Radwaste
A Welsh MP, Albert Owen has been pushing for Cumbria to be the nuclear sacrifice zone.
Radiation Free Lakeland 27th July 2014 read more »
Nuclear Accidents
A U.S. science advisory report says Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident offers a key lesson for the nation’s nuclear industry: Focus more on the highly unlikely but worst case scenarios. That means thinking about earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, solar storms, multiple failures and situations that seem freakishly unusual, according to a National Academy of Sciences report. Those kinds of things triggered the world’s three major nuclear accidents.
Japan Today 28th July 2014 read more »
Energy Supplies
Chris Huhne: Russian gas is explicitly excluded from the sanctions package, recognising that EU members as a whole buy nearly a quarter of their gas from Russia, and that Germany buys over a third. But the share of Russian gas in EU gas imports has been declining for many years, and Russian gas accounts for less than a 10th of the EU’s primary energy consumption. The dependence could nevertheless be cut further: the EU summit in October is set to decide whether the 30% energy saving target for 2030 should be as legally enforceable as its renewable targets, something the Germans and the Danes want. Nothing else (certainly not shale gas production – fracking) can reduce energy import dependence more quickly. Energy efficiency makes sense not just to curb imports, but also to cut carbon emissions. The European commission’s work has shown that gas imports could be down sharply with a modest increase in ambition on renewables and energy efficiency. The technology is there: more renewable electricity; more biogas from waste; more insulation to curb heating demand; more ground- and air-source heat pumps to replace gas boilers at home; more solar thermal for hot water. Energy efficiency – insulation of homes, for one – is cheaper than any energy-producing or generating option (which is why the Treasury cuts in the UK’s Eco energy efficiency budget are such folly). For once, Europe’s greens can make common cause with Europe’s securocrats: cutting gas demand makes sense both to protect the planet and to punish Putin.
Guardian 27th July 2014 read more »
Japan
About 4,700 residents living within five kilometers of Kyushu Electric Co’s Sendai plant in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, were given iodine tablets as a precautionary measure on Sunday. The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved the upgraded design and safety features of the Sendai plant earlier this month, paving the way for its likely restart sometime in the fall.
Japan Today 28th July 2014 read more »
Renewables
Matt Ridley: Despite the best efforts of the Conservatives to rein in their Lib Dem colleagues, the renewable-energy bandwagon careers onward, costing ever more money and doing real environmental harm, while producing trivial quantities of energy and risking blackouts next winter. People keep telling me it’s no good being rude about all renewables: some must be better than others. Well, I’m still looking.
Times 28th July 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Ministers will give the go-ahead on Monday for a big expansion of fracking across Britain that will allow drilling in national parks and other protected areas in “exceptional circumstances”. The government will invite firms to bid for onshore oil and gas licences for the first time in six years, with about half of the country advertised for exploration. Ministers are also clarifying the rules on when drilling can take place in national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) and world heritage sites, following calls by environmental campaigners for an outright ban on drilling in them.
Guardian 28th July 2014 read more »
BBC 28th July 2014 read more »
Some of Britain’s most beautiful landscapes could be fracked for oil and gas after the Government today invited bids from energy companies for licences that would allow them start work wherever they think resources can be found.
Independent 28th July 2014 read more »
Ministers will announce new planning guidance designed to make it harder to drill fracking wells in national parks and other important areas of British countryside.
Telegraph 27th July 2014 read more »
Times 28th July 2014 read more »
There are few issues more vital in politics than the imperative to keep our nation’s lights on. That is why this newspaper has always supported fracking for shale gas: the discovery of a major source of fuel within our borders is of huge benefit, and it would be a foolish government that did not take advantage of it.
Telegraph 28th July 2014 read more »
Greenpeace was sceptical. Louise Hutchins, an energy campaigner with the group, said ministers had fired the starting gun on a “reckless race for shale” that could see fracking rigs spring up across the countryside. “Eric Pickles’ supposed veto power over drilling in national parks will do nothing to quell the disquiet of fracking opponents across Britain,” she warned. “The only people who stand to benefit from shale drilling are the bosses of a few inexperienced energy companies, which have yet to prove they can operate safely, while local communities will bear the full brunt of the disruption and potential environmental damage,” she added.
FT 28th July 2014 read more »
