Wylfa
A Welsh delegation will be given a unique insight into the new nuclear build process when it visits Japan later this month. The visit is seen as a key opportunity to improve knowledge, understanding and strengthen working relationships with Horizon Nuclear Power, developer and operator of the proposed Wylfa Newydd, and its owners, Hitachi. Horizon and Hitachi have invited the delegation, which includes local politicians and senior officers from public sector organisations in Wales, as part of a learning visit to Japan. Anglesey’s Head of Economic and Community Regeneration, Dylan Williams; Anglesey Energy Island Programme Director, Dr John Idris Jones; and County Council Leader, Councillor Ieuan Williams, will be amongst the group.
News Wales 13th June 2014 read more »
Hunterston
EDF have scotched rumours that they wanted to bring radioactive waste from other parts of the country to Hunterston B. Local councillor, and depute leader of North Ayrshire Council, Alan Hill, had expressed alarm that the local nuclear power site could be used for waste from other stations such as Torness. The apparent confusion arose at the meeting of the Hunterston Stakeholders Group last Thursday when Councillor Hill heard of an application by the EDF company to gather up nuclear waste from various sites. He issued a press statement saying that he would fight any suggestion of “turning Hunterston into a nuclear waste dump.” However, in response to enquiries by the ‘News’ a spokesperson for EDF stated: “Hunterston B nuclear power station has no plans to become a waste storage facility for other EDF Energy sites. “This is a misinterpretation of the company’s request to SEPA. This change is purely a practical one to facilitate more flexible disposals by allowing waste to be collected temporarily at one site before being sent for disposal to an authorised facility.
Largs & Millport Gazette 13th June 2014 read more »
Trawsfynydd
A new visitor centre, cycling trail plus fishing and boating facilities to be launched today in Gwynedd to revive Llyn Trawsfynydd. A lake created to feed two power stations is being given a second lease of life as North Wales’ newest tourist destination. Llyn Trawsfynydd is the latest to share in the £4m Snowdonia Centre of Excellence scheme – part of the EU-backed Sustainable Tourism project – with a new visitor centre and café and 3km cycle trail plus fishing and boating facilities.
Daily Post 13th June 2014 read more »
Nuclear Skills
A ‘PLAN B’ site has been identified for a £7million centre for nuclear and low-carbon companies in Bridgwater. Somerset County Council has decided to purchase land on the Woodlands Business Park for the ‘Low Carbon Energy Innovation and Collaboration Centre’. The project, designed to capitalise on the nuclear power plant due to be built on land at Hinkley Point by EDF Energy, was due to be sited at the Bridgwater Gateway site.
This is the West Country 13th June 2014 read more »
France
A report by environmental activist group, Greenpeace, on the upgrades required for nuclear power plants in France, reveals renewable energy will be more financially competitive by 2020. As nuclear reactors are upgraded to meet new safety requirements in the aftermath of Fukushima, the maintenance of reactors for the next 40 years, is very expensive in comparison to renewables such as solar and wind, said Greenpeace. The report investigates the finance and economics of nuclear power in France and highlights economic risks and uncertainties. It concludes that short term nuclear is cheaper but long term renewables will be. Nuclear upgrades under new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) standards would push nuclear prices to €133 per MWh (US$180 MWh), with €4.4 billion (US$6.0 billion) of investment per reactor required.
PV Tech 13th June 2014 read more »
Czech Republic
The government will decide on a possible state support to the construction of new nuclear reactors on the basis of an analysis next year, after it discusses a new state energy strategy and a nuclear energy development plan, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said. The Industry and Trade Ministry is to draft the analysis by the end of this year.
Prague Post 12th June 2014 read more »
South Asia
The hoped-for peace process could turn to war—with huge implications for the United States—if militant actors in Pakistan attack India in hopes of provoking Modi to overreact. Something like this happened in 1999. Then, Pervez Musharraf and several colleagues in the Pakistan Army launched a clandestine incursion into the Kargil region of Kashmir, which triggered a limited, hard-fought war that India won, with diplomatic assistance from Bill Clinton. Today, the likely instigators would be the Pakistani Taliban or other militant groups who wish to divert the Pakistani state from cracking down on them.
Carnegie Endowment 3rd June 2014 read more »
Germany
Volkswagen car engines purr in the basement of German green power company Lichtblick’s test site in a church across the street from Berlin’s Jewish Museum. The VW motors sit inside metal boxes adorned with meters, including one reading “how much CO2 you’ve not released by using this unit.” It’s not the VW engines that are special – but the software that manipulates them from afar. Lichtblick’s adoption of CHP generators is not unique – CHP units have long been used in industry and niche operations like university campuses. But Lichtblick’s idea to partner with Germany’s most popular carmaker, and then heavily market the boilers’ green credentials at organic farmers markets nationwide, has made it the most recognisable mini-CHP option in the country. Like much larger CHP systems, Lichtblick’s engines burn natural gas to create electricity. The waste heat from the engines is captured and used to warm water. By capturing excess heat – rather than simply releasing it through smokestacks into the environment, as do nuclear, coal, or natural gas plants – the system achieves 90% efficiency (as opposed to about 30-40% efficiency for large-scale power plants). Lichtblick installed the first 1,000 VW units free of charge in commercial and residential dwellings in 2010. When gifting sceptical Germans new boilers wasn’t enough, the company sweetened the deal by giving users a small cut of any electricity generated in their basements.
Guardian 13th June 2014 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
A controversial agreement which allows nuclear weapons technology to be shared between the United States of America and the United Kingdom undermines global non-proliferation efforts and should be reformed to make it relevant to work aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, according to a new report from Nuclear Information Service.
NIS 12th June 2014 read more »
Campaigners in Stoke Newington are making a bid to combat deadly nuclear weapons by knitting wool. A group of nimble-fingered Stoke Newington knitters have joined a national campaign to make a seven-mile long pink scarf in protest at the £100 billion plan to replace the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system.
Hackney Gazette 13th June 2014 read more »
A group of around thirty people have this morning used cars to block all entrances to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Burghfield, Berkshire. Beginning just before 7.00am, they locked themselves to the cars and to each other. The base is now at a standstill, with no traffic entering the site through any entrance.
Action AWE 9th June 2014 read more »
Only dumb luck saved America from a nightmare scenario in January 1961 when an Air Force B-52 carrying two nuclear bombs broke apart in flight dropping the weapons on farmland near the city of Goldsboro in North Carolina.
Independent 13th June 2014 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News; solar-powered trains; cumbrian solar school competition; solar hospitals in West Midlands and more.
Microgen Scotland 13th June 2014 read more »
On the roofs of houses in the village of Penshaw near Sunderland, what look like dark glass windows shimmer against the skyline. They are PV solar panels. Kevin Garrett, who has lived in social housing in the area for the past four years, had them installed on his property in 2012. He also had solid wall insulation put in, and in just two years his energy bill has been slashed by more than half. During the day, his family benefit from free power. More than 27,000 panels have been fitted onto 2,000 homes in Sunderland owned by the social housing provider Gentoo Group. A new £10.1m deal has been struck with a pension investor allowing up to 3,000 more homes to benefit. A social enterprise, Empower Community, helped to secure the investment. Managing partner Alex Grayson says the investment will be paid back over the next two decades with money made from selling energy back to the grid through the government’s feed-in tariff scheme. Any profit is then split between Gentoo and the community, and used to fund projects such as running a eco-friendly village hall or operating a local food co-operative.
Guardian 13th June 2014 read more »
Energy Efficiency
The UK is wasting almost €300 million on its annual energy bills, according to research by energy management software company Opower. The study revealed that there is a potential for €297,327,508 to be cut from annual consumer energy bills through the adoption of better behavioural energy efficiency. This would help cut the UK’s energy consumption by up to 2.1TWh of electricity and gas per year, and cutting carbon emissions by 647,839 tonnes of CO2.
Utility Week 13th June 2014 read more »
