Hinkley
French President Francois Hollande said utility EDF’s Hinkley Point project in Britain should go ahead, a few days after his energy minister and former partner cast doubts on the $26 billion (18 billion pounds) plan to build nuclear reactors. “I am in favour of this project going ahead,” Hollande told Europe 1 radio in a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday.
Reuters 17th May 2016 read more »
ENERGY giant EDF has hit back at speculation that the cost of the Hinkley C project is set to rise by £3 billion to £21 billion. Following a meeting earlier this month EDF and Chinese partners CGN had committed an extra £2.7 billion ‘if necessary’ in ‘extreme scenarios’ to the new nuclear power plant in Somerset, The Telegraph reported. However EDF have released a statement reiterating that this money is not expected to be used. “The cost of the project is £18bn in nominal terms. We have stated this in public many times and this has not changed,” an EDF spokesman said.
Somerset County Gazette 16th May 2016 read more »
Two controversial energy infrastructure megaprojects located on opposite sides of the world, one in Western Europe and the other in Southeast Asia, are linked in more subtle ways than the most obvious bond i.e. they share the same main project developer. Hinkley Point C (HPC) nuclear power station, proposed to be built in the English county of Somerset and the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) Hydropower Project in operation since 2010 in central Laos are both megaprojects awarded to the French state-owned power utility, Électricité de France (EDF) as the main developer and shareholder in the respective project consortia. Both projects are touted by their proponents as low-carbon energy alternatives to fossil fuel burning power plants that are designed to economically supply perceived unmet energy demands; both represent the biggest infrastructure projects the respective host nations have built at the time of construction; both projects have considerable externalities not being shouldered by the developers due to taxpayer subsidised risk guarantees; and both are mired in complex multi-stakeholder debates over their socio-economic and environmental sustainability credentials.
East by South-East 4th May 2016 read more »
Moorside
First power from a proposed new nuclear plant in Cumbria is now not expected until the end of 2025, a year later than had been planned, developer NuGen has said. The new timescale for the Moorside plant, included within consultation documents published this weekend, follows the company “reassessing” the schedule for construction and “learning more about the delivery of the project”, a spokesman said. He added that there were “elements of the project which are out of our control” such as securing financial support from the Government and then state aid clearance, and as a result NuGen believed it was “more appropriate to refer to the target date for Moorside Site delivering power as the mid-2020s.”
Telegraph 16th May 2016 read more »
In Cumbria 17th May 2016 read more »
Carlisle News & Star 17th May 2016 read more »
Utility Week 16th May 2016 read more »
Sizewell
Paperwork related to the manufacture of components for use in UK nuclear power plants by Areva’s Le Creusot forge may contain “inconsistencies, modifications or omissions”, the French nuclear regulator has advised its British counterpart. The Sizewell B reactor is the only UK reactor to feature such parts. The Office for Nuclear Regulation announced on 13 May that it is “engaged” with the ASN (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire) and EDF “concerning the reports of anomalies and inconsistencies in quality documentation”.
World Nuclear News 16th May 2016 read more »
Toshiba
Toshiba and CB&I have agreed to terminate a number of agreements originally signed between Shaw Group and Toshiba related to construction of two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) at the South Texas Project (STP). Since the agreements were signed in 2010, Shaw was acquired by CB&I, which later sold the reactor construction business to Westinghouse, itself a Toshiba company. In November 2010, Shaw Group and Japan’s Toshiba announced a global strategic partnership giving Shaw exclusive rights to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for Toshiba ABWRs, including a contract for the planned STP reactors. Through that agreement, Shaw was to become the exclusive EPC contractor for Toshiba ABWRs in all countries except Japan and Vietnam for the next 20 years.
World Nuclear News 16th May 2016 read more »
Sellafield
An instrument testing exercise is currently under way involving aircraft passing over the Sellafield site. The exercise, which also includes ground monitoring work, is part of joint UK/US development programme to test new monitoring techniques and covers the Sellafield site and its environs. The airborne element involves two light aircraft carrying out flights over the site. Only one aircraft will be used at any one time and no flights will take place later than midnight. The programme runs until May 31, Flight plans have been agreed with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and are well outside the restricted fly zones over Sellafield.
RAAI 16th May 2016 read more »
NDA – Radwaste Strategy
Strategy for converting Higher Activity Waste within the NDA estate into a form that can be safely and securely stored and managed for many decades. The UK has been producing and managing radioactive waste for many decades. A major part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) role to decommission civil nuclear sites is enabled through the management of legacy waste. Often these legacy wastes were managed in a way that would not meet today’s standards. The challenges posed in the management of legacy wastes serve as a pertinent reminder of the need to manage waste in a responsible manner to ensure it is safe now and throughout the waste lifecycle. The aim now is to convert wastes to a passively safe and disposable form in a timely manner, reducing the burden on future generations.
NDA 16th May 2016 read more »
EDF
The French financier who quit his job at energy giant EDF in a row over the Hinkley Point nuclear plant has re-emerged as a senior executive at Deutsche Bank. Thomas Piquemal stood down as EDF’s finance director in March when he argued that pressing on with the £18bn nuclear project could jeopardise the company’s finances. He had been at EDF for six years. The 47-year old will now become Deutsche Bank’s head of global mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joining on 17 May. Mr Piquemal will be based in Paris and report in to Jeff Urwin, Deutsche’s head of corporate and investment banking.
Telegraph 16th May 2016 read more »
Utilities
Switching of household energy providers by consumers has surpassed 400,000 for the third month in a row, with 438,166 switches in April. This brings the number of switches for year to date to over 1.5 million. April figures show the number of switches to small and mid-tier suppliers has remained consistent with 43% of switches last month.
Scottish Energy News 17th May 2016 read more »
SMRs
The Tennessee Valley Authority has submitted an Early Site Permit (ESP) application for small modular reactor units at Clinch River, Tennessee, to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The ESP application for the 1200 acre (486 hectare) site near Oak Ridge is the first SMR-related application of any type to be submitted to the NRC, TVA chief nuclear officer Joe Grimes said. “It’s a significant event for us as we continue exploring potential SMR technology as a way of expanding our diverse portfolio,” he added.
World Nuclear News 16th May 2016 read more »
Sweden – Terror
Police were investigating on Monday after a suspicious item was found near a Swedish nuclear power station. The object was discovered just before 3pm on Monday by sniffer dogs taking part in a joint police and military exercise at the Oskarshamn nuclear plant in south-eastern Sweden. “Both our and the Armed Forces’ dogs reacted to a parcel that was not part of the exercise,” police spokesperson Jimmy Modin told the Aftonbladet tabloid. “We then took it to the side and x-rayed it. It has not been possible to determine its contents despite this, and for that reason is is being treated as a dangerous object,” he added.
The Local 16th May 2016 read more »
Canada – Radwaste
Plan to store nuclear waste near Great Lakes proves radioactive: Opposition to the project, though, has swelled. More than 180 county boards, city councils and other local elected bodies near the Great Lakes in both countries have passed proclamations urging a veto of the plan. Dingell was among 32 members of Congress who signed a bipartisan letter to Trudeau asking him and McKenna to reject it. The GOP-dominated Michigan Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling on the White House and Congress to intervene under the Boundary Waters Treaty. (The White House referred questions to the State Department, which declined to comment on the issue.)
Washington Post 16th May 2016 read more »
Germany
Just a week after reporting a peak of more than 90 percent renewable power, Agora now shows for the first time that green electricity may have briefly touched and slightly surpassed 100% of Germany’s electricity demand on May 15. Wind and solar cannot produce negative wholesale prices. Wind farms and solar arrays will never pay you to take electricity off their hands; they will simply curtail. Negative prices come from baseload power plants. They are the ones that would rather pay you to consume tha ramp down below their must-run level. So you have got to get rid of baseload if you want solar and wind.
Renew Economy 17th May 2016 read more »
Nuclear Test Veterans
A Fife nuclear test veteran has compared the British nuclear tests of the 1950s with the devastation caused by the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.
Dundee Courier 17th May 2016 read more »
Renewable Heat
Renewable sources could provide nearly half of the energy used to heat Europe’s homes by 2040, according to a new international market intelligence report.Tightening existing regulations could lower end-user natural gas demand by half within the next 20 to 25 years, and reduce residential carbon dioxide emissions by more than 75% by 2050, according to a new study from the IHS Energy business advisory service. This reduction would move Europe closer to achieving the European Union (EU) 2030 and 2050 climate targets. The heating sector is the focus of increased attention from policy makers following the release of the first European Heating and Cooling Strategy on February 16.
Scottish Energy News 17th May 2016 read more »
Renewables – floating turbines
Plans to build a major floating wind farm off the Aberdeenshire coast have taken a step forward, it has been announced. The Crown Estate, which manages the seabed, has granted a lease to the Norwegian firm Statoil which allows the construction of the Hywind project – 15 miles off Peterhead – to begin. The first power is expected to be generated towards the end of 2017. Marine Scotland granted consent for the five 6MW turbines last year. WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: “Successfully developing floating turbines could enable Scotland to secure even more clean energy from offshore wind in the future.”
BBC 16th May 2016 read more »
STV 16th May 2016 read more »
Daily Record 16th May 2016 read more »
Guardian 16th May 2016 read more »
Business Green 16th May 2016 read more »
Scotsman 16th May 2016 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Commercial property owners in Scotland are unprepared for a new set of energy efficiency regulations set to come in later this year, a property consultancy has warned. The regulations will require owners of buildings larger than 1,000 square metres who sell or rent out their property to provide an Action Plan laying out measures they will take to improve the energy performance of the building and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are also required to submit energy improvement data to the Scottish Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) register. But new analysis, released last week by property consultancy Tuffin Ferraby Taylor, found that around 70 per cent of those required to complete Action Plans have yet to do so. While property owners still have time to complete the plans before they come in on 1 September, the consultancy warned that landlords who fail to comply with the regulations could face enforcement action from local authorities.
Business Green 16th May 2016 read more »
