Nuclear Subsidies
EDF chief executive officer Henri Proglio said on Thursday talks are continuing between the French utility and the British government about its nuclear projects in Britain but added that he was “in no hurry” to sign an agreement. “I am not in a hurry. We obtained an extension of the life span of existing plants … As far as I am concerned, negotiations can also fail.”
Reuters 18th April 2013 read more »
Telegraph 18th April 2013 read more »
Electricite de France SA, which is negotiating to build the U.K.’s first new nuclear power plants in almost two decades, is preparing to allow the talks to fail because of a dispute over the price of electricity. Chief Executive Officer Henri Proglio said the French utility isn’t “in a hurry” to agree with the government the so-called strike price it will receive for power produced at the planned plant at Hinkley Point in southwest England. “We have precise conditions in mind, and we are negotiating with the British,” Proglio told reporters today in Paris. “For me negotiations can fail.”
Bloomberg 18th April 2013 read more »
Energy firm EdF is unlikely to decide whether to start building the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset for at least another three months. EdF is now refusing to give a date by which it hopes to reach commercial close. Commercial close is an agreement in principle between EdF and its investors to go ahead with the project. “From what I am picking up, it’s not going to be resolved any time soon,” said University of Cambridge researcher and independent nuclear expert Tony Roulstone. “People have mentally adjusted to that fact.” French nuclear analyst Mycle Schneider said he had major concerns about whether Hinkley Point C would ever be constructed. He said too much emphasis was being placed on the strike price negotiations and said they were not the only block to construction. “In the UK the debate is that once the strike price is agreed then everything is settled,” said Schneider. “That is nonsense. Someone has to come up with the money.”
New Civil Engineer 18th April 2013 read more »
Plutonium
A shipment of highly radioactive nuclear fuel to Japan left the port of Cherbourg in northern France on Wednesday for the first time since the Fukushima disaster, French energy group Areva said on Thursday.The shipment of mixed oxide fuel (MOX) is likely to be controversial in Japan, where public opposition to nuclear power and reactor restarts remains strong a month after the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 catastrophe. France’s state-owned nuclear group, whose activities range from uranium mining and enrichment to reactors and waste recycling, said the shipment will go round the Cape of Good Hope and then through the south-west of the Pacific Ocean.
Reuters 18th April 2013 read more »
Emergency Planning
A guide which gives an outline of the plans and resources available to tackle emergencies which have the potential to affect oil, gas and electricity production and supply, and the civil nuclear establishment. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has a specific role and responsibilities in the event of an emergency – these are explained in detail.
DECC 18th April 2013 read more »
Dungeness
A RADIOACTIVE substance has been found to be leaking out of Dungeness B power station – the recent filming location for singer Peter Andre. Owner EDF Energy says there is no threat to staff or the public, but an independent nuclear expert has said he “would be concerned”. John Large said: “I would be concerned, they have clearly gone over their statutory limit – it’s eight times over the certified limit.” He said the investigation will need to find out the rate of decay, which could be up to 120 years, and where the water will have dispersed to over that time. An Environment Agency spokeswoman said they had been informed in September and December 2012 about the elevated levels or tritium in groundwater. She added: “Dungeness B is a significant distance from any boreholes used for drinking water abstraction. As a precaution, the local water authority has been informed. EDF is conducting an investigation into the source of the tritium.”
Romney Marsh Herald 18th April 2013 read more »
An investigation has been launched to find the source of the leak, which has seen levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, rise above normal. Tritium is a waste product from the processing of nuclear fuels and the storage of spent fuel. The Office of the Nuclear Regulator, which is part of the Health and Safety Executive, said inspectors had found elevated tritium concentrations during routine water monitoring in three boreholes around the site in Kent since October 2012.
Telegraph 18th April 2013 read more »
Heysham
EDF Energy restarted its 610-megawatt (MW) Heysham 1-1 nuclear reactor on Wednesday following a ten-day refuelling outage, a spokesman said.
LSE 17th April 2013 read more »
Sellafield
Letter: The recent Public Accounts Committee report and excuses offered by nuclear management only confirm this scenario and that up till now that decommissioning is only a buzzword for not doing things or doing them badly enough to drag them out as long as possible, which is probably still the aim, whilst the elected acolytes of the DECC’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority continue to extensively and continuously exhaust the taxpayer-funded coffers until a new nuclear ‘gig’ can be found.
Whitehaven News 18th April 2013 read more »
Germany
Fifty years after Germany began using nuclear power, the country is once again looking for a suitable nuclear waste storage facility. Search priorities include transparency, safety and scientific criteria. The German government, together with the opposition, hopes to approve a so-called depository site law ahead of federal elections in September. The search has begun anew, following a nearly 35-year controversy over the suitability of a salt mine in Gorleben in northern Germany as a potential site for storing high-level nuclear waste. The bipartisan compromise is considered historic.
Deutsche Welle 18th April 2013 read more »
Today’s graph of the graph is a follow-up to Wednesday’s graph of the day, which highlighted the fact that Germany set a new record for solar output of 22.6GW on Monday. On Thursday, it did not set a new solar record, but in combination with consistent output of wind energy, renewable generation reached record capacity of 36GW, and for three hours between noon and 3pm exceeded the combined contribution of coal, gas and nuclear plants.
Renew Economy 19th April 2013 read more »
Denmark
Copenhagen’s ambitious plan to be 100% carbon-neutral by the year 2025 continues to move forward. This plan, once achieved, will make Copenhagen the world’s first carbon-neutral capital. The City Council there, acting on the plan approved last August, will soon begin the first of several large-scale changes. These changes include: replacing coal power with biomass, adding more wind and solar energy to the grid, improving energy efficiency, increasing bike use/improving infrastructure, and improving public/mass transportation systems.
Renew Economy 19th April 2013 read more »
South Korea
The state-run operator of South Korea’s nuclear power plants has separated its internal computer network from the Internet in an effort to guard against possible North Korean cyber attacks, Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday.
Japan Times 15th April 2013 read more »
Carbon Trading
Europe’s climate chief vowed on Wednesday to fight on to save the EU’s flagship environmental policy, the emissions trading system (ETS), after a serious blow on Tuesday when MEPs rejected reforms aimed at repairing the ailing system. MEPs voted 334 against to 315 in favour of “backloading” the market – a proposal aimed to reverse the plummeting price of carbon that has resulted from a surplus of permits in the ETS market – leading the price of carbon to fall by almost half to under €3 on Tuesday. Connie Hedegaard, EU commissioner for climate action, said: “We are preparing structural [longer-term reforms]. We will have new meetings for stakeholders, in parallel with an impact assessment. We are preparing an initiative.” The proposals include measures to restrict rights to carbon permits under the system, and to allow for reviews of the number of permits companies receive for free.
Guardian 17th April 2013 read more »
The world could be heading for a major economic crisis as stock markets inflate an investment bubble in fossil fuels to the tune of trillions of dollars, according to leading economists. “The financial crisis has shown what happens when risks accumulate unnoticed,” said Lord (Nicholas) Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics. He said the risk was “very big indeed” and that almost all investors and regulators were failing to address it. The so-called “carbon bubble” is the result of an over-valuation of oil, coal and gas reserves held by fossil fuel companies. According to a report published on Friday, at least two-thirds of these reserves will have to remain underground if the world is to meet exis ting internationally agreed targets to avoid the threshold for “dangerous” climate change. If the agreements hold, these reserves will be in effect unburnable and so worthless – leading to massive market losses. But the stock markets are betting on countries’ inaction on climate change. The stark report is by Stern and Carbon Tracker, a thinktank supported by organisations including HSBC, Citi, Standard and Poor’s and the International Energy Agency. The Bank of England has also recognised that a collapse in the value of oil, gas and coal assets as nations tackle global warming is a potential systemic risk to the economy, with London being particularly at risk owing to its huge listings of coal.
Guardian 19th April 2013 read more »
FT 19th April 2013 read more »
BBC 19th April 2013 read more »
Telegraph 18th April 2013 read more »
Guy Newey IPPR: The European Parliament’s decision to vote down a proposal to temporarily remove permits from the EU Emissions Trading System has sparked an outcry of doom-mongery that carbon trading is dead. But the botched ‘backloading’ proposal must be recognised for what it was; a political fudge masquerading as an important intervention, to try and prop up the carbon price. It was inadequate to address the genuine problems with the Emissions Trading Scheme. What is now needed is proper reform of the ETS and Europe’s wider climate policy.
Energy Desk 18th April 2013 read more »
