Nuclear Subsidies
Talks between EDF Energy and the Government over building Britain’s first new nuclear plant in a generation are at “crisis point” and could fail within weeks because of deadlock over subsidies for the project. Tim Yeo MP, chairman of the Energy Select Committee, warned of the problems as EDF said it was scaling back spending on its £14bn project for reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset “until there is greater clarity around its negotiations with the Government”. This would “have an impact on recruitment and jobs”, EDF said, understood to mean the loss of 150 jobs – about one-fifth of the project’s workforce. the Treasury, which is heavily involved in the negotiations, has taken a tough line over the returns EDF should be allowed. “The talks have reached a critical stage,” Mr Yeo told The Daily Telegraph, adding he believed they were likely to conclude either way “in the next fortnight”.
Telegraph 4th March 2013 read more »
Robert Peston: This dispute does seem more serious than the Treasury’s habitual battles with the private sector over rewards that are acceptable for large infrastructure projects where consumers (you and me) end up paying. Which may seem rather extraordinary, in that the Hinkley deal has been ten years of negotiation and preparation, and represents the most significant potential investment in the UK by an overseas enterprise for donkey’s years. Proof of the gravity of the hiatus is that EDF has recently cut its dedicated nuclear workforce by 20% or 150 people, and stopped recruiting, because – in the words of an EDF source – the company felt it could no longer “burn money”. Now I am going to park the environmental arguments about nuclear to one side – not because they are unimportant, simply because they are irrelevant to the dispute between EDF and the chancellor. Broadly what it comes down to (in terms that may seem unenlightening when stated baldly, but I will elucidate) is that EDF feels it needs an internal rate of return on Hinkley of 10%, and the Treasury fears that means it would make excessive profits. EDF has told the Treasury to see Hinkley as part of a long-running programme, so that if Hinckley goes ahead, it would be followed by a new nuclear plant at Sizewell, for which – having learned from Hinckley – EDF would charge a lower IRR. Hitachi warned ministers last week that if the deal with EDF collapses, they could not count on it to begin work on alternative nuclear generators – and certainly not for many years, in almost any scenario. It would in a way be extraordinary if after all the labour of the previous government and the current one to create a national consensus in favour of the nuclear option, the UK were to join Germany and Japan in running down nuclear. But the rejection of the nuclear option looks a very real prospect.
BBC 4th March 2013 read more »
New Nukes
Britain’s plans to build a fleet of nuclear power plants by 2025 are “ambitious” at best and “unrealistic” at worst, according to a report to be released Monday by a committee of the House of Commons. “It is worrying that the government does not have any contingency plans in place for the event that little or no nuclear is forthcoming,” the Energy and Climate Change Committee wrote in its report.
New York Times 4th March 2013 read more »
In an especially brazen piece of pro-nuclear pleading the DECC Select Committee has effectively said that nuclear power should be given cost priority over all green energy options. They say that EDF and other nuclear companies should have their demands for construction cost ‘guarantees’ met. They disingenuously suggest that this would have no consequences for consumers.
David Toke’s Green Energy Blog 4th March 2013 read more »
The UK government is placing all of its eggs in one basket as it hopes that Nuclear power alone will be able to provide the 16GW it needs to install by 2025 in order to meet its renewable energy goals. MPs from the Energy and Climate Change Committee, have released a new report which looks at the barriers to installing the 16GW necessary to meet targets by 2025. The nuclear industry does have 16GW of new projects in the pipeline, but concerns exist that delays would see the UK miss its targets. The report notes that industry stakeholders have claimed installing 16GW of new nuclear power capacity by 2025 is at best “ambitious” and at worst “unrealistic.”
Oil Price 4th March 2013 read more »
The UK will not be able to meet its climate change targets without new nuclear but should develop a fall-back plan in case projects to build new capacity by 2025 do not proceed as planned, a parliamentary committee has concluded.
World Nuclear News 4th March 2013 read more »
The Engineer 4th March 2013 read more »
Jamie Reed, Labour MP for Copeland, whose constituency contains Sellafield, argues that incoherent government is undoing pro-nuclear cross-party work. If many commentators are to be believed, the renaissance of Britain’s nuclear industry is in imminent danger of collapse. It’s a seductive analysis. As the Member of Parliament whose constituency contains the UK’s largest nuclear complex in the form of Sellafield, I threw myself into efforts to draft a new pro-nuclear energy policy with Malcolm Wicks and the No 10 Policy Unit almost immediately after my election in 2005.
Total Politics 4th Feb 2013 read more »
A failure to build a new fleet of nuclear power plants could make it extremely difficult and expensive to meet goals to cut carbon emissions, MPs have warned. The government was “crossing its fingers” that private companies would deliver reactors on time and on budget, despite delays and cost overruns in other countries, the Energy and Climate Change Committee’s chairman, Tim Yeo, said. All but one of the UK’s existing nuclear plants are set to close by 2023, and while there are plans for a new fleet to be online by 2025, the MPs said they had been told the proposals were “ambitious” at best and “unrealistic” at worst. Seventy-percent of the UK’s clean energy comes from nuclear power.
Professional Engineering 4th Feb 2013 read more »
Fears that Britain might face a severe energy shortage intensified last night after British Gas dropped plans to build four nuclear power plants, deemed vital to fill the gap left by the scheduled decommissioning of ageing fossil power plants, a committee of MPs warned. The government now needs a ‘plan B’ – most likely more gas-fired power plants, due to their comparatively short construction lead time of between four and five years. New reactors are unlikely to be built in time to avoid electricity shortages and possible blackouts, the committee said.
Gas Journal 4th March 2013 read more »
GMB calls for nationalised nuclear development authority to build new nuclear power stations for low carbon electricity. Call by Energy and Climate Change Committee for a contingency plan in case the nuclear industry does not deliver the new power stations we need is welcome says GMB.
GMB 4th March 2013 read more »
Nuclear Safety
The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) invited all national regulators to produce a National Action Plan by the end of 2012. The action plan was the countries response to the lessons learnt post fukushima and stress test recommendations and suggestions.
ONR 4th March 2013 read more »
Public Consulation on National action Plans.
ENSREG (accessed) 4th March 2013 read more »
Radhealth
Assessing long-term Health Effects from Fukushima’s Radioactive Fallout. Fukushima’s second anniversary in March 2013 is an opportune moment to assess its likely long-term consequences, although the accident is by no means over given the precarious state of the four wrecked reactor buildings – especially the spent fuel pond at Unit 4. The figure below (reproduced from the French Government’s Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN 2011)) indicates the extent of the radioactive fallout from Fukushima’s explosions and gaseous emissions in areas near Fukushima. In addition, lower concentrations fell over other areas of Japan, over neighbouring countries and eventually circulating the Northern Hemisphere.
Ian Fairlie 3rd March 2013 read more »
Hinkley
COUNCIL bosses have welcomed a report endorsing benefits for communities hosting nuclear power projects. A report published this week by MPs on the Energy and Climate Change Committee recommended Community Benefits should be extended to new nuclear power projects, such as Hinkley Point C. The benefits are currently only available to renewable energy projects, but this could be extended to nuclear projects through retention of business rates.
This is the West Country 4th March 2013 read more »
Urenco
Urenco’s exploratory work on a micro reactor, dubbed the U-battery, will help the industry compete long-term with renewables and, if successful, could also take the company into the generation business. “I think the nuclear industry needs – in parallel [with big reactors] – to develop something smaller that can compete with the windmills and solar panels, with those small generation devices that do not need to have a big infrastructure or grid,” said Helmut Engelbrecht, chief executive of Urenco. Trade and private equity groups have been sounded out and Urenco has so far invested £1m the project. The company teamed up with the University of Manchester and the Reactor Institute Delft in the Netherlands to prove that such a reactor can operate inherently safely and, like a battery, be turned off and on when needed.
FT 4th March 2013 read more »
Helmut Engelbrecht has spent the best part of his career working in one of the most tightly regulated industries in the world. As chief executive of Urenco, the uranium enrichment company, he also operates in one of the most sensitive parts of the nuclear industry, one where the same four organisations – all with government involvement – have dominated the business for decades. The nuclear industry, he believes, should be more ambitious and innovative, even if that means questioning established routines. Urenco has begun research on a micro reactor designed to be plugged in and switched on and off, like a battery. He draws a parallel with the telephony industry; while developed nations started out with networks and wires, developing nations have missed out that step and gone straight to mobiles.
FT 4th March 2013 read more »
Sellafield
Anti-nuclear protesters – jubilant after councillors voted no to a nuclear repository for west Cumbria – will march to Sellafield at the weekend. Representatives from Radiation Free Lakeland and Three Weeks to Save the Lakes will meet at Seascale on Saturday to demonstrate.
In Cumbria 4th March 2013 read more »
News and Star 4th March 2013 read more »
A good day to bury bad news? On Friday 8th March Sellafield will be sentenced for dumping low and intermediate level waste into Lillyhall landfill. Earlier this month Sellafield stood at Workington Magistrates Court accused of sending radioactive waste to landfill at Lillyhall. They pleaded guilty. The magistrate deemed the offence so serious that the case was referred to Crown Court for sentencing. No doubt the industry is hoping that news of their sentencing at Carlisle Crown Court will be overlooked by the reporting of this weekends events all over the world, including here in Cumbria, marking the 2nd anniversary of the ongoing Fukushima disaster.
Radiation Free Lakeland 4th March 2013 read more »
Plutonium Transport
French energy group Areva said it was preparing to send nuclear fuel to Japan for the first time since the Fukushima disaster of March, 2011, a sign of possible restarts of idled Japanese reactors. The shipment of mixed oxide fuel (MOX) is likely to be controversial in Japan, where public opposition to nuclear power and reactor restarts remains strong in the run-up to the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 catastrophe. The fuel will be shipped out of the port of Cherbourg in northern France in early April, according to Greenpeace, an anti-nuclear group. Areva officials declined to comment on the timing.
Globe and Mail 4th March 2013 read more »
Engineering and Technology 4th March 2013 read more »
Submarine
A MINISTER has insisted a leak in the reactor compartment of Devonport-based nuclear-powered submarine HMS Tireless was “very small”. MP Philip Dunne made the statement as campaigners accused the Royal Navy of a “cover-up”, suggesting the leak was more serious than first indicated.
Plymouth Herald 5th March 2013 read more »
Japan
As the two-year anniversary of the world’s second-worst nuclear accident nears, citizen groups are questioning the accuracy of the government’s contamination data for the area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
Deutsche Welle 27th Feb 2013 read more »
US
In a 2012 progress report on federal energy initiatives, the Obama administration enthusiastically asserted that it was “jumpstarting” the nuclear industry. It noted that “the Department of Energy issued a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee to support the first US nuclear reactors in more than three decades. The project … will bring two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors online, supporting 3,500 construction jobs and 800 permanent jobs”. The Southern Company is indeed building two new units at its Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, but the administration’s rosy energy report omitted some key context: Those reactors, which likely wouldn’t be financed without a federal loan guarantee, are rare sunbeams in a dismal nuclear power landscape. Because of the nuclear industry’s long history of permitting problems, cost overruns, and construction delays, financial markets have been wary of backing new nuclear construction for decades. The supposed “nuclear renaissance” ballyhooed in the first decade of this century never really materialized.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists March/April 2013 read more »
The United States is on course to all but exit the commercial nuclear power industry even if the country awakens to the dangers of climate change and adopts measures to favor low-carbon energy sources. Nuclear power had been in economic decline for more than three decades when the Bush administration launched a program that aimed to spark a nuclear power renaissance through subsidies and a reformed reactor licensing process. But Wall Street was already leery of the historically high costs of nuclear power. An abundance of natural gas, lower energy demand induced by the 2008 recession, increased energy-efficiency measures, nuclear’s rising cost estimates, and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station further diminished prospects for private investment in new US nuclear plants. Without additional and significant governmental preferences for new nuclear construction, market forces will all but phase out the US nuclear fleet by midcentury.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists March/April 2013 read more »
Iran
THE United Nations nuclear watchdog chief is increasing the pressure on Iran over suspicions it has researched how to build an atomic bomb – calling for immediate access to a key military site. Signalling frustration at the lack of progress, Yukiya Amano told the 35-nation board negotiations with Iran must “proceed with a sense of urgency” and be focused on achieving concrete results soon.
Herald 5th March 2013 read more »
Trust 4th March 2013 read more »
BBC 4th March 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear Information Service Update: March 2013: Contents of this month’s NIS Update newsletter from Nuclear Information Service: Radiation leak forces Royal Navy nuclear submarine to return to base; Safety watchdog: Atomic Weapons Establishment“exposed people to risk”; UK government snubs international conference on humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons; £800 million contract for nuclear submarine reactor production; Norwegian government pension fund withdraws investment from AWE partner; Coulport nuclear weapons store to remain exempt from scrutiny by government nuclear watchdog; Regulator approves Devonport Dockyard safety review – with reservations; Archive papers show Devonport selected over Rosyth for submarine refit work despite safety and cost risks; AWE Aldermaston emergency planning zone to remain unchanged; West Berkshire Council gives go-ahead for development within AWE Burghfield emergency zone; Pangbourne pipeline – slow progress on decommissioning trials.
NIS 3rd March 2013 read more »
Desmond Tutu: No nation should own nuclear arms – not Iran, not North Korea, and not their critics who take the moral high ground.
Guardian 4th March 2013 read more »
Renewables
From 2016, landlords will not be able to refuse reasonable requests for energy-efficiency improvements under the Green Deal, while from 2018 it will be an offence for landlords to let out properties with the worst energy-efficiency ratings. Consumers who want to go further can install renewable energy systems such as heat pumps and solar water heaters. Due to their high installation costs, these systems are not yet cost-effective in their own right, according to Mr Horne, which is why they are supported by schemes such as the feed-in tariff for solar PV panels and the approaching Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), due to be introduced this summer for domestic households.
Telegraph 4th March 2013 read more »
Scotland’s first wave power company is facing closure for the second time in eight years. Set up in 1990, Inverness-based Wavegen built the world’s first grid-connected wave power station, the Limpet, on Islay, off the west coast of Scotland. Wavegen was bought by German firm Voith in 2005 in a move that saved it from going under – and most of its 15 posts. Voith has now announced that it plans to shut the Inverness operation as part of reorganisation. The plan affects 18 workers in the Highland capital. Voith Hydro said the closure was part of its plan to pool its wave power engineering “know-how” in Heidenheim in Germany. Last year, the company shelved plans for a 20 megawatt wave power project on the north west coast of Lewis. Staff at Wavegen were developing the breakwater project at Shader. Voith said it had decided to no longer pursue the scheme due to a l ack of funding and uncertainty surrounding a subsea electricity cable linking the Western Isles renewable energy project with the mainland.
BBC 4th March 2013 read more »
Scotsman 5th March 2013 read more »
Herald 5th March 2013 read more »
Fracking
Tweets from a Friends of the Earth training session in Manchester on 23 Feb 2013 on how to use the planning system to oppose fracking.
Storify (accessed) 5th March 2013 read more »
Greenpeace protesters have launched an ambush over fracking for gas in the Cheshire constituency of George Osborne. A score of demonstrators set up a drilling rig (video) on Knutsford Heath during Monday morning rush hour in the well-heeled part of Cheshire where licences for gas exploration have been issued to potential fracking companies, including one with a quarter stake held by the Chinese government. Wearing high-visibility jackets, the team attached a large sign reading Frack & Go – the name of their fictional firm – over the sign of the local Conservative headquarters and then erected a metal “drilling rig” on the central reservation of the road opposite.
Guardian 4th March 2013 read more »
