Companies
SCOTTISH & Southern Energy has confirmed that it is in the running to buy the electricity networks business of EDF, a deal likely to be worth more than £4 billion. Reporting bumper first-half profits, the Perth-based group indicated it might team up with infrastructure funds to buy the three electricity distribution networks, which deliver power to millions of customers in the south-east of England, including London.
Scotsman 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Nuclear Costs
Whether you think nuclear power is “clean” or not there are other considerations to be addressed before anyone starts building new nuclear reactors. Will new nuclear reactors and subsequent nuclear energy really be economical for the people who will be using and paying for it? Are new modern nuclear power plants really safe? Will building new power plants immediately bring more jobs to Americans or will it mean more money going abroad?
Green Borge 11th Nov 2009 more >>
Calls for the government to beef up financial support for the nuclear industry were growing this week as energy ministers announced plans to plough up to £9.5bn into clean coal.
Building 13th Nov 2009 more >>
PLANNING is not the only obstacle to a rebirth of nuclear power in Britain. The technology’s torturous economics are, if anything, even trickier. The trouble is that, whereas the fuel is cheap, nuclear-power plants themselves are very expensive to build and the pay-off from that investment is slow.
Economist 12th Nov 2009 more >>
New Nukes
NUCLEAR power is the only way to meet global demand for electricity, an academic claims. Professor Robert Cywinski, Dean of Applied Sciences at Huddersfield University, said: “ Nuclear Power is the only source of baseload electricity which is capable of both meeting global energy demands and truly mitigating against the risks of climate change.”
Huddersfield Examiner 12th Nov 2009 more >>
THE Department of Energy gave an assurance yesterday that building nuclear reactors on the country’s 10 listed sites is not a fait accompli.
Whitehaven News 11th Nov 2009 more >>
Planning
BRITAIN, and especially England, is occasionally compared to North Korea (only half-jokingly) as one of the most heavily centralised states in the world. Ed Miliband, the energy and climate-change secretary, delivered the first of the government’s “National Policy Statements” on infrastructure. These will inform the work of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), an independent body set up last month. Led by Sir Michael Pitt, a veteran planner and local-authority boss, it will take over responsibility for planning nationally important projects from March 2010. Decisions that used to take years will, in theory, take just months or even weeks, with public involvement drastically curtailed.
Economist 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Radioactive Waste
AN information leaflet about the subject of managing radioactive waste safely (MRWS) will be dropping through letterboxes of every household in West Cumbria in the weeks commencing November 16 and 23.
Whitehaven News 11th Nov 2009 more >>
Cumbria
3 Letters: The unholy trinity of State, Church and Industry in Cumbria is presenting new nuclear build in Cumbria as a fait accompli. This shows the true colours of the sham “public consultation” on new-build and geological disposal.
Whitehaven News 11th Nov 2009 more >>
Dungeness
Hundreds of potential jobs have been lost with Dungeness failing to be included in the Government short-list for new power stations.
Rye and Battle Observer 11th Nov 2009 more >>
The Prime Minster has today said that Dungeness in Kent could still play a part in the country’s future nuclear plans. His comments differ to the Government announcement on Monday when Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband ruled Dungeness out of plans for future nuclear plants.
Romney Marsh Times 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Heysham
UP to 3,000 jobs could be created in the construction of a new nuclear power plant at Heysham. A site adjacent to the existing reactors at the power station was one of ten deemed suitable by government ministers for new atomic plants in England.
Lancaster Guardian 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Hinkley
EDF was this week gearing up to put preparatory works worth several million pounds on its nuclear site in Somerset out to tender. Building understands the French power supplier was preparing to release invitations to tender for early works at Hinkley Point, where it hopes to build the first in a new set of nuclear power stations. The contract is understood to cover small pieces of work such as road widening and moving hedgerows. According to EDF’s procurement timetable, an earthworks package is also due to be tendered before the end of the year, but it is thought this is now likely to be pushed back to the first quarter of 2010. Sources said the slippage was unlikely to affect the construction timetable.
Building 13th Nov 2009 more >>
Oldbury
A NEW nuclear power station for Oldbury has won government backing. Energy secretary Ed Miliband announced this week that Oldbury was one of ten preferred sites selected for the continued generation of nuclear power. The news of a potential new nuclear power station in South Gloucestershire has raised concerns amongst local people. Steve Webb MP for Northavon said: “In its report the government said there is a flood risk at Oldbury but that it can be mitigated. But if you mitigate the flood risk on the new nuclear site what does that mean for land around it and where does the water go?
Gloucestershire Gazette 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Sizewell
Suffolk Coastal District Council is reiterating its calls on the Government to ensure that there is a real local say to ensure local issues are fully taken into account in any future planning process for a new nuclear power station at Sizewell.
Felixstowe TV 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Berkeley
UP to 130 jobs could go at Berkeley Power Station in the next year. Sean Sargent, the new site director for the Berkeley nuclear site, has announced that staffing levels at the plant, which currently stand at 230, will be reduced over the next 12 months.
Gloucestershire Gazette 12th Nov 2009 more >>
AP1000
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Toshiba Corp. next week to discuss the safety of its proposed AP1000 nuclear-reactor design. Toshiba’s Westinghouse unit will address the commission’s concern about the structural integrity of the silo-shaped shield building that would contain the reactor and trap radioactivity in an accident.
Bloomberg 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Nuclear and Carbon
Today the focus of the nuclear energy debate is centered squarely around argument CO2 emissions, but Ecologist science editor Peter Bunyard’s comments in 1979, on the nuclear industry’s reliance on fossil fuels and long term energy security, still hold true.
Ecologist 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Dounreay
Dounreay could become the UK’s first nuclear heritage site under plans by the company dismantling the complex.
BBC 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Nuclear Research
A SPECIALIST in nuclear science has signed up for new offices at Warrington’s Birchwood Park. National Nuclear Laboratory is moving into 17,000 sq ft premises in the recently-refurbished Chadwick House. A spin-off from the former British Nuclear Fuels, the company is relocating from Hinton House, also at Birchwood Park.
Manchester Evening News 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Nuclear Training/Subsidy
More than £4m has been awarded to Bridgwater College, Somerset, to launch a nuclear skills training centre. The new centre will provide specialist training in science, engineering and the building of nuclear power stations. The first project to use the centre is likely to be the proposed new twin unit power station at Hinkley Point, Hinkley Point C, located 14 miles away. About 4,000 workers of various skill levels are expected to be needed for the plant at Hinkley Point. The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the South West RDA have confirmed that they will be investing £2.25m and £2m respectively.
BBC 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Finland
More welding problems at the Olkiluoto EPR.
Greenpeace Nuclear Reaction 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Iran
IRAN’S recently revealed uranium enrichment hall is a highly fortified underground space that appears too small to house a civilian nuclear programme, but is large enough for military activities, diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency have said.
Scotsman 13th Nov 2009 more >>
France
The 2009 availability factor of France’s nuclear production fleet is expected to drop to around 78pc, 3pc lower than previously forecast. Recent unplanned outages on a number of EdF’s nuclear reactors as well as strike action earlier in the year has weighed this year’s availability factor down from 81pc still expected in July.
Argus Media 12th Nov 2009 more >>
Renewables
It will be physically impossible for the UK to meet its renewable energy targets in both the short and long term, according to a group of engineering experts. “Current predictions are that we will be unable to service the current plans for offshore windfarms by 2013 because we won’t have the construction vessels to do it and, by 2018, we’ll run out of manufacturing capacity,” said Tim Fox, lead author of the report and head of environment and climate change at the IMechE.
Guardian 13th Nov 2009 more >>
Peak Oil
A leading academic institute has urged European governments to review global oil supplies for themselves because of the “politicisation” of the International Energy Agency’s figures. Uppsala University in Sweden today published a scathing assessment of the IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook, saying some assumptions drastically underplayed the scale of future oil shortages.
Guardian 13th Nov 2009 more >>
