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news & information about the UK nuclear industry

News April 2020

Climate Policy

Boris Johnson joins UN Secretary-General and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in calling on governments to ensure recovery plans do not exacerbate the climate crisis. The UK government has today called for Covid-19 recovery plans to bolster the fight against climate change, with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab telling global leaders at a major climate summit that it is “duty of every responsible government” to reboot economies along climate-resilient lines. “This means investing in industries and infrastructure that can turn the tide on climate change,” Raab said in a pre-recorded video message broadcast this afternoon at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, which has been held virtually this year. “And it means doing everything that we can to boost resilience by shaping economies that can withstand everything that nature throws at us.”

Business Green 28th April 2020 read more »

The two-day Petersberg Climate Dialogue finished yesterday evening, with ministerial leaders from the UK, Germany, the EU and the UN all delivering rallying cries for nations to focus on climate mitigation as part of any efforts to stimulate the economic downturned caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Edie 29th April 2020 read more »

Climate Policy – Scotland

THE Scottish Government will not produce its updated climate change action plan until the end of this year, the Environment Secretary had said. Roseanna Cunningham had already announced the document – which was due to be published on Thursday – would have to be delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The National 29th April 2020 read more »

Decommissioning

All Magnox spent fuel ponds are, like the sites themselves, completely different. Some have two ponds, some just one, some are fairly clean while others are cluttered and highly contaminated. Wylfa, meanwhile, has dry stores instead of ponds. Although this means the clean-up process is a far cry from ‘one size fits all’, the common understanding and toolkits developed through the Magnox ponds programme have helped to build a bank of knowledge for sharing across the fleet. Most recently, Dungeness A, Oldbury and Sizewell A have all completed comprehensive programmes to drain and clean their ponds deploying a variety of techniques that range from the original and innovative to the conventional. Each programme, running over approximately three years, cost more than £20 million. Together, their achievements represent a key milestone for the NDA group’s corporate targets. Across the 10 Magnox reactor sites, the whole ponds clean-up programme is anticipated to cost around £300 million. Simple innovative processes and shared learning have reduced the earlier original estimate by £45 million. Water now remains only in the Chapelcross ponds, and the site is set to reap the benefit from the learning and hands-on experience at other sites.

NDA 10th March 2020 read more »

Magnox announces new Chief Operating Officer. Magnox has today announced the appointment of Paul Winkle as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO). Most recently Paul held the role of Director on the Conventional Island Programme at Hinkley Point C and previously was Safety, Security and Assurance Director at EDF Energy Generation. Paul will take up his role at Magnox on 1 May 2020.

NDA 29th April 2020 read more »

Iberdrola and Orsted

Covid-19 may have caused power demand to tumble in many major economies and wreaked havoc on supply chains, but the Danish renewables developer and Spanish energy giant’s quarterly results suggest they remain upbeat. Despite the coronavirus spurring a significant fall in global power demand across Europe and wreaking havoc on supply chains, Spanish energy giant Iberdrola and Danish wind developer Ørsted are sticking to growth outlooks devised before the pandemic hit, financial results from both companies have today revealed. Iberdrola, which recorded a 6.1 per cent uptick in EBIDTA in its wind and solar business in the first three months of 2020, has maintained a pledge to invest €10bn and recruit 5,000 more staff this year in support of its clean energy transition strategy.

Business Green 29th April 2020 read more »

New Nuclear

“Governments need to take urgent action to ensure that the recovery from the economic effects of the coronavirus brings long-lasting good,” World Nuclear Association Director General Agneta Rising said today. Her message concurs with sentiment expressed at the 11th Petersberg Climate Dialogue this week, that governments must ensure their efforts to stimulate the world economy must also strengthen the fight against climate change.

World Nuclear News 29th April 2020 read more »

SMRs

Holtec International has selected Framatome to supply nuclear fuel for its SMR-160 small modular reactor (SMR). The companies have entered into an agreement to enable completion of all necessary engineering to fuel the SMR-160 with Framatome’s commercially available and proven 17×17 GAIA fuel assembly.

World Nuclear News 29th April 2020 read more »

Covid-19

The improvement in air quality over the past month of the coronavirus lockdown has led to 11,000 fewer deaths from pollution in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, a study has revealed. Sharp falls in road traffic and industrial emissions have also resulted in 1.3m fewer days of work absence, 6,000 fewer children developing asthma, 1,900 avoided emergency room visits and 600 fewer preterm births, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. While the pandemic continues to take a terrible toll – more than 220,000 deaths worldwide since the start of the year – the authors of the report say the response has offered a glimpse of the cleaner, healthier environment that is possible if the world shifts away from polluting fossil fuel industries.

Guardian 30th April 2020 read more »

UK lockdown causes estimated 1,700 avoided deaths from lower air pollution, study shows. Research has shown a reduction of approximately 40 per cent in average level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution over last 30 days

Independent 30th April 2020 read more »

Chernobyl

Just outside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history, a small town has been given a new lease on life, as a producer of solar energy, writes Juulia Baer-Bader. Last Sunday was the 34th anniversary of the accident. Yet, you probably do not know, a small town of Slavutych, just outside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is today witnessing a new beginning, serving as a source of solar energy. In 2018-19 a project named “SolarTown” created its first solar power plant cooperative in the city of Slavutych. It is the newest city in Ukraine, having been built in 1986 to host nuclear engineers after the evacuation. As is the case for many typical Soviet cities nowadays, Slavutych needed to re-invent itself in the face of the reality of the market economy and the overall transformation of Ukraine after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

Euractiv 30th April 2020 read more »

Ireland – politics

A grand coalition of three major parties with a secure working majority in the Dáil could be approved in principle today. The parliamentary party meeting of the Greens, with 12 seats, may decide whether to give the go-ahead for the opening of formal talks on a partnership with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. The same body yesterday considered a letter from the two parties which concedes most of their 17 points in principle but which asks not to be bound absolutely to a 7 per cent cut in annual carbon emissions. A spokesman for the Green Party told The Times: “The PP met today. They agreed not to make any statement on it yet and to reflect on the contents until they meet again tomorrow.”

Times 30th April 2020 read more »

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