New Nukes
The UK is to sign a deal with France to strengthen co-operation in the development of civil nuclear energy. The government says it reiterates the UK’s commitment to nuclear energy “as part of a diversified energy mix”. The coalition says the agreement will create a number of commercial deals in the nuclear energy field, worth more than £500m and creating 1,500 UK jobs.
BBC 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Guardian 17th Feb 2012 more >>
France24 17th Feb 2012 more >>
The British Prime Minister is meeting his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy in Paris at a joint summit for the first time since their bitter clashes over Europe. Sources said the two men are expected to seek to draw a line under the tense relations of recent months by unveiling new deals between British and French companies to build aircraft and nuclear power stations.
Telegraph 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Nuclear Blunder
Ministers have been warned of the blunder amid concerns of the consequences, should the sensitive information fall into the hands of terrorists. The stress test report for the plant in Hartlepool, carried out in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, was downloaded onto a USB memory stick against Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) rules. A senior inspector at the Health and Safety Executive, who was working for the ONR, mislaid the memory stick while attending a nuclear conference in India, it was reported. The report contains technical details and maps of the power station, which is owned by French firm EDF. An ONR spokesman told The Sun: “The use of unencrypted USB pen drives is not permitted by ONR for transporting documents with a security classification.”
Telegraph 17th Feb 2012 more >>
The Sun 17th Feb 2012 more >>
PLEX
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change says nuclear plant life extension announced by Electricite de France February 16 does not alter the need for urgent and speedy action on new nuclear build in the UK. EDF Group said February 16 that it expects to extend the operating lives of its 14 advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs) by an average of seven years — two years longer than its previous estimates of only last year. Life extension at EDFs AGR fleet could retain the equivalent of at least 6.5 gigawatts of nuclear electrical capacity on the national grid, equivalent to at least four 1,600-MW EPR reactors more if Dungeness B is included in the AGRs to obtain future life extension. In its national energy policy statements last year, DECC said it expected to lose 10GW of nuclear power capacity on the grid over the next 20 years. However, EDFs plans could significantly delay the loss of existing nuclear capacity. It could mean the only nuclear capacity to be lost between now and 2021 could be the four Magnox reactors at Oldbury and Wylfa, all of which are scheduled to close permanently this year, and Dungeness B. Dungeness B got a 10-year life extension in 2008 and is now scheduled to close in 2018, which would remove about 1GW from the grid.
i-Nuclear.com 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Hinkley
This film gives an account of the first few days of the occupation of Langborough Farm on the site of one of the proposed ‘new wave’ of Nuclear Reactors, at Hinkley point in Somerset. The activists took occupancy in the early hours of Sunday the 12th of February and are settling in to their new home and community.
You Tube 15th Feb 2012 more >>
Indymedia 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Activists who have occupied a farm to oppose ground clearance for a new nuclear site in West Somerset today entered the fifth day of their stand-off with the French energy company EDF. The protesters entered Langborough Farm at Hinkley Point on Saturday night and established a camp around derelict buildings which are believed to house hibernating bats. They want the Preliminary Works, which will clear and level several hundred acres of Somerset coastal land to be halted for 12 months until EDF know if they actually have permission to build their proposed reactors.
South West Against Nuclear 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Wylfa
THE company behind the proposed construction of a new nuclear power station on Anglesey is to hold an open surgery in Llangefni. The drop in session, which will be held on Monday, February 20 between 1pm and 7pm at the Llangefni Communities First Centre, will allow members of the public to ask questions about the Wylfa B site.
The Leader 15th Feb 2012 more >>
Radwaste
A GOVERNMENT benefits package awarded to Copeland if it decides to host a nuclear waste dump should leave a long-term legacy for the area, a meeting has heard. Elaine Woodburn, the leader of Copeland Council, accepted that the area has missed opportunities in the past to be properly rewarded for its input into the nuclear industry. She said: The Government has signed up to the principal of giving us community benefits [if Copeland agrees to host an underground repository for high-level nuclear waste]. But it has to be something that helps the community for 200 to 300 years; it cant be a short-term shopping list of roads and schools for example.
Whitehaven News 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Letter Michael Baron: The truth if there is one is that the entire MRWS process was flawed from the date of publication of the 2008 White Paper which sought to impose a fashionable concept of voluntarism upon local authorities if they were willing which they did not have the intellectual capacity to manage and implement. Morally, legally, scientifically, and constitutionally, the process is a failure; and if it proceeds one can only hope that both the will and the means and the opportunity will be found to challenge DECC/Cumbria County Council/Copeland and Allerdale Borough Councils in the High Court. The partnership is aware of this possibility since it has retained Birmingham solicitors Wragge & Co to advise them on issues around the legal weapon of judicial review. There are better and more legitimate ways of finding the safest geological site in England to bury high level nuclear waste. It is the nations waste and it is the national government that should find the solution and manage and implement the process, as has happened in other more careful nations.
Whitehaven News 16th Feb 2012 more >>
EDF
EDF has posted strong results for the last financial year, with nuclear generation up by enough to counter an ‘exceptionally poor’ year for hydroelectricity. EDF’s nuclear power plants in France and the UK generated 421.1 TWh and 55.8 TWh respectively, beating targets and up on 2010 performance by 13 TWh. The UK’s Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor fleet posted its best performance for six years. One factor in the year-on-year increase in nuclear generation was the reduction of unplanned outages by a total of 594 days. The ending of long outages at Heysham and Sizewell B also helped, and the company noted “the positive impact of the large component replacement program” for the French fleet.
World Nuclear News 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Utility Week 16th Feb 2012 more >>
EDF plans to carry out six once-a-decade maintenance outages at its French nuclear power reactors in 2012 versus nine in 2011.
Reuters 16th Feb 2012 more >>
EDF’s chief executive has hailed the “remarkable” financial performance of the world’s leading nuclear energy supplier by kilowatts, as he braces himself for a French presidential election that will determine both his and the company’s future. Henri Proglio – one of France’s most powerful businessmen – said the electricity group increased non-recurring net income by 13 per cent in 2011 despite the “troubled environment” in which it was operating, including the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan and the eurozone debt crisis. Its nuclear plants in France and the UK performed well. He insisted the company would meet ambitious 2011-2015 financial targets despite an extra 10bn euro of spending to meet strict safety guidelines following Fukushima.
FT 17th Feb 2012 more >>
One of Britains biggest energy companies, EDF, faces an unstoppable tide of criticism after last years steep gas price increases helped it to pocket an 8.5 per cent rise in annual profits. The surge in earnings came despite an overall fall in energy consumption by its cash-strapped British customers. Mild weather also contributed to an 8 per cent fall in energy use last year. EDF, which is controlled by the French Government, yesterday posted a pretax profit for 2011 of 1.91 billion (£1.59 billion) in the UK, compared with 1.79 billion in 2010. Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: When people see energy suppliers announcing increased profits despite a mild winter, theyre bound to question whether theyre paying a fair price. Theres an unstoppable tide of public opinion demanding more affordable energy.
Times 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Flooding
SEA level rises of between 30-40cm in the Severn Estuary over the next 60 years could cause more than three-quarters of the estuarys intertidal area to be lost, a new report has warned. In stark findings, The State of the Severn Estuary report warns that the impact of climate change could cause 77% of the zone the area that is above water at low tide and underwater at high tide to disappear over the next 100 years.
Western Mail 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Sellafield
Letter: NFLA Ireland: We read with concern the huge cost over-runs with the development of an evaporator for the ‘Thorp’ reprocessing facility at Sellafield (Irish Independent, February 14). What should really worry people in Ireland is, despite the Fukushima disaster and the subsequent closure of the Sellafield MOX facility in 2011, there are still big plans to develop the reprocessing business at the plant, with all its incumbent risks. Despite this four-fold increase in costs to the UK taxpayer, the UK government wants to build a new plutonium fabrication plant at Sellafield, whilst councils in West Cumbria are currently consulting about going forward with a huge underground radioactive waste repository within a few miles of Sellafield and, of course, there are plans to build brand new nuclear reactors on the Sellafield site (along with reactors at three other Irish Sea coastal sites). We are dismayed with the lack of public debate on this issue from the Republic’s Government. It has to speak out, as we are doing now, on the folly of building new nuclear facilities just 60 miles from our coastline.
Irish Independent 16th Feb 2012 more >>
That the costs of the new evaporator needed at Britain’s nuclear reprocessing facility at Sellafield have spiralled from £90m to £400m is troubling enough. That the kit will not be up and running until at least 2014 not only four years late, but only another four years before the closure of the Thorp reprocessing plant that will use it borders on the farcical.
Independent 14th Deb 2012 more >>
SELLAFIELD is looking to remove the limits for controlling radioactive discharges into the air from its main operational plants. These cover the discharge stacks of Thorp and Magnox reprocessing plants. The overall site limit for monitoring discharges to make sure they are safe will stay in place for the time being at least. In the meantime site operators Sellafield Ltd is applying to the Environment Agency to have individual plant limits removed. EA representative Rob Allott told members of the West Cumbria (nuclear) Stakeholders health and safety watchdogs: The application to vary the permit for some of the plant levels is because discharges are now so low that they fall below our criteria for setting limits.
Whitehaven News 16th Feb 2012 more >>
NuGen
SSE yesterday sold its stake in nuclear joint venture NuGeneration (NuGen) for a cash consideration that could rise to £7m. It has now completed the sale of its 25 per cent stake in NuGen, which it jointly owned with partners GDF Suez and Iberdrola, parent company of ScottishPower. A 50:50 joint partnership between those two companies acquired SSE’s stake for £5.75m, with a further £1.25m dependent on progress with the development of a new 3.6GW nuclear power station on a site in West Cumbria.
Business Green 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Small Reactors
It may be that when a new boom in nuclear power comes, it won’t be led by giant gigawatt installations, but by batteries of small modular reactors (SMRs) with very different principles from those of previous generations. But though a technology of great diversity and potential, many obstacles stand in its path. Gizmag takes an in-depth look at the many forms of SMRs, their advantages, and the challenges they must overcome.
Gizmag 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Energy Prices
A cap on fuel bills could be introduced for the first time in more than a decade amid rising concern that customers are being ripped off by the Big Six energy firms, the regulator Ofgem has told The Independent.
Independent 17th Feb 2012 more >>
The challenge facing Britain’s energy market has probably never been greater than it is today. Public confidence in the Big Six suppliers has fallen to extremely low levels as reflected in The Independent’s Fair Energy campaign. Poor supplier behaviour and the complexity of the energy market have contributed to an erosion of consumer trust.
Independent 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Japan
Fukushima Update 10th – 13th Feb.
Greenpeace International 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Nearly a year after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, then-premier Naoto Kan is haunted by the spectre of an even bigger crisis forcing tens of millions of people to flee Tokyo and threatening the nation’s existence. His priority now is promoting renewable energy rather than political manoeuvring, and steered clear of any criticism of his successor, Yoshihiko Noda.
Reuters 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Iran
Alarmism about nuclear proliferation is fairly common coin in the foreign policy establishment. And of late it has been boosted by the seeming efforts of Iran or its friends to answer covert assassinations, apparently by Israel, with attacks and attempted attacks of their own in India, Georgia and Thailand. A non-hysterical approach to the Iran nuclear issue is entirely possible. It should take several considerations into account. If the rattled and insecure Iranian leadership is lying when it says it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons, or if it undergoes a conversion from that position (triggered perhaps by an Israeli air strike), it will find, like all other nuclear-armed states, that the bombs are essentially useless and a considerable waste of time, effort, money and scientific talent.
Guardian 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Iran has told EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that it is ready to resume talks as soon as possible over its disputed nuclear programme.
Morning Star 16th Feb 2012 more >>
US
The Obama Administration is “committed to doing our part to help jumpstart America’s nuclear industry,” US energy secretary Steven Chu said during a visit to the Vogtle site in Georgia, where construction of two new reactors is due to start soon. He highlighted the steps that the Administration is taking to restart the country’s nuclear industry.
World Nuclear News 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Submarines
SELLAFIELD is tipped to receive medium-level radioactive waste from Britains redundant nuclear powered submarines but at a price. Many millions of pounds could be sought for community benefits on top of safety and environmental reassurances. The material from 17 decommissioned nuclear subs will have to be stored safely for up to 100 years before it can be buried for good in an underground repository. Community leaders will insist on Copeland getting financial benefits if the Ministry of Defence decides Sellafield is its preferred site. The MoD is considering a range of options for its Submarine Dismantling Programme (SDP) which includes where the radioactive waste should end up. But Copeland Council leader Elaine Woodburn and Conservative group leader David Moore want community benefits to figure largely. Coun Moore warned: There has to be community benefit. Why should we take it otherwise? And Coun Woodburn said: Our concerns are safety for people, the environment and community benefits. A national consultation closes Friday but Coun Woodburn said: Its flawed. To carry out a consultation without consulting on where the waste will finally go seems ridiculous.”
Whitehaven News 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Since the end of the Cold War more than 20 years ago, the prospect of nuclear Armageddon has gradually faded from the popular consciousness. But with approximately 23,000 nuclear warheads still thought to be in existence, there is still more than enough nuclear firepower available to basically end life on Earth. Now those interested in finding out how much damage a nuclear strike would cause in their home town can find out, thanks to a new online app.
Daily Mail 16th Feb 2012 more >>
Renewables
Solar companies are hoping to secure revisions to a key piece of research into solar panel costs, which formed the basis for the government’s latest controversial proposals to slash feed-in tariff incentives from July. The government last week issued a consultation on plans to introduce an automatic degression mechanism to the solar feed-in tariff to ensure the scheme remains within budget.
Business Green 16th Feb 2012 more >>
An independent Scotland could reap a £30bn dividend from a “reindustrialised” green energy sector over the next 20 years, Alex Salmond said on Wednesday night, raising the stakes in his economic case for a break from the union. The first minister told an audience of academics, students and members of the public at the London School of Economics Scotland’s “unparallelled energy resources” would give a fully independent Holyrood “a huge competitive advantage” over the rest of Europe. Salmond also said if Scotland had had full fiscal control since 1979, the nation would now have assets worth between £87bn and £117bn. “Under independence we would make the best use of our unparalleled energy resources,” he said. “We have 25% of Europe’s tidal power potential, 25% of its offshore wind potential and 10% of its wave power potential not bad for a nation with less than 1% of Europe’s population.
Guardian 15th Feb 2012 more >>
Scottish and Southern Energy Renewables has applied to build Scotland’s biggest ever hydro electric scheme at the west end of the Great Glen. SSE plans a 600MW pumped storage scheme, which extracts, stores and releases electricity, near Loch Lochy. The company is asking the Scottish government for the go-ahead but says it will only reach a final decision on whether to press ahead in 2014.
BBC 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Scotsman 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Herald 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Given that hydro electricity schemes are the best way of providing energy quickly to the grid at times of peak demand and they inflict far less damage to the visual environment than wind turbines, this project, if carefully planned and supervised, deserves to be supported.
Scotsman 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Do we need more wind farms? Yes says Julia Davenport of Good Energy: Anyone who has looked at their energy bill recently can see that our energy market is broken. Sixty per cent of our energy is imported and our reliance on that has left households and businesses facing seesawing fuel costs with little or no certainty about how much the next months bill will be. We need to solve this problem if we want to create long-term economic security. The United Kingdom is lucky enough to have an abundance of renewable energy resources that can help us do exactly that.
Times 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Electricity Grid
A £1 billion contract has been awarded for the construction of the first sub-sea electricity link between Scotland and England, energy firms announced today. The 261-mile line will run from Hunterston in Ayrshire to a landing point on the Wirral peninsula and will have a 2,200 megawatt (MW) capacity. National Grid and ScottishPower have awarded the £1 billion contract to Siemens and cable manufacturer Prysmian. They said the new link will enable large volumes of renewable wind and other energy generation to be transferred from Scotland to areas of higher demand in England.
Independent 16th Feb 2012 more >>
BBC 17th Feb 2012 more >>
Scotsman 17th Feb 2012 more >>
