New Nuclear
A leading energy expert has warned that although the British government is right to proceed with new nuclear plants they risk becoming a “financial drain” unless they can be built on time and on budget. Steven Chu, the former US energy secretary and Nobel prizewinning physicist, believes using a variety of reactor designs – as the UK looks poised to do – is not the best way to keep costs down. “Unless we can learn to build nuclear on schedule and on budget it will be a financial drain. Other countries have learned how to do this: South Korea has built 10 plants exactly the same and the tenth plant was only 60% of the cost of the original one. The cost came marching down because they just kept doing the same thing,” he told the Guardian. “That is true of all industries. If you build exactly the same its get cheaper. Everything different means it will cost more. You have to understand that. When the United States built its nuclear plants they were all different,” argued Chu who was President Obama’s energy secretary until April last year and is now a professor at Stanford University in California.
Guardian 16th Nov 2014 read more »
Engineering and design consultancy Atkins is having to retrain engineers from other specialisms in nuclear technology to meet growing demand for atomic power in the UK and internationally. The company is running an internal academy to deal with the shortage of suitably skilled engineers as the UK begins to gear up to build a new fleet of nuclear power stations and other countries hope to develop their own generation capabilities.
Telegraph 17th Nov 2014 read more »
Radwaste
“May I suggest you to take just 30mins. to watch this (quite alarming) recent video about Rosatom’s (Russian State Corporation) intent to build a GDF(s). There are those (cynics and our opponents) who will say “Ah yes, but that is Russia; not the democratic nation of the UK (or even the EU!)” with its myriad of regulators, HSE, Environment Agency, etc.However, there are clear elements within the film with which we (in Cumbria, and perhaps elsewhere) can certainly identify in our opposition to a GDF in Cumbria (and our simultaneous prerequisite for safer improved storage at Sellafield). And the film repeats many of the arguments which we have employed so consistently in our opposition.
Cumbria Trust 17th Nov 2014 read more »
By 2040, the agency said, almost 200 reactors are due to be shut down with considerable uncertainties over the decommissioning costs. An FT article quotes $100 billion for plant dismantling but the extent to which this is just the beginning is highlighted by a quote from Paul Dorfman of the Energy Institute at University College London who said, “The UK’s own decommissioning and waste disposal costs are estimated at £85 billion ($135 billion) alone.” As the UK only has 16 reactors, according to the World Nuclear Association, the permanent disposal costs of high level nuclear waste clearly make up an even larger proportion of shut-down costs than the plant decommissioning. Governments the world over have consistently turned a blind eye to the issue of permanent and secure long-term storage of high level waste. The article quotes some 60 years after the first nuclear power plant started operation, no country has yet opened a permanent disposal facility for commercial high-level waste.
Oil Price 16th Nov 2014 read more »
Nuclear Security
Washington’s decision to isolate Russia over the crisis in Ukraine would bear great consequences including the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe, an American research professor says. In an article published by the New York Times, Siegfried Hecker, a senior fellow in the department of management science and engineering at Stanford University, warned about the recent tensions between the two nuclear powers. “Moscow is willing to collaborate in science and nuclear energy technologies, but is terminating bilateral security cooperation. Washington wants to continue the latter, but in response to the Ukraine crisis, is isolating Russia from broader scientific and nuclear energy cooperation,” Hecker wrote. “The combined actions will diminish safety and security, as well as threaten nuclear cooperation in other key areas of common interest, such as countering nuclear terrorism and preventing nuclear proliferation,” he added.
Press TV 16th Nov 2014 read more »
Iran
Iran, the US and other world powers meeting in Vienna this week are close to a historic, comprehensive agreement that could bring a permanent end to 12 years of deadlock over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Guardian 16th Nov 2014 read more »
The diplomatic wrangle to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon has just days to run. On Tuesday, officials from Iran and the so-called P5+1 – the permanent members of the security council plus Germany – will meet in Vienna in an effort to hammer out a final and lasting agreement to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the rollback of the international sanctions that have crippled the Islamic republic’s economy.
FT 16th Nov 2014 read more »
Russia has signed a co-operation agreement with Iran that could lead to the construction of an additional eight nuclear reactors in the country. The agreement was signed on 11 November in Moscow by Sergey Kirienko, chief executive officer of Russia’s state atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, and Ali-Akbar Salehi, vice-president of the Islamic Republic of Iran and head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
Modern Power Systems 17th Nov 2014 read more »
Fusion
Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is doing its best to shatter my favourite science cliche. “Nuclear fusion is just 30 years away – and always will be.” The advanced projects team at Lockheed, known as Skunk Works, has unveiled a plan to develop a compact, magnetic fusion device in less than a decade.
BBC 17th Nov 2014 read more »
Trident
A candidate for the Scottish Labour leadership has attempted to woo the party’s Left wing by promising to oppose the renewal of Trident if he wins the contest. Neil Findlay MSP, the party’s health spokesman, said he would lobby the UK Government to dismantle the country’s UK nuclear deterrent even if Labour wins the general election and Ed Miliband wants to keep it. However, he admitted that Mr Miliband would have the final say by making clear he did not support devolving control over defence to the Scottish Parliament.
Telegraph 16th Nov 2014 read more »
Renewables – offshore wind
A giant offshore wind farm planned for the English Channel is likely to be radically scaled back and could be scrapped altogether amid fierce local opposition and restrictions on subsidies. The £3bn Navitus Bay project, which is currently being assessed by the planning inspectorate, would involve up to 194 turbines and has been highly controversial because it would be visible from the Jurassic coast, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as the Isle of Wight and Bournemouth. The project’s developers, EDF Energy and Eneco, have now quietly submitted plans for a smaller wind farm that would involve a maximum of 105 turbines and be further from the shore.
Telegraph 17th Nov 2014 read more »
Climate
Britain is due to pledge hundreds of millions of pounds to a new Green Climate Fund in Berlin on the same day as the critical Rochester byelection, threatening to hand political ammunition to Ukip. David Cameron betrayed anxiety about the coincidence – and its impact on potential Ukip supporters opposed to overseas aid or sceptical of climate change – by refusing to say how much Britain is likely to offer and stressing the funding would come from existing government funds. He said: “All we have to do now is to decide how much of this already set aside money we put into this specific fund and, as ever, Britain will play its part.”
Guardian 16th Nov 2014 read more »
Times 17th Nov 2014 read more »
