British Energy
Centrica has won approval from the Office of Fair Trading to buy a 20 per cent stake in British Energy from EDF in a 2.3bn deal that would pave the way for Centrica to share electricity and profits from a number of new nuclear power plants. The OFT noted that the deal raised concerns in the energy industry that competition would be reduced by EDF and Centrica two of Europes largest power companies jointly owning British Energy. Centrica and EDF will form an 80-20 joint venture to build four nuclear power plants in the UK, and Centrica will have the right to 20 per cent of their power.
FT 8th August 2009 more >>
New Nukes
Britain needs to be “more ambitious” and should aim for nuclear to have a 35-40% share of the energy mix after 2030, according to a recent report on energy security. ‘Energy Security: A national challenge in a changing world’ written by former energy minister Malcolm Wicks was commissioned by the prime minister. It calls for the UK to do much more to develop indigenous and alternative energy resources, ranging from new nuclear to renewables, and take a rigorous look at exploring its own coal reserves, in innovative and clean ways.
Nuclear Engineering International 7th Aug 2009 more >>
Cumbria
The success of the TV programme ‘Coast’, together with Julia Bradbury’s “Wainwright’s Walks”, indicates the deep empathy the public has for coastal heritage and environments. The much-hyped “Energy Coast” Masterplan proclaims that nuclear is the new green. A new website, ‘Toxic Coast’ has just been launched to unravel the spin surrounding the Energy Coast. The website states “We intend, using this site and by regular Tweeting, to show the pro-nuclear propaganda to be the pack of lies and half-truths that it is. The website www.toxiccoast.com has been produced by Braystones resident Ian Hawkes, whose wife first coined the phrase “Toxic Coast’ as a response to the nuclear industry’s ambitions for West Cumbria. A spokesperson from Radiation Free Lakeland said: “The unique beach community of Braystones is on the front line. The ‘Energy Coast’ is a vicious confidence trick, but springing up all over Cumbria there are flares of truth and this website tells it as it is”.
Get Noticed Online 7th Aug 2009 more >>
Heysham
The owner of Lancashire’s nuclear power station plans to take on 25 new workers a year. British Energy, part of EDF which owns the reactors at Heysham, has launched a website to lure the cream of the UK’s engineering and science talent.
Lancashire Evening Post 7th Aug 2009 more >>
Turkey
Turkey may take a stake of up to 25 per cent in a consortium to build its first nuclear power station in a bid to salvage a mishandled tender that resulted in just one bid from Russia.
FT 7th Aug 2009 more >>
US
The Tennessee Valley Authority, faced with falling electric sales and rising costs from cleaning up a massive coal ash spill in Tennessee, on Friday trimmed plans for a potential four-unit nuclear plant in northeast Alabama to one reactor. The nation’s largest public utility, which two years ago had positioned itself as a leader in this country’s so-called “nuclear renaissance,” said it would prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement to consider a single reactor for its unfinished Bellefonte site near Scottsboro, Ala.
AP 8th August 2009 more >>
Star Tribune 7th Aug 2009 more >>
Iran
DESPITE IRAN’S progress since 2007 toward producing enriched uranium, the US state department’s intelligence analysts continue to think that Tehran will not be able to produce weapons-grade material before 2013, according to a newly disclosed document.
Irish Times 8th Aug 2009 more >>
Space
NASA and the Department of Energy are encouraged by recent testing that could enable possible use of nuclear power on the surface of the moon or Mars. According to NASA, a fission surface power system could use a small nuclear reactor to produce 40 kilowatts of energy, enough electricity to power a future space outpost.
eWeek 7th Aug 2009 more >>
Climate
Vital UN climate change talks in Copenhagen are likely to collapse unless rich nations agree a “social justice deal” built around equalising emissions per head in each country, according to the former deputy prime minister John Prescott.
Guardian 8th Aug 2009 more >>
The Scottish government boasts of stringent targets to cuts emissions while squeezing North Sea oil reserves and approving new opencast coal mines. No wonder people are taking into their own hands to highlight this hypocrisy
Guardian 8th Aug 2009 more >>
Renewables
The sit-in at the Vestas wind turbine plant has ended after 18 days with bailiffs arriving to evict the six workers still barricaded in the building on the Isle of Wight. Two of the men abseiled from the balcony before the bailiffs arrived today, while another leapt into the bushes below to gasps and cheers from the crowd of several hundred supporters.
Guardian 8th Aug 2009 more >>
Wind turbine manufacturing will not return to the Isle of Wight before 2015 because the UK is not building windfarms quickly enough to justify it, according to a senior Vestas executive. Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, the executive, from a UK division of the Danish-based turbine manufacturer, pointed out that other countries, such as China and Spain, require windfarms built there to use locally made components. Had such rules existed in the UK, Vestas’s Isle of Wight factory the only turbine plant in England would have been saved from closure.
Guardian 8th Aug 2009 more >>
