Foreign News

Germany’s target of achieving greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045 has a very important sub-goal: The expansion of renewable energy capacity to provide green power for transport, heating and making hydrogen. But running such an integrated energy system on fluctuating renewables alone will require not just more wind turbines and solar panels, but a power network that ensures the delicate balance of supply and demand at all times, while conventional capacities are shut down. So far, the power supply in Germany remains one of the most reliable in the world. The government and grid operators are confident it will stay this way despite the challenges of electrifying the nation and experts highlight the importance of European power grid integration. But others predict that the country will soon be in need of back-up capacity. Germany’s conventional power generation capacity is beginning to dwindle. In December 2022, the country will have over 23 gigawatts (GW) less nuclear power capacity than ten years ago. In a reply to parliamentarians, it wrote in March 2021: “All analyses of supply security known to the federal government and carried out in accordance with the latest scientific findings come to the conclusion that the secure supply of electricity in Germany will remain guaranteed at the current high level for the foreseeable future. The analyses also take into account the phase-out of nuclear energy and the end of coal-fired power generation.

Renew Economy 16th May 2021 read more »

America’s climate envoy John Kerry has been ridiculed for saying technologies that don’t yet exist will play a huge role in stabilising the climate. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, he said the US was leading the world on climate change – and rapidly phasing out coal-fired power stations. But he rejected a suggestion that Americans need to change their consumption patterns by, say, eating less meat. He said: “You don’t have to give up quality of life to achieve some of the things we want to achieve. “I’m told by scientists that 50% of the reductions we have to make (to get to near zero emissions) by 2050 or 2045 are going to come from technologies we don’t yet have.”

BBC 16th April 2021 read more »

The US climate envoy, John Kerry, has said 50% of the carbon reductions needed to get to net zero will come from technologies that have not yet been invented, and said people “don’t have to give up a quality of life” in order to cut emissions. He said Americans would “not necessarily” have to eat less meat, because of research being done into the way cattle are herded and fed in order to reduce methane emissions. “You don’t have to give up a quality of life to achieve some of the things that we know we have to achieve. That’s the brilliance of some of the things that we know how to do,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show. “I am told by scientists that 50% of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have. That’s just a reality.

Guardian 16th May 2021 read more »

The Spanish nuclear safety regulator, Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear (CSN) informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that an alert was declared at 22:40 UTC on 15 May 2021 at Unit 1 of the Trillo Nuclear Power Plant, about 80 kilometres northeast of Madrid. CSN informed the IAEA that the alert was declared after a fire in the main electrical transformer occurred and caused the automatic shutdown of the reactor. The fire was extinguished after 15 minutes and the alert was ended at 00:42 UTC on 16 May 2021. According to CSN, no safety systems were affected and the event, rated provisionally at level 0 on the INES scale, had no impact on the workers, the public or the environment.

IAEA 16th May 2021 read more »

A scientist has warned that Chernobyl nuclear power plant must be dismantled in the next 100 years or else it will collapse. Professor Neil Hyatt is the Royal Academy of Engineering and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s research chair in radioactive waste management. Speaking to LADbible about recent developments that nuclear reactions had been detected from deep within the mummified plant – 35 years after its core exploded in what is widely viewed as history’s worst nuclear disaster – he says it’s time to act. “If we don’t take it down, it’s going to fall down,” says Professor Hyatt, who teaches at Sheffield University. “The original shelter was built as a temporary facility to stabilise a situation and the New Safe Confinement is essentially the same thing – to buy us time. [But] it only buys us around 100 years or so. “If you think about nuclear decommissioning, which I do all the time, look at the projects that are going on around the world. “There’s the Sellafield site in the UK – that’s one hundred years to decommission the Sellafield site at a cost of £132 billion, at least. “That probably tells you it’s going to take at least 50 years, if we started today, probably at a cost of about £900 million, to decommission Chernobyl. “These are orders of magnitude, and the reason is because we still don’t know everything we need to know to decommission it, about the material inside.” He adds: “If we don’t take it down, it’s gonna collapse eventually. If you’ve bought yourself 100 years, you really need to start cracking on with the dismantling – probably in the next 20 years.

LADBible 15th May 2021 read more »

Screening of “Fukushima Speaks” – Global Japan Forum 2021 on May 27th (Film Screening) and 28th (Discussion)

Radiation Free Lakeland 15th May 2021 read more »

Why so many politicians are cheesed off with An Taisce. The state-funded body fights for heritage and ecology but is blocking a dairy plant a sign of mission creep.

Times 16th May 2021 read more »

The government is to be congratulated for attempting to deliver ambitious legally binding targets for emissions reductions through the Climate Action Amendment Bill. This will be the most important achievement of the bill — one that will have lasting benefits for the environment and Irish society. Less beneficial and more likely harmful to the environment is the aim to ban future gas exploration in Irish waters. This move not only puts our energy security at risk, it will almost certainly lead to higher emissions from our energy system.

Times 16th May 2021 read more »

‘A very real problem’: How resurgent nuclear reactions at Chernobyl might be dealt with to avert disaster. Robots and gadolinium nitrate spray among interventions under consideration as scientists concerned by 40 per cent spike in fission activity in reactor room inaccessible since notorious 1986 meltdown. The activity is seemingly the fault of the New Confinement Shelter that was erected to cover the former reactor site five years ago, a giant steel arch structure that, unlike its shoddier predecessor, prevents rainwater entering, unwittingly eliminating a key element that turns out to have played a role in suppressing the neutrons. The Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) in Kiev is now engaged in monitoring the situation and assessing whether a potentially dangerous intervention might become necessary to prevent a further explosion at the site if stability is not restored. This might involve drilling into what was once Subreactor Room 305/2 to soak the smouldering uranium fuel masses buried within with gadolinium nitrate or sending in robots capable of withstanding the still-glaring radiation and humidity to install neutron and temperature sensors or boron cylinders to act as control rods, sopping up the neutrons.

Independent 14th May 2021 read more »

Having formally launched the development of its third generation of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, France is embarking on a broad renewal of its nuclear forces. The aim is to ensure that its deterrent remains credible into, and beyond, the middle of this century,

IISS 14th May 2021 read more »

EDF reform: the defeat of Hercules, the proposed split desired by the government and management. After the rejection of the project to split the public energy group, the government pleads for a “large EDF” which would preserve its integrity. This will not exempt him from substantive questions about the future of nuclear power. France owns with EDF one of the largest European energy groups, the world’s leading nuclear operator, with 56 reactors in operation. However, this public giant, present in the four corners of the territory, never seems to get out of its difficulties. To its old and structural complexities have been added those of the energy transition and European constraints. On the occasion of his greetings at the start of the year, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, recalled in very concrete terms the extent of the challenge facing the public company and, therefore, the French State. : “Today, EDF is going against the wall if we are not able to give it the means to invest,” he explained. The group, underlined the minister, is also afflicted with a level of indebtedness which “is not sustainable”. The equation is indeed delicate: EDF is dragging a debt of 42 billion euros and faces a considerable investment schedule. First, because the French nuclear fleet is aging and requires significant and expensive work to continue to operate. But also because the group must position itself in renewable energies, an area in which it is clearly behind its European competitors. Not to mention possible investments in new nuclear reactors – which alone could represent more than 46 billion over fifteen years. This balance is all the more difficult to maintain as the group loses around 100,000 individual customers every month, and has done so for three years. Finally, the complex mechanism put in place to favor EDF’s competitors contributes to worsening its balance sheet.

Le Monde 14th May 2021 read more »

Slovak nuclear regulator Úrad jadrového dozoru (ÚJD) announced yesterday it had issued an operating licence for unit 3 of the Mochovce nuclear power plant, as well as related permits for the management of radioactive waste and used nuclear fuel, and “the early use of buildings”. Interested parties have until 19 June to comment on the regulator’s decision to approve commissioning of the unit, which the government has said it expects to start by the end of this year.

World Nuclear News 14th May 2021 read more »

Scientists monitoring increased radiation levels at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are considering whether human intervention may be required to prevent a further catastrophe. It was reported last week that sensors in one of the basement rooms containing solidified fuel (FCMs) from the remains of the destroyed nuclear reactor had been picking up increased levels of neutrons over the past four years, signalling the nuclear fission process has restarted. Nuclear scientists monitoring the activity say they aren’t sure why the reactions are increasing, and they can’t rule out the possibility of an accident should levels continue to rise. Now, authorities are working to figure out a solution.

Unilad 13th May 2021 read more »

Vodka made from radioactive apples grown near Chernobyl has been seized by Ukrainian officials. The brand, called Atomik, includes ingredients from the nuclear power plant’s still-radioactive exclusion zone. However, UK drinkers have been denied the chance to consume the heady brew after bottles were blocked during their journey across Europe.

The Week 13th May 2021 read more »