the facility has been delayed by a year, we want to know what you think.
NW Evening Mail 17th May 2016 read more »
Reiach and Hall Architects and William Matthews Associates are among the six finalist teams in the RIBA’s competition for Cumbria’s £10 billion Moorside nuclear power station.
Architects Journal 17th May 2016 read more »
Nuclear Police
Morgan Sindall has this week begun construction of a new £39m training facility for the Civil Nuclear Constabulary near Sellafield in Cumbria.
Construction Index 18th May 2016 read more »
Highland MP Paul Monaghan is spearheading a campaign to keep the retirement age of police officers in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary in line with that of other forces. He warned pension reforms could mean firearm officers having to work until 68, and raised fears about the expansion of their role to include responding to a terrorist incident. The SNP MP, who is sponsoring a parliamentary motion on the issue, today called on the UK Government to take steps to ensure parity between the CNC, Home Office forces and Police Scotland. Because of the physical demands of the job, the government has agreed a national retirement age for UK police forces of 60.
Press & Journal 17th May 2016 read more »
Waste Transport
An Upperward resident has told of his shock at realising that a train he watched passing through Clydesdale was carrying nuclear material. It had all the more emotional impact on him as he was standing with his little grandson trainspotting on the West Coast main line at Thankerton when the sighting occurred last Tuesday night. Villager William McLaughlin said: “At around 6.30pm, we spotted a train travelling south towards us. “As the train drew closer to us, it became apparent what the cargo consisted of. “I could see two large white metal box-like containers carried on two low-loader wagons, a powerful diesel at the front pulling, and another at the back pushing. As it passed us, the reality of what we were witnessing sent a chill down my spine.
Carluke Gazette 17th May 2016 read more »
Utilities
Strong competition and the mild winter cooled SSE’s full-year profits, as customers switched to rival energy providers and prices fell. Pre-tax profits, excluding impairment charges and pension liabilities, slipped 3.3pc to £1.51bn in the year to March, as “complex issues” such as aggressive price competition between energy suppliers and plummeting wholesale prices squeezed earnings.
Telegraph 18th May 2016 read more »
Politics
Richard Lochhead is to step down from the Scottish cabinet, BBC Scotland has learned. The rural affairs secretary signalled his decision to quit to Nicola Sturgeon as she prepares to reshuffle her team. Mr Lochhead’s wife Fiona disclosed late last year that she is suffering from breast cancer. The MSP for Moray said this had helped him come to the conclusion that he needed to “change the priorities” in his life. In a letter to the first minister, he added that it had been an “absolute privilege” to serve in the cabinet, first under Alex Salmond and now Ms Sturgeon.
BBC 18th May 2016 read more »
Chernobyl
Letter Dr Paul Dorfman: Further to the correspondence on Chernobyl (May 7 & 13), I led the European Environment Agency response to the accident. We found that precise estimation of the health effects from the Chernobyl accident is difficult, because the evidence is contradictory and conflicting. The International Atomic Energy Authority, focusing only on Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation, predicted a total mortality of about 4,000. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Radiation (UNSCEAR) found no evidence of significant cancer incidence or mortality rates related to Chernobyl exposure, other than childhood thyroid cancer incidence, which is uncontroversially accepted to be responsible for about 5,000 childhood thyroid cancers. However, given that both parties estimate a total worldwide collective dose of 600,000 person-Sieverts over 50 years from Chernobyl fallout, and the standard risk estimate is 0.057 fatal cancers per Sievert, this translates into 34,000 fatal cancers over that time period across the world. A reasonably conservative estimate for post-Chernobyl cancer mortality ranges from 17,000 to 68,000 over 50 years.
Times 17th May 2016 read more »
This theme park in the graveyard town of Pripyat, Ukraine was due to open in 1986. But just one week before it opened, the Chernobyl power plant exploded in the world’s most devastating nuclear disaster. Now, 30 years on, the structures stand in ruins with rides that have never been ridden.
Daily Star 17th May 2016 read more »
Europe
A draft paper from the EU’s Sustainable Energy Technology Plan, which is being steered by the European Commission, was leaked in the German media on 17 May. The paper argues for the expansion of nuclear power and builds on an analysis on the future of nuclear power in Europe (the Community Nuclear Illustrative Programme – PINC) presented by the Commission last month. Commenting on the paper, Greens/EFA co-president Rebecca Harms said: “This paper again highlights the EU Commission’s tendency to dress up the figures on nuclear power. The supporters of nuclear power want to do all within their means to secure massive financial support to keep the industry alive, despite the fact it is not able to stand on its own two feet. EU competition law and state aid rules should be set aside for nuclear power.
EU Reporter 18th May 2016 read more »
Ukraine
Three decades after Chernobyl, nuclear power remains a mainstay of Ukrainian energy supply, writes Iryna Holovko, campaigner of NGO CEE Bankwatch Network in Ukraine. Despite persistent safety problems, the Ukrainian government has approved lifetime extensions for four of its 15 nuclear units since 2010, and two more could be greenlighted later this year. What is more, Holovko adds, Ukraine’s nuclear sector survives in part thanks to European support. She calls on the EU to stop supporting Kiev’s risky nuclear energy programme.
Energy Post 18th May 2016 read more »
Pakistan
Pakistan’s foreign secretary on Tuesday told a U.S. envoy his country has the “credentials” to join a club of nuclear trading nations, signalling Islamabad may apply alongside India and force a showdown in the consensus-based group next month. Such a move would drag the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) into the long-running tension between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed neighbours who have fought three wars since being split amid violence at the end British colonial rule in 1947.
Reuters 17th May 2016 read more »
Japan
Plans by Japan to build dozens of coal-fired power stations will cause at least 10,000 premature deaths, according to a study, as the country struggles to fulfil its climate change obligations five years after the Fukushima disaster closed down almost all of its nuclear plants. Greenpeace and the environmental group Kiko Network said in a joint report that Japan’s determination to press ahead with a massive expansion in fossil fuel-based power production, with at least 43 plants to be built over the next 12 years, would come at a price to human health and “lock in carbon emissions for decades”.
Guardian 17th May 2016 read more »
100% Renewables
According to Zero.ong, and brought to our attention by SolarCrunch, Portugal ran on renewable energy alone for 4 straight days last week. This 100% was preceded by more than 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources of energy during the first quarter of 2013, and 63% for all of 2014. Portugal stopped burning coal in 1994.
Electrek 16th May 2016 read more »
Island Energy
Scottish Hydro Electric – part of SSE – has issued a formal invitation to tender to 14 un-named businesses and supply chain companies which are competing to provide all or part of a new energy solution for the power distribution network in Shetland. A new energy solution is needed to meet customer needs in the isles after Lerwick power station comes to the end of its operational life. As the network is not currently electrically connected to the Great Britain mainland, the island system needs to be capable of meeting local demand at all times, peaking in winter at around 47MW.
Scottish Energy News 18th May 2016 read more »
Renewables – tidal
Two countries with the highest tides in the world, Canada and the UK, both claim to be the world leaders in creating electricity from the tides. They are among a group of coastal states − including China, South Korea, the US and Australia − that are hoping to harness the enormous power of their local twice-daily tides to tap a new and reliable supply of electricity. Unlike wind and solar energy, tidal power is entirely predictable. If it can be tapped on a large scale as a power source, it will provide reliable base load power for any grid system. There are all sorts of schemes in many countries, the most familiar being the tidal barrages that direct the ebb and flow of the tide through turbines to generate electricity.
Climate News Network 17th May 2016 read more »
