New Nukes
Engineers confidence that the UK will have a new nuclear plant online by 2018 has plunged as a result of the Fukushima disaster and its subsequent fallout.
New Civil Engineer 9th June 2011 more >>
UK nuclear policy must be overhauled to create accountability, improve risk assessment and provide better advice to government, according to industry experts.
New Civil Engineer 9th June 2011 more >>
Energy Costs
Families are being forced to pay an average of £200 a year in taxes on their energy bills to fund Britains investment in wind and solar power. Campaigners last night demanded greater transparency from energy companies over the levies and accused the government of hiding behind suppliers to raise revenues by the back door. The call comes amid mounting pressure on energy companies for a fresh inquiry into price rises after the latest round of increases led to accusations of profiteering. Dr Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, said the rising price of fuel was partly caused by Britains stubborn but wrong headed commitment to renewable energy.
Telegraph 9th June 2011 more >>
Terror
The Fukushima meltdown showed how some nuclear plants are vulnerable to cooling-system failures. That might be of interest to Al Qaeda, which considered attacking US nuclear facilities after 9/11, a new study says.
Christian Science Monitor 7th June 2011 more >>
Researchers from the United States and Russia today issued a joint assessment of the global threat of nuclear terrorism, warning of a persistent danger that terrorists could obtain or make a nuclear device and use it with catastrophic consequences.
Belfer Center Communications 6th June 2011 more >>
Japan
The nuclear fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has melted through the base of the pressure vessels and is pooling in the outer containment vessels, according to a report by the Japanese government.
Telegraph 9th June 2011 more >>
Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company has been hit by power outages at the No.1 and No.2 reactors at its Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant Wednesday afternoon, resulting in the suspension of nitrogen injection into the No.1 reactor, a company official said.
Platts 8th June 2011 more >>
Japan Today 8th June 2011 more >>
All 54 of Japan’s nuclear reactors may be shut by next April, adding more than £18 billion a year to the country’s energy costs, if communities object to plant operating plans due to safety concerns, trade ministry officials said yesterday. Since the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo, concern among local authorities has kept nuclear generators from restarting at least four reactors that had been expected to come online after routine maintenance and inspection. Several more reactors have since shut for regular maintenance, slashing Japan’s nuclear generating capacity to just 36 per cent of its registered nuclear capacity.
Scotsman 9th June 2011 more >>
Germany
Germanys decision to close all its nuclear power plants by 2022 in the wake of the Fukushima crisis in Japan has brought about one of the biggest gambles ever made by an advanced industrial country on renewable energy. The move by Angela Merkels coalition government will see eight reactors, or 8.5GW of capacity and about 8 per cent of Germanys annual electricity production, closed down permanently this year. It also commits Europes largest economy to doubling the proportion of energy from renewable sources to 35 per cent this decade. The question now is whether the country will be able to keep the lights on and meet its tough domestic climate change targets, to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.
FT 8th June 2011 more >>
Germany’s nuclear phase-out decision has served as a “wake-up call” for Europe to equip its power market for surging levels of intermittent renewable power, Czech utility Cez warned today. The permanent shutdown of Germany’s oldest reactors in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis has unleashed significantly higher north-south flows of power from windfarms in northern Germany and Denmark, some of which have to flow via the Czech Republic and Poland because of grid congestion. This has highlighted the strains put on the European network by renewable power, Cez director of sales and trading Alan Svoboda said. “The nuclear shutdowns have magnified the issue,” he told the Central and South Eastern Europe Energy Trading conference in Prague. “Significant physical flows of power have been created by this mismatch.”
Argus Media 8th June 2011 more >>
Switzerland
Swiss MPs approved a Green Party motion today calling for phasing out nuclear power by 2034 and agreed that no new power stations would be built. The proposal to shut down the country’s five nuclear reactors by 2034 passed the lower house National Council by 108 votes, with 76 against and nine abstentions. It had the support of all parties except the Liberals and the populist right-wing Swiss People’s Party. A Christian Democrat motion banning the building of replacement stations was backed by 101 votes to 54, with 35 abstentions.
Morning Star 8th June 2011 more >>
Bulgaria
Bulgaria and French nuclear group Areva are still in negotiations about building new reactor units at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, the country’s Economy Ministry said in a statement on June 7 2011 following a meeting between Economy Minister Traicho Traikov and Areva’s head Anne Lauvergeon. However, no steps have been taken to build the new facilities, the statement said.
Sofia Echo 7th June 2011 more >>
Lithuania
Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy (HGNE) and Westinghouse Electric Company have both submitted proposals to become the strategic investor in Lithuanias planned Visaginas nuclear power plant, according to the countrys energy ministry.
Nuclear Engineering International 8th June 2011 more >>
Netherlands
Dutch anti-nuclear activists yesterday (7 June) tried to block a train carrying radioactive waste to France–the first such shipment to leave the Netherlands in six years. According to the police, the activists chained themselves to various places along the railway line near Borssele, in the southern province of Zeeland, to block the train’s departure. According to Greenpeace’s nuclear energy campaign spokesman Ike Teuling, the shipment presented a “clear danger to the population living along the railway route to a nuclear recycling plant in La Hague in Normandy”. The activists staged five blockades, but all were broken, and the train was eventually able to depart after a three-hour delay. According to the police, 20 protesters were detained and served with summons to appear in court.
Waste Management World 8th June 2011 more >>
G20
OFFICIALS from 33 nations have met in Paris to discuss the ramifications of the ongoing disaster at Japans Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The meeting was attended by regulators from countries associated with the G8 and the OCED Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), who agreed to work together to improve nuclear safety. They said that while the situation at Fukushima was very unfortunate, the impetus it provided would ultimately strengthen regulations around the globe.
Chemical Engineer 8th June 2011 more >>
Iran
Any mention of an Iranian nuclear weapon is taboo in the Islamic Republic, which insists that its nuclear programme is entirely for peaceful, civil purposes. So it is remarkable, to say the least, that an article has appeared on the Gerdab website, run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, anticipating the day after Iran’s first test of a nuclear warhead.
Guardian 8th June 2011 more >>
The European Union voiced deep concern Wednesday over Iran’s announcement it would increase its capacity to produce higher-grade enriched uranium, saying Tehran was increasing its defiance of the U.N. Security Council.
Reuters 8th June 2011 more >>
It has been exactly a year since the last UN security council resolution imposed extra sanctions on Iran. International debate is resuming on the country’s continued failure to heed UN decisions, and a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency rightly draws attention to the questions Iran has not answered about experiments it has made on nuclear bomb technology. As ambassadors to Iran during the past decade, we have all followed closely the development of this crisis. It is unacceptable that the talks have been deadlocked for such a long time.
Guardian 9th June 2011 more >>
