Wylfa
Wylfa nuclear power station on Anglesey will generate its last electricity at the end of December. Bosses at Britain’s last Magnox nuclear station say they will turn off the remaining reactor for good on 30 December. It will bring an end to 44 years of electricity generation at the island’s plant. The 500-strong workforce will be cut to about 350 posts by April 2016, as the process of removing spent fuel and decommissioning the site gets underway.
BBC 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Daily Post 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Bradwell
THE energy company behind a new power station at Bradwell has written to residents to update them on the scheme. In October EDF Energy announced it had signed a deal with China General Nuclear Power Corporation for “Bradwell B”, a greenfield site next to the former station. The Chinese company will provide two thirds of the development costs and hope to begin construction by 2023. Up to 25,000 jobs will be created during construction, although it is unclear how many vacancies will be filled by local residents. A joint letter from Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, managing director of Nuclear New Build at EDF Energy and Zhu Minhong, general director of UK Nuclear Project at China General Nuclear Power Corporation, has been sent to residents in and around Bradwell. In the letter it says proposals are at a preplanning stage and it is likely to take several year before detailed plans are brought forward.
Maldon Standard 1st Dec 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
Still warm with the glow of leading one of the first countries to officially turn its back on coal-fired power, David Cameron was riding high as he addressed the climate conference in Paris this week. It’s amazing what a difference a fortnight can make. Prior to the ‘Energy Reset’ speech made by energy secretary Amber Rudd last month, the minister had spent the previous few months quietly dismantling a string of government subsidies created to encourage business investment in clean, renewable energy. The bold declaration to ditch unabated coal-fired power within the decade delighted green campaigners, but before they even got to the second line of the hallelujah chorus, came the revelation that instead of a clean energy revolution, reliance on gas and nuclear power would be our saviour. “Before the government changed the policy goalposts, onshore wind and solar were on track to be the cheapest sources of UK power with the potential to be subsidy-free by 2020,” said Juliet Davenport, chief executive of renewable energy company Good Energy. “The government’s apparent preferred options of nuclear and gas, and an old fashioned grid are not cheap and will not be subsidy-free for decades.”
Process Engineering 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Elon Musk, the renowned innovator, believes the widespread introduction of a carbon price could halve the time it takes the world to transition to clean energy and make a huge difference to the impact of climate change.
Guardian 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Radwaste
Nuclear-power plants have been around since the 1950s, and provide around 11% of the world’s electricity. But the spent nuclear fuel that they produce is highly radioactive and there are no facilities that can permanently and safely store it. Last month, Finland’s government became the first to approve construction of such a store — a deep underground repository — after more than 30 years of efforts to find a suitable site. Nature examines how Finland did it, and which countries are likely to follow suit. According to Cherry Tweed, chief scientific adviser at Radioactive Waste Management (a firm in Didcot, UK, which handles the UK’s effort to create a deep geological repository), Finland’s case shows that two elements are crucial to getting approval for permanent storage: “One is a safe site. The other is a supportive community who will work together with the developer to shape the project,” she says.
Nature 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Utilities
European utilities executives meeting at the Paris Climate Conference know they are part of the problem. What they have not yet figured out is how to make money by being part of the solution to climate change. For decades, power plants owned by the likes of RWE , Enel and EDF have been among Europe’s worst polluters. When governments started subsidising solar and wind power in a bid to reduce carbon emissions, many utilities shunned green energy as unrealistic and uneconomic. Now, renewable energy accounts for more than a quarter of Europe’s power and is pricing fossil fuel and nuclear plants out of the market, forcing utilities to come up with new strategies to benefit from a low-carbon energy environment. Some are belatedly jumping on the renewables bandwagon, some focus on their power grids, while others venture into emerging markets and new energy services. But all are still weighed down by their legacy fossil fuel or nuclear businesses and are struggling to reinvent themselves.
Reutes 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency has completed its report on the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program. The conclusion of the weaponization investigation is one of the major prerequisites for the full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the landmark nuclear deal that Iran and a US-led group of six countries reached in July. The investigation is mandated under a “roadmap” agreement reached between the IAEA and Iran on the same day as the JCPOA was completed. And according to the 16-page IAEA document, which can be found here, Iran carried on forms of weaponization work until 2009, several years longer than publicly available information previously suggested.
Business Insider 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Iran engaged in nuclear weapons design until 2003, says UN watchdog. IAEA says country also conducted weapons studies and only abandoned nuclear related activity in 2009 before historic deal
Guardian 3rd Dec 2015 read more »
BBC 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Switzerland
Swiss utility Axpo has submitted a road map to the country’s nuclear regulator for further investigations of flaw indications in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of unit 1 of the Beznau plant. The company does not now expect the unit to restart until at least August 2016.
World Nuclear News 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
The Swiss power grid operator has warned utilities that they may have to ramp up energy production from high-mountain hydro plants this winter as atomic reactors remain shuttered and there is not enough transformer capacity to take on sufficient renewables power from Germany.
Reuters 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Argentina
Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner led the official opening ceremony of the Pilcaniyeu uranium enrichment plant on 30 November.
World Nuclear News 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
France
Areva has won a contract worth “tens of millions” of Euros to dismantle the vessel internals of EDF’s Superphénix fast neutron reactor at Creys-Malville in France.
World Nuclear News 1st Dec 2015 read more »
North Korea
Recent satellite images indicate that North Korea is building a new tunnel at its nuclear test site, a respected US think tank has said. A report on 38 North, a website run by the US-Korea Institute at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, studied images taken between April and November. These appeared to show work in a new area of the Punggye-ri nuclear zone. But, the report said, there is no sign that any nuclear test is imminent.
BBC 3rd Dec 2015 read more »
Guardian 3rd Dec 2015 read more »
Telegraph 3rd Dec 2015 read more »
Reuters 2nd Dec 2015 read more »
Film: The Atom: A Love Affair
A preview screening for existing and potential new investors looking to buy shares to help us finish post-production on the film – with a view to submitting to the Sheffield DocFest next summer and hopefully releasing it more widely later on in 2016. Well, I’m delighted to report that said investors preview night is happening – at the lovely screening room at 68 Middle Street in central Brighton, at 6.30pm, on Monday 7th December.
Tenner Films 30th Nov 2015 read more »
