New Nukes
Thirty four years ago yesterday Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative Government made its ill-fated Parliamentary announcement it wanted to build 10 new American-designed PWR nuclear power plants in the UK. The then Energy Secretary David ( now Lord) Howell – our current Chancellor’s father -in-law, no less – announced to Parliament: “The Future success of our nuclear programme is of great importance to the prosperity of this country. I ask all concerned to give active support to the decisions that I have announced. (Official Report, 18 December 1979, columns 287-291) The Financial Times 34 years ago today editorialized: “With its nuclear policy statement yesterday the Government hopes to end a decade of uncertainty within the nuclear industry…it firmly believes it has a national asset of great value [in the nuclear industry].”
David Lowry’s Blog 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Emergency Planning
EDF Energy has inaugurated a new Emergency Response Centre near the Sizewell B nuclear power station, although it will not become fully operational until March 2014. At that point, the UK utility will complete a three-year programme of work following the events at Fukushima.
Nuclear Engineering I(nternational 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Radwaste
Well, that is the extended deadline for responses to the consultation passed quietly at midnight last night, however, it is by no means the end of our campaign. Cumbria Trust will, as closely as possible, be following developments at DECC and their apparent determination to dispose of high level radioactive waste somewhere under West Cumbria. They are pushing forward with these plans, despite unchallenged geological evidence that clearly shows the area to be unsuitable for the purpose of siting a GDF (Geological Disposal Facility). It has to be said that amongst our members, confidence in DECC is currently at an all time low, following an outbreak of ineptitude in the basic administration process of the consultation. Cumbria Trust remains vigilant and will endeavour to keep you informed of developments as they happen. However, it is also vitally important that you contact your own parish, town, borough and county Councillors by writing to let them know the strength of opinion and the true level of awareness and opposition to a GDF in West Cumbria.
Cumbria Trust 20th Dec 2013 read more »
Letter Bill Finlay: The NDA and its fellow travellers seem determined to prove that there is a suitable location for a GDF somewhere in West Cumbria, while their opponents hold the view that enough is already known about the area’s geology to render that prospect so remote as to be not worth even pursuing. In other words, the NDA’s ‘twin tracks’ are parallel lines which loop around exclusively within West Cumbria, whereas their opponents agree that the track to ensuring secure interim storage must surely be a local affair, but that the track for a GDF has to be built towards wherever the most suitable geology is – and that is not in West Cumbria. What is going on? I believe there are three key factors in play. The first is that 70 per cent of the UK’s stockpile of legacy nuclear wastes is now held at Sellafield, even though only a tiny proportion of that waste originated there – the vast majority has been brought here from other facilities that were glad to see the back of it. The second is that the accumulation of these wastes here has undoubtedly underpinned the local economy and created many thousands of jobs in an area that otherwise was in danger of de-industrialisation. This in turn has created vested interests for employers, employees and their unions, which in its partnership guise of Britain’s Energy Coast now quietly dominates the local economic and political landscape despite it being a totally unelected and unaccountable body. The third reason is that the Politics of Fear are now so entrenched in the West Cumbrian political narrative – “the waste is here; no-one will take it back; we are stuck with it; so we have to find somewhere here to bury it”. Thus the obsession with trying to find a suitable location for a GDF somewhere – anywhere – within West Cumbria has diverted political attention away from what should be the top local priority, which is how we respond to the clear and present dangers to the workforce and local communities posed by those wastes at Sellafield which continue to be stored on the surface in hazardous conditions.
Whitehaven News 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Letter Arthur Millie: I was somewhat confused by your article headlined “Public ‘will be asked for its views before GDF decision’”, and your editorial “A very peculiar kind of democracy”. I have had to consult my dictionary of pidgin English to ascertain the true definition of “referendum” as against “election” only to find that they both basically refer to the same thing – “the process of referring a political question to an electorate for a direct decision by a general vote”. It would therefore appear that the CBC’s oracle quoted has no idea of either English or for that matter pidgin English and does not seem to be able to fathom out why councillors are selected by a referendum (sometimes called an election) and thus “asking the views of the public” is in fact a referendum. What is in doubt is whether a cabal of seven councillors and ‘x’ members of a government and a nuclear hierarchy can be considered as being the “public” and thus capable of providing a “public” opinion?
Whitehaven News 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Letter: All councillors were given the opportunity to give their input at the recent briefing given by DECC; the summary of which you reported in last week’s Whitehaven News. I was reassured that many of the concerns expressed about the previous process were being addressed. I think there was some confusion in the report and editorial. I agree wholeheartedly that a referendum may be the best way to test a community’s opinion as to whether to host a GDF if a suitable site is found AND such a decision should not be taken behind closed doors. However, it was felt that a referendum was not necessary to start the process again, given the work that had been done previously.
Whitehaven News 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Submarine Dismantling
CONTROVERSIAL plans for a nuclear waste store at Rosyth Dockyard have been dropped, it has been announced in Parliament. The Babcock plan would have seen the intermediate level waste from redundant nuclear submarines stored at Rosyth and Devonport. However, during a Commons debate on Tuesday, a government minister announced that Babcock was no longer interested in proceeding with the idea. Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty said, “This is great news for the area this Christmas.” He went on, “I am absolutely delighted that the Ministry of Defence and Babcock have listened to myself and the local community and dropped plans for the store. “It is now up to Babcock and the MoD to set out in the New Year how, once a store is identified and agreed elsewhere in the UK to take the waste, they would approach the dismantling of the submarines. “I am calling on Babcock and the Ministry of Defence to work with Fife College and other local organisations to identify how West Fife can best benefit from the dismantling project.”
Dunfermline Press 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Household energy bills are rising, and some have been quick to blame ‘green’ levies for the rising costs. But the government disagrees. It says supporting low carbon energy generation will reduce electricity bills on average by £41 by 2030. The government recently announced plans to cut £50 from the average energy bill by shuffling the way energy efficiency schemes are funded – moving payments onto general taxation. Some levies still remain, however. People still pay to subsidise low carbon energy generation through their bills. This doesn’t necessarily mean electricity will be cheaper than today, however. The government compares the cost of its policies to a ‘counterfactual’ – a world where different policies achieve the same aim of decarbonising the UK’s energy system.
Carbon Brief 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Dieter Helm: The Government was sure gas and electricity would rise. How wrong can you be? Ed Miliband, Chris Huhne and Ed Davey – the three most recent Energy Secretaries – all agreed on one thing: the price of oil and gas would keep going up. It was therefore their job to protect us from ever more expensive fossil fuels. Armed with this certain knowledge of the future, it was a small step to arguing that Britain had to promote current renewables as a way out of the future hell of fossil-fuel dependent energy prices. By about 2020 it was assumed that expensive technologies such as wind farms and solar panels would be competitive against what would by then be much more expensive fossil fuels. Add in a bit of energy efficiency, and ministers could confidently predict that household energy bills would be 8 per cent lower by 2020 than they would have without their policies. Almost everyth ing that could be wrong with this is in fact wrong, and it explains the mess that British energy policy has got itself into. There is no shortage of oil, gas or coal. We are not running out of any of them. There is enough to fry the planet many times over. There is no reason to assume that oil and gas prices will go on ever upwards, and it is at least possible that they will fall, joining the sharp fall in world coal prices. If so, renewables are unlikely to become cost-competitive by 2020. The subsidies will not then wither away. They would be permanent. Therefore, bills would be higher than they would have been as a result of government policies, not lower as Mr Davey claims.
Times 20th Dec 2013 read more »
Energy Supplies
Businesses will be paid to cut their energy use on winter evenings next year, highlighting the rising threat of blackouts as the UK’s ageing coal plants are closed. The proposal comes amid repeated warnings from the energy regulator Ofgem about the increased risk of power shortages by the middle of the decade. These have stoked fears that Britain could soon be facing its first sustained wave of blackouts since the 1970s.
FT 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Telegraph 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Times 20th Dec 2013 read more »
Nuclear Subsidies
The Technology Strategy Board, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority are to jointly make available up to £13 million early next year to develop the UK’s nuclear supply chain. The funding is part of an initiative to encourage UK businesses to develop innovative products and services for the nuclear sector. It will focus on areas such as construction, manufacturing, operation, maintenance, decommissioning and waste.
Machinery Market 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Nuclear Regulations
In this space I have written before about the importance of nuclear regulatory agencies being fully independent. Fukushima showed that a lack of independence leads to complacency and that complacency adds to the complexity of nuclear accidents when they happen. In 2009, the Euratom Treaty adopted a rule on regulatory independence: Section 5(2) of the Nuclear Safety Directive (2009/71/Euratom) says: “Member States shall ensure that the competent regulatory authority is functionally separate from any other body or organisation concerned with the promotion, or utilisation of nuclear energy, including electricity production, in order to ensure effective independence from undue influence in its regulatory decision making.” The nearest you can get to violating this rule is by promoting nuclear yourself. Yet promoting nuclear seems to be what the president of the Polish Nuclear Energy Agency (PAA) Janusz Włodarski is doing. Currently, he faces a push from Polish politicians and the nuclear lobby to introduce nuclear power in what is now a nuclear-free country.
Greenpeace 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Radioactive Sources
When a lorry carrying a powerful hospital radiotherapy machine was hijacked at a fuel station near Mexico City on 2 December authorities raced to find it. Governments around the world were alarmed by the theft and worried that if it fell into the hands of terrorists the material could be turned into a dirty bomb. The event also raised questions about the adequacy of international standards for protecting nuclear material as it was transported from place to place.
Chemistry World 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Proliferation
Urenco, one of the world’s leading uranium enrichment companies, was established by the Treaty of Almelo over four decades ago. The treaty’s three contracting parties—Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom—have been responsible for protecting the firm’s highly sensitive centrifuge enrichment technology. That task is an important one. Urenco has pioneered in the development of gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Those centrifuges can be used to make fuel for reactors that generate electricity. But they can also be used to produce uranium for nuclear weapons. In the 1970s and 1980s, the technology was stolen by agents of Pakistan and Iraq and put to use in clandestine nuclear-weapons-development programs in these countries and elsewhere. Since then, the Almelo governments have taken steps to better protect the company’s classified know-how. Urenco’s shareholders in the Almelo countries are now preparing to sell their interests to outsiders, which could in theory increase the risk of proliferation. But a sale is not likely pose a proliferation threat because the Urenco governments—not the shareholders—are ultimately responsible for the security of the company’s know-how. However, if shares change hands, the governments should recommit themselves to fulfill their duties under the Almelo Treaty.
Carnegie 21st Oct 2013 read more »
Concerted international efforts to keep Iran a non-nuclear weapon state might seem to constitute good news for Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s top rival for leadership in the Middle East. Instead, the Saudi government is deeply disturbed by a recent interim agreement between Iran and the so-called P5 + 1 countries—the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The six-month agreement freezes Iran’s enrichment of nuclear fuel above the level needed for commercial nuclear power, halts development of the plutonium-production-capable Arak nuclear plant, and gives International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors greater access to Iran’s declared nuclear facilities. In return, the P5 + 1 has agreed to lift some of the sanctions that have nearly crippled Iran’s economy. The reason for Saudi anger is complex: Riyadh fears a US-Iran détente at least as much as an Iranian bomb, and those concerns have led some prominent Saudis to talk openly about the possibility the kingdom will obtain nuclear weapons. This is talk that the United States should take seriously. The kingdom has embarked on a commercial nuclear power program that makes little economic sense, but could, if it becomes reality, aid a Saudi nuclear weapons program.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 17th Dec 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not yet decided to place nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in the exclave region of Kaliningrad that borders the European Union.
EU Business 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Green Deal
The Government has recorded 458 completed Green Deal plans as of the end of November, up from 219 the previous month, according to the latest figures. Of the 1,478 total Green Deal plans being processed, 448 new plans were recorded, 572 were pending, where the customer has signed and measures are being carried out, and 458 were completed. Pending Green Deal plans were down from the previous month for the first time since the scheme launched – 572 from 594 in October. Green Deal assessments saw a sharp increase, reaching 117,454 as of end of November, up from 101,855 in October.
Edie 19th Dec 2013 read more »
CHP
The European Union has been told to do more to get behind the promotion of industrial combined heat and power (CHP) technology. A question put to the European Commission by the Vice-President of the European Parliament asks what action is currently being undertaken to ensure the technology can perform its role in maintaining and improving the energy competitiveness of industries in the European bloc in the face of serious market challenges. Alejo Vidal-Quadras said, “Current national energy market policies could lead to decreasing use of CHP in a number of countries because of growing investor uncertainty and a lack of clearly-defined long term policy structures. Are DG Enterprise and DG Energy aware of these developments and monitoring them? What can the Commission do to support this higher productivity and lower carbon enabling technology, in this difficult transitional period?”
COSPP 17th Dec 2013 read more »
Renewables – Scotland
A record two fifths of electricity used in Scotland came from renewables last year, official figures have revealed. UK government figures showed 40.3% of energy consumption in 2012 was met by the sector – up from 36.3% the previous year and 24.1% in 2010. Energy minister Fergus Ewing said the figures showed renewables were “going from strength to strength”. Environmental campaigners welcomed the figures but said more needed to be done to meet targets. The Scottish government said it was on course for half of electricity use to come from renewable sources by 2015, an interim target ahead of the goal of having the sector generate 100% of the country’s electricity by 2020.
BBC 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Scotland needs a “significant” number of offshore windfarms to meet green energy targets, campaigners warned last night, despite new figures showing that a record two fifths of electricity used in Scotland last year came fromrenewables.
Times 20th Dec 2013 read more »
Holyrood 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Daily Record 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Click Green 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Herald 20th Dec 2013 read more »
Scotsman 20th Dec 2013 read more »
The future of Scotland’s offshore wind industry has been thrown into doubt after none of the Scottish projects which applied for early financial support through the government’s new subsidy regime were successful. The UK government today confirmed that it considered four offshore wind farms cheap enough to apply for support in March 2014 under its Contract for Difference regime. But all four were off the coast of England. Mainstream Renewable Power’s Neart na Gaoithe wind farm off the Fife Coast, SSE’s Beatrice in the Outer Moray Firth, and the Inch Cape wind farm developed by Repsol Nuevas Energias UK and EDPR off the Angus coast did not score highly enough in the affordabili ty rankings, creating fresh uncertainty for 2.45GW of new capacity in Scotland. Most industry insiders agree that while Scotland has a superior offshore wind resource, it also presents far greater challenges in terms of its deeper water and abundant wildlife populations.
Business Green 20th Dec 2013 read more »
SCOTLAND’S oldest university is aiming to slash its soaring electricity bill by establishing its own £25 million renewable energy centre. The University of St Andrews is to apply for planning permission to establish a renewable energy centre on the site of the former Curtis Fine Papers Mill at Guardbridge between Leuchars and St Andrews. The university is currently facing an annual energy bill of around £5m. Three months ago the institution was granted approval to build a six-turbine windfarm at Kenly Farm, three miles south of St Andrews, despite claims that some of the 328ft turbines would be visible from holes on the town’s historic Old Course. The £20m turbine development is expected to produce 12.3 megawatts of electricity, which will be used to power the university’s buildings at the North Haugh. The energy centre plans announced today ar e backed by a £10m grant from the Scottish Funding Council which is supporting carbon-reduction schemes across Scottish higher education.
Scotsman 20th Dec 2013 read more »
Renewables – Solar
Half a million solar homes – infographic.
Carbon Commentary 17th Dec 2013 read more »
Half a million UK homes will have solar panels installed on their roofs by the end of this year and industry claims it could reach one million by 2015. Half a million UK homes will have solar panels installed on their roofs by the end of this year, official figures show – while the industry claims that figure could double within two years. Government data show that 495,459 solar panels had been installed, the vast majority on homes, by Sunday, since a programme of subsidies began in 2010. At the current rate of installation, of more than 2,800 panels a week, the half a million milestone will be passed by the end of the year, equating to about two per cent of UK households. The Solar Trade Association says it wants to reach one million installations in 2015.
Telegraph 19th Dec 2013 read more »
A recent Deutsche Bank report projects global newly installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity will reach 50 GW annually in 2014, a roughly 50-percent increase over anticipated new installed capacity during 2013. Germany’s been the longtime undisputed champion of solar deployment, with 35.2 GW of installed capacity as of November 1, though the installation pace lead has shifted in 2013 to Japan. But the U.S. is accelerating—and is expected to install 4.4 GW of solar this year, about the same absolute amount as the Japanese and more than the Germans.
Rocky Mountain Institute 5th Dec 2013 read more »
UK renewables face subsidy battle under electricity market reforms: The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has also set out changes to CfDs it says will bring forward investment at lower cost to consumers by ensuring more mature renewable energy technologies compete for subsidies after 2015. DECC predicted the package would attract £40bn of investment in renewable electricity by 2020 on top of the £31bn already announced since 2010, while providing power for 10 million homes and reducing carbon emissions by around 20 million tonnes.
Business Green 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Last year, $244bn (£149bn) poured into global renewable investments. But only a tiny amount of that trickled down to where it is needed the most – to provide power to the two billion people without access to energy. The UN’s goal of universal access to modern energy by 2030 will require an annual investment of up to $41bn a year. Progress to date has been slow, to say the least. Over the past year, a new model has emerged which blends the crowdfunding entrepreneurship of Kickstarter with the social enterprise of Kiva. Ryan Levinson conceived of SunFunder, an off-grid solar finance company, during a trip to South East Asia after quitting his job at a US bank. During this trip he began to hear repeated stories about lack of access to capital to fund solar projects.
Guardian 20th Dec 2013 read more »
Iran
Two of the most senior Democrats in the US Senate have thrown their weight behind a bill to impose new sanctions on Iran, a move the White House believes could sabotage delicate negotiations over a final nuclear deal.
Guardian 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Iran and six world powers began expert-level talks in Geneva on Thursday to work out how to put into practice a landmark deal obliging Tehran to curb its nuclear programme in return for some relief from economic sanctions.
Reuters 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Climate
Review of the year: On 10 May 2013, the concentration of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed the milestone level of 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. The last time so much greenhouse gas was in the air was several million years ago, when the Arctic was ice-free, savannah spread across the Sahara desert and sea level was up to 40 metres higher than today.
Guardian 19th Dec 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The future will be a lot warmer if the UK can muster the political will to look to a promising new alternative in energy production– hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, a drilling technique that releases natural gas stuck in shale formations, opening access to enormous underground reserves. So far, the UK has refrained from taking advantage of this extraordinary ability to tap previously inaccessible reserves, citing environmental concerns. A close look at the fracking experience across the Atlantic, however, demonstrates how unfounded the concerns are and how beneficial fracking can be, both environmentally and economically. As the United States has become more adept at tapping its existing energy resources, largely through fracking, the yields have been astronomical: this year, the US became the biggest natural gas producer in the world.
Guardian 19th Dec 2013 read more »
