Nuclear Transport
A RECOVERY operation was continuing this morning to remove a derailed nuclear train in Barrow. A statement from Direct Rail Services, the train operator responsible for the afflicted service, said: “Work will now focus on recovering the derailed rolling stock. An investigation will be carried into the cause of derailment in accordance with Rail and Nuclear Transport Regulations.”
NW Evening Mail 17th Sept 2013 read more »
INVESTIGATIONS have been launched to determine how a train carrying nuclear flasks derailed between Roose and Barrow stations.
NW Evening Mail 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Nuclear Subsidy
Energy Fair asked the question: “Can a legal case be made that subsidies for nuclear power should be removed, on the grounds that they create unfair competition for renewable sources of energy?” The legal advice that we received is “yes”, a case can certainly be made. This was the start of the Energy Fair group, working to reduce or remove the subsidies enjoyed by the nuclear industry, with the main focus on the situation in the UK. Incidentally, subsidies for nuclear power are much the same all around the world.
Wirtschaftspolitik September 2013 read more »
New Nukes
Michael Fallon addresses the World Nuclear Association Symposium 2013, London. This is the text of the speech as drafted, which may differ slightly from the delivered version. I am very pleased to be here today at this exciting time for the nuclear new build agenda in the UK. Investing in energy infrastructure is a key part of this Government’s growth agenda and our nuclear new-build programme represents a significant component of the £110bn of investment in our electricity sector required over the next decade.
DECC 12th Sept 2013 read more »
UK Energy Minister Michael Fallon has talked up Britain’s nuclear ambitions as the stalemate between the government and EDF over the Hinkley Point strike price drags on. He said that the UK is “on the cusp of a newbuild renaissance – we have already attracted significant levels of investment”. And he claimed that he believed that the government’s Electricity Market Reform package – which is making its way through Parliament as part of the Energy Bill – will “further encourage more investment”. He said there was a strong level of interest in the UK nuclear programme from Japan, France, Korea and Russia and added that while it was up to private companies to invest, “it is the government’s role to provide certainty”, and said this was what it was doing with its Energy Bill.
Power Engineering International 16th Sept 2013 read more »
Even Chernobyl, the very worst such catastrophe the world has witnessed, caused the deaths of 28 people through exposure to high doses of radiation and, later, another 15 from thyroid cancer. The number of deaths caused by oil and coal extraction, in contrast, are in the thousands every year. But we press on with those dirty fuels regardless. There are many things wrong with nuclear power and the industry that produces it; and there is no question that it is a historically fraught alternative. But to reject it at this point is not to hold firm to a principle – it is to put the dogma of environmentalism above the vital interests of the people that it is supposed to serve. We might be scared of nuclear energy, and there might be powerful reasons for that fear. But we have to embrace it – for the alternative is very much worse.
Independent 16th Sept 2013 read more »
Letter: Steuart Campbell infers that nuclear power is “advanced technology” when it simply boils water to make steam to turn turbines. That is more 19th-century technology. He also tries to play down the danger. Tell that to the Japanese people who face many deaths and decades of desecration and financial outlay trying to deal with the radiation from a power station complex nature destroyed. How about the targets they present for suicide bombers and terrorists? On the same day Struan Stevenson MSP implied that the “race for renewables” is driving electricity prices up. He is a member of the party that privatised gas and electricity to make them “more competitive”.
Scotsman 18th Sept 2013 read more »
The coalition talks of the need for nuclear to play its part in the ‘energy mix’. But the problem is that without a conclusion to EDF’s strike price negotiations we don’t know what that mix will look like. Investors need answers so they can invest and contractors can build the infrastructure this country desperately needs. Until agreement is reached, the lack of progress on nuclear will continue to cast a cloud over the UK’s energy infrastructure needs.
Construction News 18th Sept 2013 read more »
Radwaste
The government has long been grappling with the problem of disposing of nuclear waste. Waste has been piling up ever since nuclear power stations started operating in this country but the issue of what to do with it is now being considered more seriously than ever before. In 2012, the government asked around for local authorities to volunteer to host a ‘geological disposal facility’ (GDF, not to be confused with the French state gas company) i.e. a repository very deep underground in return for ‘community benefits’. Allerdale District Council, Copeland District Council and Cumbria County Council agreed to think about it. After some further steps were taken, Cumbria withdraw from the process in January this year, leaving the government with no options at all (as it covers both Allerdale and Copeland). The lack of current options is also relevant to the Greenpeace judicial review challenge against the granting of consent for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station under the Planning Act 2008 as it is one of the grounds of claim. Last Thursday the government launched a consultation on a new proposal for reaching agreement on the location for a GDF. The key point for aficionados of the Planning Act regime is that nuclear waste disposal will be added to the regime as a new category and it will be accompanied by its very own National Policy Statement (NPS). This would only cover proposed sites in England, though, but it would include ‘intrusive investigations’ before an actual site was developed as well as the main application.
BDB Law 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Emergency Planning
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) is holding an important joint seminar on the issue of nuclear emergency planning and the safety of nuclear weapon road convoys in Glasgow City Chambers this Friday, September 20th.The seminar has been organised in co-operation with Nuclear Information Service, Nukewatch and CND Scotland. The seminar arises out of a number of articles that have occurred this summer in the media raising concerns over the safety of nuclear weapons convoys and nuclear emergency planning preparedness in general.
Nuclear Free Local Authorities 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Liberal Democrats
So now the only anti-nuclear British political party is the Green Party, or two to be precise since the Scottish Green Party and the Green Party of England and Wales are separate. The Lib Dems leadership, in making an issue of this topic is clearly placing what it sees as a priority of looking like a ‘centre party’ ahead of appealing to radical interest groups, including the anti-nuclear movement. It is ironic that the Lib Dems are doing this at a time when the chances of any new nuclear power stations have receded into near oblivion. The only possibility for them being built is for the Government to put the interests of nuclear power before all other energy interests (including renewable energy and energy efficiency) and re-nationalise the building of new nuclear power stations (why not nationalise funding of offshore windfarms and solar farms instead?).
Dave Toke’s Green Energy Blog 16th Sept 2013 read more »
David Lowry: So the junior coalition partners have now reached their nuclear nadir, with Lib Dem conference vote to abandon commitment to green renewable energy in favour of dirty and dangerous nuclear power. First they oversaw preparation prepared an “alternative” report on the UK nuclear WMD Trident programme, concluding they wanted to keep these hugely expensive WMDs, but only enough to kill 75, 000,000 innocent civilians with three operational submarines instead of the wicked Tories, who want 4 subs, to kill 100,000,000 innocents. Now they have reversed decades of sensible opposition to nuclear power, to launch themselves lemming–like over the electoral cliff, on the very day the nuclear disaster in high-tech Japan 30 months ago has resulted in their final nuclear plant being closed.
Radiation Free Lakeland 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Japan
Fukushima Crisis Update 13th to 16th Sept. Radioactive contamination of groundwater at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant continued to worsen this week. Officials at TEPCO reported that new groundwater samples collected on September 11 from a well located 20 meters north of a recent massive tank leak contained 97,000 Bq/liter of radioactive tritium, up from 64,000 Bq/liter just one day before. On September 8, samples contained only 4,200 Bq/liter.
Greenpeace 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Iran
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has given the clearest signal yet that the country’s newly elected president and moderate cleric, Hassan Rouhani, has the authority to conduct direct talks with the US and offer compromises in nuclear talks.
Guardian 17th Sept 2013 read more »
FT 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Trident
The Lib Dem conference has backed calls for a reduction in the number of Trident submarines while still maintaining a UK nuclear capability. Under Lib Dem proposals, the 60-year-old policy of continuous at-sea patrols would end with submarine numbers cut from four to at most three. The Lib Dems say it represents a “step down the nuclear ladder” but the Tories say a “part-time deterrent” is wrong. A decision on Trident has been delayed until after the 2015 election.
BBC 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Liberal Democrats have voted to reduce rather than scrap Britain’s Trident nuclear submarines in another significant victory for Nick Clegg. In a move described by the leadership as “credible and deliverable”, party members backed a plan to give up at least one of the UK’s four submarines in a vote at the Lib Dem conference. The leadership had feared a revolt as rebel activists were calling for the party to “eliminate entirely the UK’s nuclear deterrent as soon as practicable”.
Guardian 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Guardian (Live Blog) 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Cambridge News 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Independent 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Letter Brian Quail: However, to be operational, it requires the support system at present provided by Coulport on Loch Long. Here, nestling under the hills, we have the biggest arsenal of nuclear bombs in Europe; 200 missiles buried deep within the lochside mountains. This site was chosen to withstand a direct hit from an atomic bomb. As you don’t have mountains like that in England, it follows that there is nowhere else in the UK Trident can operate from. An independent Scotland, with a written constitution which bars nuclear weapons from its territory, means – in effect – a UK free of all nuclear WMD. I am deeply disappointed at the level of debate on independence so far. Fiscal considerations dominate the discussion. The vision of what an independent Scotland can offer the rest of the world is not mentioned. We have it in our power to make a nuclear-free UK. This could be a huge step towards having an international ban on nuclear weapons. This could be Scotland’s gift to the the rest of the world, and there can be none more vital. But only if we find the integrity and courage to be independent.
Herald 18th Sept 2013 read more »
The government’s commitment to nuclear weapons shows that the attacks on welfare are ideological. There is no austerity for weapons of mass destruction. When Trident missiles become too old, in the next 15 to 20 years, their replacement is likely to cost £100 billion. That’s £25 billion for submarines, £4 to £6 billion for warheads and infrastructure, and £2 billion yearly running costs for up to 30 years. These billions could pay for 120,000 new nurses every year for ten years or 60,000 new teachers for 20 years.
Socialist Worker 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Upgrading air conditioning systems, replacing old lighting and improving insulation may lack the visual impact of windfarms and solar panels, but energy efficiency measures do cut carbon emissions at low cost – and, increasingly, they are big business too. New consumer products are allowing individuals to invest money in such efforts, reaping the rewards of helping big commercial and industrial buildings reduce power use. Home retrofits are too small-scale for investors, so most of the projects are commercial, from office buildings and shopping centres to factories and power plants. Using money from pension funds and other big players, London-based Climate Change Capital has bought four office buildings around Britain, and is carrying out energy retrofits, banking on their new efficiency providing a premium on resale.
Guardian 17th Sept 2013 read more »
The Liberal Democrats have become the first major party in the UK to back the Energy Bill Revolution campaign calling for carbon revenue to be used to fund a much bigger energy efficiency programme to insulate all the homes of the fuel poor. The campaign, which has the support of over 150 major charities, businesses and unions across the UK says there is enough carbon revenue to make over half a million fuel poor homes super energy efficient every single year. The Treasury will raise £60 Billion in carbon revenue over the next 15 years but at the moment not one penny is recycled back to help people to insulate their homes. The decision to back the campaign was made when delegates at the Liberal Democrat party conference yesterday voted through the Green Growth, Green Jobs policy paper which includes a commitment to use carbon revenue to insulate fuel poor homes. It now becomes official liberal democrat party policy.
Energy Bill Revolution 16th Sept 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Shale gas supporters see it as the key to a clean energy future, while critics claim the production process makes it dirtier than coal. So fracking fans – among them the Prime Minister and Mayor of London – will be pleased with the results of a new US study which suggests the amount of greenhouse gases which escape during shale gas production are lower than previously thought. The new study implies that keeping fracking emissions low is an issue for policymakers as much as it is for engineers. It suggests shale gas production can be less emissions-intensive than some previous estimates, but only if well completion is done in an environmentally friendly way. It also highlights the need to develop less leaky equipment and ensure the methane doesn’t escape elsewhere on the production sites. The government needs to bear all of this in mind as it considers the role of shale gas in securing the UK’s energy future while keeping to its legally binding climate change commitments.
Carbon Brief 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Times 18th Sept 2013 read more »
A company looking to extract gas from coal beds near Falkirk has threatened legal action against a board member of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Dart Energy threatened proceedings against Dr Richard Dixon over five tweets he sent criticising the company. Dr Dixon is also the director of Friends of the Earth Scotland. The energy firm accused Dr Dixon of a conflict of interest and warned he should delete the tweets. The company lodged a planning application last year with both Falkirk and Stirling Councils to drill at 14 sites in Airth and in the Forth Valley.
BBC 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Herald 18th Sept 2013 read more »
