Horizon
Hitachi is purveying a reactor design built before but not entered into the process of Generic Design Assessment (GDA). Hitachi are not proposing to invest any money in any new power stations (and nor are General Electric). What they have essentially done is to purchase a captured option for one, possibly two new power stations guaranteed to use the Hitachi Boiling Water reactor, if they get built. In short, it’s a flyer on the possibility of a new build, whereupon the £700 million will be recouped. If there is no build, then it probably won’t cost Hitachi £700 million anyway. So how are the new power stations going to get built with their gleaming new Hitachi reactors in place? Why they will look out for investors, of course, of which there are none right now.
Alan Whitehead 13th Nov 2012 more >>
New Nukes
The government could reduce the costs and boost the economic benefits associated with its nuclear build programme by following a "fleet approach" based on a single reactor technology. That is the conclusion of a major new report from consultancy PwC, commissioned by nuclear engineering giant Areva, which argues the certainty created by approving between four and eight new reactors based on a single technology would significantly reduce the project’s reliance on imported technologies and expertise.
Business Green 14th Nov 2012 more >>
PWC 14th Nov 2012 more >>
Nuclear Engineering International 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Energy Bill
The 10 Energy Bill questions that still need answering.
Business Green 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Sellafield
Sellafield has selected Amec, Hertel (UK) and Shepley Engineers as its preferred partners to deliver work packages worth a potential £280m at the nuclear complex in West Cumbria. The Multi Discipline Site Works (MDSW) framework updates an existing arrangement governing how a range of maintenance jobs and tasks, asset care projects and asset restoration projects are delivered across the Sellafield site.
Builder & Engineer 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Public Sector Construction 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Sizewell
Later this month detailed proposals by EDF Energy to build a twin-reactor Sizewell C nuclear power station are due to be put before the public and local authorities for comment. There is plenty at stake. For the application which goes to the Planning Inspectorate next year will, if approved, have a huge impact on life in east Suffolk for generations. The workforce at Sizewell C would peak at nearly 6,000 during the construction period and 700 staff would be needed to run the power station when completed. Dozens of contracts would be placed with local firms. But a go-ahead for the nuclear plant would also bring thousands more vehicles on to the road network, many of them heavy lorries carrying aggregates and other cargoes to the coastal site.
East Anglian Daily Times 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Politics
Our undercover investigation has revealed a militant group of Conservative MPs trying to strangle investment in clean, renewable energy.Right now plans are being drawn up that could see dozens of new dirty gas power stations built in the UK. If their plans go ahead, it risks decades of carbon emissions and losing thousands of new green jobs.
Greenpeace 13th Nov 2012 more >>
The Conservative MP running the party’s byelection bid in Corby has been secretly filmed apparently supporting the campaign of a rival candidate. Chris Heaton-Harris, who is campaign manager for the Tories in Corby, was recorded saying he encouraged an anti-wind farm candidate to join the election race against the Tories, adding: "Please don’t tell anybody ever." The footage, covertly recorded by the environmental group Greenpeace, captures the MP saying the independent anti-wind farm candidate, James Delingpole, had announced his candidacy as part of a "plan" to "cause some hassle" and drive the wind issue up the political agenda. John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director, claimed that their investigation revealed "how Britain’s energy future is at risk of being hijacked by a militant faction of climate-sceptic and anti-wind MPs on the radical right of the parliamentary Conservative party".
Guardian 13th Nov 2012 more >>
FT 13th Nov 2012 more >>
A Conservative minister last night defied Liberal Democrat Energy secretary Ed Davey to insist no more onshore wind farms would be built beyond those already planned. Energy Minister John Hayes said it was “job done” in terms of the number of onshore wind farms required to hit European Union renewable energy targets. The comments will delight Tory grassroots supporters who have been fighting what they call the blight of onshore wind farms imposed on communities. But they will infuriate the Liberal Democrat Energy secretary Ed Davey who slapped down Mr Hayes after similar comments last month and has deliberately left the door open for more wind farms.
Telegraph 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Energy Policy
The Global Energy Assessment (GEA) seeks to examine: the major global challenges and their linkages to energy; the technologies and resources available for providing energy services; future energy systems that address the major challenges; and the policies and other measures to realize sustainable energy futures.
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Two separate and coincidentally-timed interventions this morning show that energy companies are divided over plans to decarbonise the UK’s power sector by 2030. Centrica and RWE Npower confirmed their opposition to a carbon intensity target set at 50 grammes per megawatt-hour, whilst EDF Energy and the other companies that make up the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group came out in favour. It’s not difficult to imagine why one energy company might support decarbonisation and another might oppose it. Each utility has a different infrastructure portfolio and each has a different programme of investment planned; it’s easy to assume that companies with lots of coal and gas on their books are lining up against those with a predominantly low-carbon portfolio. But is it really that simple? A report by Bloomberg’s new energy finance looked at the data on this – up until 2011. Their findings suggest a clear correlation between a utility’s portfolio and its stance on decarbonisatiom.
Energy Desk 12th Nov 2012 more >>
World Outlook
Ambitions for nuclear have been scaled back as countries have reviewed policies following the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, but capacity is still projected to rise, led by China, Korea, India and Russia, according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2012 report.
Nuclear Engineering International 13th Nov 2012 more >>
By 2017 in the absence of any climate agreement the energy infrastructure currently being built would lock the world into an emissions path that would exceed the 2 degrees threshold.
Independent 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Japan
Tokyo Electric Power Co sees no imminent resumption of operations at the world’s biggest nuclear plant, shut down after last year’s Fukushima disaster, further raising its costs as it spends more on fossil fuels to generate electricity.A wall to protect the 8,212-megawatt Kashiwazaki-Kariwa station’s seven reactors against tsunamis will not be finished until June next year, said Shiro Arai, deputy site manager.
Reuters 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Fukushima crisis update 9th to 12th Nov.
Greenpeace 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Finland
The tax authorities’ audit of number three reactor at the Olkiluoto construction site has found 304 companies with operations in Finland the tax registers do not have any information about.
Ussi Suomi 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Finnish nickel miner Talvivaara said on Friday it was still trying to fix a waste water leak at its mine in Sotkamo, eastern Finland, which resulted in high levels of uranium in nearby waters.
Reuters 9th Nov 2012 more >>
India
India’s anti-nuclear protests demonstrate the challenge of reforming energy supply while most citizens still depend on land and water for their livelihoods.
China Dialogie 13th Nov 2012 more >>
South Korea
South Korea’s government should resume publishing polls on nuclear safety after a loss of public confidence in the sector in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, an opposition South Korean lawmaker said on Tuesday.The call came as South Korea, whose public is traditionally seen as pro-nuclear, investigated fake safety documents for parts used in nuclear plants led to two of the country’s 23 reactors being shut down last week and has raised the prospect of power shortages in the harsh Korean winter.
Reuters 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Royal Navy officer facing jail for trying to betray his country. Edward Devenney, 30, offered sensitive military information to two men he believed to be Russian spies. The petty officer boasted that he had secret details of the movements of nuclear submarines and the workings of a device used to encrypt coded messages. But the pair were really British agents who were covertly recording the meeting – and Devenney, who had vowed to ‘hurt’ the Navy after a promotion was scrapped due to budget cuts, was arrested soon afterwards.
Daily Mail 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Evening Standard 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Gas & Renewables
Eon, Germany’s biggest utility by sales, has ditched its profit target for 2013 after warning that its gas-fired power stations have become "barely profitable to operate" because of weak economic conditions and a surge in renewable energy in Europe. German power companies are struggling to adapt to the government’s decision to phase out nuclear power generation by 2022, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, and to boost renewable energy generation. Now the eurozone crisis and the region’s economic slowdown appear to be compounding their problems. Germany’s energy reforms have seen a flood of subsidised electricity produced by wind and solar power plants drive down wholesale prices during times of peak demand, eroding the profitability of gas-fired power plants in particular. Mr Teyssen said operating margins at some gas plants were so low they could not cover recurring costs, let alone the cost of capital. With renewable energy enjoying priority access to the grid, one gas-fired plant had run only nine days this year.
FT 13th Nov 2012 more >>
Eon has been outmanoeuvred by the rise of renewable energy. Moody’s Investors Service estimates that 35 per cent of Europe’s installed capacity comes from renewable sources such as solar and wind generation. That could reach 50 per cent by 2020. Add a decline in electricity demand caused by the recession, and Europe has too much electricity. Prices and spreads have shrunk. Credit Suisse estimates that the rise of renewables in Europ e’s five big energy markets – Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain – has reduced utilities’ earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 10bn euros a year.
FT 14th Nov 2012 more >>
Fuel Poverty
2,700 Britons die every year through not being able to afford to heat their homes – and around 7.8m people can’t afford their fuel bills. So the reports we have published this week, of allegations from insiders that market prices for gas have been repeatedly manipulated, are extremely serious. This is not just about a few miscreants; this is an entire system that is now under scrutiny. It is long past time that the big six firms were broken up.
Guardian 13th Nov 2012 more >>
