Electricity Market Reform
British businesses will lose out to European rivals unless Chancellor George Osborne uses his Budget to scrap plans for a unilateral carbon tax, Tim Yeo, the Conservative chairman of the Energy Select Committee, has warned. Mr Osborne is this week expected to reveal an increase in the top-up tax faced by UK power generators for their carbon emissions under the Carbon Price Floor, meaning British business could face significantly higher costs than those in Europe. Mr Yeo called on the Chancellor to reduce the burden on businesses by scrapping faux-environmental taxes like the Carbon Price Floor, which wont cut greenhouse gas emissions but could result in industry and electricity production moving to other EU countries. The Government risks another energy policy fiasco such as that seen on feed-in tariffs unless it is open about the effects of the difference between UK prices and what everyone else in the EU pays, he said. Mr Yeos committee warned in January that exorbitant top-up taxes could have a devastating effect on UK industry. The UKs unilateral Carbon Price Floor is due to come into effect next year.
Telegraph 18th Mar 2012 more >>
Radwaste
A live art protest/awareness afternoon took place this afternoon in Ambleside organised by determined and imaginative students. Tourists and residents engaged with the students and signed letters to give to the Lakes Parish Council asking that no more steps are taken towards a geological nuclear dump in Cumbria.
Radiation Free Lakeland 17th Mar 2012 more >>
Lakeland Radio 17th Mar 2012 more >>
The Bay Radio 17th Mar 2012 more >>
Times & Star 15th Mar 2012 more >>
Millom Without and Whicham Parish Councils have joined the growing number of Greater Lakeland communities opposing any further toxic steps to a nuclear dump. Communities who oppose the governments cunning plan for the dumping of weapons of mass destruction under Cumbrian earth are: South Lakeland District Council, Cockermouth Town Council, Cross Canonby, Threlkeld, Buttermere, Loweswater, Seaton, Buttermere, Millom Without, Whicham and Above Derwent Parish Council.
Radiation Free Lakeland 17th Mar 2012 more >>
Dalgety Bay
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the MoD have agreed a plan to deal with radioactive contamination on the beach at Dalgety Bay. Details of the plan will be made public after being presented to the Fife town’s residents on 27 March. Some 200 radioactive particles, thought to have come from World War II aircraft, were found there last year. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he feared the action plan would not go far enough. Confirming the agreement, a Sepa spokeswoman said: “On 29 February, in line with the timetable set by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency last November, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) submitted to Sepa its proposals in relation to radioactive contamination at Dalgety Bay. “Sepa has indicated that it is broadly content with the scope of DIO’s plan. DIO and Sepa are now engaged in a constructive dialogu e to clarify some essential elements of detail, and the plan’s implementation.”
BBC 17th Mar 2012 more >>
Hinkley
An emergency meeting of Sedgemoor District Council will be held next week to discuss the shortfall in funding its analysis of the application for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. The meeting has been called for Tuesday, the eve of the Infrastructure Planning Commissions preliminary meeting on the application.
Western Daily Press 17th Mar 2012 more >>
Heysham
EDF Energys plans for new nuclear in the UK are entirely unchanged. We have always been clear that the four new plants we have said we plan to build will be at Hinkley Point and Sizewell. There was an historic grid connection agreement with National Grid for Heysham, which was put in place by British Energy in 2006 before its acquisition by EDF. Given that EDF Energys initial plans for new build are focused elsewhere, this agreement was cancelled last year. This decision also reflected the fact that land at Heysham will be retained by EDF Energy. EDF Energys plans for new build are progressing well and we expect to begin work preparing the site of the first plant at Hinkley Point very shortly.
EDF 15th Mar 2012 more >>
Wales
Wales is being hampered by not being able to make policy decisions on energy in the same way that Scotland does, it has been claimed. Green energy groups have contrasted Scotlands commitment to generating 100% of gross electricity consumption from renewables by 2020 with Wales energy vision released this week. Among the pledges First Minister Carwyn Jones made were to boost marine energy, simplify renewables planning legislation and improving Wales energy infrastructure. But he has polarised opinion by his apparent u-turn on nuclear power fully backing a new reactor at the Wylfa B station on Anglesey, for the first time.
Wales On Line 17th Mar 2012 more >>
Welsh ministers were accused of a u-turn as the devolved government came out in support of nuclear power. Publishing its vision for energy in Wales, the government stated: The development of the Horizon nuclear new build (Wylfa B) is a vital component of not just the Anglesey Energy Island programme but of our wider energy future in providing a constant energy source to complement the intermittency of renewable sources. There are undoubtedly risks associated with nuclear power but the risks posed by climate change are now so serious that we cannot dispense with a key proven low-carbon technology.
Left Foot Forward 17th Mar 2012 more >>
Sizewell
Some folk in East Anglia would like to invite people to come across to the beautiful Sizewell beach in Suffolk for our fourth annual camp. We have the camp at this time of year to commemorate Chernobyl and to show our opposition to nuclear power. The pictures included here are from last years camp. April 20th to 22nd.
Indymedia 16th Mar 2012 more >>
Hilda Murrell
One of Britain’s leading human rights lawyers has demanded a fresh police inquiry to establish what the British intelligence services knew about the murder of a prominent anti-nuclear campaigner. Michael Mansfield QC said new evidence meant that an independent police force should be appointed to examine enduring concerns and inconsistencies relating to the death of Hilda Murrell in March 1984. Murrell, 78, was abducted from her home in Shrewsbury and her body was discovered days later in a nearby copse. A high-profile campaigner against nuclear weapons, she had been due to present evidence to the public inquiry into the proposed Sizewell B nuclear reactor in East Anglia. Her death triggered numerous conspiracy theories and allegations relating to the involvement of MI5, with one MP, Tam Dalyell, telling parliament that “men of British intelligence” were involved.
Observer 18th Mar 2012 more >>
Japan
David Boilley, physicist and chairman of France-based citizen’s lab, Association pour le Controle de la Radioactivite dans lOuest (ACRO), said no agency had been charged with gathering data from multiple sources – ministries, universities and NGOs – and providing it to the public in a digestible way. Still, he said, an abundance of information, however piecemeal, is better than too little information. “For Chernobyl, we have almost no data – the first map of the [radiation] fallout came out almost three years after the disaster, and the people are not monitored,” said Boilley. “Japan is completely different – they have almost the best research on the topic because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so I think it will be better.” He added that the challenge now will be “more political”.
Al Jazeera 17th Mar 2012 more >>
A vast majority of Japanese favour the gradual phasing out of nuclear plants but accept that some reactors need to be restarted to secure enough power in the short term, a newspaper poll showed on Sunday.
Reuters 18th Mar 2012 more >>
Test Veterans
Fifty years ago he watched the sea boil as a nuclear bomb ¬exploded in front of his eyes. Last weekend Pita Rokaratu, a Fijian who served with the Royal Navy, died just days before a final insult from the country he ¬sacrificed his health for. On Wednesday the Supreme Court threw out Pitas last appeal, saying he had left it too long to bring his case.
Sunday Mirror 18th Mar 2012 more >>
Energy Efficiency
Despite the economic gloom, the green way of building has never been more popular. And soon, it seems, all building work could be green. The Government is consulting on tightening building regulations so that homeowners undertaking major improvements would have to carry out energy-saving measures at the same time. The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (Breeam), a leading green rating system, assessed 7,000 projects last year, a number that has more than doubled since 2009. More buildings were awarded an “Outstanding” rating than any year previously.
Independent 18th Mar 2012 more >>
Sun Central, a start-up based in Vancouver, has invented a wall-mounted box packed with high-powered lenses that follow the sun, concentrate its beams and disperse it indoors. The sunlighting boxes fit flush to the side of a building and can provide illumination through bulb-like outlets up to 60ft inside a building. Geoff Cowan, vice-president of Sun Central, said: Workers enjoy having natural light. Its healthier and it makes them more productive. A couple of years from now, people will look back and say, How did we ever miss the importance of sunlight?.
Sunday Times 18th Mar 2012 more >>
