Sellafield
The first vital step in combating and reducing the highest hazard area at Sellafield – the High Level Waste (HLW) storage tanks – has been put out to tender by Sellafield Ltd. Invitations to tender for the work contract, which appeared recently in the Official Journal of the European Journal (OJEU), relates to ‘the design and build of a highly active liquid effluent plant’. In a number of phases stretching over the next 8 or 9 years, the contract is believed to be worth up to £1.5Bn.
CORE 9th Oct 2009 more >>
Energy Policy
THIS Government is stacking up plenty of problems in the in-tray for its successor but few will take so long to resolve as the state of Britain’s power supplies. After lacking the political courage to push ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations or the independence to stand up to EU demands to pension off existing plants, Labour has brought us to a critical juncture.
Express 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Industry leaders and analysts have cast doubt on whether the private sector alone will be able to raise the £200bn Ofgem estimates is needed to update Britain’s energy network and hit climate change targets. The energy regulator revealed on Friday the figure as the likely price tag for closing cheaper coal-fired plants and installing cleaner power sources, as well as replacing Britain’s ageing infrastructure. Utility companies will have to raise the capital, but they are likely to pass costs on to consumers, causing energy bills to rise between 14pc and 25pc over the next decade, peaking at 60pc above today’s prices in 2016 under the worst-case scenario. Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, the French power retailer, welcomed the report for “highlighting how massive investment is urgently needed in power stations and infrastructure”.
Telegraph 10th Oct 2009 more >>
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Scotsman 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Independent 10th Oct 2009 more >>
FT 10th Oct 2009 more >>
The four scenarios set out today by Ofgem for the UK energy market are given here.
Guardian 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Ed Miliband’s Department of Energy and Climate Change delivered a cool response to the regulator’s financial analysis of the energy market, after having insisted that bills would rise by just 8pc by 2020 earlier this summer. Even with early action on climate change targets and investing in clean sources, Ofgem believes prices will still increase 14pc by 2020 – double Mr Miliband’s forecasts. The Government simply said yesterday that Ofgem was “prudent” to examine a range of hypothetical models, “however unlikely they are”.
Telegraph 10th Oct 2009 more >>
The Government’s predictions are beginning to look delusional. It might be a massive leap forward for Mr Miliband to admit to any increase in energy prices at all. But it’s not helping consumers to keep them in the dark about the fact that ultimately they will have to foot the £200bn investment – through taxes or price increases – that Britain needs to meet its green targets and repair its crumbling infrastructure.
Telegraph 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Britain faces a return to 1970s-style power blackouts and disruption to its electricity supplies within four years, the energy regulator warned yesterday. Ofgem raised the spectre of a return to the three-day week for British industry as the country scrambles to renovate its crumbling power infrastructure ahead of new EU pollution rules that will force the closure of a quarter of UK power stations by 2015.
Times 10th Oct 2009 more >>
The consequences of previous ministerial dithering and now outright hostility to new nuclear energy generators are more problematic for Scotland. We are in a more parlous position north of the Border because the SNP administration plans no new nuclear power stations and it will be costly to add cleaning equipment at the Longannet coal-burning station. Decisions have to be made now to meet the cost implications. The question is at what pace the shift to renewables can proceed to be tolerable for the British consumer and not risk widespread fuel poverty. Green extremists particularly those who are also anti-nuclear have often argued that the pace of climate change rules out a halfway house and in any event a cutback in energy consumption is to be desired. While by virtue of technological innovation there will be changes to the way in which energy is consumed, that is not a message that makes any sense to a pensioner on a modest income struggling to get through a Scottish winter.
Scotsman 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Green energy is costly, gas is cheap: sweeping assumptions like these are giant boulders blocking the course of progress towards a more sustainable economy. They are also wrong, as Ofgems review of the UK energy market yesterday made clear. The energy watchdog considered four possible future scenarios in a bid to estimate how much consumers might be paying by the 2020s to power their homes. What emerged was that, while investing in renewable energy infrastructure like wind and tidal power plants will be costly, not doing so will be more so. Without that investment, by the UK and other countries, global competition for gas could cause prices to spike, especially in the context of strong economic resurgence boosting demand for energy. This could result in bill hikes of 60% for consumers. The SNP Government has signalled its opposition to new nuclear power stations at the same time as setting for Scotland the worlds most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets. That creates a major challenge in terms of securing continuous energy supply as many renewable technologies, including wind, wave and tidal, provide intermittent supply.
Herald 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Terror
A “high level” al-Qaeda suspect who provided data on terror targets in France and expressed a “desire to carry out an attack” was yesterday revealed to work at Cern, the world’s largest nuclear research facility.
Telegraph 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Herald 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Times 10th Oct 2009 more >>
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Guardian 10th Oct 2009 more >>
Companies
US regulators have approved a plan for French-based EDF to take a stake in Constellation Energy Group, clearing a key hurdle for a new nuclear power plant in Maryland, the companies said Friday.
Yahoo 9th Oct 2009 more >>
Bloomberg 9th Oct 2009 more >>
Climate
Global climate change talks came to an end in Bangkok today in an atmosphere of distrust and recrimination, with the rift between rich and poor countries seemingly wider than ever. After two weeks of negotiations there have been no breakthroughs on big issues such as money or emissions cuts. With five days of negotiating time left before the concluding talks in Copenhagen in December, delegates said it appeared a weak deal was the most likely outcome, and no deal at all was a possibility.
Guardian 10th Oct 2009 more >>
