Heysham
EDF Energy has its nuclear fleet under review for potential safety standard extensions following its successful application to loosen safety limits at its 1GW Dungeness B nuclear power station, which was approved late last month. EDF Energy applied to extend the limit on how much degradation can take place to the graphite bricks surrounding the nuclear core at its Kent-based nuclear site, and told Utility Week that the rest of its site are under review as safety margins continue to shrink. “The figures we have for our sites are well within the safety margins we have been set. But we will keep this under review during the operational lives of our sites, and as is usual work with the Office for Nuclear Regulation,” a spokesman for the company said. The Heysham 1 nuclear power unit is the reactor closest to reaching its safety standards relating to graphite weight loss, at just 1.5 per cent off its limit. Current average weight loss is at 10.5 per cent with its limit being 12 per cent. A final decision as to whether the Heysham plant’s lifetime may be extended to 2019 will be made by the regulator next year following detailed safety assessment of the site which will be shared with the Office for Nuclear Regulation. If the life extension is not approved a safety limit change may be unnecessary as the plant would close in 2016. However, if the plant’s life extension is approved, an application to change the safety limits may be required.
Utility Week 11th July 2014 read more »
Sizewell
EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited (EDF Energy) was granted planning permission for the construction of a new Projects Building at Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station. The Projects Building will provide office accommodation during the planned outage at Sizewell B during the commissioning of the Dry Fuel Store. Acting as planning agents for EDF, we prepared all the necessary planning application documents and materials. We liaised with the local planning authority, Suffolk Coastal District Council and monitored the application’s progress through the determination process.
Mondaq 10th July 2014 read more »
Dounreay
AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, announces today the award of a four-year framework contract by Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) at the Dounreay nuclear site in Scotland.
Amec 10th July 2014 read more »
AN engineering firm employing hundreds of North-East workers has secured a contract to help decommission a former nuclear research plant. Amec, which has more than 400 staff in Darlington, has won a four-year deal to work on the Dounreay nuclear site, on the Caithness coast, in Scotland.
Northern Echo 11th July 2014 read more »
Builder & Engineer 11th July 2014 read more »
Nuclear Police
Civil Nuclear Police Authority: annual report and accounts, 2013 to 2014.
Civil Nuclear Police Authority 10th July 2014 read more »
Energy Regulation
Catherine Mitchell: In general, the merits of retail regulation versus retail competition is framed in a 2 by 2 matrix whereby retail regulation protects customers but undermines innovation and retail competition stimulates innovation but reduces customer protection. For those of us who lived with the fat-days of the Central Electricity Generating Board pre-1990, supporting innovation has, in principle, (slightly and uncomfortably) trumped customer protection. However, the failure of the restructured electricity system to produce innovation has raised the questions about whether a competitive retail market is the best governance structure for the move to a secure, affordable and sustainable energy system, and whether there might be a third way?
IGov 11th July 2014 read more »
Grid Connections
Ofgem has approved plans for the £1.2 billion subsea cable planned to connect the electricity grid on either side of the Moray Firth in North Scotland. Scottish Hydro Electricity (SHE) Transmission’s cable is due for completion in 2018 and will then allow 1.2 GW of renewable electricity generation in the north of Scotland to connect to the grid.
Utility Week 11th July 2014 read more »
Waste Transport
“Statement by Ms. Sylvia Kotting-Uhl, Spokesperson on Nuclear Issues in the German Bundestag for the “Bundestagsfraktion BÜNDNIS 90/ DIE GRÜNEN” – July 8, 2014, (posted at http://www.srswatch.org) – opposition to the proposed shipment of German spent fuel from the long-closed AVR gas-cooled commercial prototype reactor at Forschungszentrum Jülich to the United States.”
Radiation Free Lakeland 11th July 2014 read more »
The U.S. Department of Energy answered questions Thursday about highly enriched uranium currently in Germany being disposed of at the Savannah River Site. “They don’t have the capability and expertise we have here at the Savannah River Site,” said Gary DeLeon, Director of Nuclear Materials Disposition for DOE. During testimony with the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council, he said the high level nuclear waste is in the very middle of a pool ball sized piece of graphite. Germany wants to send a million of them to SRS.
WLTX 10th July 2014 read more »
Germany’s plan to ship highly radioactive atomic waste to South Carolina is getting help from scientists at the Savannah River Site nuclear weapons complex as skepticism about the proposal grows in the Palmetto State. During a meeting Thursday in Columbia, U.S. officials said the German government is paying SRS researchers to study how to separate materials in the waste, which contains a mixture of elements that are hard to work with. The Germans have agreed to pay $10 million toward the research at SRS, anti-nuclear activist Tom Clements said, citing documents he has reviewed. If the research is successful, it could make the waste material easier to process into nuclear fuel for atomic power plants. Such research also could bolster arguments to bring the waste to the Aiken complex, which Clements said would be bad for South Carolina.
The State 11th July 2014 read more »
Energy Supply – Scotland
SCOTLAND is on the brink of an energy crisis, a leading expert has warned, after it emerged the country has begun to rely on electricity produced in England to keep the lights on. In a departure from historical trends, Scotland imported power from down south on 162 days over the past three years. On 10 occasions, Scotland imported English power constantly throughout the day to meet its needs. The previously unreported National Grid figures show Scotland continues to export far more power to England than it imports from south of the Border. Overall, Scotland needed English-produced electricity for seven per cent of the time between April 2011 and January this year. However experts warned Scotland’s historic self-sufficiency in energy faced further erosion as nuclear and coal-fired power stations are due to close or cut capacity in the coming years.
Herald 12th July 2014 read more »
Brian Wilson: The latest self-indulgent waste of taxpayers’ money to emerge from St Andrew’s House carries the portentous title Energy Regulation in an Independent Scotland, prepared by an “Expert Commission”. The clue is in the title. However “expert” these people might be, they were not entrusted with their own agenda. They were not invited to advise on whether independence makes the slightest sense in the energy context. Their remit was restricted to the hypothesis of Scotland having voted to separate. The central conclusion of the Expert Commission that it would be a jolly good idea to retain a single market in electricity within our small island need not have detained them long. Who could disagree? Certainly not the English generators who will be delighted to pump as much electricity as we want into Scotland as soon as we are daft enough to have put ourselves in the position of requiring it. Even the Expert Commission summoned all its courage to note this prospect, buried on page 34 of the report: “Under current forecast scenarios of high renewable generation installation in Scotland and closure of current coal and nuclear generation, Scotland is likely, at time of low renewables availability, to import electricity from rUK in order to continue meeting demand.”
Scotsman 12th July 2014 read more »
Japan – Fukushima
Stigma, pay cuts, and risk of radiation exposure are among the reasons why 3,000 employees have left the utility at the centre of Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster. Now there’s an additional factor: better paying jobs in the feel good solar energy industry.
CTV News 10th July 2014 read more »
A strong earthquake has hit Japan’s northern coast near the nuclear power plant crippled in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The earthquake early on Saturday triggered a small tsunami and injured at least one person. Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the 6.8-magnitude quake struck 6 miles (10km) below the sea surface off the coast of Fukushima. The 4.22am (7.22pm GMT Friday) quake shook buildings in Tokyo, about 120 miles north-west of the epicenter.
Guardian 11th July 2014 read more »
US
Whether or not you follow the energy markets, it’s very likely you’ve heard the phrase “U.S. energy independence” at one time or another in recent years. Yet the very notion that the United States can be completely self-sufficient when it comes to supplying our domestic need for energy consumption is seriously flawed for a number of reasons ranging from population growth, pure economics, a lack of public policy and a dated permitting process vital to commercialize new energy projects. Collectively, this should have Americans questioning whether U.S. power production can be enough to completely eliminate the need for foreign energy sources.
Reuters 11th July 2014 read more »
The U.S. House of Representatives voted down two proposals to prevent development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
Power Engineering 11th July 2014 read more »
India
The Indian government has announced an increase of almost 27% in its budget for atomic research and nuclear power for the latest fiscal year. Investment in nuclear-related public enterprises has also significantly increased.
World Nuclear News 11th July 2014 read more »
Iran
Iran has taken preparatory action to start up a uranium conversion plant it needs to fulfil an interim nuclear agreement reached with six world powers last year before the accord expires this month, diplomatic sources said.The launch of the facility would show Tehran’s commitment to the landmark Nov. 24 deal as it holds talks with the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Britain and China on a long-term settlement of the dispute over its atomic aims.
Reuters 11th July 2014 read more »
Trident
A convoy of more than 20 military vehicles drove through the centre of Glasgow on the M74 shortly after midnight last night. The convoy included four special lorries which transport Trident nuclear bombs. The convoy was stopped for one hour near Loch Lomond by protestors from Faslane Peace Camp. One climbed on top of a nuclear transporter. Four peace campers were arrested.
SCND 11th July 2014 read more »
STV 11th July 2014 read more »
FOUR peace activists were arrested yesterday after blockading a military convoy transporting nuclear weapons through Scottish streets under the cover of darkness. The four were picked up after briefly halting nuclear warhead-laden lorries near Loch Lomond in the early hours of yesterday morning. Monitoring group NukeWatch said they believed the four converted lorries — part of a convoy of more than 20 military vehicles — were carrying around half a dozen warheads. The convoy snaked up the M74 through south Glasgow en route to Coulport — part of a Ministry of Defence project to overhaul its nuclear arsenal. Scottish CND co-ordinator John Ainslie said it was hard for people in Glasgow to imagine the peril they had endured while they slept.
Morning Star 12th July 2014 read more »
RADICAL knitters and crocheters from across the region came to Leeds to stage a ‘knit in’ yesterday. The two-hour protest outside Leeds City Art Gallery on The Headrow was against increased spending on illegal nuclear weapons. The pink scarf knitted at the Leeds event will contribute to a planned seven-mile scarf that stretches from AWE Aldermaston to Burghfield – the two UK Atomic Weapons Establishment sites in Berkshire – as part of the Wool Against Weapons demonstration on August 9.
Yorkshire Evening Post 12th July 2014 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
In a move echoing the apocolyptic situation played out in the Terminator series of films, the US government is handing over control of its nuclear stockpile to computers.
IB Times 11th July 2014 read more »
Decarbonisation
If there’s one thing that everyone involved in the debate over the UK’s energy needs can agree on, it’s that we need to move faster towards a low carbon future. Not only are there challenging climate change targets to hit, there is also worrying lack of certainty over investment in low carbon technology which could deter investment and hit economic growth. Participants at a recent ‘big energy debate’ roundtable at Westminster, hosted by the Guardian, tackled the decarbonising challenge head on. The latest government figures show that just 12% of the UK’s energy comes from low carbon sources, while other countries – the leaders in the field – are hitting 41%. Roundtable participants agreed there was much to be done.
Guardian 11th July 2014 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News is available on our new re-vamped sister website.
Microgen Scotland 11th July 2014 read more »
Energy Efficiency
It was an energy policy hailed by the government as the “biggest home improvement programme since the second world war”, one that would cut energy bills for 14m homeowners. But only 18 months after it was introduced, the highly vaunted green deal has been branded a “complete flop” amid criticism that forced ministers to announce the troubled scheme had been reorganised.
Guardian 11th July 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The epicentre of irrational behaviour across global markets has moved to the fossil fuel complex of oil, gas and coal. This is where investors have been throwing the most good money after bad. They are likely to be left holding a clutch of worthless projects as renewable technology sweeps in below radar, and the Washington-Beijing axis embraces a greener agenda. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says global investment in fossil fuel supply doubled in real terms to $900bn from 2000 to 2008 as the boom gathered pace. It has since stabilised at a very high plateau, near $950bn last year. The sheer scale of “stranded assets” and potential write-offs in the fossil industry raises eyebrows. IHS Global Insight said the average return on oil and gas exploration in North America has fallen to 8.6pc, lower than in 2001 when oil was trading at $27 a barrel. What happens if oil falls back towards $80 as Libya ends force majeure at its oil hubs and Iran rejoins the world economy? Even if the fossil companies navigate the next global downturn more or less intact, they are in the untenable position of booking vast assets that can never be burned without violating global accords on climate change. Staggering gains in solar power – and soon battery storage as well – threatens to undercut the oil industry with lightning speed, perhaps in a race with cheap nuclear power from a coming generation of molten salt reactors. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory has already captured 31.1pc of the sun’s energy with a solar chip, but records keep being broken.
Telegraph 9th July 2014 read more »
Social entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett questions the wisdom of continuing to invest in oil and gas, and makes the economic argument for switching to solar energy. Two emerging trends, one at either end of the oil use spectrum. One involves the replacement of an entire category of oil use in lighting; the other shows withdrawal of funds to replace reserves of any category of carbon fuel use, large and small. I predict with some confidence that both trends will accelerate in the year ahead.
The Elders 16th June 2014 read more »
An umbrella group of churches, which represents over half a billion Christians worldwide, has decided to pull its investments out of fossil fuel companies. The move by the World Council of Churches, which has 345 member churches including the Church of England but not the Catholic church, was welcomed as a “major victory” by climate campaigners who have been calling on companies and institutions such as pension funds, universities and local governments to divest from coal, oil and gas.
Guardian 11th July 2014 read more »
