Dounreay
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority today named Babcock Dounreay Partnership as its preferred bidder to acquire Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. Babcock Dounreay Partnership is a consortium of Babcock International Group, CH2M HILL and URS. Subject to legal, contractual and regulatory clearance, it will formally acquire the site licence company on April 2, 2012, from its existing parent body, UKAEA Ltd, part of Babcock International Group.
DSRL 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
City AM 24th Nov 2011 more >>
Share Cast 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
BBC 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Almost half the stock of nuclear fuel left over at Dounreay from its research role in the last century is to begin leaving the site next summer. Forty-four tonnes of breeder material from the Dounreay Fast Reactor will be moved by rail from Caithness to Cumbria over a 4-5 year period. The material is to be reprocessed at the Sellafield nuclear site to recover fuel that could be used to generate electricity in the future.
DSRL 21st Nov 2011 more >>
THE quango in charge of cleaning up the UKs civil reactor sites has given the green light for the transfer of spent fuel from Dounreay to Sellafield in Cumbria. Anti-nuclear organisations are against the proposed rail haulage of the highly radioactive material, due to get under way next summer. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority okayed the plans to move loads from the former UKAEA reactor sites at Dounreay and Harwell for reprocessing at Sellafield.
John O Groat Journal 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Wylfa
The company behind plans for a new nuclear power station at Wylfa on Anglesey has been accused of attempting to bully a farmer who is refusing to sell it his land. Horizon Nuclear Power rejects claims of bullying and says it needs to carry out an ecological survey in the area. Farmer Richard Jones does not want the company’s staff on his land. Now Horizon is threatening to use special access powers.
BBC 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Cumbria
MASSIVE pylons could soon be crisscrossing the south Cumbrian countryside. The project is part of a £2bn package which could see new nuclear power stations built at Sellafield and Heysham in Lancashire. A new connection linking the Sellafield site to the electricity supply network is needed before a new nuclear power station in Sellafield can begin to supply electricity. The proposed routes show a rough guide to which areas could be affected by the connection.
NW Evening Mail 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Stress Tests
The European Commission is tomorrow expected to publish a progress report on nuclear power station stress tests. The latest publicly available data reveals that the tests have entirely ignored evacuation plans for towns and cities near nuclear plants. Most have not looked at multiple reactor failure, which is what happened at Fukushima, or the threat from crashes by large aircraft.
Greenpeace International 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
How safe are Europes nuclear power plants? The European Commission is due to present an authoritative answer this Thursday. It will be based on EU-wide safety checks which were begun in June, after the nuclear crisis in Japan. The European Union has 143 reactors. But on the eve of the Commission publishing its findings, the Greens in the European Parliament have been saying that not nearly enough factors may have been taken into account, nor enough detail and clarity.
Euronew 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Decommissioning
Two north west firms have been appointed to a £304m five-year nuclear decommissioning framework to demolish 10 outdated first-generation power stations. They were chosen by Magnox, which operates the sites on behalf of owner NDC. It has selected Warrington-based nuclear specialist Nuvia, and an alliance of firms including Manchester demolition specialist KDC for the project, which involves removing plant, demolishing buildings and bulk asbestos removal at the sites.
Manchester Evening News 24th Nov 2011 more >>
Merseyside plant and tool hire giant Speedy Hire has secured a £2m contract to supply equipment for the decommissioning of nuclear power stations. Newton-le-Willows-based Speedy has signed a three-year deal with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to supply lifting consumables to the nuclear processing sites at Sellafield, Magnox, Dounreay and the remainder of its estate.
Liverpool Daily Post 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Nuclear R&D
It comes as something of a shock to see the House of Lords science and technology committee warning of complacency over nuclear R&D in the UK. Its as though were setting off on a long journey without a map, without a driver, and without anyone to fix the car if things go wrong, said committee chairman Lord Krebs.
Engineer 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Many nuclear experts are nearing retirement age and the Government is not doing enough to replace them, a Parliamentary report warned yesterday. The Lords Science Committee accused the coalition of being too complacent and urged it to come up with a long-term plan to ensure the UK has a new generation of experts.
Western Daily Press 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Proliferation
A BUSINESSMAN from Guildford who exported machine parts to Iran that could have been used in the countrys nuclear programme was facing jail last week. Dr Ramin Pouladian-Kari, 45, of Little Warren, Guildford, sold 361 electrical switchgears to the regime in breach of strict regulations requiring an export licence.
Get Surrey 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Dalgety Bay
A SCOTS beach riddled with radioactive debris could become a permanent no-go zone, environment chiefs warned yesterday. They said they would move to declare Dalgety Bay in Fife Britain’s first site of contaminated radioactive land if the Ministry of Defence do not remove all traces of contamination by March. The number of finds of the particles – the legacy of dumped radium-coated instrument panels from World War II aircraft – is escalating. And the radioactivity of just one particle is equivalent to that of 5000 chest X-rays, raising serious health concerns for people in the area.
Daily Record 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
France
Hundreds of French anti-nuclear protesters clashed with police in Normandy on Wednesday when a train convoy was preparing to transport radioactive waste to Germany. Five activists were arrested.
France24 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
BBC 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Sky News 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Reuters 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Euronews 24th Nov 2011 more >>
Russia
On 18 November, following a meeting of the Russian-France commission on issues of bilateral cooperation at the prime ministerial level, the two nations signed a declaration of cooperation in the field of nuclear power. Russian Federation Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed on behalf of Russia, while inking the document for France was French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. Not surprisingly, details of the agreement were not announced, but a Russian source familiar with the negotiations stated that a high priority of Moscow was its interest in expanding the involvement of French companies in building the 2,300 megawatt Kaliningrad Nuclear Power Plant, also known as the Baltic Nuclear Power Plant, particularly in raising investment and utilizing French companies technologically advanced energy equipment.
Oil Price 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Japan
Polls show the public turning against nuclear energy after Japan’s Fukushima disaster. But low coverage of protests and powerful business and political interests have complicated efforts to promote change.
Christian Science Monitor 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
A magnitude-5.9 earthquake hit Japan early Thursday on the east coast of Honshu, a region close to the site of the nuclear power plant that was hit by a powerful tsunami earlier this year. No injuries or damage has yet to be reported.
IB Times 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Spain
The environment for Spanish nuclear power appears to be changing with the election of a People’s Party government and publication of a study on the country’s new-build capabilities.
World Nuclear News 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Renewables
Tony Juniper, has put together an in-depth response to thye BBC on Why Panorama got it wrong on renewable. BBC’s Panorama suggested that green energy is pushing your bills up. They were wrong. Chair of Action4 Renewables Tony Juniper explains why.
Action 4 Renewables 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Families will pay £280 a year in green taxes by 2020 to fund the shift to wind, solar and nuclear power, ministers admitted yesterday. The huge cost faced by ordinary people will pay for the Governments pledge to cut carbon emissions and be the greenest ever. Households currently pay £89 a year on their bills for the green energy drive.
This is Money 24th Nov 2011 more >>
BBC 24th Nov 2011 more >>
The Irish-Scottish Links on Energy Study (ISLES) study, funded by the EU’s INTERREG IVA Programme, has found that development of an interconnected transmission network within the decade would help drive further growth in the renewables sector, create jobs, generate revenues and ensure future sustainable energy supplies by better connecting and exporting electricity.
Scottish Government 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
SCOTLAND and Irelands power grids could be linked by a vast network of undersea cables stretching from the Western Isles to the north tip of Ulster, as part of plans to boost the reach of new wind, wave and tidal farms, government ministers said yesterday.
Scotsman 24th Nov 2011 more >>
Solar panels and wind turbines are a “volatile” source of power with fluctuations in the electricity supply risking “grid instabilities” and triggering wide-scale blackouts. Ageing infrastructure and increasingly cross-border electricity networks have heightened the likelihood of a devastating collapse of power supplies lasting months and covering several continents, according to the joint report by Allianz and the Chief Risk Officer Forum.
Telegraph 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Caroline Flint challenges Chris Huhne to defend government’s position at opposition day debate. Around 500 people today protested and lobbied their MPs in Parliament to vote against plans to slash feed-in tariffs for solar power with effect from next month.
Business Green 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Video Footage.
Business Green 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Green Deal
Greg Barker announces on Twitter details of the energy efficiency scheme will be accompanied by analysis of future energy costs. The long-awaited consultation on the government’s Green Deal scheme is set to be published later today, including details of how the coalition intends to incentivise uptake of energy efficiency measures. Climate change minister Greg Barker took to social media site Twitter this morning to make the announcement on the government’s flagship emissions-cutting policy, which was a major component of the Energy Act granted Royal Assent last month.
Business Green 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Households will be offered a £150 cash incentive to insulate their homes from next year, under plans unveiled by the government on Wednesday. Within two years, households taking up the offer should be saving money on their energy bills, as new government policies come into force, Chris Huhne pledged. By 2020, according to government estimates, the average household should pay £94 a year less for energy than they would without the policies. The energy and climate change secretary was seeking to refute claims that the government’s green policies such as renewable energy subsidies and charges on carbon for businesses were driving up bills. He said the real cause was soaring international gas prices, and that green policies that improved efficiency and made the UK less reliant on gas would pay off in the short as well as the long term. Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which?, said: “It’s difficult to see how hard-pressed homeowners will have confidence in how the ‘green deal’ might work for them if the suggested savings are initially based on averages rather than on their personal energy use. “The ‘golden rule’ was supposed to reassure people that green deal repayments would not exceed the savings made on energy bills. But if this is based on average figures then it could be meaningless for many.
Guardian 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
How a leaky terraced house cut its bills by 69%.
Guardian 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Chris Huhne’s drive for a clean, green energy system and warm, efficient homes has risks, but the alternative leads to economic and environmental chaos. Take a look at the International Energy Agency’s most recent report: it predicts only 20% of all gas will come from fracking by 2035. Handy, but it’s no gamechanger. The cost of all support for renewable energy passed on the energy customers is currently £20 and (1.5%) will be £54 (4%) in 2020. Not hundreds, not thousands, but £54. The sum of all the fuel poverty and environmental measures in 2020 will be £280, Decc predicts, but the savings will be £373. About £53 of that saving is ascribed to the Green deal, the government’s scheme to increase the energy efficiency of the nation’s ageing and leaky homes, for which full details were released today. It is ambitious and absolutely necessary, and solves the problem of people not having the cash available to invest in efficiency measures. It does this by creating loans for which the repayments are smaller than the savings the measures deliver on energy bills. But the crux is take-up. Scheme after scheme has shown before that often you literally can’t give insulation away. Decc reckons that is because people are worried about letting cowboy builders into their homes and will therefore accredit Green deal providers.
Guardian 24th Nov 2011 more >>
The Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (Decc) consultation expected on Wednesday must answer some major concerns about the practicality of the scheme. Without a reality check, the scheme will get nowhere near the 14m homes ministers want to reach by 2020. In order for the green deal to be a success, it is critical that the government addresses the three biggest barriers for consumers the cost, the hassle and the lack of trust in the energy sector.
Guardian 23rd Nov 2011 more >>
Gas
Weir Group has increased its bet on the American fracking industry with the £430 million acquisition of a shale gas services group. The Scottish engineering company has been the surprise industrial package of the past two years, soaring into the FTSE 100 on the back of its expertise in the oil, gas and mining industries. Weir, whose kit gives explorers and producers the ability to pump water and chemicals into rocks, known as fracking, to unlock hydrocarbons, has acquired the Houston-based Seaboard Holdings. The deal takes its shale gas expertise to the wellhead, where Seaboard provides kits for several explorers.
Times 24th Nov 2011 more >>
Missile Shield
DMITRY Medvedev, the Russian president, embraced the fiery rhetoric of the Cold War yesterday as he threatened to target and if necessary destroy America’s European missile defence shield once it is built. In what may be the most serious blow to US-Russia relations since President Barack Obama came to power, Mr Medvedev raised the prospect of Russia launching missile attacks on European Union member states such as Poland, Romania and Spain as well as Turkey, a NATO member.
Irish Independent 24th Nov 2011 more >>
