New Nukes
John “Grizz” Deal wants to put a nuclear reactor in your back garden. Don’t worry, it’s safe. So he says. The technology his company, Hyperion Power Generation, is developing is licensed from America’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, birthplace of the atomic bomb. As nuclear plants go, these are tiny, about the size of a shed. They will be buried 6ft underground, can run virtually unmanned for a decade and provide enough power for 20,000 people.
Sunday Times 10th Jan 2010 more >>
Hinkley
David Heathcote-Amory MP has raised the Hinkley pylons in the House of Commons
Burnham-on-sea.com 7th Jan 2010 more >>
Wylfa
People living near the site of a proposed new nuclear power station are being invited to a public discussion on why the site has been chosen. Wyfla on Anglesey is one of 10 sites approved by the UK government in November for new nuclear plants. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is conducting a 15-week consultation about the proposals. Senior DECC officials will be at the Wylfa Sports and Social Club on Saturday from 1000 GMT to midday.
BBC 9th Jan 2010 more >>
Electricity Supplies
Even if the £100bn wind-power revolution hailed by Brown and his colleagues is a stunning success, it will do nothing to alleviate a formidable short-term squeeze, resulting from the fact that many older electricity plants – both nuclear and coal-fired – are due to be scrapped over the next few years, leaving Britain increasingly dependent on gas power, at the same time as its own reserves in the North Sea are being rapidly run down, so that the gas-fired plants will have to be heavily reliant on imported supplies.
Observer 10th Jan 2010 more >>
Heat Supplies
WHEN Telecity began planning its third internet data centre in Paris, one of the first things it did was to look for partners. In addition to finding customers and hiring a firm to build the facility, it wanted someone to take the centre’s biggest waste product heat. The internet boom has led to huge growth in demand for the services of data centres. They are like giant warehouses that house row after row of the computer servers that power the digital economy. The growth of data centres has consequences for the environment. They use huge amounts of electricity, often consuming as much as a small town. Not only do they need large amounts of energy to power their servers, they need just as much energy to cool them down. That always raises the question: what happens to the hot air that is pumped out of these facilities?
Sunday Times 10th Jan 2010 more >>
Iran
A general who was once in charge of Israel’s nuclear weapons has claimed that Iran is a “very, very, very long way from building a nuclear capability”.
Sunday Times 10th Jan 2010 more >>
Trident
The UK Government’s controversial £20billion programme to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system on the Clyde has been thrown into disarray by an indefinite delay, the Sunday Herald can reveal. The Ministry of Defence has admitted “further time” is now needed before a crunch decision can be taken on the design of the submarines needed to carry the new nuclear missiles. The decision was originally meant to be made last year. One official statement released last week suggested the earliest the decision could now be taken was July, which would take it beyond the forthcoming general election. But this timetable was later disowned by the MoD in an apparent attempt to save face, without giving an alternative date. The main reason for the delay is suspected to be difficulties in agreeing the type of nuclear reactors that will power the submarines. According to one senior official, this was “the most tricky issue we have to deal with”.
Sunday Herald 10th Jan 2010 more >>
Renewables
The offshore wind industry will spend around 50% more in capital expenditure than the oil and gas sector over the next 20 years, according to industry estimates. In the wake of the Crown Estate’s round-three allocations for offshore wind last week, industry body Scottish Renewables estimates developers will spend £7.2 billion a year on capital expenditure between this year and 2030. About £1.8bn of this outlay will be in Scotland. This is compared to the less than £5bn a year spent in the North Sea by oil and gas companies, in a sign that offshore wind is now poised to come of age. Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: “Oil and gas is obviously a huge industry and will continue to be a massive driver of the economy, but these figures show the scale of the investment in offshore wind over the next 20 years.”
Sunday Herald 10th Jan 2010 more >>
