Moorside
After half a decade of promises to West Cumbrian communities that the first of three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors would be operational by 2024 – a claim repeatedly refuted by CORE – Moorside developer NuGen has today admitted that the first reactor will not be operating until 2026. The climb-down is revealed in the NuGen documents published today for its Stage 2 public consultation that will run from 14th May to 31st July. Unsurprisingly, the embarrassing delay of two years gets scant coverage in the reams of consultation documentation which fail to say whether the delay is a knock-on effect of a late construction start (originally 2020) or an extension to the unrealistic 4-year build time for the reactor itself. Either way, the delay will wreak havoc with the timetable for building the second and third reactor (the latter originally scheduled itself for completion by 2026). Whilst the ‘Proposed Scheme’ consultation document (Figure 1, page 32) shows Reactor 1 being ‘deployable by end of 2025’, it also identifies the timelines for Phased Fuel Loading – which extends to the end of 2027 – and for Phased Testing and Start of Operations which extends to the end of 2028.
CORE 14th May 2016 read more »
A couple of days ago, we revealed some of Nugens Plans for the area. Part of those plans include housing up to 4,000 contractors in Modular Housing, up to four storeys high next to Mirehouse Pond. Yesterday, we carried out a site visit to the pond and are extremely alarmed at the damage that could occur, visually and environmentally to the area. At a recent briefing with Councillors, Nugen put on display fancy, glossy literature along with bird-eye views of selected sites – but were less than helpful, when a request was made for ground level representations. So, we have put this mock-up together:
Read All About It Cumbria 14th May 2016 read more »
Energy Policy
Christopher Booker: By the end of next month the most insane Act ever passed by Parliament is set to land us in a quite extraordinary situation vis-à-vis the rest of the European Union. This has nothing to do with the referendum. It has everything to do with our MPs’ obligation, under the Climate Change Act, to approve something called the “Fifth Carbon Budget”, laying down Britain’s energy policy for 12 years ahead. Not only will this be disastrous in itself. It will put us at an appalling competitive disadvantage with our EU partners. And it will make a complete mockery of pledges made by both the Chancellor, George Osborne, and our Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Amber Rudd.
Telegraph 14th May 2016 read more »
Ministers should delay setting stringent new climate change targets so the UK is not left taking more radical action than the rest of Europe, a group of MPs have warned. The Government is obliged under the Climate Change Act to set a target by the end of June for cutting UK carbon emissions in the period 2028-2032. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), its official advisors, have recommended it commit to slashing emissions to 57 per cent below 1990 levels – or about a third below current levels. It says the plan would require a radical shift toward electric cars, green energy and away from using gas for heating and cooking. In a letter to energy secretary Amber Rudd, seen by the Telegraph, 15 MPs warn that setting the radical target now will simply allow other countries in Europe to get away with doing less.
Telegraph 14th May 2016 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
In 1968 a deal was struck; The five countries including the UK who already possessed the bomb promised to work towards complete disarmament and in return the other states promised not to develop their own nuclear weapons. 48 years later the UK is planning to buy a new generation of nuclear armed submarines and our commitment to disarmament appears hollow. Last year the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a series of discussions to work out paths toward multilateral disarmament. The latest round of these discussions has taken place over the past ten days. They have been attended by the majority of the world’s states. Unfortunately the UK Disarmament Ambassador has (again) been instructed by Foreign and Commonwealth Office to boycott proceedings. The snub to the United Nations is all the more potent when you consider that the office of the UK Disarmament Ambassador is in Geneva where these discussions are taking place.
Joint Public Issues 13th May 2016 read more »
Nuclear Test Veterans
Britain’s nuclear test victims have won £1million to pay for genetic research into their suffering. It means there could finally be proof Britain was responsible for the deaths of thousands of its own men and an abnormal rate of birth defects in the children of 22,000 forces veterans.
Mirror 14th May 2016 read more »
Fossil Fuels
On Friday, North Yorkshire county councillors will hear from some of the thousands who have objected to the planning application to frack a well, known as KM8, less than half a mile from Kirby Misperton. After the council’s planning department recommended approval late last week, they are expected to reach a decision within a few days and thus make way for the first test fracking since 2011. If successful, the site will be the first in the country to go into production. Outside the Northallerton council offices will be the noisy presence of hundreds of residents from Ryedale villages, who are promising the kind of genteel protest favoured in this rural area – music, bunting and cake. Vivienne Westwood has promised to join the party. What’s at stake here is whether an industry developed in relatively lightly populated areas of the rural US, Canada and Australia can be accommodated in England without being too obtrusive.
Observer 15th May 2016 read more »
