Hinkley
The fate of future nuclear power projects in Europe could hinge on whether government-backed guarantees for Britain’s Hinkley Point C power station survive an expected challenge from Austria in Europe’s highest court. Analysts agree that large nuclear undertakings have become too costly and risky for private investors alone. For this reason many EU countries are backing the UK’s support for nuclear power. Timothy Spence reports from Vienna. Despite new and anticipated ventures, Europe’s nuclear market is shrinking. Germany’s post-Fukushima decision to decommission its nine remaining reactors by 2023 has also caused a nuclear rethink in Belgium. Many facilities are ageing. All but one of the UK’s 16 reactors are to be retired within a decade, according to the World Nuclear Association. Chatham House’s Froggatt believes nuclear faces another challenge. Cheaper renewables, smart technologies that can regulate demand, and energy storage will do the same thing that mobile phones did to the fixed-line industry – give people more choice and independence from traditional providers. “More and more people, and small and medium enterprises, will generate more power themselves,” he believes. Nuclear’s high up-front costs and large centralised power production will make it more difficult to attract investment. “There is a genuine question about what the utilities will look like in the next couple of decades. It’s not the anti-nuclear people, or the pro-nuclear people, it’s the people who are technology-neutral – the financial institutions – [who] are looking at the market and going, hold on a minute, things are changing.”
Energy Post 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Sellafield
Sellafield legacy ponds and silos: NDA and ONR agree that “risk is intolerable”. Letter to Eddie Martin from Stephen Henwood Chair of NDA.
Cumbria Trust 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Bradwell
BANNG is shocked at the news that the much disputed radioactive discharges arising from dissolution of fuel element debris (FED) at Bradwell have been stopped shortly after they started in the summer owing to technical problems. It is planned to restart them later in the year. ‘This news is quite unexpected and alarming and will naturally cause public anxiety about the possible impacts of technical failure on discharges into the estuary’, said Prof. Andy Blowers, the Chair of the Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG). He only learned about the outage at a recent meeting. Prof. Blowers has written to the regulator and to the Site Operator to say that the outage provides the opportunity to stop the discharges permanently. To date no responses have been received.
BANNG 10th Nov 2014 read more »
Radioactive Contamination
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) has read with concern the Sunday Post article which highlights the level of historic nuclear waste that was dumped into the seas, particularly defence related nuclear materials, which is of direct relevance given the recent issues in decontaminating the Dalgety Bay site in Fife. The Sunday Post reported on archive files they had uncovered which show more than 75,000 luminised radium dials were tipped into the Tay Estuary after the Second World War. The files released note, that from the 1950s onwards, radioactive waste from a Dundee radio valve plant was secretly dropped into the waters below the Forth Bridge, very close to the Dalgety Bay site in Fife.
Nuclear Free Local Authorities 11th Nov 2014 read more »
NDA
Highland councillors have raised no objections to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) plans to build an archive centre near Wick. The building would store information and records related to the Dounreay experimental nuclear power plant on the north Caithness coast near Thurso.
BBC 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Decommissioning
The bill for closing down and cleaning up the world’s ageing nuclear reactors will exceed $100bn over the next 25 years alone, the leading energy watchdog has said, warning that governments risk underestimating the cost. With almost 200 reactors due to be shut down by 2040, the International Energy Agency says in its annual report there are “considerable uncertainties” about decommissioning costs, reflecting governments’ limited experience in safely dismantling nuclear plants. In the last 40 years, only 10 reactors have been closed down.
FT 12th Nov 2014 read more »
World Energy Outlook
The World Nuclear Association (WNA) “shares the concern” of the International Energy Agency (IEA) that urgent action will be needed to steer the world’s energy system onto a safer, low-carbon path. In the 2014 edition of its World Energy Outlook (WEO) issued in London today, the IEA said that nuclear power is one of the few options available at scale to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while providing or displacing other forms of baseload generation. It has avoided the release of an estimated 56 gigatonnes of CO2 since 1971, or almost two years of total global emissions at current rates.
World Nuclear News 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Energy Costs
British households could benefit from a glut in global gas supplies, with bills falling despite a growing dependence on imported fuel, a study found. Many countries are building facilities for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) and Britain has ample capacity to import it at terminals in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, and the Isle of Grain, Kent. The report by the UK Energy Research Centre contradicts claims that Britain faces rising gas prices because of the decline in North Sea production.
Times 12th Nov 2014 read more »
Iran
Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom has signed an agreement with Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to strengthen their cooperation and for peaceful use of atomic energy in Iran.
Energy Business Review 12th Nov 2014 read more »
CNN 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Guardian 12th Nov 2014 read more »
FT 11th Nov 2014 read more »
As talks between Tehran and world powers near a 24 November deadline for an agreement over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, the fundamentalist media in Iran have ramped up their efforts to undermine negotiations and bolster their position on the domestic scene.
Guardian 11th Nov 2014 read more »
China
Natural Resources Canada has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the China National Energy Administration to advance civilian nuclear energy including development of advanced fuel reactors in the two countries and export to third markets.
Energy Business Review 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Nuclear War
Paranoid millionaires in the United States are being offered the opportunity to buy a flat in a luxury underground apartment building in which to see out a nuclear apocalypse in style. Called “Survival Condos,” the apartments in a former weapons silo at a secret location near Concordia in rural Kansas are on the market for between $1.5 million (£950,000) and $4.5 million (£2.8 million), and come complete with access to a swimming pool, bar, movie theatre and “hydroponic” vegetable garden.
Telegraph 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Renewables – Offshore Wind
A new report produced for RenewableUK reveals that consenting costs have increased significantly in recent years for offshore wind developers. Managing Regulatory and Consenting Costs for Offshore Wind looks at the different consenting costs for seven Round 1 and seven Round 2 projects as well as several later projects, and finds that between Round 1 and Round 2 of offshore wind development, average consenting costs went up 15% for each megawatt consented. The average cost of consenting each MW of Round 1 schemes was £15365.29 and at Round 2 was £17668.71. Concern is also raised about the fact that consenting costs per turbine have also increased, with this particularly notable in the post Round 2 schemes. Given that development costs have been quantified at £60 million for a 500MW wind farm, such an additional expense has an impact
RenewableUK 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Energy secretary Ed Davey has warned that the Conservative party’s opposition to onshore wind turbines risks undermining the creation of British jobs as new data showed 15,400 people are now employed in the wind power industry. The data from trade body RenewableUK shows a 70% rise in jobs in the wind power industry since 2010, while wind supplied 9% of all UK electricity. The industry attracted £2.6bn of investment in 2013-14, of which £1.1bn stayed in the UK. But Davey said that the Conservative party’s “ideological” opposition to onshore turbines was undermining new British jobs and driving up customer bills because wind is the cheapest clean energy.
Guardian 12th Nov 2014 read more »
Wind farm developers receive more than £115,000 in subsidy for every person they employ in the UK, new analysis shows. There are now a record 15,500 people directly employed in the onshore and offshore wind industries in the UK, according to a report released today by wind lobby group Renewable UK. But the bill for subsidies to wind farm owners is now estimated to be a record £1.8bn a year, according to industry critics the Renewable Energy Foundation – and has risen even faster than the number of “green jobs”.
Telegraph 12th Nov 2014 read more »
Fuel Poverty
One in three older people are worried about whether they’ll be able to afford to heat their homes this winter. A new report published today by Age UK outlines the shocking human cost and suffering the fuel poverty crisis is causing. Each winter, one older person dies every seven minutes from cold weather, and excess winter death rates and illness are highest among those living in the coldest homes. Yet with just under one million older people living in fuel poverty, many cannot afford to heat their homes to a sufficient temperature in order to keep warm and well, the charity warns.
Independent 12th Nov 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Ministers have “completely oversold” the potential of shale gas, energy experts say. Researchers from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) told the BBC promises of lower prices and greater energy security from UK shale gas were “hype” and “lacking in evidence”. UKERC, an academic consortium covering 30 institutions, has produced a report on the future of gas in the UK. The Treasury said the potential of shale gas was “too big to ignore”. The report authors said shale gas – a natural gas that can be drawn from rock through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – was so early in its infancy it was impossible to know how much could be extracted and at what cost.
BBC 12th Nov 2014 read more »
Guardian 12th Nov 2014 read more »
Telegraph 12th Nov 2014 read more »
Leading energy engineers from Glasgow University have called for regulations on fracking to be relaxed. In a new report, two academics said current limits on vibration are so strict that if applied elsewhere they would prevent buses driving past homes. They also said the risks of serious earthquakes were lower than feared. But critics said any relaxation would be deeply unpopular, and would suggest that shale gas firms’ interests were being put ahead of local communities.
BBC 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Plans are being drawn up to extract coal from under the Firth of Forth following a large discovery. Cluff Natural Resources (CNR) said a study has found as much as 335 million tonnes of coal near Kincardine and the company is now seeking permission to build the UK’s first deep offshore underground coal gasification (UCG) project to extract it. The amount of coal has been confirmed by an independent body and the project will create new posts and protect existing jobs in the area, Cluff said.
Edinburgh Evening News 11th Nov 2014 read more »
Daily Record 11th Nov 2014 read more »
