British Energy
Takeover speculation and record oil prices helped the London market end the week on a five-month high yesterday, shrugging off a weak opening from Wall Street. British Energy was the top riser in the FTSE 100 index after reports that the nuclear power company had received three bid approaches. Reports suggested the bidders are French utility EDF, Suez, also from France, and a combined proposal from Germany’s RWE and Spain’s Iberdrola. But Suez denied making a bid approach.
Guardian 17th May 2008 more >>
Telegraph 17th May 2008 more >>
A report yesterday said the approaches came from EDF and Suez of France, and a combination of Germany’s RWE and Iberdrola of Spain. Suez later denied any approach. The other firms have yet to comment. British Energy had set an informal deadline of last Friday for proposals.
Guardian 17th May 2008 more >>
The probability that British Energy will fall into foreign hands increased yesterday after the country’s biggest electricity generator said that it had received two takeover bids worth at least £10.8bn and an unpriced third offer. The company did not reveal the identities of its suitors, though they are understood to include a pair of French groups, EDF, the state-owned utility, and Suez, which are bidding separately. The third offer is understood to be a joint bid from RWE of Germany and Spain’s Iberdrola, the owner of ScottishPower.
Independent 17th May 2008 more >>
FT 17th May 2008 more >>
Telegraph 17th May 2008 more >>
Times 17th May 2008 more >>
New nukes
At current European carbon prices (about $40), nuclear power is cheaper than traditional coal-fired plants and natural gas. But if carbon prices collapse–as they did not long ago in the European emissions scheme when governments over-allocated emissions permits–then nuclear becomes a no-go. Luckily for Euro utilities, the British government is mulling an energy bill that would set a minimum price for carbon. That way, nuclear power would be competitive even if there were a game-changing technology that made cutting GHG emissions cheap, or if there were another collapse in the carbon markets. And European corporate sentiments are key to the British nuclear revival. Says consultant Ian Jackson, who worked on the government siting study, in the recently-published book “Nukenomics”: “Decisions on building a new generation of British reactors will be taken in the corporate boardrooms of these European utilities, not [by the government in] Whitehall.”
Wall St Journal 16th May 2008 more >>
Reprocessing
Frank von Hippel: Under pressure to start moving the fuel off the sites, the DOE has returned to an idea that it abandoned in the 1970s to “reprocess” the spent fuel chemically, separating the different elements so that some can be reused. Vast reprocessing plants have been running in France and the U.K. for more than a decade, and Japan began to operate its own $20-billion facility in 2006. So this strategy is not without precedent. But, as I discuss below, reprocessing is an expensive and dangerous road to take.
Scientific American April 2008 more >>
China
American experts are monitoring nuclear facilities in China’s earthquake zone, officials said Friday, after France’s nuclear watchdog reported that some had suffered minor damage. The French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety said Chinese authorities “reacted well” to the quake and immediately shut down nuclear sites for inspection.
AP 17th May 2008 more >>
US
The US administration is facing opposition in Congress over a nuclear deal with Russia intended to improve relations between Moscow and Washington. Some US diplomats are concerned that a fight over the agreement will hinder their efforts to develop a less confrontational relationship with Moscow now that Demetri Medvedev has taken over as Russia’s president from Vladimir Putin.
FT 17th May 2008 more >>
The world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor is just one stop on a tour of the Hanford nuclear reservation. The federal government created the site in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Today, more than two decades after it stopped producing plutonium, Hanford is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, and cleanup is expected to continue for years.
Money AM 16th May 2008 more >>
Saudi Arabia
The White House announced major new cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia on Friday as US President George W. Bush made his second visit to the oil superpower this year. The agreements cover cooperation on civil nuclear power and protecting the kingdom’s oil infrastructure which has come under attack by militants.
Middle East Online 16th May 2008 more >>
