Electricity Market Reform
I hear that the long-awaited “strike price” for nuclear power generation has basically been agreed. This is the guaranteed minimum that EDF would get for power produced at a proposed new plant at Hinkley Point, the first of the coming wave of nuclear new-build. This floor price is vital, as it means investors are guaranteed a return for stumping up the billions of pounds needed to design, build and operate the stations. Once agreed, arguably the biggest remaining obstacle to a new nuclear dawn has been overcome. I’m told that EDF and the civil servants have all but signed on the dotted line for a minimum price of somewhere between £95-£99.50 per megawatt hour, whatever that means, which was about as high as government was willing to go as then other forms of clean energy would be cheaper. However, what the nuclear industry needs is for this deal to be finalised and formally confirmed. Nuclear’s many critics could also do with this news, so that they could at least keep fighting the inevitable fully informed. An announcement was due before Christmas, which slipped into this month. Apparently, “red tape” means official word won’t come until March.
Independent 24th Jan 2013
Aldermaston
A top-secret plant at Aldermaston that makes enriched uranium components for Britain’s nuclear warheads and fuel for the Royal Navy’s submarines has been shut down because corrosion has been discovered in its “structural steelwork”, the Guardian can reveal.
The closure has been endorsed by safety regulators who feared the building did not conform to the appropriate standards. The nuclear safety watchdog demands that such critical buildings are capable of withstanding “extreme weather and seismic events”, and the plant at Aldermaston failed this test.
Guardian 24th Jan 2013
Telegraph 24th Jan 2013
The safety record of Britain’s aged nuclear weapons plant at Aldermaston in Berkshire has been less than enviable. AWE, the private consortium that runs the sprawling 750-acre site, is due to appear in Reading crown court in March, charged with breaking health and safety law in connection with a fire in August 2010. The prosecution is being brought by the government’s watchdog, the Health and Safety Executive, which has also asked AWE to review its arrangements for dealing with fires. The official inquiry into the fire by the Royal Berkshire fire and rescue service was very critical of Aldermaston’s performance, saying there had been communication breakdowns, confusion and faulty fire hydrants. In response to inquiries, AWE admitted in September that there had been as many as 50 other fires at Aldermaston over two years, though it said that they were all minor.
Guardian 24th Jan 2013
Radwaste
Cumbria could be following in the footsteps of several international communities if it decides to stay in the running to house an underground nuclear waste storage facility. The possibility of similar underground storage projects has been explored in a number of countries – including France, Canada, the US and Finland – and the UK Government has consulted the agencies involved.A spokesman for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said: “The Government has drawn extensively upon the experiences and good practice of the international community in formulating the process by which a Geological Disposal Facility would be implemented in the UK. “In light of experience around the world, the Government decided that the fairest way to find a suitable location was to ask communities to volunteer and then work with them to explore whether the circumstances – including the geology – were appropriate to proceed, giving them the option to pull out at any stage up until when construction would start.”
Carlisle News & Star 24th Jan 2013
IT could take a public vote to decide whether West Cumbria will eventually be the home for a £12 billion nuclear waste repository. Copeland Council leader Elaine Woodburn told The Whitehaven News: “I’ve always said a referendum would need to be held at some point but it’s got to be held with all the information – and there isn’t the information there yet.” She added: “In any case we don’t know what will happen until January 30 when the three councils have to decide whether to go to the next stage of the process – desk top geological investigations. “If we do continue I think a referendum will be held but you want people to make an informed tick in the box. It could be 10-15 years down the line.” Asked whether it would be a West Cumbria-wide referendum, Coun Woodburn said: “My priority is Copeland.” Ennerdale’s own community referendum last week resulted in a 73 per cent postal ballot response showing a 94 per cent vote against “hosting a nuclear facility in Ennerdale.”
Whitehaven News 24th Jan 2013
There are many different areas for debate, concern, explanation and examination that need to be dealt with before any decision is made over the possible siting of an underground repository for nuclear waste in the west of Cumbria. For a start, we don’t need more transparency, honesty and openness over what happens at Sellafield. We need some. We still don’t have any idea of what horrors lie submerged in the “swimming pools” at Sellafield. Some say they have lain there for years, perhaps decades. But the point is, hardly anyone knows exactly what is stored in the murky waters of the plant, let alone has any idea of its condition. There is no doubt that all this waste needs to be disposed of properly and with the utmost security and safety. But if we haven’t been able to trust the Government and nuclear authorities to look after it properly in the past, how can we start now and trust these latest plans?
Carlisle News & Star 24th Jan 2013
The pros and cons of building an underground nuclear waste store in west Cumbria are being debated in Carlisle today. MPs Jamie Reed and John Stevenson will appear alongside scientists and nuclear workers at the seminar. Following representations by invited guests the debate will begin.The event is being held at the Hallmark Hotel in the city centre. Opposition groups have reacted angrily to the idea as they say they havenot been invited to take part.
ITV News 25th Jan 2013
The Trade Unionists for Safe Nuclear Energy chair, Kevin Coyle will open discussions on the nuclear wasted debate. Speaking before the discussion, he said: For there to be a full and proper debate there needs to be a full and proper investigation into the feasibility of a geological disposal facility in Cumbria. Only then can we consider how best to proceed. This issue is too important to make decisions without all the evidence.
ITV 25th Jan 2013
Union leaders have called for a “full and proper” investigation into the possibility of building an underground nuclear waste site in Cumbria. Councils will decide next week whether to conduct feasibility studies for the radioactive repository. Unite, which represents staff at the Sellafield plant, gave its backing ahead of a public meeting in Carlisle on Friday. Opponents said continuing the process would be “illogical and wasteful”.
BBC 25th Jan 2013
One week to go: your messages to the decision-makers on GDF. Including Arthur Millie: Two significant things happened last week. One was The Whitehaven News hosting the webchat with Baroness Verma on January 16 that boosted Peter Maher’s NO petition between noon and 11.30pm that evening by some 1,594 votes (providing a daily total of 2,107 in comparison to the previous highest daily total of 1,321). So thank you both. The second thing is that two days later the BBC1 local news carried a line saying that the Copeland Council leader had said that she thought that the public should have a vote on the GDF. I wondered where this quote had come from but could not find it – but all was revealed in the BBC’s Sunday Politics show for our area. Diane Standen: With 75 per cent of West Cumbria already excluded in the MRWS process and the remaining 25 per cent described as having low potential for suitability by the MRWS lead geologist, why are our councils even considering the prospect of wasting £40million of taxpayers’ money and valuable time on geological studies?
Whitehaven News 24th Jan 2013
Hinkley
Hinkley C Nuclear Power Station is almost a DONE DEAL. We must stop it in it’s tracks NOW! Planning permission has been granted for Hinkley C Nuclear Power Station, (in Bridgewater, Somerset,) Uk, to be constructed. The Chernobyl Disaster led to almost a million cancer deaths and deformities. Fukushima has just had a terrifying melt down, causing untold harm to the planet. We must stop this Nuclear Madness. Energy Minister Edward Davey, will make his decision about the construction on 19th March 2013. It’s VERY URGENT. Lets tell him ‘NO to HINKLEY C.
Avaaz 22nd June 2013
Magnox
The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) will next month begin an eight-month period of formal dialogue with four consortia considering bids for a multi-billion-pound competition to run 12 historic nuclear sites. The NDA said the formal dialogue will give the four prospective bidders the opportunity to “gather information during a series of face-to-face meetings”. Site visits are also being organised, enabling the prospective bidders to see at first hand the challenges that will help them form their tender proposals, the NDA said. Following an invitation to take part in the dialogue, the NDA has confirmed the four consortia who plan to proceed are: Reactor Site Solutions (comprising of Bechtel and EnergySolutions); The Babcock Fluor Partnership; CAS Restoration Partnership (CH2M Hill, Areva, Serco); UK Nuclear Restoration Ltd (AMEC/Atkins).
NuNet 24th Jan 2013
Nuclear Accidents
When these ‘minor’ incidents happen it does not fill me with confidence that ‘we were lucky this time’. If the nuclear industry expects these incidents to happen once every year or once every ten year then why do they not say so. However, most of these incidents are unexpected i.e. they do not match the probabilities they expect. If their analysis cannot explain what has happened in the past what confidence can we have that they can avoid a disaster in the future?
Peter Lux 24th Jan 2013
Japan
Japan may face a total nuclear shutdown in the summer for the second time since the March 2011 Fukushima disaster as the country’s two operating reactors close for maintenance and tough new safety checks keep the rest of the fleet offline.
Scientific American 24th Jan 2013
North Korea
North Korea has responded to tighter UN sanctions with a threat to conduct another nuclear test the regime said would target its greatest enemy, the US.
Guardian 24th Jan 2013
Herald 25th Jan 2013
Daily Mail 24th Jan 2013
Independent 24th Jan 2013
Telegraph 24th Jan 2013
Just as we were lulled into a false sense of security about North Korea, congratulating Kim Jong-un on a surprisingly good first year in power, we are jolted back to reality and to what is now a very familiar script: North Korea launches a long-range rocket; the United Nations condemns it; Pyongyang threatens to carry out a third nuclear test and declares it is all aimed against its sworn enemy, the US.
Guardian 24th Jan 2013
Iran
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has warned that a crisis involving a nuclear Iran is in the “foreseeable future”.
BBC 24th Jan 2013
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano says he’s realistic about the prospects of persuading Iran to give up the development of nuclear weapons, but the only way is through diplomacy, not war.
Reuters 24th Jan 2013
Switzerland
An initiative aimed at bringing about a nuclear phase-out in Switzerland by 2029 has secured enough support for a national referendum.
Modern Power Systems 24th Jan 2013
Trident
A Scottish peer has become only the second former defence secretary ever to argue the UK does not need its nuclear deterrent at sea around the clock. Lord Browne of Ladyton warned the position – a cornerstone of the current Trident system based on the Clyde – could actually reduce Britain’s safety.
Herald 25th Jan 2013
Scotsman 25th Jan 2013
There is a broader debate about the strategic and defence relevance of Trident missiles, which is at risk of being shut down because of the SNP’s stance. The risk is that the nuclear debate simply becomes one of where they are stored and what that means for Scotland and England. But as Lord Browne of Ladyton, a former Labour defence secretary, suggested yesterday, other questions can and ought to be ¬debated. Should the stance that the UK must always have a ¬Trident submarine on patrol somewhere in the world’s oceans be maintained? And if Britain stepped away from that principle, would that mean the SNP would be happy to have the rest of the non-nuclear armed (but nuclear powered) submarine fleet retained at Faslane post independence? Does even the prospect of this wider debate on Trident replacement render the current independence-sparked debate moot?
Scotsman 25th Jan 2013
Europe
Fears are growing in Brussels that climate policy could become a political football in any referendum on EU membership, following British Prime Minister David Cameron’s declaration of intent on Wednesday to hold an in/out poll. The UK Independent Party (UKIP), which has links to the eurosceptic right of Cameron’s Conservatives, launched a petition on 21 January calling for the EU’s climate and energy targets to be suspended. The petition’s professed objectives – to prevent carbon leakage, stop ‘wasting money’ on unilateral climate measures, reduce energy prices and increase energy security by allowing more fossil fuel use – are widely shared on the Conservative right and among Europe’s energy-intensive industries.
Guardian 24th Jan 2013
Carbon
Price of a permit to emit a tonne of carbon fell to €2.81 after an EU vote against a proposal to support the struggling market.
Guardian 24th Jan 2013
FT 24th Jan 2013
Energy Efficiency
The government is due to launch its flagship energy efficiency scheme, the Green Deal, on Monday. At a press conference yesterday, climate change minister Greg Barker insisted that the programme will make energy efficiency measures the next big thing in home improvement. But others seem less than enthusiastic. We cast an appraising eye over the government’s big green baby.
Carbon Brief 24th Jan 2013
How much would the average family save in energy bills if the government instituted a nationwide programme to insulate the UK’s draughty homes? The front page of the Times claims today that the average household could knock £310 a year off its energy spend. A closer look indicates that it’s getting the numbers confused.
Carbon Brief 21st Jan 2013
Hundreds of workers in the insulation industry are at risk of losing their jobs after British Gas broke a promise to insulate thousands of homes free of charge, The Times has learnt. Britain’s biggest energy supplier prematurely pulled a multimillion-pound programme to insulate an estimated 40,000 homes, despite having contracted the UK’s biggest insulation installers to carry out the work. The installers are now having to contact the households that had arranged to have the work done to tell them it has been cancelled. British Gas’s unexpected decision to pull the funding has left the insulation industry nursing hefty losses. About 6,000 homes had their lofts lagged or cavity walls insulated before the British Gas scheme was cancelled last month, at least four weeks ahead of schedule. But the companies do not expect to receive payment for much of the work, pu tting even more jobs at risk.
Times 25th Jan 2013
The Green Deal offers households loans of up to £10,000 to install energy efficiency measures such as cavity wall insulation, which they can then pay back through the savings on fuel bills. However, first households must have a Green Deal assessment carried out by trained experts. The assessment will cost between £80 and £120 and involve a full inspection of the house to find draughts and leaks, sight of the an electricity bill and a questionnaire about energy use. Questions will include whether the family takes baths or showers and how much television is watched. Homeowners will also be asked “basic questions” about their income to see if they are eligible for subsidies offered to the poorest households under the scheme.
Telegraph 24th Jan 2013
Renewables
According to today’s Financial Times (FT), official figures show that the number of new wind farms and other renewable energy projects constructed in the UK is heading for a sharp decline after 2020. But what do the figures tell us in more detail – and is a projected slowdown in renewables growth the result of government policy confusion?
Carbon Brief 22nd Jan 2013
RenewableUK has welcomed today’s signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on wind energy by the Energy Secretary Edward Davey and his Irish counterpart Pat Rabbitte. The MoU is the first step towards reaching a full inter-Governmental agreement on exporting clean electricity from onshore wind farms in Ireland to the UK via undersea cables by 2020.
Renewable UK 24th Jan 2013
FT 24th Jan 2013
DEVOLUTION has played a major role in the expansion of renewable energy in the UK, with Scotland leading the way ahead of Wales and Northern Ireland, a new report has claimed. Scotland could be considered a leader in renewable energy within the UK due to the expansion of wind power between 2003 and 2011 – when onshore wind “grew tenfold” from 308MW to 3,016MW. The authors of the report, from a group of leading UK universities, said that Scottish ministers have “full control over major energy consents and planning”, ensuring the expansion of the SNP’s flagship policy to heavily promote renewable energy through wind farms.
Scotsman 25th Jan 2013
UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey has said he was surprised and disappointed by the Scottish Government’s allegations that he is holding them back from tackling fuel poverty. He met with Scottish housing minister Margaret Burgess yesterday after she accused the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) of “delays” in implementing an energy efficiency programme in Scotland. ECO (Energy Companies Obligation) puts a legal obligation on energy suppliers to make homes more energy efficient, but Ms Burgess told Holyrood on Wednesday that she has yet to find out how the money will be spent in Scotland.
Scotsman 25th Jan 2013
