Radwaste
The most persuasive PR stunts are dressed up in suits and paid for by the unwitting taxpayer. Last Monday’s “geology seminar” at Whitehaven was a brilliant example of nasty spin from a government who wants new nuke plants and needs to be seen to have ‘solved’ the nuclear waste problem.
Northern Indymedia 26th June 2011 more >>
Book Review
Contesting the future of Nuclear power: Benjamin Sovacool, World Scientific. Dave Elliot says As someone who has been very critical of nuclear power, I was not expecting to be surprised by this book, which, according to the Introduction, sets out to prove that the basic premise behind a nuclear renaissance is wrong, whether one looks at it technically, economically, environmentally, or socio-politically. However I was surprised: I had not appreciated just how strong the case against nuclear power has become. Certainly if the nuclear lobbys relentless counter arguments have lulled you into a resigned acceptance that not everything about nuclear was bad, this book should provide a wake up call.
Environmental Research Web 25th June 2011 more >>
Opinion Polls
New research by Ipsos MORI shows that three in five global citizens (62%) oppose the use of nuclear energy a quarter (26%) of those have been influenced by the recent nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. The latest survey shows that support for nuclear energy is far below that for solar power (97%), wind power (93%), hydroelectric power (91%) and natural gas (80%) as a source of electricity. Just one in four (38%) adults across 24 countries support the use of nuclear energy. Support is highest in India (61%), Poland (57%) and the United States (52%).
Commodities Now 26th June 2011 more >>
Japan
Japans government is struggling to pass its bail-out of Tokyo Electric Power Company, owner of the doomed Fukushima nuclear plant. But any success would be pyrrhic: a bail-out is another step down the road of forbearance that made Japans nuclear industry so dysfunctional in the first place. It is hard to know what compensation Tepco will owe to those affected by its reactor meltdowns. One estimate, Y4,000bn-5,000bn, does not seem overblown. If correct, it could bankrupt the company, leaving it unable to pay creditors or accident victims their due. Even if the final cost is less, its uncertainty has been enough to put Leader: Tepcos solvency under a cloud: Standard & Poors has downgraded Tepco bonds to junk. Insolvency is what the government is trying to prevent. The draft law sets up a compensation scheme funded by power companies but guaranteed by the state. This commits the government to ensuring bondhol ders will never contribute to compensation costs through haircuts.
FT 27th June 2011 more >>
Masafumi Asada bought shares of Tokyo Electric Power Co. almost a decade ago with a single purpose: To vote against the use of nuclear power. Asada, a 70-year-old resident of Fukushima prefecture, the epicenter of Japans nuclear crisis, will speak on behalf of 402 shareholders tomorrow at the annual general meeting of the utility known as Tepco, to ask it to stop atomic generation.
Bloomberg 27th June 2011 more >>
Nearly 70 percent of Japanese believe nuclear safety measures are not yet sufficient to allow restarting reactors taken down for routine maintenance, a poll showed on Monday, suggesting Japan may have difficulty keeping plants running and avoiding a power crunch amid the protracted nuclear crisis at Fukushima. The poll by the Nikkei business daily also showed that 47 percent of the respondents favoured reducing the number of nuclear plants, up 5 percentage points since the previous poll in May.
Reuters 27th June 2011 more >>
Japan Today 27th June 2011 more >>
The Fukushima prefectural chapter of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party declared Sunday that it will no longer promote nuclear power generation. The LDP, which held power for most of the postwar period until it was defeated by the Democratic Party of Japan in the August 2009 general election, has long promoted nuclear power.
Japan Today 27th June 2011 more >>
Radiation experts said Sunday they had found internal radiation exposure in all of the 15 people they surveyed in May in areas 30-40 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The experts surveyed 15 people aged between 4 and 77 in Iitate and Kawamata in early and late May, and found radioactive cesium in both batches of their urine samples.
Japan Today 27th June 2011 more >>
A decade and a half before it blew apart in a hydrogen blast that punctuated the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was the scene of an earlier safety crisis. Then, as now, a small army of transient workers was put to work to try to stem the damage at the oldest nuclear reactor run by Japan’s largest utility. At the time, workers were racing to finish an unprecedented repair to address a dangerous defect: cracks in the drum-like steel assembly known as the “shroud” surrounding the radioactive core of the reactor. But in 1997, the effort to save the 21-year-old reactor from being scrapped at a large loss to its operator, Tokyo Electric, also included a quiet effort to skirt Japan’s safety rules: foreign workers were brought in for the most dangerous jobs, a manager of the project said.
Reuters 27th June 2011 more >>
France
Thousands of demonstrators formed a human chain outside France’s oldest nuclear power plant on Sunday to demand the site be closed as the government mulls whether to extend its life by a decade.
Reuters 26th June 2011 more >>
Germany
Germany’s Greens agreed Saturday to support Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government in a decision to ditch nuclear energy by 2022 despite divisions over the move within the opposition party. A majority of Greens delegates agreed to support the government proposal to fully replace nuclear energy with renewable sources within the next decade when it comes up on the ballot in parliament next week. The move could pass with government support alone, but the Greens’ decision to support it will be key in determining their path as they head toward 2013 general elections.
Business Week 25th June 2011 more >>
Eon, the German power group, has called Germanys switch to renewable energy a huge opportunity only weeks after demanding billions in damages from the government for nuclear plant closures. The switch to renewables is a fact. This is a huge opportunity to develop new technologies and business models, he added, naming electricity storage and smart networks as areas of interest alongside generation.
FT 27th June 2011 more >>
US
ESBWR Remains on Track for NRCs Final Design Certification in the Fall of 2011. GEHs New Reactor Poised to be One of the First Generation III+ Designs Certified for US Construction.
Vadvert 27th June 2011 more >>
Renewables
Britain’s biggest array of solar panels has begun generating in Oxfordshire. The first large ground system to feed into the national grid will benefit from the tariff scheme paying a premium for supplying clean electricity. Howbery business park’s companies specialise in engineering, environmental and water research and development and its 3,000-panel array generates up to 682 MWh a year, a quarter of its needs, and thereby save 350 tonnes of CO2 a year. Derry Newman, chief executive of Solarcentury, the company that supplied the solar photovoltaic modules, said that the UK’s famously overcast weather did not make it an unsuitable place for solar power.
Guardian 27th June 2011 more >>
