Sellafield
THE consortium dumped from its contract to clean up Europe’s most hazardous nuclear waste site paid £145m in dividends despite criticism for wasting taxpayers’ money. NMP accounts show the company paid its shareholders £145.1m in dividends during its tenure, starting with a £24.5m payout in 2009-10. The terms of its deal entitled it to £50m a year in fees from the NDA, dependent on performance. NMP said last week it was “surprised and disappointed” to be ditched and had improved its performance and saved taxpayers £650m during its tenure. It declined to comment on the dividends. NDA said “removing a layer of management” would simplify Sellafield’s commercial model and mean better value for money. NMP will hand over by April 2016. NDA is battling problems on a number of fronts. It is being sued by America’s Energy Solutions for £200m in damages, lost profit and costs after it handed a contract to clean up a dozen Magnox nuclear power sites to a rival bidder. It also faces soaring costs for cleaning up Dounreay in the Highlands.
Sunday Times 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Hinkley
EDF is set to sign an investment agreement with the Chinese at the end of March. But the Government has refused to reveal whether the National Security Council approved or discussed Chinese investment plans.
Burnham-on-sea.com 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Submarine Waste
On 27th January at The Beacon, Radiation Free Lakeland will be holding a demonstration opposing the dumping of 27 nuclear submarines at Sellafield. We will meet at 11am – 2pm outside The Beacon in Whitehaven. with our alternative exhibition and information. There may be singing! The Ministry of Defence’s exhibition and workshop starts at 12 noon. We urge people to join us in demonstrating and opposing the dumping of nuclear submarines at Sellafield.
Radiation Free Lakeland 17th Jan 2015 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
The Pentagon recently admitted there are “systemic problems across the nuclear enterprise.” Thanks to arms-control treaties and the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has reduced its stockpile of nuclear weapons from 31,000 to about 4,800 over the last 48 years. But as fears of nuclear war eased, the government failed to adequately maintain and update this immensely dangerous arsenal, which still contains enough collective destructive force to lay waste to every country on Earth. The U.S.’s 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are stored in decaying 60-year-old nuclear silos in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming that look like a poorly maintained Cold War museum.
The Week 17th Jan 2015 read more »
Trident
The future of Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet is set to become a major election issue this week amid concern that billions of pounds is being spent on a successor before parliament has approved an upgrade. MPs will not vote on Trident’s replacement, the largest UK submarine project in a generation, until 2016. But a Ministry of Defence report, slipped out over Christmas, reveals that spending on the project’s “assessment phase” is to increase by a further £261m this year. Of this money, which will be drawn down from the project’s future budget, £206m will be spent on new facilities at the BAE Systems shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness. On Tuesday the SNP and Plaid Cymru will force a debate on the Trident upgrade, which is expected to cost £20bn in total. Angus Robertson, the SNP’s Westminster leader and defence spokesman, said: “When Labour MPs have voted with the Tories for another £30bn of austerity cuts, it is frankly scandalous that a further quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money is to be spent on Trident before parliamentarians even get a vote on whether or not to replace the system.Peter Burt, director of the Nuclear Information Service said: “Major questions remain about the future of the Trident replacement programme after the next election. But the MoD seems determined to commit as much money to the project as possible before the election to try to force the hand of the next government.”
Observer 17th Jan 2015 read more »
Renewables
SCOTTISH scientists may have discovered how to help solve the world’s energy crisis and stave off the “inevitable, catastrophic” global warming predicted by international climate experts. Inspired by the process that powers all life on Earth, researchers at Glasgow University aim to harness photo- synthetic bacteria to create a hydrocarbon substance similar to petrol. As well as being renewable, the new “fossil fuel” would be storable. It could be pumped underground for use when needed, cutting reliance on dwindling reserves of coal, oil and gas that took millions of years to form. Greenhouse gas emissions would also be reduced as a result of using carbon dioxide to create the fuel.
Scotland on Sunday 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
In less than two weeks, two sites in north-west England could become the test bed for the shale gas revolution. But while some on the Fylde welcome the prospect of jobs and money, others fear possible damaging effects on health and the environment.
Guardian 17th Jan 2015 read more »
Britain’s hopes of a shale gas boom will not be killed off by current low commodity prices and fracking firm Cuadrilla actually stands to gain from the plunging oil price, its chief executive has said. As oil majors slash North Sea investment in the face of sub-$50 prices, the costs of equipment and contractors for Cuadrilla’s fracking plans are falling “very significantly”, Francis Egan told the Telegraph. Mr Egan was speaking ahead of the verdict from Lancashire County Council’s planning officer, expected this week, on its proposals to frack at two sites. The planning process has taken about twice as long as Cuadrilla hoped, delaying first fracking to the end of this year at the earliest.
Telegraph 17th Jan 2015 read more »
The residents of Roseacre and Little Plumpton, the villages closest to the proposed fracking sites, have what Egan regards as understandable concerns about typical planning issues such as traffic and noise. But Egan says they have also been subjected to “scaremongering” by opponents; the distribution of “publications that frighten people; people being told they are going to get cancer”. “I get quite angry about it frankly. If people want to object to it I have no issue with that, but if they are preying on people’s fears in an unfounded way then I think that’s completely irresponsible,” he says.
Telegraph 17th Jan 2015 read more »
Six things we learnt from Francis Egan, Cuadrilla chief executive.
Telegraph 17th Jan 2015 read more »
Little Plumpton, a village on Lancashire’s Fylde coast just a few miles from Blackpool pleasure beach, is favoured by pensioners for its slow pace of life and flat roads, which are good for walking. It is also one of two spots in the county that have been chosen by driller Cuadrilla Resources as the testing ground for fracking, the controversial method of extracting shale gas. The other is in nearby Roseacre. On Wednesday, Lancashire county council’s head of planning will finally hand down his recommendation on whether the company should be allowed to proceed. The verdict has implications far beyond the local community.
Sunday Times 18th Jan 2015 read more »
