Plant Life Extensions
It may be possible to extend the operation of Scotland’s nuclear plants past their current projected lifespans, according to their operator. Scotland has two nuclear power stations, both run by French state-owned energy company EDF – Torness, based in East Lothian, and Hunterston, in North Ayreshire. Hunterston began operating in 1976 and is due to go offline in 2023, while Torness went online in 1988, and is due to close in 2030. But Paul Winkle, EDF’s Scottish Business Director, has suggested that depending on assessments of how the plants age, their life span could be extended. Speaking at an EDF fringe at the SNP conference, Winkle said: “The current life for Hunterston is 2023 and Torness is 2030, and that is based on our assessment of ageing mechanisms in those plants and being absolutely sure that when they are shut down they are still safe to operate. “But to go beyond that we will do assessments and it may be possible to make some small further extensions, but we will not operate them beyond when we are confident they are safe to operate. Our current estimate is, with Hunterston, we get to a point where, if we go beyond 2023 there will be uncertainty. We will do more analysis in due course. Those dates are based on our best judgement.” Torness has originally been expected to close in 2023, but had its lifetime extended by seven years back in February. Hunterston had expected to close in 2011, but had its lifetime extended until 2017. Then in 2012 EDF gave approval for operation to continue until 2023.
Holyrood Magazine 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Sellafield
As part of the Vitrified Residue Return (VRR) programme, the UK is returning highly active waste (HAW) in the form of vitrified residues to Switzerland. The VRR programme involves Sellafield Ltd working in partnership with International Nuclear Services (INS) to return HAW to the countries of origin. This is the second of the two planned consignments for Switzerland. The waste results from the reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel at the Sellafield site, which had previously been used to produce electricity by utilities in Switzerland. This second consignment is safely under way. Four flasks, each containing 28 containers of highly active waste, were transported from Sellafield to the nearby port of Barrow-in-Furness on 6th October 2016. The flasks were loaded on to the specialist nuclear transport vessel Oceanic Pintail, operated by INS and the vessel sailed from Barrow on 7th October.
Sellafield News 9th Oct 2016 read more »
Torness
There are plenty of problems for those in charge of nuclear power stations to worry about when they look out to sea, from rising sea levels, erosion, storm surges, even in some cases tsunamis, but few are as ever present, or as irritating, as jellyfish. Swarms of them have plagued coastal power plants worldwide by clogging their water intakes and cooling systems. In June 2011, Torness in the east of Scotland was forced offline for a week after moon jellyfish blocked its filters. Yet they are fiendishly difficult to stop, track or predict because jellyfish have no hearts and thus avoid any attempts at heat detection. Scientists at the University of Bristol aim to overcome this by using a supercomputer to analyse gridded maps and ocean conditions to predict the probability of a bloom arising and when it will hit the coast. The system will simulate jellyfish behaviour and locate areas of the North Sea from which swarms of jellyfish are likely to attack. It will be tested at Torness, which produces a third of Scotland’s electricity, and could be rolled out across the country. Even if jellyfish do not cause a total shutdown, the reduction in cooling water can reduce a power plant’s efficiency and add to its costs.
Times 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Nuclear History
Top ten facts you never knew about nuclear power. SIXTY years ago today, on October 17, 1956, the Queen officially opened Calder Hall, Britain’s first nuclear power station, near Sellafield in Cumbria.
Express 16th Oct 2016 read more »
Small Reactors
The future of the nuclear industry may happen somewhere on scenic but relatively isolated land that’s about 100 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park. Amid the 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory campus, a plan is in motion to build a type of nuclear reactor unlike any that’s currently in use to produce electricity. The plan belongs to Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, a consortium of 45 municipal agencies looking to replace their aging coal-fired plants. It won approval from the US Department of Energy earlier this year to scope out a site at the lab to analyze the environmental and safety impacts of what’s called the small nuclear reactor. If all goes well, the consortium plans to build a power plant there with 12 reactors totalling 600 megawatts in capacity. The analysis is crucial for determining whether there’s a strong business case for building small nuclear reactors. The emerging technology is meant to create cheaper and safer nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants emit no emissions, but existing designs have become too costly to be a popular solution for climate change. The new technology has gotten significant funding from investors such as Bill Gates.
Guardian 16th Oct 2016 read more »
Nuclear Skills
The start of construction on a £15million nuclear college is being made on land near Workington today.
The National College for Nuclear will be built on the site of the Lakes College at Lillyhall. The facility is part of a national programme to provide skilled workers in strategic industries and will train students in specific areas of nuclear operations.
ITV 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Energy Policy – Scotland
Scottish energy independence is crucial to ensuring the future of the renewables industry north of the border, according to the SNP. Speaking today at the SNP party conference in Glasgow, the party’s business, energy and industrial strategy Westminster spokesperson Callum McCaig said a separate energy system would help Scotland “realise its potential”. He told delegates that the UK government “took a hatchet to Scotland’s renewable energy” by introducing cuts to onshore wind, solar and biomass subsidies. McCaig also said the UK government was “unable or unwilling” to change the transmission charging regime, which he said was responsible for the closure of the coal-fired Longannet power station. “If we have our own energy system we can build a system that not only works for people but also for the climate, with wind solar offshore wind biomass and hydro along with storage and some back up gas.
Utility Week 14th Oct 2016 read more »
Japan
Shares in Tokyo Electric Power Company have fallen more than 8 per cent in Tokyo on Monday on expectations the company will be prevented from restarting a nuclear plant in the Niigata prefecture. Ryuichi Yoneyam, an anti-nuclear candidate who was elected governor of Niigata prefecture over the weekend, told Japanese press he can’t approve the restart of Tepco’s Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear facility, which is located in that administrative division. Tepco shares were down 7.4 per cent in morning trade in Tokyo, but had been off by as much as 8.1 per cent. The company’s share price is now down by 43.8 per cent in 2016. The broad Topix benchmark and price-focused Nikkei 225 were both up 0.4 per cent on Monday.
FT 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Guardian 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Reuters 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Green Gas
Ecotricity’s green gas mill has been given the go-ahead to be built. The project at Sparsholt College in Hampshire – the first of its kind in Britain – received planning permission this week from Winchester City Council. The £10 million green gas mill funded by Ecotricity will be fuelled by locally sourced grass and produce enough clean gas to heat over 4000 homes per year. The project is also expected to inject £60 million into the local economy. As part of the partnership, Ecotricity will also help fund the development of a Renewable Energy Demonstration Centre at the college. The college has also agreed funding of a £1.2 million in grant from the Local Enterprise Partnership (M3 LEP).
Utility Week 14th Oct 2016 read more »
Renewables – Offshore wind
A major milestone in the construction of Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm has been marked with the breaking of ground near Portgordon in Morayshire. Enabling works are now underway at the main onshore construction compound near the cable landfall point for the route to Blackhillock. Work on the Operations and Maintenance site – based in two historic Thomas Telford buildings in Wick – will start in January 2017, subject to planning consent. A recent event in Wick saw residents welcome the plans to sympathetically renovate the buildings and return them to their originally intended maritime use. Beatrice is a 588-MW offshore wind farm which will power around 450,000 homes and is one of the largest ever private investments in Scottish infrastructure.
Scottish Energy News 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Renewables – tidal
The bed of the River Severn is littered with a dozen or more failed schemes to harness the estuary’s tidal power into the sort of megawattage that would power a city the size of Bristol. That is not stopping companies from trying, though. The latest plan is a 12-mile tidal fence that comes with its own industrial strategy: massive submerged rotors that would need so much carbon fibre that Britain could become a global force in composites production for the renewable energy as well as the automotive and aerospace industries. Kepler Energy, a business spun out of the University of Oxford and named after the 17th-century German astronomer, is hoping to hear soon that it has received £15 million from the Welsh government to set up a demonstration plant off Anglesey.
Times 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Energy Storage
In its last report before being disbanded, the Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECC) has urged the UK Government to incentivise innovative energy storage and demand response technologies that could provide a clean, flexible and secure energy system fit for the future.
Edie 15th Oct 2016 read more »
The Government should redesign its Capacity Market – a subsidy scheme designed to minimise the risk of electricity blackouts – to incentivise innovative energy storage and demand side response (DSR) technologies that could make our energy grid, cleaner, more flexible and secure, according to MPs on the Commons’ Energy and Committee.
Scottish Energy News 17th Oct 2016 read more »
Smart Meters
When Susan Kerr was offered a free smart meter by her energy supplier, she was keen to accept. But would the gadget cause problems if she wanted to switch to a different power company in the future? Kerr, 71, from west London, had heard about the government’s drive to have a smart meter in every home by 2020. The device sends details of a household’s energy consumption directly to the supplier, and a monitor in the home shows customers exactly how much they are using as they boil a kettle, watch television and so on. They no longer need to send meter readings, and estimated readings become a thing of the past. However, suppliers use different technology, so it may not be possible to switch provider and keep the same smart-meter functions — you may have to send meter readings again or have a new smart meter installed.
Times 16th Oct 2016 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Public opposition to pumping water and chemicals into the ground to extract gas from shale − the technique known as fracking − is growing even in the countries whose governments are most in favour. Although only four countries – France, Bulgaria, Germany and Scotland – have an outright fracking ban at the moment, many districts in countries that allow fracking in some areas ban it in others.
Climate News Network 16th Oct 2016 read more »
Letter Kevin Anderson: No amount of spin or legal obfuscation can reconcile the UK government’s clamour for shale gas with its obligations as enshrined in the Paris climate change agreement. Consequently, when the UK’s communities secretary, Sajid Javid, gave the go-ahead for fracking in Lancashire, he was making a clear statement that the government has no interest in abiding by either the spirit or the maths of the Paris agreement.
Guardian 16th Oct 2016 read more »
