Moorside
NuGeneration Ltd., with plans to build up to 3.6 GW of new nuclear plant in the UK, has hired US-based Jacobs Engineering to supply engineering services under a two-year framework contract, Jacobs said in a May 29 statement. The contract value was not disclosed. The contract will see Jacobs supplying environmental consultancy and engineering support to NuGens own engineering consortium. NuGen itself is a consortium of Iberdrola and GDF Suez.
i-Nuclear 29th May 2012 more >>
New Nukes
The future of nuclear power in the UK hangs in the balance after it emerged that crucial government funding deals could break EU law. Industry insiders stress that state subsidies, which guarantee financial returns for companies that invest in the technology, are essential to ensure new power stations are built but energy firm Centrica has reportedly warned proposals to guarantee energy prices could be hampered by EU state aid regulations.
This is Money 29th May 2012 more >>
Three places: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima. And three more: Banqiao, Machhu II, Hiakud. Most people react with horror to the first trio, while the second three locations usually draw a blank look. In fact, the latter were the sites of three major hydroelectric dam failures: in China and India in 1975, 1979 and 1980, which were directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands. In contrast, the death toll directly associated with radiation exposure from the three best-known civil nuclear accidents is estimated by the World Health Organisation to be conservatively about 50, all associated with Chernobyl. Our irrational fear of the atom stands in the way of the development of nuclear power and its potentially vital contribution to the long-term energy needs of an ever-increasing and energy-greedy world population.
Telegraph 30th May 2012 more >>
Hinkley
UK-based EDF Energy expects to make an announcement on the civil engineering contract for its proposed new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset “soon,” a spokesman told Platts late Monday. Responding to press reports that the GBP1.2 billion ($1.88 billion) contract had been put on hold until at least 2013, a spokesman said the company does not comment on active tenders, but “we can say that we expect to be able to make an announcement to take forward this particular contract soon.” “The procurement process is on track, and has always assumed that certain contracts would be signed once we make our final investment decision. This has not changed,” he said. To date, contracts worth a total in excess of GBP750 million have been let to over 370 companies, the spokesman added. EDF Energy has said it will make its final investment decision on the construction of the first of four planned 1,600 MW class EPR units at Hinkley Point and Sizewell this autumn. The decision hinges on the price at which contracts for difference are set. The contracts are a key part of the low-carbon support outlined in the UK government’s Electricity Market Reform, and effectively guarantee prices for each low-carbon technology. “Our final investment decision depends on having a profitable project which meets the financial targets,” EDF Energy said early May. “This in turn depends on agreeing, as soon as practicable, the contract for difference…It is important that we get the detail right on these arrangements ahead of our final investment decision.”
Platts 29th May 2012 more >>
Western Daily Press 30th May 2012 more >>
An announcement on who will build a new nuclear power station in Somerset has been delayed. EDF Energy was due to announce this week the winner of the main contract, worth more than £1bn, to build Hinkley Point C but that will now not happen. Anti-nuclear energy protesters have claimed it puts a question mark over the whole project. An EDF spokesman said the company was “on track to deliver what is needed for the UK”. Crispin Aubrey, from the Stop Hinkley group, said the delay could be for up to a year.
BBC 29th May 2012 more >>
Power Engineeering 29th May 2012 more >>
THE GOVERNMENT close to signing a deal for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, ministers said today. Lord Marland, the Governments energy spokesman in the Lords, insisted the deal will be sealed by the end of the year, despite the disaster at Japans Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Scotsman 29th May 2012 more >>
PA 29th May 2012 more >>
ITV West 29th May 2012 more >>
Daly Mail 30th May 2012 more >>
Oldbury
GOVERNMENT reforms that could kick-start a new nuclear power station at Oldbury have been unveiled. Ministers aim to drive billions of pounds of investment into nuclear plants and renewable technology as they look to shift the emphasis away from gas power. And yesterday they published a draft Energy Bill, which includes measures to make building nuclear plants more viable.
Bristol Evening Post 30th May 2012 more >>
Cumbria
Colin Taylor, senior economics adviser at the Institute of Directors, said: We hope contracts for different frameworks will succeed but it looks like an overly-complex way of delivering much-needed investment in Britains energy infrastructure. There is no government subsidy for building Britains new power stations such as NuGens planned Moorside development at Sellafield but the consortium is fully committed to going ahead. It predicts a £9bn investment for West Cumbria. Copeland MP Jamie Reed said: I hope this will now bring forward the necessary investments in nuclear from the market as I believe it will. After working closely with potential nuclear investors for many years, theyve always made it clear that they required this kind of operating framework. We need nuclear generation not only in order to be able to meet our carbon emission targets but to better secure our national energy supplies as well. Crucially, new nuclear investments will also help re-balance our economy nationally but more so locally. These investments are absolutely key to West Cumbrias future.
NW Evening Mail 29th May 2012 more >>
Nuclear Research
The Duke of York officially opened the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Rotherham on Monday. Work on the new 8,000 square metre research centre finished in 2011 but yesterday marked the formal opening of the centre for industry R&D.
The Manufacturer 29th May 2012 more >>
World Nuclear News 29th May 2012 more >>
Radwaste
A Tennessee company that decontaminates and recycles nuclear scrap metal has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, leaving more than 1 million pounds of radioactive waste in limbo.
Metal Bulletin 29th May 2012 more >>
Politics
Green Party nonsense pt2: nuclear power and the problem of the precautionary principle.
Telegraph 29th May 2012 more >>
Finland
Olkiluoto power plant, in the west of the country, is the site of the ‘EPR’, the first third-generation reactor and a test case for the industry Finland was the first western European nation to decide to build more nuclear energy plants after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, and it has been equally unfazed by the Fukushima disaster in Japan last year. While Germany responded by bringing forward the phase-out of nuclear power from 2034 to 2020, with Belgium and Switzerland quickly following suit, Finland is pressing ahead with its fifth nuclear reactor and has plans to build two more. This is partly, the government says, for environmental reasons. The Kyoto treaty discourages it from building fossil fuel plants and it cannot build many more hydro¬electric plants without destroying tracts of precious wilderness. Given the climate, solar power is hardly an option, whi le biomass is insufficient, so the country has settled on nuclear.
FT 30th May 2012 more >>
Iran
International nuclear talks with Iran have achieved nothing, a senior Israeli official said yesterday, suggesting that some western nations were happy to see the negotiations drag on. Israel, which has threatened to go to war to prevent its arch-foe going nuclear, has fretted on the sidelines as six world powers press for a curb on Iranian uranium enrichment. Breaking Israels official silence on the second round of talks, held in Baghdad last week, deputy prime minister Moshe Yaalon said it had produced only more Iranian time-buying.
Scotsman 30th May 2012 more >>
The reports which emerged hour by hour from the negotiating chamber in Baghdad last week spoke of proposals offered and spurned, then of counter-proposals and an improving ambience. In retrospect such reports more a reflection of the journalistic imperative to keep a conventional narrative going than actual developments inside the room.
Guardian 29th May 2012 more >>
Pakistan
Pakistan has launched a new, indigenously designed missile, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The Hatf IX multi-launch missile carrier has a maximum range of only 60km, meaning it can strike accurately at targets at extremely close range in nuclear terms.
ITN 29th May 2012 more >>
India
Neither the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan last year nor protests over safety at home have slowed India’s nuclear programme: all efforts are being made to meet the countrys goal of generating 63 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2032.
Nature 29th May 2012 more >>
Germany
Germany must invest tens of billions of euros in its power grid over the coming decade to avoid an electricity shortfall as it switches from nuclear to renewable energy, grid operators said on Tuesday. Germany’s government, the federal energy network regulator and grid firms unveiled joint plans to build thousands of kilometres of new electricity lines by 2022, to help distribute volatile renewable energy.
Reuters 29th May 2012 more >>
Green Deal
A new report backed by EDF Energy will today call on London’s 33 boroughs to consider becoming Green Deal providers that would help finance and install home insulation measures, in an effort to ensure the success of the government’s flagship energy efficiency loan scheme.
Business Green 29th May 2012 more >>
