Radwaste
The Government is clearing the way for west Cumbria to again bid to host an underground nuclear dump. Just seven months after senior councillors quashed contentious plans, the area is to be given a second chance to revive the project, the News & Star can reveal. The Department for Energy and Climate Change is expected to announce tomorrow the launch of a new national consultation process. The News & Star understands that any area interested in putting its name forward can do so – meaning that Copeland and Allerdale councils can once again look into the possibility.
Carlisle News & Star 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Cumbria could once again be considered as a site for an underground nuclear waste store. The Government has confirmed it will launch a new process tomorrow to try to find a suitable location. In January, amid protests by those for and against the idea, Cumbria county councillors decided not to go any further with the search. However the two borough councils in west Cumbria had supported the idea and it is believed they could once again put their areas forward for consideration.
Border TV 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Responding to the announcement by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (Sept 12th) that a new consultation is being launched on nuclear waste, W Cumbria & N Lakes Friends of the Earth nuclear issues campaigner Dr Ruth Balogh said ‘This is the government’s last chance. Nuclear waste policy has been a catalogue of mistakes from the moment the government belatedly woke up to the fact that they needed to take this problem seriously. Time after time government policies have been out of touch with reality and have ended in failure. There have been two attempts to create a deep underground facility in West Cumbria, one in the 1990s by Nirex, and the more recent MRWS which collapsed in January this year. We very much hope that this consultation will place responsibility for nuclear waste policy where it correctly lies – with the nation. Existing nuclear sites – such as Sellafield – were seen as more likely to ‘volunteer’ to host a dump, but the best site must be selected from those with suitable geology.
FoE 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Liberal Democrats
Andy Atkins: For a fleeting moment in May 2010 there was genuine optimism that the environment might be put at the heart of Britain’s political agenda. With a coalition of Liberal Democrats, praised by many, including Friends of the Earth, for their manifesto’s prioritisation of environmental issues, joining forces with a ‘vote blue, go green’ Tory party, fresh from championing the Climate Change Act, it looked as if yellow and blue really could produce green. But three and a half years later Cameron’s pledge to lead the “greenest Government ever” now seems little more than a cynical sound bite. Perhaps less expected is the extent to which Liberal Democratic Ministers seem to be going along with the scuppering of this once flag ship commitment. Of course there’s some merit in the view that things would have been worse without the Lib Dems. Agreeing the fourth carbon budget – setting 2027 emission-cutting targets – and securing short-term cash for renewable projects, owe much to Lib Dem pressure. But faced with coalition partners prepared to ditch their environmental credentials as a sop to an increasingly vocal right wing it’s clear Lib Dems aren’t fighting nearly hard enough to hold the green line. Voting against a 2030 Energy Bill decarbonisation target – against party policy and provoking the largest back-bench rebellion since tuition fees – was a notable low point. Sunday is environment day, and green growth and jobs motion is chock-a-block with eco-promises. But lurking within are two very ungreen proposals: support for fracking and nuclear power. Sunday is environment day, and green growth and jobs motion is chock-a-block with eco-promises. But lurking within are two very ungreen proposals: support for fracking and nuclear power.
Liberal Democrat Voice 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Sellafield
The revelation that an executive at Sellafield operator Nuclear Management Partners expensed £714 for a taxi-ride for himself “and the cat” continues to set the atomic kitten among the pigeons. The latest critic to give the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority paws for thought as it considers whether to extend NMP’s lucrative contract to run Sellafield when it comes up for renewal at the end of the month is the Labour MP Paul Flynn. Given that NMP paid £6.6m in bonuses over the last three years, as Sellafield’s costs spiralled to £67bn, Flynn argues the consortium doesn’t deserve its performance-related cut of its £1.6bn annual budget from the Government. In fact, he reckons NMP, whose top-tier execs were discovered to have claimed £2,795 for flights to the US Masters golf tournament and £2,316 for a computer, alongside the cab for the cat, should be replaced with a “competent management team”. Miaow.
Telegraph 12th Sept 2013 read more »
Sizewell
Work to remove more than 1,000 tonnes of asbestos from the redundant Sizewell A nuclear power station is expected to start next year. The asbestos will become what Magnox Limited, the site operator, describes as the plant’s “most significant hazard” following the completion of the removal of highly radioactive spent fuel rods from the site. Magnox is currently assessing the likely cost of the asbestos removal prior to a bid to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority for funding.
East Anglian Daily Times 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Nuclear Safety
It is a function of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to make such arrangements as it considers appropriate for the carrying out of safety-related research. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HASWA74), Section 11, places a duty on HSE to make appropriate arrangements for carrying out research and to encourage research by others. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), as an agency of the HSE, performs the function of making such arrangements for nuclear related research associated with the UK nuclear industry. In 2012, ONR undertook to publish an integrated statement of Nuclear Research Needs (NRN) to identify the requirements for nuclear related research across the whole of ONR’s regulatory remit. This was partly in response to a review and report on nuclear research and development capabilities produced in 2011 by the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. The 2013 NRN contains a contribution from the environment agencies and we continue to work with them, and DNSR, to explore the possibility of publishing a comprehensive regulators statement of nuclear research needs in 2014.
ONR 11th Sept 2013 read more »
The IAEA Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) is intended to assist Member States to enhance the organisation and performance of national nuclear regulatory bodies. IRRS is a peer review service conducted by a team of international experts with experience directly relevant to the areas of evaluation. The team concentrates on key areas of regulatory activity identified within IAEA safety standards to assess the effectiveness of the regulatory body. The review is not an inspection to determine compliance with national legislation, but is more an objective comparison of national nuclear regulation with international guidelines.
ONR 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Energy Policy
The UK faces multiple challenges in securing future energy sources that are reliable, affordable and clean. The coming months will be crucial to determining solutions. Soaring domestic bills and millions living in fuel poverty. Protestors chaining themselves to the gates of the first new indigenous source of fossil fuel since the North Sea oil discoveries. Warnings of power blackouts within three to five years from the government’s top energy official and energy company bosses. An ageing fleet of nuclear power stations and a damaging stand-off over the site of the only new reactor yet in planning. A dearth of investment in crucial infrastructure. The UK’s energy sector has not faced such an extraordinary combination of dire problems since the crises of the 1970s – and even then help was on the horizon in the form of North Sea oil and gas. Policy interventions by government will be vital to solving the multiple looming difficulties and encouraging the massive investment needed from the private sector. But time is running out. The UK’s remaining coal-fired power stations are having to reduce their hours of operation – under European Union regulations on pollution – so replacing that capacity is a matter of urgency.
Guardian 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Japan
Across much of Fukushima’s rolling green countryside they descend on homes like antibodies around a virus; men wielding low-tech tools against a very modern enemy, radiation. Power hoses, shovels and mechanical diggers are used to scour toxins that rained down from the sky 30 months ago. The job is exhausting, expensive, and – some say – doomed to failure. Nobody knows for certain how dangerous the radiation is. Japan’s central government refined its policy in December 2011, defining evacuation zones as “areas where cumulative dose levels might reach 20 millisieverts per year [20 mSv/yr],” the typical worldwide limit for nuclear power plant engineers and other radiation workers. The worst radiation is supposed to be confined to the 20km exclusion zone, but it spread unevenly: less than 5km north of the Daiichi plant, our Geiger counter shows less than 5 millisieverts a year; 40km north west, in parts of Iitate village, it is well over 120 millisieverts. The 160,000 refugees have not returned and are scattered throughout Japan. The nuclear diaspora is swelled by thousands of voluntary refugees. The Fukushima clean-up, however, faces another, perhaps insurmountable, problem: securing sites to store contaminated soil, leaves and sludge. Many landowners baulk at hosting “interim” dumps – in principle for three years – until the central government builds a mid-term storage facility. Local governments throughout Japan have refused to accept the toxic waste, meaning it will probably stay in Fukushima for good. The waste is stored under blue tarpaulins across much of the prefecture, sometimes close to schools and homes.
Independent 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Radioactive substances decay at different rates. For instance, the half life of iodine-131 – the time for radiactivity to diminish by 50 per cent – is relatively short, just eight days, which means that it has now disappeared, and so no longer the concern it once was when the crisis first erupted in March 2011. Strontium-90, however, has a half-life of 30 years and this probably accounts for a substantial portion of the beta-radiation being found at the site. The half lives of the caesium isotopes vary widely, from two years in the case of caesium-134 to 30 years in the case of caesium-137. The risk of radioactive caesium being taken up by fish in the ocean is the main reason why fishing was banned.
Independent 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Japan is to formally complain about a cartoon that appeared in a French weekly newspaper showing sumo wrestlers with extra limbs in front of the Fukushima nuclear plant and linking this to the Olympics, the top government spokesman said on Sept. 12.
Asahi Shimbun 12th Sept 2013 read more »
Germany
The leader of Germany’s Social Democrats, Peer Steinbrück, looks set for defeat in Germany’s elections in September. But with a flurry of electioneering around energy policy, Angela Merkel’s primary challenger has been successful in changing the tone of the election campaign.Throughout much of this election campaign, now in its final fortnight, energy policy was a peripheral issue at best. That changed when Steinbrück’s Social Democrats (SPD) pushed energy to the fore of the debate. The party’s proposals, and opponents’ reactions, for Germany’s Energiewende or energy transformation will set the agenda for the crucial months after the election on 22 September. It started in a press conference last month when Steinbrück presented his ” 10-point plan for a successful energy transition”. Its boldest proposals – and subsequent media coverage – centre on one issue: rising electricity costs. To reduce consumer costs, Steinbrück proposes cutting the electricity tax and introducing legislation to force down consumer energy tariffs. Steinbrück touched a nerve. While Germany’s plan to shift to renewable energy enjoys overwhelming public support, there is also growing concern about its cost. Steinbrück also knows energy is a weakness for his party. Largely due to long-standing links with the coal mining industry, only 11 per cent said the SPD is the best party to manage the Energiewende in a recent poll. Focusing on reducing electricity bills could play to the SPD’s advantage: the same poll showed affordability of electricity to be the energy issue which most concerns the public, some way ahead of phasing out coal.
Carbon Brief 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Germany is committing slow economic suicide. It has staked its future on heavy industry and manufacturing, yet has no energy policy to back this up. Instead, the country has a ruinously expensive green dream, priced at €700bn (£590bn) from now until the late 2030s by environment minister Peter Altmaier if costs are slashed – and €1 trillion if they are not. The Germans are surely the most romantic nation on earth. The full implications of this may become clear over the next decade, just as Germany’s ageing crisis hits with maximum force and its engineers retire; and just as German voters discover – what they suspect already – that it costs real money to hold a half-baked euro together.
Telegraph 11th Sept 2013 read more »
South Africa
The country’s proposed nuclear expansion project will not happen in the near future, according to Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba. It would be “foolhardy” to rush into building the new nuclear fleet before all of the concerns, including safety, had been ironed out, he said yesterday. And contrary to some reports, South Africa had not signed an agreement with any country regarding nuclear procurement.
IOL,ca.za 11th Sept 2013 read more »
North Korea
A recent satellite image appears to show North Korea has restarted a plutonium reactor, a US research institute has said. The five megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear facility was shuttered in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement. North Korea announced plans in April to restart it amid a litany of threats toward the US and South Korea over nuclear and rocket tests. But it has since toned down its rhetoric and stepped up diplomacy with rival South Korea.
Sky News 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Reuters 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Telegraph 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Iran
The US has warned of “troubling developments” in Iran’s nuclear ambitions and called on the country’s new leader to prove to the world he does not want the bomb. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who was elected in June, has vowed to smooth Tehran’s relations with world leaders to cut international sanctions imposed over its atomic activities. But Western envoys at the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran was still refusing to comply with UN Security Council and IAEA resolutions demanding it suspend key parts of its nuclear programme.
Sky News 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Russian President Vladimir Putin could be about to offer missile systems and a second nuclear reactor to Iran by renewing an old deal. The offer will reportedly be put to President Hassan Rowhani, the new Iranian premier, when the two meet for the first time on Friday. If it goes ahead Iran will be supplied with five advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles, capable of taking down aircraft or guided missiles, valued at $800million (£500million).
Daily Mail 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Renewables
Renewable energy becoming more cost-competitive with fossil fuels isn’t news – as technology improves and more clean power generation comes online, electricity without emissions gets cheaper. But one new analysis reveals just how shockingly cheap it’s gotten. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from wind and solar sources in America has fallen by more than 50% over the past four years, according to Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis 7.0, recently released by global financial advisor and asset manager firm Lazard Freres & Co.
Clean Technica 11th Sept 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Letters: Balcombe residents’ experience of poor fracking regulation, Tim Stone’s perception of UK regulation of shale and oil and gas extraction is very much at odds with our experience here in Balcombe. It was Friends of the Earth who forced the Environment Agency to consider the need for mining and radioactive waste licences, and pointed out the ambiguous legal position of the horizontal well. As a result, Cuadrilla must now reapply for full planning permission to test its well. The Environment Agency has issued flaring permits for emission of air pollutants over the populace of Balcombe, but without publishing emissions limits.
Guardian 11th Sept 2013 read more »
David Lowry: The article by Dr Tim Stone arguing that the environmental impacts of fracking can be overcome comes to a similar conclusion as did David Cameron in an article last month (in the Daily Telegraph). As a KPMG consultant, Dr Stone developed the most fiendishly opaque system to try to ensure advance payment for nuclear waste management from nuclear operators, but the bottom line remains that the taxpayer will pay the extra costs if the cap on costs is exceeded. Despite knowing a lot about radioactive contamination, Dr Stone’s new co-authored study on fracking looks only at impacts of so-called fugitive greenhouse gas emissions, with barely fleeting mention of other environmental impacts, including radioactive contamination. Public Health England [formerly the Health Protection Agency] is preparing a report identifying potential public health issues and concerns, including radon (release/emissions) that might be associated with aspects of hydraulic fracturing, also referred to as fracking. The report was due out for public consultation in the summer. PHE has told me it now does not expect its report to see the light before the end of the year, which is hugely disappointing considering its prospective importance to the public debate.
Guardian 11th Sept 2013 read more »
