New Nukes
New report from No Need for Nuclear will show that the evidence given to Ministers, MPs and Parliament, on which they based their decisions in support of new nuclear power stations was false and an incorrect summary of the actual evidence and research carried out within Government.
NoNeed4Nuclear 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Horizon
The German consortium planning to build new nuclear plants in the UK is negotiating a cash injection of up to 5bn in exchange for a 25 per cent stake, according to people familiar with the situation. The talks underline the scale of the financial challenge behind the UKs ambition to build a new generation of reactors. The proposal for an equity stake was raised during a series of meetings between the German utilities and Toshiba in London and Düsseldorf from July to discuss the financing of the project, according to people familiar with the talks. One industry source said similar discussions had taken place with Areva. A cash injection would help the strained finances of RWE and Eon, which are facing mounting costs as a result of Germanys decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Eon in August announced its first quarterly loss and pledged to cut costs by 1.5bn every year until 2015. RWE, burdened by net debt of 27.5bn, has promised 11bn of asset sales by 2013.
FT 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Oldbury
Reactor 1 at the Oldbury nuclear power station in the United Kingdom will stop generating electricity in February 2012, ten months earlier than originally planned, operator Magnox Ltd has announced.
Nuclear Enginering International 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Nuclear Street 24th Oct 2011 more >>
Dounreay
Work to construct a £100m store to hold low-level radioactive waste from Dounreay is due to start next month. The dump at the former experimental nuclear power plant in Caithness will have six vaults, with the first vault expected to open in 2014. Low-level rubbish includes paper, rags, tools, glass, concrete and clothing contaminated by radioactivity. The demolition and clean-up of the Dounreay plant is expected to create 240,000 tonnes of such waste.
BBC 26th October 2011 more >>
Politics
A significant Cabinet split over the environment will emerge today when the Climate Change Secretary attacks the Chancellor, George Osborne, for threatening to abandon the Government’s green pledges. The simmering feud between the Coalition partners on environmental policy will break out into the open as Chris Huhne, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, launches an attack on Mr Osborne for vowing that the UK should not lead Europe in its efforts to cut carbon emissions. Mr Osborne is the leader of an increasingly influential faction within the Cabinet willing to sacrifice green policies if doing so is deemed helpful to economic growth. Whereas the Chancellor said at the Conservative Party conference that “We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business,” Mr Huhne will say in a speech this morning: “We are not going to save our economy by turning our back on renewable energy.” “David Cameron’s claim to be the ‘greenest government’ lies in tatters after just 18 months,” said the shadow Energy and Climate Secretary, Caroline Flint. “From neutering the Green Investment Bank, to scrapping zero-carbon homes and undermining solar panels on schools, the Government’s old Tory ideas prevail at every turn. However green Chris Huhne tries to appear, we know that the true blues in Treasury undermine climate-change policies at every turn,” Ms Flint said. Mary Creagh, the shadow Environment Secretary, commented: “George Osborne’s out-of-date ‘go slow’ on green issues has infected the entire Government, which is why they are even failing on their own coalition commitments.”
Independent 26th Oct 2011 more >>
The climate and energy secretary, Chris Huhne, will attack “climate sceptics and armchair engineers” for criticising renewables, in a speech on Wednesday on the economic benefits of green energy. Huhne will insist the government is backing renewable energy and has resolved to make the UK the largest market in Europe for offshore wind. His speech to the annual renewable industry conference comes in the wake of the publication of government proposals to reduce subsidies for green technologies including onshore wind, although the plans contained better news on support for offshore wind, wave and tidal power. And the solar industry is bracing itself for an announcement on the review of feed-in tariffs that pay people for the electricity they generate from small-scale renewables, which is expected to slash payments for solar electricity. The industry claims the expected move will hit jobs and growth in the sector. But Huhne will say today that renewable energy technologies will deliver a new industrial revolution, creating jobs and bringing investment into the UK. Louise Hutchins of Greenpeace said: “It is increasingly clear that there’s a green war at the heart of government. On the one hand Chris Huhne is making a strong case for the strategic role renewable energy can play in creating jobs and reducing CO2 emissions, while at the same time George Osborne seems to be in perpetual denial about the benefits of investing in green growth. The renewables industry urgently needs a clear and coherent policy from the government so that lost confidence is restored. We’ll know the coalition’s priorities are sound if in the coming weeks ministers support smallscale solar and wind power at a level that will protect the growth in jobs and manufacturing in that sector, rather than slashing support as is currently rumoured.”
Guardian 26th Oct 2011 more >>
Chris Huhne is set to infuriate some Tory coalition partners today by dismissing green economy deniers who are sceptical about renewable energy projects. In an outspoken attack, the energy secretary will criticise what he calls an unholy alliance of short-termists, armchair engineers, climate sceptics and vested interests standing in the way of green power.
FT 26th Oct 2011 more >>
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, is planning to deploy an extraordinary range of insults to describe people who find fault with wind, solar, tidal and wave energy. The ministers hardline support for renewable energy is understood to have antagonised senior Conservatives, including Chancellor George Osborne. Mr Osborne has previously expressed concern about green initiatives that are “piling costs on the energy bills of households and companies.
Telegraph 26th Oct 2011 more >>
Times 26th Oct 2011 more >>
IAEA
Former UN nuclear monitor and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei sees growth in nuclear energy — particularly in emerging economies — despite the Fukushima disaster caused by Japan’s March tsunami. “There will be, in the short term, a slowdown in some countries. But others like France, India or China (won’t see) an impact on their (nuclear) programs,” he told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Middle East Online 25th Oct 2011 more >>
China
According to the US Energy Information Administration’s International Energy Outlook 2011, China plans to add far more new nuclear capacity than any other nation. China will add 106 GW of nuclear capacity by 2035. Despite some temporary delay after Fukushima, China aims to have 40 reactors by 2020 and, by 2030, enough additional reactors to generate more power than all 104 reactors in the US.
IB Times 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Japan
Fukushima crisis update 17th to 20th October.
Greenpeace International 24th Oct 2011 more >>
Despite Mitsubishi Heavy Industrial’s denial that any valuable data was stolen in August’s cyber attack, a report claims there are signs it was. Sensitive data including plans for nuclear power plants and fighter jets “apparently was stolen” from Japanese industrial manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) during the cyber attack it uncovered in August 2011. When the company revealed the attack in September, it said “”crucial data about our products or technologies have been kept safe”. But the Asahi Shimbun newspaper this week cited ‘sources’ as saying that since then, an internal investigation found evidence that nuclear and military data was in fact taken during the attack.
Information Age 25th Oct 2011 more >>
The Inquirer 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Motorists in Japan are facing an unfamiliar peril. They are being offered used cars with low mileage, well-maintained engines and sound bodywork. The only flaw is that they are dangerously radioactive. In the aftermath of the nuclear disaster, used-car dealerships have found themselves stuck with vehicles that have absorbed high levels of radiation from the meltdown of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Barred from exporting the vehicles, they have resorted to re-registering them to disguise their origin, and selling them to customers who have no idea of the risk to which they are being exposed.
Times 26th Oct 2011 more >>
US
Florida regulators have approved cost recovery amounts for the state’s two largest utilities related to the construction of planned nuclear power reactors and uprates of existing reactors. The utilities will be able to collect more than $280 million from customers in 2012.
World Nuclear News 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
The last of the nation’s biggest nuclear bombs, a Cold War relic 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, has been dismantled in what one energy official called a milestone in President Barack Obama’s mission to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Guardian 26th Oct 2011 more >>
Daily Mail 26th Oct 2011 more >>
Alert.net 25th Oct 2011 more >>
BBC 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Renewables
Letter from Euan McLeod (Glasgow City Council), Stephen Churchman (Gwynedd County Council), Ralph Pryke (Leeds City Council); Councillors and national chairs of Nuclear Free Local Authorities: Cutting financial incentives to wind farms is a kick in the teeth for the renewable energy industry at a time when it could help provide new jobs. We are dismayed that the UK Government is actively considering cutting financial incentives to wind farms. Following the reductions in feed-in tariffs for solar power, this is another kick in the teeth for the renewable energy industry at a time when it could actually help to provide Britain with much-needed new jobs, clean energy and economic vitality. Such a change of policy would be a disaster for the renewable energy industry and will clearly put targets to reduce carbon emissions under threat. We also have to compare this with the Government support for the nuclear industry the billions given to manage our nuclear waste legacy, the huge effort to facilitate new nuclear build and the large indirect public subsidies available to new nuclear through electricity market reforms. Have we forgotten Fukushima so easily?
Times 24th Oct 2011 more >>
Here at WWF, we’re really worried at how the energy debate is currently playing out in the media. Renewable energy and green policies in general are being blamed on a daily basis for rising energy bills. An increasingly vocal lobby is calling on the government to cut support for renewable energy, abandon decarbonisation targets and embrace new forms of fossil fuel like shale gas. So what’s the main reason for recent energy bill increases? It’s primarily down to our over-reliance on gas. Between 2004 – when Britain became a net importer of gas – and 2009, the gas price for electricity generation rose by 84 per cent. Over the same period, electricity bills went up by 63 per cent. Whilst environmental policies have a cost, that cost has represented to date a small proportion of consumer bills.
Business Green 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Britain’s offshore wind industry will struggle to fulfill new orders in four years’ time as the yearly growth in UK offshore wind farms is expected to double between 2015 and 2016, figures released by Britain’s renewable energy trade association showed on Tuesday.
Reuters 25th Oct 2011 more >>
The boss of one of Britains largest energy companies has admitted that solar power is inefficient and that poorer households are subsidising richer ones who can afford to install panels on their roofs. Volker Beckers, chief executive of RWE npower, said that the amount of electricity that some solar panels generated did not justify the subsidies received by consumers who install them. Within days, the Government is to propose cuts in the generous subsidies for domestic solar panels, which are funded by blanket levies on all consumers energy bills. Many experts argue that photovoltaic (PV) roof-mounted panels do not generate enough renewable electricity to justify the handouts. Mr Beckers cited George Monbiot, the environmental commentator who has criticised the scheme as being unfair and too expensive.
Times 26th Oct 2011 more >>
Consumers have been warned to install solar panels as soon as possible, in anticipation of fierce subsidy cuts that will make them less financially attractive. Industry experts fear the government is about to at least halve feed-in tariff (Fit) rates, threatening up to 25,000 solar jobs, after officials were surprised at the speed of take-up. “If the government goes ahead with the reduction of the rates, it would mean those taking up the scheme in April 2012 will not receive as much money for their energy as those who signed up prior to the changes, so it really is important to start thinking about installing solar technology sooner rather than later,” said Helen Booker, solar expert at Npower. The money allocated to the Fits was set at 867m to 2015, with annual spending of 80m in 2011-12 rising to 161m in the next financial year. But the unexpected degree of enthusiasm for the feed-in tariffs, by which households gain a guaranteed income for every unit of energy their panels produce, means the money is already running out. Current and planned installations add up to about 100m worth of feed-in tariffs, according to the industry. More than 100,000 microgeneration systems mostly solar panels adding up to about 320 megawatts (MW) of capacity have been installed in the UK, nearly all since new feed-in tariff subsidies were introduced in April 2010. Around 100MW more are estimated to be in the pipeline. The Department of Energy and Climate Change estimates that installations are set to top 500MW, which would far outpace the budget.
Guardian 25th Oct 2011 more >>
Energy Efficiency
UKs small businesses missing out on £7.7 billion by ignoring energy efficiency measures. Almost 4 million small businesses are currently energy inefficient. Only one in five UK SMEs have energy efficient equipment in the workplace 84 per cent of employees say being environmentally friendly makes them happier at work. Nearly four million of the UK’s 4.8 million small businesses are potentially missing out on £7.7 billion every year by not implementing energy efficiency measures, according to new research from E.ON.
Eon Press Release 24th Oct 2011 more >>
Fossil Fuels
BP’s “public consultation” over its plan for a controversial deepwater oil well off the coast of Shetland, closed this month, has been reopened by Chris Huhne, for further comments.
Independent 26th Oct 2011 more >>
