Hinkley
Three Bristol women say they will appear in court later this month after anti-nuclear protests in Somerset. Care worker Ornella Saibene, grandmother Caroline Hope and retired nurse Marian Connolly say they have been charged with willful obstruction of the highway. It follows the anti-nuclear protests blockading the road leading to the nuclear power station at Hinkley on April 1, this year. Members of the South West Against Nuclear, Nuclear Free Bristol and Bristol CND all took part in the blockade.
Bristol Post 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Analysts and industry insiders have raised fresh doubts about a £24.5bn government plan to build the first of several new nuclear power plants in Somerset, with one boss branding the project an “expensive mistake”. The Sunday Times quotes Paul Massara, chief executive of energy supplier RWE Npower, who has mounted the “highest profile attack yet” on the Hinkley Point C project, which is being implemented by Npower’s French rival EDF, with financial backing from the UK government and China. Analysts are also lining up to pick apart the value of the deal. Peter Atherton, energy analyst at investment bank Jefferies, told The Guardian that for the same price as Hinkley Point, which will provide 3,200 megawatts of capacity, almost 50,000 megawatts of gas-fired power capacity could be built – enough to “effectively replace the entire thermal generation fleet in the UK”. A report from energy analysts at HSBC says the future for the plant is “bleak” and that there is “ample reason for the UK government to delay or cancel the project”. It cites demand that is falling at one to two per cent per year and a huge jump in import capacity from continental Europe.
The Week 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Business Desk 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Sellafield
Jim Al-Khalilli: Many people have a knee-jerk fear of anything nuclear, and certainly anything associated with radiation. But it is often an irrational fear built upon too flimsy a grasp of the science. This is understandable, and particularly poignant at the moment as we think back to the horrors of the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 years ago this month. I have been a nuclear physicist for almost 30 years but I have had very little to do with nuclear power or the nuclear industry. I certainly had very little idea what went on inside Sellafield beyond the basics; that it mainly operates these days as a reprocessing plant, cleaning up nuclear waste. When I was given the chance to go behind the scenes to film Britain’s Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield I saw the opportunity for the nuclear industry to tentatively open its doors to the public and show off the science and engineering that takes place behind the tight security and barbed wire fences. The aim of our film is not to convince anyone that nuclear power is good, nor to persuade them just how dangerous it is. But it is important television. I firmly believe that anyone who feels that they have a say about our nuclear future – so anyone who has a vote in our democracy – should watch it and make up their own mind.
Telegraph 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Lying on the remote northwest coast of England is one of the most controversial places in Britain: the nuclear facility known as Sellafield. In this one-off documentary, BBC Four have been given unprecedented access to some of the country’s most secret buildings, revealing the extraordinary experiments, the jaw-dropping technology, and the costly science behind Britain’s attempts to harness the power of the atom.
Cumbria Trust 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Jim Al-Khalili’s fascinating insight into Sellafield was aired last night and we picked out the most interesting and intriguing moments. “The development work that should have been done was all cut short by the extreme political and military pressure on them and the very tight deadlines they were given.” Successive governments created highly pressurised situations at Sellafield that did not allow for long term thinking. It will be interesting to see whether the results of this autumn’s Comprehensive Spending Review will put more or less pressure on the site.
In Cumbria 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Guardian 10th Aug 2015 read more »
It was the birthplace of Britain’s nuclear industry, and the site of its worst nuclear accident. For decades, the Sellafield plant in Cumbria could lay claim to being one of the most controversial industrial complexes in Britain. Now, however, it is playing a new role – as a giant test bed for specialised technology and techniques used in nuclear decommissioning. Flying drones, remote controlled submarines and industrial robots have all been brought in to carry out tasks which are simply too dangerous, or even impossible, for humans to do.
BBC 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Terror
Last year in Berlin, the President formally announced his plan to host a fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit in 2016. The Summit will be held March 31-April 1, 2016, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. As the President stated in his speech in Prague in 2009, nuclear terrorism is the most immediate and extreme threat to global security. He announced an international effort to secure vulnerable nuclear materials, break up black markets, and detect and intercept illicitly trafficked materials. The first Nuclear Security Summit was held in Washington, DC in 2010, and was followed by additional Summits in Seoul in 2012 and The Hague in 2014. These Summits have achieved tangible improvements in the security of nuclear materials and stronger international institutions that support nuclear security.
Whitehouse 5th Aug 2015 read more »
Chernobyl
As many as 32 hectares of new wildfires have been registered in the exclusion zone close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, report Ukraine’s emergency services report. Firefighters are battling new fires that have flared up in the Kiev region. The fires started in three locations close to the villages of Zamostye and Kovshilovka in the Ivankovsky area. As of 7am on Sunday, the fires have been reportedly localized, with firefighters continuing to extinguish burning dry grass and forest cover. Shortly afterwards, Ukraine’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that another forested area, known as Chernobylskaya Pushcha, had caught fire.
Russia Today 9th Aug 2015 read more »
Radhealth
As the world increasingly moves away from nuclear power–with even the President of the United States now adopting policy that makes clear it is not a climate solution–the radiation deniers are coming out in force.
Green World 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
Since 2005, back when I first started covering renewables, the renewable energy industry has been growing at light speed. The bottom line is that renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage technologies are continuing to enjoy rapid cost reductions and huge increases in efficiencies and overall production. Nuclear? Not so much. In fact, when you look at the advancements that have been made in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage just over the past five years and then look at the lack of advancements we’ve seen in nuclear over the past 30 years, well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that any chance of meaningful nuclear power development has been completely thwarted by the new renewable energy revolution. There’s no turning back now for renewables. Solar and wind in particular are unstoppable, and this insane growth is quickly extinguishing any hope for a nuclear renaissance.
Energy & Capital 22nd July 2015 read more »
Japan – Reactor Re-starts
Japan has restarted its first nuclear reactor under new safety rules following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. All Japan’s nuclear plants were gradually shut down after a series of meltdowns at the Fukushima plant sparked by the tsunami and earthquake. But after passing stringent new safety tests, Kyushu Electric Power restarted the number one reactor at its Sendai plant on Tuesday morning. There is still strong public unease about a return to nuclear power. Protests have been taking place outside the Sendai plant and at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s residence in Tokyo, about 1,000 km (600 miles) away.
BBC 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Guardian 11th Aug 2015 read more »
FT 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Deutsche Welle 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Sky News 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Scotsman 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Shaun Burnie, a nuclear expert with Greenpeace Germany, said: “The Sendai reactor has passed regulatory review but there are many safety issues ignored. Kyushu Electric and the NRA have failed to ensure the safety of the reactors, including deliberately ignoring major earthquake risks.”
Times 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the plant to show their opposition to Japan’s return to nuclear energy. They were led by Naoto Kan, who was prime minister at the time of the Fukushima disaster and has now re-invented himself as an anti-nuclear activist.
Daily Mail 11th Aug 2015 read more »
The restart of the Sendai nuclear reactor today will not reverse the terminal decline of Japan’s nuclear industry, given all nine Japanese nuclear utilities are faced with insurmountable safety issues at their nuclear power plants together with mounting political, public and legal challenges, warns Greenpeace Japan.
Greenpeace 11th Aug 2015 read more »
India
Environmental activists from Greenpeace are being investigated, prevented from leaving the country and having their funds frozen. Why is India’s political class lining up to brand them enemies of the state?
Guardian 11th Aug 2015 read more »
India’s nuclear ‘renaissance’ as declared by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be in tatters, having hit several stumbling blocks. Instead of the promised new burst of energy it seems to be fading, and rather rapidly at that. One of the projected highlights of PM Modi’s visit to France in April this year was the agreement for the construction of a nuclear power plan in Jaitapur with Areva. Somehow both the UPA and the NDA governments have not been able to overcome a strange fascination for Areva, despite warnings by several Indian nuclear experts over the years. Since the agreement was signed amidst great enthusiasm Areva, in financial problems at the time as well, has gone technically bankrupt. This was foreseen by experts in india, who had pointed to the fact that the French company had not sold a single new reactor since 2007. And its recent presence in the market was marked by two mismanaged products, of which the one in Finland was at least 10 years behind schedule.
The Citizen 7th Aug 2015 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
MP for Gordon and former First Minister Alex Salmond reflects on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2. Mr Salmond believes that now, with the 70th anniversary of the destruction of these Japanese cities upon us, the time is right to scrap nuclear weapons.
Press and Journal 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Nicola Sturgeon: There are really no words which adequately describe the destructive power of nuclear weapons, and Japan is the only nation on earth that knows first-hand the devastating human consequences.
Glasgow Evening Times 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Renewable Finance
ALBION Community Power has raised £10 million from Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) to drive its development of community renewable projects across the UK. GMPF has joined Strathclyde Pension Fund and the Edinburgh-headquartered UK Green Investment Bank in backing Albion, which has now raised £70m of a targeted £100m to finance its plans. The GIB and SPF committed £50m and £10m respectively to Albion, which builds, controls and operates community-scale renewable projects, earlier this year. Albion announced the latest funding tranche as it unveiled details of its second hydro-electric scheme in the Scottish Highlands. The £3.3m project, based on the River Arkaig in Lochaber, will generate 2.3 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable electricity per year – equal to the electricity consumption of 550 homes. It will see water diverted from the river down a six-metre drop using a weir, which will turn two 250 kilowatt (kW) Archimedes’ screws to generate power before returning to the river downstream. The scheme, which will be constructed with Green Highland Renewables, is expected to be completed in February.
Herald 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Edie 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Renewables – floating turbines
The French Government has launched a tender asking for companies to submit plans to build the world’s first floating wind farm. France’s environment agency ADEME is calling for projects between three to six turbines, with the capacity for at least five megawatts per turbine.
Edie 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Nottingham City Council has built the UK’s largest solar carport at the city’s newly redesigned Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre. A canopy over 40 car-parking spaces, featuring 448 solar panels, will deliver up to 55.7MWh of electricity per year – enough to power 20 homes. Taking advantage of the Government’s Feed-in Tariff, and the need to buy less energy, the council expects to generate over £10,000 a year from the project.
Edie 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Making a parody of claims attributed to nuclear power in the 1950s ‘too cheap to meter’, as Keith Barnham does, may seem a cheap shot to some – but it is a reality even now. That is the claim made by Keith Barnham in his book, now available in paperback, ‘The Burning Answer – A user’s guide to the Solar revolution. Much hay is made by critics of solar power (and Keith talks mainly about solar photovotaics) by saying it only produces electricity when the sun shines. But in fact a manifest advantage is rarely mentioned – it’s operating costs are zero. The capital costs have been, and are, falling rapidly. So much solar energy will produced when it is sunny that it can be stored. Even in places like Italy there is a lot of ‘free’ energy is being generated, surplus to electricity requirements,so that it can be easily stored. Yes that’s right, easily stored. of course we know about the tumbling costs of batteries from factories established by Elon Musk and also the latest developments in sodium ion batteries that will undercut the costs of lithium batteries. But one of the things that Keith tells us about are the existing types of heat pumps. The fact that solar pv is electric doesn’t matter if it can be converted, using heat pumps, into water.
Dave Toke’s Blog 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Energy Storage
Norway has a lot of hydroelectric plants: a total of 937 of them, which provide a population of 5 million with around 98 percent of its electricity. In fact, the Scandinavian country is home to roughly half of all the hydroelectric water storage reservoirs in Europe. This vast system could also offer a Europe a substantial amount of energy storage — up to 20 gigawatts of it — if an ambitious scheme currently being proposed can overcome political and social hurdles and get the necessary funding. That’s according to Kaspar Vereide, an engineer at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. And his models suggest it could all be achieved in seven years.
Green Tech 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Ikea will no longer sell halogen and ‘energy-saving’ compact fluorescent bulbs from September, when it switches all its lighting sold globally to super efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The move affects over 2.3m bulbs sold by the Swedish furniture chain each year in the UK and an undisclosed number in its markets elsewhere in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. The EU was expected to ban certain halogen bulbs from sale from September 2016 but earlier this year delayed the ban until 2018, saying LED technology would not be ready in time. Steve Howard, Ikea’s chief sustainability officer, said that three years ago, shoppers experienced ‘price tag shock’ with LEDs, but now their quality and cost ha d reached a tipping point, and the time was right for the switch.
Guardian 10th Aug 2015 read more »
EXPERTS from industry and universities are urging the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, to reject UK Government moves to abandon plans for zero-carbon homes aimed at cutting waste and pollution. Last month, Chancellor George Osborne slipped out a surprise announcement that he was dropping a previous commitment that all new homes built from 2016 would meet zero-carbon targets. His aim was to “reduce regulation” for builders, but it is likely to result in new houses with less insulation and more wasted energy. Osborne’s move prompted a howl of protest from UK businesses. In a joint letter, they argued that the sudden policy U-turn would inhibit investment, be “regressive” and “harmful to British industry”. Now 20 academics, business leaders and professionals have signed an open letter to Sturgeon urging her to take a very different approach. “Work with us to develop new policies to ensure the wide-ranging impacts of the disastrous decisions now being made at Westminster will not be felt by the people of Scotland,” the letter says. “Improving the condition and energy efficiency of the Scottish housing stock will be essential in meeting many of our environmental, social and economic objectives towards 2030 and 2050. Removing the current targets, or letting them slip further, will add to our legacy of sub-standard housing that is not fit for a world in which all homes will need to be zero-carbon homes.” The letter was co-ordinated by Dr Keith Baker, an engineering and environment researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University who helped found the Initiative for Carbon Accounting, an independent organisation that aims to improve assessments of climate pollution. Among signatories to the letter are: Professor Sue Roaf from Heriot-Watt University; Chris Stewart, chairman of the Scottish Ecological Design Association: Ron Mould, from Glasgow Caledonian University: Neil Sutherland, managing director of the green-home builder MAKAR: David Aitken from Lochlie Construction Group; and Julio Bros-Williamson, from the Scottish Energy Centre at Edinburgh Napier University. Another signatory, Norman Kerr, the director of Energy Action Scotland, pointed out that there were 940,000 households living in, or at risk of, fuel poverty in Scotland. “They need warm, dry affordable-to-heat homes, to maintain health, to play a role in tackling climate change, to contribute to the nation’s security of supply, reduce social inequality and improve their day to day lives,” he said.
The National 11th Aug 2015 read more »
The London Mayor’s office has launched its second Business Energy Challenge to encourage corporations to step up to meeting city-wide emissions targets. The Challenge celebrates private sector businesses who have made the biggest difference in cutting their energy consumption and cut their CO2 emissions. Last year, the Challenge provided the city with previously uncollected energy consumption data on 1,000 new locations in London with data from businesses including Boots, HSBC, RBS, Marks and Spencer and Linklaters. Together, the top 27 businesses of 58 entries realised savings of £12.5m on energy bills and together reduced emissions by an average of 18%, cutting energy usage by more than 180,000MWh. The Challenge has now expanded to accept applicants from small and micro businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
Edie 10th Aug 2015 read more »
Fuel Poverty
SUMMER isn’t usually the time that heating bills are foremost in our minds but with the gloomy, washout summer of 2015, we can be sure that households across Scotland are opting to pop their heating on in the evenings. Some people, however, will be thinking long and hard before they flick that switch. That’s because 940,000 homes across Scotland are currently living in fuel poverty – almost two in every five households. In June, the government committed to making energy efficiency a national infrastructure priority, by developing a new programme to provide support to both homes and non-domestic premises to reach a good energy efficiency standard over a 15 to 20 year period. This may sound quite technical, but it could be something that benefits us all. So that it really represents a step forward from the status quo, it’s critical to get the detail right as it’s designed over the next couple of years. By designating energy efficiency as a national infrastructure priority, the Existing Homes Alliance believes that the Scottish Government must put together a comprehensive plan to upgrade close to 130,000 homes a year, so that all homes achieve a C energy performance standard by 2025. The programme would involve grants for the fuel poor, incentives and low-interest loans for the able to pay, and private investment from homeowners, landlords, and other sources.
Scotsman 11th Aug 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The government will this week seek to kick start the UK’s still nascent shale gas industry, with a pointed reminder to planning authorities that ministers wish to see fracking planning applications fast-tracked. In a move that is likely to face fierce opposition from environmental campaigners and some of the local communities concerned about the impact of shale gas exploration, Communities Minister Greg Clark will write to planning authorities setting out new guidance for planning officers considering onshore oil and gas related planning applications.
Business Green 10th Aug 2015 read more »
