National Policy Statements
Energy minister Charles Hendry confirmed today that a national policy statement (NPS) confirming the eight identified sites for new nuclear power stations will be published before the parliamentary recess in July. The publication before summer is seen as vital for allowing progress on the planned nuclear power station at Hinkley in Somerset, for which the developers EDF intend to submit a planning application in October. Any application will not be able to be considered until after publication of the nuclear NPS. Hendry said the Energy National Policy Statements will be laid before Parliament by mid-July. He said: We want to see new nuclear as part of a low carbon energy mix going forward, provided there is no public subsidy. We are close to finalising the NPSs and will publish them very shortly, so that they can be put to MPs for approval before the Parliamentary recess.
Building 14th June 2011 more >>
Two and a half years have passed and yet we still do not have a single finalised (‘designated’) National Policy Statement. To create the best conditions to encourage the renewal of the infrastructure that the country needs, the government should designate the NPSs as soon as possible.
Bircham Dyson Bell 14th June 2011 more >>
Hinkley
Later today, there is a seminar in the House of Commons on the future of nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster. the Italian public yesterday voted against new nuclear builds, here though, the leader of Somerset CC tells Victoria McManus why a third reactor is vital for the area. Ken Maddock is a pragmatist. The leader of the Conservative-led Somerset County Council moved swiftly last autumn to rubber-stamp £43m of cuts to Somersets budget two months before the government had released any figures, prompting criticism that he was perhaps being too hasty. But Somerset has suffered in the recession and he believes that making cuts fast and getting it over with quickly will create the right conditions sooner for business in the county to flourish. He is also pinning his hopes on the construction of a third nuclear reactor at Hinkley, which would create thousands of jobs.
LGIU Blog 14th June 2011 more >>
A decision on whether a new power line across the North Somerset countryside will be buried underground will not be made until later this year. National Grid wants to put up a 400,000-volt overhead line from Avonmouth to Hinkley Point to bring electricity onto its transmission network. But a decision on which route will be chosen will not be made until National Grid completes its a review on its policy of putting new power lines underground. The review is being carried out at the moment and the consultation period is due to finish on July 4.
Western Daily Press 14th June 2011 more >>
Scotland
Patrick Harvie MSP today welcomed the overwhelming rejection of nuclear power by Italian voters yesterday, following The decision last month by the German government to close their older nuclear reactors. The Greens believe Scotland can move to 100% renewable electricity generation by 2020, if not before, and today urged MSPs from other parties to back calls to close this country’s two remaining nuclear power stations by 2020 at the latest.
Scottish Greens 14th June 2011 more >>
Letter: Nuclear power is dangerous and the waste from it, even if the plants never blow up, will be dangerous for thousands of years. At least the Germans have seen the light and will decommission their reactors as they come to the end of their lives. The Scottish Government is quite right to say we will not have any new ones here and I trust the other parties will follow that line, if and when they get into power. The other side of the pro-nuclear argument is that renewables are not reliable enough but people only think of windmills. The main future for renewables is in wave and tidal power but they take time effort and money to get right; once they are brought up to speed we will wonder how we ever did without them. Hydrogen is easily made from electricity and water and produces no greenhouse gasses when burned. If the windfarm companies set up a hydrogen production plant, that was also an electricity generating station, hydrogen could be manufactured, stored and used as fuel for the generator which would start up when the wind dropped. There are no downsides. It would be cheaper to run than coal, gas or oil as the fuel is a byproduct that can be made using spare renewable capacity.
Herald 15th June 2011 more >>
Letter: Trevor Rigg says nuclear power has no future. I disagree. It is the only energy that will outlast human existence. Life has always been, and will continue to be, dependent on that great nuclear generator in the sky, the sun. Terrestrial renewable power will have to be generated on a scale far larger than anything we have seen so far. We will need to build not only windfarms but also entire self-contained power systems for which there will be no fossil fuel back up. It is wrong to say that wind energy needs 100% non-renewable backup, for wind is an inevitable consequence of solar heat. The wind is always blowing somewhere. Of course, there can be local shortages so systems will have to be big enough to allow energy exchange between regions.
Herald 15th June 2011 more >>
MOD Plods
PROPOSED cuts to the Ministry of Defence police force would not have a direct impact on the safety of Sellafield or Barrow shipyard. Around 1,000 jobs are thought to be under threat in the force which deals with sites that hold nuclear weapons or nuclear material. The MoD police force has around 3,600 officers across the country and is the only force to deploy nationwide. While no officers are based at the Sellafield site or in BAE Systems Barrow yard, the force could be deployed if there was a major incident. A spokesman for the Defence Police Federation, voiced concerns that cuts to the force could leave high-security sites, including BAE and Sellafield, at risk. He said: The Defence Police Federations position has always been everybody has to be more efficient, but at the same time, its got to be properly considered.
NW Evening Mail 14th June 2011 more >>
Companies
Shares in French state-controlled nuclear reactor maker Areva drop 3.7 percent to a seven-year low after Italians, influenced by Japan’s Fukushima nuclear crisis, vote to block a nuclear power revival in a referendum.
Reuters 14th June 2011 more >>
Japan
Seventy-four percent of voters support abolishing nuclear power after a phase-out period, compared with 14 percent opposed, an Asahi Shimbun survey found. According to the nationwide telephone survey on June 11 and 12, 37 percent support nuclear power generation, while 42 percent are opposed. Even among those who support nuclear power generation, more than 60 percent support phasing out nuclear power generation and abolishing it at a later date.
Asahi 15th June 2011 more >>
AFP 14th June 2011 more >>
Reuters 14th June 2011 more >>
Industry minister Banri Kaieda pledged at a government panel meeting earlier this month to do his utmost to enable idled nuclear reactors to resume operation, noting that nuclear power will remain a core energy source for Japans electric power generation, according to the undisclosed minutes of the meeting obtained by Kyodo News on Tuesday. The pledge apparently reflected a backlash by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry against Prime Minister Naoto Kans plan to develop energy-saving measures and renewable energy into a pillar of the nations energy policy, government watchers said.
Japan Today 15th June 2011 more >>
Fukushima reactor 1 radiation levels spike to 261,000,000 microsieverts per hour, so high it is 100% lethal in less than 2 minutes, and just short of Chernobyl reactor levels. This is a sign of pretty consistent criticality in the reactor.
Peak Oil 14th June 2011 more >>
More than three months after the Fukushima nuclear plant was hit by a quake and tsunami that triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, Japanese officials are still struggling to understand where and how radiation released in the accident created far-flung “hotspots” of contamination. The uncertainty itself is proving a strain.
Reuters 14th June 2011 more >>
Japan’s government has approved a plan to help the owners of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant provide trillions of yen in compensation, but political manoeuvring could delay payments to tens of thousands of victims of the country’s nuclear crisis. The cabinet’s approval of the scheme on Tuesday came after the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco], said a further six workers had exceeded the annual legal dose of radiation, underlining the risks they face as they struggle to stabilise overheating nuclear reactors by early next year.
Guardian 14th June 2011 more >>
Six more employees of Tokyo Electric Power Co. working at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant were exposed to more radiation than allowed even under the relaxed limits put in place to deal with the critical accident. In addition, 102 workers have been exposed to more radiation than allowed for nuclear power plant workers. Such workers are subsequently prohibited from working at nuclear power plants for up to five years under normal circumstances. If more workers are discovered to have exceeded radiation exposure levels, TEPCO may face a serious shortage of workers even while the situation at the Fukushima plant is far from under control.
Asahi 15th June 2011 more >>
The Japanese government is frantically trying to prevent Tokyo Electric Power becoming the latest victim of the devastating tsunami and earthquake as mounting costs raise questions over its ability to survive. Tepco, which is buckling under increasing levels of debt, is expected to face thousands of billions of yen in compensation and decommissioning costs related to the meltdowns at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant sparked by the natural disasters. However, the banking industry has come down hard on Tepco, rejecting the notion put forward by Tokyo that they forgive the utilitys mounting debt. Critics suggest that the governments rescue scheme approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday is unravelling and Tokyo will have a difficult time winning Diet approval for measures that are needed to keep the utility from collapsing.
FT 15th June 2011 more >>
Europe
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has made an impassioned appeal for nuclear energy to remain part of Europe’s energy mix. Speaking at a Brussels conference on Tuesday, Sarkozy said that while it was right to consider alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar, nuclear should remain an option. His comments come in the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan earlier this year and Germany’s recent decision to phase out its nuclear reactors.
The Parliament 14th June 2011 more >>
US
Republicans in Congress demanded the resignation of the head of America’s nuclear agency on Tuesday after it emerged he acted improperly in stopping work on a controversial nuclear waste dump. Gregory Jaczko, who was appointed by Barack Obama to oversee safety at America’s 100 nuclear reactors, had unilaterally shut down preparatory work on the Yucca Mountain project, Hubert Bell, the inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said in prepared testimony. Jaczko, who was supposed to be politically neutral, was also highly selective in sharing information with his fellow regulators at the NRC about the dump project. Some of those he did inform did not fully understand he was working to close the project. Those kept in the dark opposed plans to shut the dump.
Guardian 14th June 2011 more >>
Low natural gas prices have thwarted investment in nuclear generators in the US and federal loan guarantees will not help nuclear power reach parity, experts said. Even before the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, nuclear power was seen as a losing investment, with cost estimates continuing to rise while the price of other energy sources fell, said Peter Bradford, former member of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and adjunct professor at Vermont Law School.
Environmental Finance 14th June 2011 more >>
Three US nuclear industry bodies have organised a formal structure to respond to the Fukushima Daiichi emergency. They are the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), and Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), in conjunction with senior utility executives. The group says that this organisation will ensure that lessons learned are identified and well understood, and that response actions are effectively coordinated and implemented throughout the industry.
Nuclear Engineering International 14th June 2011 more >>
Korea
North Korea is feared to be accelerating its nuclear programme after US satellite images captured new buildings at the countrys Yongbyon nuclear facility.
Telegraph 14th June 2011 more >>
Italy
‘Hard luck Berlusconi’ was the general sentiment around Italy’s referendum results. They spelt an overwhelming rejection of his favoured policies: new nuclear, water privatisation and a pathetic attempt to protect himself and his cronies by delaying trials of government ministers. Whilst all three victories are significant, the resounding defeat of Berlusconi’s plans to reintroduce nuclear power into Italy are of international importance. With Germany’s recent decision not to renew its nuclear power plants and to make an even greater turn to renewables, Italy’s decision shows that the popular mood across Europe is turning against nuclear. Switzerland has already taken this decision, and of course many European countries don’t have nuclear power stations anyway.
CND 14th June 2011 more >>
Italians have voted against rebooting nuclear power generation, thwarting prime minister Silvio Berlusconis nuclear ambitions and signalling a potential shift toward renewable energy. This weeks two-day referendum saw nearly 95% of voters reject the reintroduction of nuclear power generation. Berlusconi had wanted to revive the countrys nuclear programme after it was dropped more than two decades ago following the Chernobyl disaster.
Environmental Finance 14th June 2011 more >>
Edie 14th June 2011 more >>
Energy Business Review 14th June 2011 more >>
Utility Week 14th June 2011 more >>
Syria
The board of the International Atomic Energy Agency has found that Syria was in breach of its IAEA safeguards agreement by failing to declare the construction of a nuclear reactor at Dair Alzour, and failing to provide design information for the facility.
Nuclear Engineering International 14th June 2011 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
How to build a nuclear bomb and other weapons of mass destruction a new film.
Talkworks June 2011 more >>
Energy Efficiency
Japanese scientists have developed a new micro-processing chip which they claim could do away with the energy loss caused by appliances while on “standby”. Existing chips in electronics that eat up energy when a device is switched off but plugged in could be replaced by the new microchip by 2015, claims NEC Corporation (NEC) and researchers at Tohoku University. While individual TVs and computers draw relatively little standby power, a typical British home bristling with appliances constantly drawing power on standby can amount to almost 10% of residential electricity use.
Guardian 15th June 2011 more >>
Scottish Power has announced a 10 million scheme to improve energy efficiency in Scotland. The company has agreed to work with ministers on the energy efficiency scheme, which will upgrade insulation and heating systems in homes in specific areas of the country. Scottish Power will work with the Scottish Government, councils and other agencies to identify those most in need.
Herald 15th June 2011 more >>
