NuGen
Westinghouse, the Japanese-owned manufacturer, is close to buying a large stake in the NuGen consortium that owns the right to build a new reactor at the Sellafield site in Cumbria, in a move that the coalition hopes will revive its ailing new nuclear programme. The Toshiba-owned group is close to finalising the purchase of a 50 per cent stake in the business owned by Iberdrola of Spain. It is also keen to buy part of the other 50 per cent owned by France’s GDF Suez. Westinghouse is awaiting a sign-off from Toshiba, but the coalition is increasingly optimistic that a deal is close. One government insider said yesterday that the parties were “moving in the right direction”. There is growing alarm that talks between EDF and the government over subsidies for its Hinkley Point project in Somerset remain unresolved nearly a year after they began. Discussions over EDF’s £14bn proposed nuclear power station are grinding on with the Treasury and French-owned power giant at loggerheads over the “strike price” for energy produced at the new plant. The Financial Times has learnt that the Treasury is refusing to offer more than about £90 per megawatt hour, while EDF wants at least £93. But progress is also being hampered by a string of “other issues in terms of EDF getting investors lined up, the capital costs and the details of the guarantee”, said one government official. Hitachi, which owns the Wylfa site in Anglesey, is pushing back the building timetable on that power station on the back of the slow progress of the EDF talks. Other parties likely to come into the NuGen consortium on the heels of the expected Westinghouse-Toshiba investment include SNPTC, the Chinese state-owned group, and Areva, the French nuclear company. Some nuclear experts warned yesterday that the Toshiba NuGen deal might still stumble, given the internal politics at the Japanese industrial giant.
FT 19th Sept 2013 read more »
A PUBLIC consultation into plans for a major upgrade of the electricity system in West Cumbria has been delayed. The preferred route for carrying electricity between the proposed new nuclear power station, Moorside near Sellafield, and the National Grid was due to be revealed this month – and the public asked for its views. However, the National Grid has put its plans on hold after talks with NuGen, the firm behind the Moorside project. It is now anticipated that an announcement on the North-West Coast Connection plans and a subsequent public consultation, involving leaflets sent to homes and drop-in sessions, will be made in the New Year. The delay has arisen as NuGen – a consortium of Spanish firm Iberdola and French company GDF Suez – has made quicker-than-expected progress in deciding on the type of reactor it will deploy at Moorside. The Grid’s plans will now be reassessed before being made public.
Whitehaven News 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Nuclear Subsidies
The European Union denied reports it has plans to encourage nuclear-power aid as it weighs whether to include specific provisions to assess this type of energy support in future guidelines. “Contrary to media reports, the European Commission has no plans to encourage state aid for nuclear power or to make it easier for member states to grant such aid,” Antoine Colombani, EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia’s spokesman, said today in a blog post. “Each member state is free to define the role it intends to give (or not to give) to nuclear power in its energy mix.”
Bloomberg 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Radwaste
Letter: A sad day for democracy when the government, having asked the public to approve its plans for a radioactive dump and got the wrong answer, decides to tweak the question and ask it again. More wasted money: the first consultation cost £3million – though that’s only a fraction of the cost to the taxpayer in disguised subsidies to continue the nuclear building programme. As to that, the government has said it will only build more nuclear (which is wants to do) if it has solved the waste disposal problem which, like fracking, runs into the brick wall of nimbyism – except where a local council is, far from nimby, actually pimby – ie “please in my backyard” (leaving aside the geological objections).
Whitehaven News 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Letter: Elaine Woodburn has said in the past about a geological disposal facility that “We can’t just wash our hands of it; and we can’t just leave it to future generations as past generations have”. It is precisely to avoid leaving the problem to our children and grandchildren that the council, the government and all involved in the search for a permanent solution for our nuclear waste should by now have moved on from West Cumbria. Instead, what we have now is that, having failed twice to fit a square peg into a round hole, the answer is seemingly to try using a different hammer!
Whitehaven News 19th Sept 2013 read more »
New Nukes
Two years after catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima plant, sellers of atomic reactors woo potential buyers with the promise that lessons learned from one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters make the technology safer than ever.
Reuters 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Malcolm Grimston: The recent troubles in the Middle East, and also in west Africa, mean that oil is trading at its highest prices in six month, at around $115 a barrel. It reminds us that dependence on potentially unstable regions of the world for imports of energy resources may be unwise. Nuclear, too, has not been free from troubles in recent years. At the stricken Fukushima plant in Japan, the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 was so devastating that it will be years, if not decades, before there can be any confidence that all major problems have been addressed. But, perversely, the events at Fukushima have reminded the world of both the dangers and the attractions of nuclear energy.
Prospect 18th Sept 2013 read more »
Dounreay
A HI-TECH engineering firm is set for major expansion after winning the biggest contract in its history to clean up a nuclear waste site. Oxford Technologies, based in Abingdon, is looking to boost its workforce by 20 per cent and move into new premises after landing the deal which will see its specialist team employed on the Dounreay site in Scotland, which oversaw nuclear experiments in the post-war era.
Oxford Mail 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Nuclear Transport
A DERAILED nuclear train caused travel chaos after scores of services between Barrow and Manchester Airport were cancelled. A spokesman for Network Rail said they had no choice after technical issues prevented its removal and they were down to one line. He said they were having to bring in cranes yesterday and hoped to have it removed by last night.
NW Evening Mail 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Japan
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has told workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that “the future of Japan” depends on their ongoing struggle to contain leaks of highly radioactive water at the site. Abe’s brief visit to the stricken plant on Thursday – his second since he became prime minister last December – comes weeks after he reassured the world that the situation at the facility was under control, amid reports that large quantities of contaminated water were seeping into the Pacific ocean. Abe’s reassurances are thought to have helped Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics, but were later challenged by a senior official at the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco].
Guardian 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Mongolia
Mongolia will take a stake in a domestic uranium venture led by France’s Areva SA (AREVA) and support its development, signaling the nation’s willingness to revive foreign investment, said Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag.
Bloomberg 17th Sept 2013 read more »
Iran
As charm offensives go, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s carefully orchestrated effort to convince sceptical Western leaders that his country has no intention of posing a threat to world peace is proving to be a roaring success.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Analysis: If the poisonous confrontation between Iran and America is to be settled, three vital stars must fall into alignment in both Tehran and Washington.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2013 read more »
US
The US and Russia have signed a joint agreement to share their knowledge on nuclear energy, research and security projects. The agreement will expand co-operation between the two countries on nuclear research laboratories, institutes and facilities in a broad range of areas, including nuclear technology, energy and environment.
Energy Live News 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Germany
“We need a drastic policy shift,” said Christoph Schmidt, chairman of Germany’s Council of Economic Experts. “They haven’t paid any attention to costs. These are now huge.” The government has vowed to break dependence on fossil fuels and source 50pc of all electricity from wind, solar and other renewables by 2030, and 80pc by mid-century. But cost estimates have reached €1 trillion (£840bn) over the next 25 years. “It is a worthwhile goal, and the whole world is looking to see whether Germany can do it, so we can’t fail. But there have been so many mistakes,” Professor Schmidt told the Daily Telegraph.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Renewable energy is still a hot topic for Germany. Despite the meltdown of its solar industry, Berlin’s drive for clean power sources continues apace.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
The Vatican has repeated its call to nations to close the door on nuclear weapons. The appeal came from Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States, at the 57th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), held in Vienna earlier this week. Referring to the 50th anniversary this year of the Papal Encyclical ‘Pacem in Terris’, he said the world needed to ask itself whether it was a safer place than a few decades ago.
Christian Today 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Renewables
The UK’s wind, wave and tidal energy sector directly employs more than 18,000 full time staff, an industry report said. In addition, almost 16,000 people are indirectly employed as a result of the green energy industries, in businesses which supply products and services to the sector, the review published by trade body RenewableUK said. The number of people working in the sector has increased by 74% since 2010 when RenewableUK conducted its original “working for a green Britain and Northern Ireland” study into employment in the wind, wave and tidal power industries.
Guardian 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Green Deal
The Government’s flagship Green Deal scheme is making “painfully slow” progress, with just 12 homes installing energy saving measures since its launch in January. The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said 71,210 households had been assessed for Green Deal measures such as solar panels and insulation at the end of August, up from 58,124 in July. But only 677 households have gone to the next stage and said they would like to proceed with the scheme. Of these, 12 houses have had measures installed, while 293 properties had quotes accepted on work and 372 properties had installations “pending”.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2013 read more »
The Government spent more than £400,000 on PR consultants to promote its Green Deal energy efficiency scheme, which has resulted in only 12 homes installing measures such as new boilers.
Times 20th Sept 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The UK independence party will accuse anti-fracking “eco-freaks” of trying to kill off “the greatest new economic opportunity for our country in our lifetimes” on Friday. In a speech at the Ukip party conference in London, energy spokesman Roger Helmer will say: “I have absolutely no sympathy for the rent-a-mob protesters, the swampies and the Occupy Movement and the anti-capitalists and eco-freaks who have sought to hijack the Balcombe protest.”
Guardian 20th Sept 2013 read more »
Armed Russian military have stormed a Greenpeace ship protesting against oil exploitation in remote Arctic waters. According to the last communications from the Arctic Sunrise before all contact was cut at around 4.30pm BST, the Russians dropped guards on to the deck of the vessel by rope from a helicopter, rounded up the Greenpeace crew and broke into the wheel house and communications rooms.
Guardian 19th Sept 2013 read more »
Climate
The world has already burnt more than half the maximum amount of fossil fuel that can be consumed if catastrophic levels of global warming are to be avoided, scientists have calculated. In a finding expected to be included in the most comprehensive report ever made into climate change, researchers also warn that we are on course to use up our entire global carbon allowance within 30 years.
Independent 19th Sept 2013 read more »
