Radwaste
The tremors from the earthquake which hit Cumbria three weeks ago are still being felt. Not in the ground, but above it. The quake on December 21 which shook homes across the county has added another dimension to an already fierce debate about the storage of nuclear waste. Depending on your standpoint, proposals to bury waste hundreds of metres below Cumbria are either a vital boost to the county’s economy or an irresponsible legacy for future generations to wrestle with. Letters to the News & Star and comments on our website have been divided fairly equally between those who think the quake should rule out Cumbria as the site of a waste repository, and those who think it should make no difference.
Carlisle News & Star 5th Jan 2011 more >>
Hinkley
Communities around the proposed new Hinkley C nuclear power station face hosting the plant and its 100-year legacy of spent fuel for a pittance, civic leaders are warning. The towns and villages surrounding the plant could benefit by as little as £17,000 per year, or £320 per week, for the burden of hosting it. Draft national policy for nuclear power has no mechanism to order developers to provide mitigation for the indirect but very real inconveniences, which could include an impact on tourism. MPs and council leaders say West Somerset and Sedgemoor should be treated like the Shetland Islands where an Act of Parliament was passed in 1977 to establish a payment for every barrel of oil extracted.
This is Somerset 6th Jan 2011 more >>
Plymouth Herald 6th Jan 2011 more >>
Sizewell
Two anti nuclear campaigners, Andreas Speck (46) from London and Ian Mills (45) from Chippenham, who appeared at Lowestoft Magistrates Court today (4 January) on charges of “failing to leave land” (S69(3)(a) CJPOA 1994) when they blockaded Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk on 22 February 2010 [1] walked free after the case was dismissed when the prosecution did not offer any evidence.
Indymedia 5th Jan 2011 more >>
Stop Nuclear Power 4th Jan 2011 more >>
Indymedia 4th Jan 2011 more >>
Europe
With the development of renewable and new nuclear capacity still bogged down by uncertainties over pricing and regulation, Europe’s reliance on gas will continue to grow over the next decade. But the supply system – the infrastructure which takes the primary fuels such as gas into power stations and then transmits electricity businesses and households – is a patchwork quilt with no central control. The lack of connectivity is most obvious between what used to be eastern and western Europe, but the problem stretches across the continent. Shortages in one country often cannot be made up from elsewhere. The natural gas grids are even more limited and less connected.
FT 7th Jan 2011 more >>
China
China will increase its nuclear power capacity by 38 gigawatts and hydropower capacity by 140 gigawatts by 2015.
Reuters 6th Jan 2011 more >>
Renewables
The Empire State Building, which has been undergoing a $20m energy saving retrofit, today announced that it would meet all its electricity needs through wind power.
In a two-year deal, the building will buy 55m kilowatt hours worth of renewable energy certificates a year – the equivalent of its annual energy needs – from the Texas-based Green Mountain Energy Company. That is more than double the amount of renewable power purchased by any other commercial customer in New York City, the announcement said. It said reductions in carbon emissions from the shift to wind power for the 102-storey building were the equivalent of turning off the lights in nearly every house in New York State for a week.
Guardian 7th Jan 2011 more >>
Britain’s nascent wind manufacturing industry has suffered a blow after the owner of Scotland’s only large turbine plant went into administration. The plant near Campbeltown, owned by Danish firm Skykon, has been closed and more than 120 staff sent home without pay after Ernst & Young was appointed as administrators this week. A spokesman for the administrators said several expressions of interest had been received for the business and that staff would be updated next week. The future of the plant has been uncertain for several years. The Scottish government last year agreed to provide a £9m rescue loan to persuade Skykon to buy it from Danish rival Vestas. But Skykon has been in insolvency proceedings for months in Denmark after a slowdown in wind turbine orders across Europe. Only about £2m of the loan has already been paid. Ernst & Young declined to comment on whether the Scottish government would get that money back.
Guardian 7th Jan 2011 more >>
Telegraph 7th Jan 2011 more >>
