New Nukes
THE COALITION will push the button on a new generation of nuclear power stations tomorrow when it announces proposals designed to make them more attractive to build. It is thought ministers will do this by formulating a price for carbon. This move would then set up a mechanism making it more expensive for firms to build power stations which emit a lot of polluting carbon dioxide and cheaper to build nuclear reactors, which have zero carbon emissions.
Sunday Express 17th Oct 2010 more >>
A new generation of nuclear power stations will go ahead on eight sites in Britain, Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary, is expected to announce this week.
The decision will dismay many in his party who oppose further nuclear reactors and is certain not to be supported in parliament by a substantial number of Lib Dem MPs.
Mr Huhne is set to announce that the list of new reactors given the go ahead will broadly be the same as that proposed by Labour. However, three proposed sites – Dungeness in Kent and Kirksanton and Braystones in Cumbria – appear to have been rejected.
Telegraph 17th Oct 2010 more >>
Mirror 17th Oct 2010 more >>
Sone’s acting secretary, Sir Bernard Ingham, said they believed that the Government’s energy policy was “misguided, contradictory, ineffective and dangerous – and lacks urgency”. A letter to all MPs read: “Its driving force is a preoccupation with reducing greenhouse gas emissions rather than security of a low-carbon energy supply at affordable cost. The result is that it is likely to achieve neither its stated environmental nor energy aims. “Meanwhile, nuclear power – increasingly recognised by the public as a proven safe, reliable, largely carbon-free and economic source of power – is manifestly regarded as an optional extra. New nuclear power stations will only be built if private investors choose to put their money into uranium generation.
Carlisle News and Star 16th Oct 2010 more >>
Among the measures to be announced will be a firm commitment to generate at least a third of our electricity from renewables by 2020 and to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to reduce the emissions from fossil fuel power stations by as much as 90 per cent. It will be a radical shift from the UK’s historic reliance on fossil fuels, which accounted for more than 80 per cent of all electricity generation until the late 1980s. Mr Huhne, a Liberal Democrat, will also give the go-ahead in principle to nuclear power stations on eight sites in England and Wales near existing reactors, although the issue remains politically contentious for his party.
Independent on Sunday 17th Oct 2010 more >>
Waste Transport
Preparations are currently underway to make the second return of solid Highly Active Waste (HAW) from the UK to Japan. To date, Sellafield Ltd and International Nuclear Services have successfully completed the first shipments of solid HAW to Japan and Holland safely and to schedule. The second shipment to customers in Japan, comprising three flasks, is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2011.
Sellafield Sites 13th Oct 2010 more >>
Wylfa
THE power giant behind Wylfa B will launch a series of exhibitions across Anglesey and North Wales. Horizon Nuclear Power will set out its latest plans for a new nuclear power station at Wylfa. The exhibitions will outline the studies conducted in the past 12 months, give people the chance to ask questions about the project and discuss the next steps. Horizon is developing options for two to three new reactors adjacent to the existing Magnox station, capable of producing three times as much electricity. The project could see around 5,000 construction jobs created with 800-1000 people employed in the operation of the station. First generation would be around 2020 and the station could operate for up to 60 years.
Daily Post 16th Oct 2010 more >>
Cyberwarfare
The difficulty of identifying who’s behind a Stuxnet attack reveals a central dilemma of cyberwarfare. If someone launches a nuclear strike against your critical infrastructure, then at least it’s easy to know where to aim your retaliatory missiles. But who do you attack when your electricity grid is brought down by a computer worm?
Observer 17th Oct 2010 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Dozens of potentially disastrous flaws in the safety regime for nuclear weapons have been exposed by secret Ministry of Defence reports seen by the Observer. Safety procedures at the bomb factory at Aldermaston in Berkshire have been “poor”, nuclear weapons convoys have suffered from “crew fatigue” and safety regulations have been ignored by nuclear submarine commanders, according to the MoD’s internal safety watchdogs. The reports, released after a three-year freedom of information battle, also show that the “intrinsic safety” of Trident nuclear warheads was put at risk by an argument between Britain and the United States. A new US-made “arming, fusing and firing” system being fitted on to warheads worried the MoD’s nuclear weapon regulator, Andy Moore. There was a “medium risk that safety justifications will lack key information” and a need for “engagement with US on information supply”, he warned.
Observer 17th Oct 2010 more >>
Sunday Herald 17th Oct 2010 more >>
With released reports available to download:
Rob Edwards 17th Oct 2010 more >>
Sometimes, your worst suspicions are confirmed. You like to think the best of public agencies, but they leave you little choice. So it has been with my three-year battle to force the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to release reports on the safety of nuclear weapons. I thought the MoD, and the UK Information Commissioner, would behave themselves. But they didn’t. Let me explain. There could hardly be anything more important than ensuring that the British government’s 200 or so nuclear warheads don’t go off by accident. Unfortunately this job is left to a secretive set of faceless officials within the MoD, who are on same payroll as those they are meant to be regulating. This is unlikely to make them tough, independent or accountable public watchdogs. But they are all we’ve got to protect us from an accidental Armageddon, and I wanted to find out what they’ve been doing.
Sunday Herald 17th Oct 2010 more >>
Rob Edwards 17th Oct 2010 more >>
US
Apparently both EDF and Maryland politicians aren’t aware of what’s going on in the power sector here in the U.S. They’re out of touch with the new realities. (Expect this of France, since it has little interest anything but nuclear power, but the state of Maryland has a really good energy agency.) Nowadays it makes far more sense to add incremental power as needed than to make huge, long term investments in generating capacity. It makes far more sense to undertake energy efficiency and smart grid programs than to build multibillion dollar projects that will take years to build and will need decades of maintenance, repair and regulation compliance, as well as create liabilities in human capital and the plant itself even after decommissioning, eventually closing the plant a few decades from now.
Green Energy News 16th Oct 2010 more >>
Fusion
Visually based coverage of the physics of fusion looking at some example reactions (pp & DT), mass defect and role in stars. Nucleosynthesis. Outline consideration of fusion reactor designs. Issues related to fusion and its role as an energy resource.
TES 16th Oct 2010 more >>
Renewables
Ambitious plans to harness the power of the Severn estuary to light up one in 20 of the UK’s homes are to be abandoned as a result of the Government’s attempt to address the nation’s deficit. Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy, will tomorrow jettison the world’s largest tidal energy project, rather than make the taxpayer foot an estimated bill of £10bn to £30bn for the untested technology.
Independent on Sunday 17th Oct 2010 more >>
Sunday Times 17th Oct 2010 more >>
THE global offshore wind market will outperform previous forecasts and grow into a 750 billion industry by 2030, according to a ground-breaking report. Scottish renewable firms are well placed to seize a large slice of the 250 gigawatt (GW) global sector if they export the skills and knowledge honed over decades in the North Sea oil and gas industry, according to the research from Aim-listed SeaEnergy. China is expected to offer particularly strong export opportunities for Scots firms which are currently “ahead of the game” in developing technology around offshore wind farms.
Scotland on Sunday 17th Oct 2010 more >>
