Magnox
A private sector consortium will be told on Monday it has won the £7bn job of decommissioning Britain’s oldest nuclear power plants. The work is one of the largest and most sensitive public sector contracts to be awarded in the UK so far. Currently the sites are being run by Magnox, a company owned by Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions. It is bidding for the new work in partnership with Bechtel. The only Magnox station still in use is in Wylfa in Anglesey, though this is due to stop producing electricity in the next two years.
FT 30th March 2014 read more »
Sizewell
People living near the proposed Sizewell C power station are to be given more opportunity to have their say about the £14billiion project. The Sizewell C project team says it’ll provide an extra stage of consultation so that the local community can help shape its final proposals. The head of the project said he wanted to give people living nearby every chance to have their say, particularly about transport and environmental issues.
ITV 31st March 2014 read more »
Radwaste
CoRWM (Committee on Radioactive Waste Management) is hosting a public meeting on Wednesday 30th April 2014 to discuss the process for finding a site for a Geological Disposal Facility for Higher Activity Radioactive Waste. CoRWM will be hosting a public meeting at St. Michael’s Church, Falcon Place, Workington, CA14 2EZ from 18:30-20:00 on Wednesday 30th April 2014. Come along for an opportunity to meet the committee and hear about the work CoRWM are currently doing. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions to the committee who collectively have a wealth of knowledge and experience within the field, and let the committee know your own views on the subject.
Cumbria Trust 31st March 2014 read more »
Cumbria Trust expects that the Government will ignore the results of its own and last consultation and proceed in the White Paper to exclude County Councils from the decision making process; namely ignore, having asked for views, that the majority of respondents rejected this apparent “gerrymandering”. The Government has recent “history” having previously ignored calls from the majority of respondents (59%) to an earlier consultation in 2013 advocating that the process concentrate on geology and safety first by way of proceeding with a national geological survey to find best and safest locations.
Cumbria Trust 31st March 2014 read more »
Utilities
Energy bosses have admitted that their customer service has been poor, bills have been confusing and complaints badly handled in an extraordinary indictment of industry practice. Senior executives from among the “Big Six” suppliers concede for the first time that their treatment of consumers has made them vulnerable to attacks by politicians, in a frank assessment of failures that has been seen by The Times.
Times 31st March 2014 read more »
Lovelock
Lovelock: “The government is too frightened to use nuclear, renewables won’t work –because we don’t have enough sun – and we can’t go on burning coal because it produces so much CO2, so that leaves fracking. It produces only a fraction of the amount of CO2 that coal does, and will make Britain secure in energy for quite a few years. We don’t have much choice,” he said.
Guardian 30th March 2014 read more »
Lovelock sees environmentalism today as a form of what he calls “urban politics”. “It’s become a religion,” he says, “and religions don’t worry too much about facts.” He is an enthusiast for nuclear power, which makes him unpopular with many greens. “I’m a scientist and an inventor, and it is absurd to reject nuclear energy,” he says. “It all comes from the religious side. They feel guilty about dropping atom bombs on people. Here was this extraordinary gift given to humans – a safe, cheap source of power – and it gets horribly abused right at the start. We’re still playing out the guilt feelings about it. But it’s sad because we in Britain could now be having cheap energy if we’d gone on building [nuclear power stations].”
Guardian 30th March 2014 read more »
Grid
A GIANT electricity substation will be built on a wildlife haven against the wishes of villagers, a Southampton MP has protested – as a knock-on effect from the landmark decision to build a new nuclear powers station at Hinkley C, in Somerset. Under National Grid’s plans, the sub-station will treble in size with “two enormous quad boosters to deal with the electricity provided by Hinkley Point C”, ministers were told.
Daily Echo 28th March 2014 read more »
Scotland
Letter: Brian Wilson has lit the fuse on the renewable energy time-bomb with his statement that Scotland might have to import cheap nuclear energy under independence. But, wait a minute Brian, did our Dear Leader not promise that the wind was free and his renewable policies would save the planet? The SNP has ploughed millions into numerous projects that have failed to get off the ground. Think Skykon, Vestas, Korea’s Doosan, Spain’s Gamesa, Proven and others. The biomass plant proposed for Dundee has recently been cancelled. Then of course there is that huge white elephant, carbon capture and storage and the boast that Scotland would lead the world. Grants? Millions of pounds. How many have been built? Zero. Brian Wilson echoes the words of Michael Fallon, the UK energy minister, who stated that an independent Scotland might not remain part of the UK’s single energy market. Why should the rest of the UK subsidise Scotland’s renewables when it can buy electricity far cheaper from France, the Netherlands or Ireland? Europe is now ignoring emission reduction targets and putting economic survival first.
Scotsman 31st March 2014 read more »
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, one of the European Union’s more recent members, is in the midst of a micro-hydro boom. The hydro plants form part of an overall EU energy package which sets a binding target of achieving 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 in order to tackle carbon emissions and climate change. The plants are controversial, with allegations that they are not properly licensed and monitored – and that they threaten the environment.
Climate Network 30th March 2014 read more »
Japan
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) , the operator of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, will hold a news conference to discuss its corporate management plan at 6 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Monday, the company said. Tepco, Asia’s largest utility, has been struggling to shore up its finances as it faces the decade-long task of decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi, a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan that suffered triple meltdowns after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Reuters 31st March 2014 read more »
North Korea
North Korea has threatened to conduct what it calls a “new form of nuclear test”, hitting out at the United Nations Security Council for its condemnation of the country’s recent ballistic missile launch.
Independent 30th March 2014 read more »
Russia
Russia on Saturday ended a massive three-day nuclear war exercise involving 10,000 soldiers, as the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War continues.
Independent 30th March 2014 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
Setsuko Thurlow is 82, a mother of two and a grandmother of two. Last week she was at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin for a conference organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs, UCC’s history department and the Japanese embassy. Its theme was: disarmament and non-proliferation – historical perspectives and future objectives. Minister of State Joe Costello said the conference was “extremely privileged” to have her in attendance, to hear what a nuclear explosion “means in terms of human suffering”. Such “narrative offers a basis for reframing the entire nuclear disarmament debate,” he said.
Irish Times 31st March 2014 read more »
A retired British Army general and defence policy researcher has told Westminster’s Defence Select Committee that he harbours deep reservations over the usefulness of renewing the Trident nuclear weapons programme. Sir Hugh Beach, who served as Deputy Commander-in-Chief UK Land Forces and Master-General of the Ordnance, submitted written evidence to the committee earlier this week. The 90-year-old said the main arguments for keeping nuclear weapons in the UK – to act as a deterrent and allow the country the ability to oppose acts of blackmail and aggression by nuclear-armed states – did not hold true.
Newsnet Scotland 30th March 2014 read more »
The Guardian on Saturday led its front page with story headlined Independent Scotland ‘may keep pound (29 March).I am hoping that the Scottish National Party’s principled opposition to the Trident nuclear WMD system will not be abandoned as part of some murky, unprincipled deal to secure currency union with the pound should Scotland vote to go independent in the referendum in September But even if some squalid deal were attempted, it would arguably be in breach of the United Kingdom’s obligations as a co-drafter of, and with the US and Russia a depositary state for, the 1968 nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT).
David Lowry 30th March 2014 read more »
Renewables
One of Scotland’s leading ¬renewables experts has warned only ministers in Whitehall can break a deadlock that is threatening the economic future of the Western Isles. Wind, wave and tidal energy projects are projected to create up to 3500 jobs in the area by 2030, but they are dependent on a new transmission interconnector cable to carry the extra power. Scottish Hydro Electric ¬Transmission, part of SSE, now estimates it will be 2019 at the earliest before it is laid between Lewis and Wester Ross. Previous targets had been 2015 and 2017. But Niall Stuart, chief ¬executive of industry body Scottish Renewables, said: “I am afraid it is getting harder and harder to see the new interconnector to the Western Isles ever happening. If there is no connection, there are no major projects and the dreams of green energy heralding a new economic dawn w ill be shattered.” He said that for SSE to lay the interconnector across the Minch at a cost of £750 million it must obtain permission from regulator Ofgem, which will only agree if the energy firm has a cast-iron business case. Mr Stuart added: “It is ¬impossible for SSE to submit such a business case because none of the developers know what the transmission charges are going to be. Also none of them know what their income is going to be.”
Herald 31st March 2014 read more »
Wind, waves, tides – and even the odd spot of sun – mean the Western Isles should be the perfect place to develop sources of alternative energy, and for many years that has been the ambition. As early as 2001, Western Isles Council talked of plans for the islands to become the renewables capital of Europe – the hope being that alternative energy could transform the economy of the islands in the way that oil and gas transformed the economy of Aberdeen. It was an ambitious plan, but its progress has been uneven to say the least, with the very quality that works in the Western Isles’ favour as a source of alternative energy – its remoteness – also working against it. Major projects will only go ahead if a new transmission interconnector cable is built between Lewis and Wester Ross to carry all the extra power. Despite the importance of this new cable, plans to build it have been caught in what Niall Stuart, the chief executive of the industry body Scottish Renewables, calls a never-ending circle, and he is pessimistic about the chances of breaking it.
Herald 31st March 2014 read more »
Smart Energy
A software company that hopes to benefit from the political furore over energy bills is planning to raise as much as £12m from a flotation on Aim. Newbury-based PassivSystems, which has developed software that helps consumers manage heating costs, will today announce its intention to float on London’s junior market. Roy Gardner, the former boss of Centrica who was also previously the chairman of Manchester United, will be named PassivSystems’ chairman. The business, which was founded in 2008, has two main products. The first is a software platform for boosting the performance of solar power systems that is already being used by 42 commercial customers, covering more than 15,500 homes. The second is a domestic energy monitoring system that has so far been installed in some 5000 homes. The technology allows customers to control their heating and hot water systems from a smartphone or computer, and learns about their behaviour and that of their home, such as the rate of heat decay from the building. The group claims that the software delivers an average 23pc saving to an annual heating bill.
Telegraph 31st March 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Readers will be familiar with the issue of shale gas – its potential to change the world energy market and the controversies surrounding its development. But you might be less familiar with tight oil – oil from shale rock which can also be extracted by hydraulic fracturing. That is the next story and its development particularly in the UK will be every bit as controversial. Even the publication of the initial basic survey of the resources in place is being held up by political nervousness. Tight oil has been developed very successfully in the US, transforming the North American energy market and raising the serious prospect that the region could be self-sufficient within a matter of years. Oil production in the US has risen as a result by 3m barrels a day over the last six years. But tight oil is not limited to the US. There are significant resources in numerous countries around the world accord ing to an authoritative study published by the US Energy Information Administration last year. In most cases no serious analysis has been done, either of the rocks or of the costs of development. But technology has advanced very quickly in the US and could easily be exported. Much has been learnt about ways of overcoming the obvious challenges of fracking such as water requirements. A few countries like France (which has its own very substantial tight oil resource base) might continue to resist fracking on principle, but across the world development is likely to spread. If only a limited proportion of the tight oil reserves in place can be developed the market – regionally and even globally – could be transformed. Additional supplies will reduce the market power of the currently dominant suppliers such as Saudi Arabia. Depending on the volumes available prices could fall, or at least be constrained.
FT 30th March 2014 read more »
Climate
Britain faces food price rises and water shortages as well as floods and deadly heatwaves as a result of climate change, a major report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds on Monday. Other parts of the world will be even harder hit and less able to adapt to the impacts, the IPCC warns. Food shortages and poverty will be exacerbated and could lead to the outbreak of wars, the report says. It also suggests that people will be forced to flee areas that become too warm, while some species of wildlife face risk of extinction. The more temperatures rise, the more severe the consequences will be and the harder they will be to adapt to, the report finds.
Telegraph 31st March 2014 read more »
For those who remain sceptical about the pace of global warming or its connection to human economic activity, this week’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will make sobering reading. The latest study contains some familiar predictions: temperatures will rise inexorably unless carbon emissions are reduced; droughts will affect parts of the world that are already ill-equipped to deal with the consequences; higher sea levels will swamp low-lying nations and displace millions of people. Decarbonisation by the UK, for instance, will contribute little to the overall reduction in CO2 levels, yet it could damage the economic recovery. America, by contrast – often portrayed as the bad boy in the climate change debate – has seen a fall in its emissions because of the shale revolution and the switch from coal to gas (though the freezing winter may have reversed this trend). Europe, which claims to be taking a lead in cutting carbon, continues to generate half of its electricity from fossil fuels.
Telegraph 31st March 2014 read more »
A United Nations report raised the threat of climate change to a whole new level on Monday, warning of sweeping consequences to life and livelihood. The report from the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change concluded that climate change was already having effects in real time – melting sea ice and thawing permafrost in the Arctic, killing off coral reefs in the oceans, and leading to heat waves, heavy rains and mega-disasters.
Guardian 31st March 2014 read more »
Climate change has already left its mark “on all continents and across the oceans”, damaging food crops, spreading disease, and melting glaciers, according to the leaked text of a blockbuster UN climate science report due out on Monday.
Guardian 28th March 2014 read more »
The negative effects of climate change are already beginning to be felt in every part of the world and yet countries are ill-prepared for the potentially immense impacts on food security, water supplies and human health, a major report has concluded.
Independent 31st March 2014 read more »
A major UN report on climate change has been rewritten to suggest that the economic damage from global warming could be far greater than previously estimated. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change altered a key section of the report at the last minute to cast doubt on a previous finding that a temperature rise of 2.5C above preindustrial levels, which climate scientists say may occur after 2050, would cost only 0.2 to 2 per cent of global wealth. The change to an earlier leaked draft of the report is significant because if the figures of 0.2-2 per cent are correct the costs of taking drastic action now to cut emissions could outweigh the overall economic benefits.
Times 31st March 2014 read more »
The impacts of global warming are likely to be “severe, pervasive and irreversible”, a major report by the UN has warned. Scientists and officials meeting in Japan say the document is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the impacts of climate change on the world. Members of the UN’s climate panel say it provides overwhelming evidence of the scale of these effects. Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said that, previously, people could have damaged the Earth’s climate out of “ignorance”. “Now, ignorance is no longer a good excuse,” he said. Mr Jarraud said the report was based on more than 12,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies. He said this document was “the most solid evidence you can get in any scientific discipline”.
BBC 31st March 2014 read more »
