Dungeness
The operators of the Dungeness nuclear power station were forced to shut down a reactor last year because of a Fukushima-style flood scare, ClickGreen can reveal. French utility firm EDF Energy, currently in charge of the Hinkley nuclear power project, was ordered to shut down the reactor at Dungeness B for five months while it corrected botched work to sea defence fortifications. The news was not published by the company or the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) but details were found buried in obscure files of the Health and Safety Executive. Following the Fukushima plant meltdown in the wake of Japan’s 2011 tsunami disaster, the Government’s energy chiefs ordered the UK’s Chief Nuclear Inspector, Dr Mike Weightman, to conduct a review of safety at all of the nation’s nuclear plants. The independent Weightman report said the events at Fukushima could not be repeated in the UK and gave the industry a clean bill of health. The then Energy Secretary Chris Huhne even told Parliament: “The report makes clear that the UK has one of the best nuclear safety regimes in the world and that nuclear power can go on powering homes and businesses across the UK.” However, one report recommendation required the UK nuclear industry to review external flooding studies as part of an EU-wide stress test exercise. In response, EDF Energy published a report in to safety at Dungeness B in December 2011 which claimed: “The sea defences are adequately sized to maintain essential function.” The 151-page report concluded: “This EU Stress Test Report concludes that there are no significant shortfalls in the safety case for all the UK power stations.” It specifically stated: “Overall, flooding by outflanking is not considered to pose a significant threat to the [Dungeness] Station.” However, a year later an EDF internal report found the shingle bank sea defences at Dungeness were “not as robust as previously thought” and could easily be overwhelmed.
Click Green 16th March 2014 read more »
Hartlepool
ENERGY bosses are to launch an investigation into how a fire broke out in a power station which resulted in one of the nuclear reactors being temporarily shut down. A fleet of 10 fire engines rushed to Hartlepool Power Station in the early hours of the morning on Saturday after some lagging around a pipe in a turbine hall set alight. Today EDF Energy chiefs, who run the power station, said the blaze started as a result of a minor oil leak. They said an inquiry was to be held into the incident and said the reactor that was taken off-line will soon be brought back into operation.
Hartlepool Mail 17th March 2014 read more »
Hinkley
Anti-nuclear power protesters travelled from Somerset to London at the weekend to mark the third anniversary of Japan’s Fukishima disaster. They called on the European Union to declare the Government’s subsidy deal with EDF on a new reactor at Hinkley Point “illegal”, and warned that the people of Cardiff and Bristol could become “nuclear refugees” in the event of a similar disaster on the west Somerset coast.
Western Daily Press 17th March 2014 read more »
Nuclear Subsidies
The UK government it seems is desperate to burn public money, so desperate that it has made a deal with France’s EDF to guarantee more than twice the market price for nuclear electricity from the proposed new Hinkley C in Somerset. This will be seen as a test case for further new nuclear build. This consultation will last for four weeks until Monday 7 April 2014 and provides an opportunity for third parties to contribute to the debate. Radiation Free Lakeland will be writing and we urge others both individuals and groups to write to oppose this extraordinary state aid for an industry which ALREADY receives massive hidden subsidies in order to function (fresh water use, fossil fuel use, community bribes etc). The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have written an excellent response below. Even if you pick out a few points from here and add your own words that would be great.
Radiation Free Lakeland 17th March 2014 read more »
Returns for French utility EDF and other investors in Britain’s first new nuclear plant in two decades, supported by the Government, are much higher than for other projects, according to a report by a cross-party think-tank. EDF plans to start operating the first new nuclear reactor at the Hinkley Point C site in southern England in 2023. The Government will guarantee a loan to finance the project as well as a fixed minimum price for the electricity it generates for 35 years. The investors could earn a return of up to 21pc over the lifetime of the project, Carbon Connect analysts said in a report, which was chaired by former Conservative energy minister Charles Hendry.
Telegraph 18th March 2014 read more »
THE UK needs political consensus to make nuclear energy cheaper in this “defining decade” for the power sector, according to a new report published today. The research by Carbon Connect, overseen by a group of industry and academic experts, follows a six-month inquiry chaired by former energy minister Charles Hendry and shadow energy minister Baroness Bryony Worthington into the UK’s energy industry. “Consensus is vital for pursuing nuclear alongside renewables and carbon capture storage as we transition away from unabated fossil fuels,” said the report. “If nuclear is to keep its place in this portfolio of low carbon options however, it must buck the trend of delays and remain competitive.”
City AM 18th March 2014 read more »
It is “too early to say” whether Hinkley Point C gives value for money, politicians concluded in a cross-party report published on Tuesday. While calling for political consensus on nuclear, a review of the sector by think-tank Carbon Connect questioned the price tag of the UK’s flagship project. Equity investors in EDF Energy’s planned new nuclear power station could achieve returns of around 20 per cent, according to the report. That would be “substantially higher” than the 12 to 15 per cent typical of private finance initiatives. It is “difficult to judge the effectiveness” of government’s negotiations with EDF Energy over the support package, the report went on, as the process was “neither competitive nor transparent”. The remarks come as the European Commission investigates the Hinkley Point deal to determine whether it passes state aid rules. The Commission has expressed doubts the support, including a guaranteed power price of £92.50/MWh for 35 years, is justified. Changing the support package “would not be an impossible task if made necessary and politicians should work together to maintain consensus,” the report said. That consensus would make nuclear cheaper, by reducing the risk for investors, it argued. Worthington said: “At this stage it is impossible to tell which will be the cheapest [source of electricity] in the future so we need an ‘all of the above’ energy policy, including nuclear power.” Other recommendations included more urgency in reusing the UK’s plutonium stockpile, exploring other technologies and fuels, revisiting nuclear waste storage plans.
Utility Week 18th March 2014 read more »
Letter: You report that the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will not be delivering electricity to the grid until 2023, or even later. It was expected to be up and running by 2017 but deadlines have already been missed, and the construction costs have rocketed to £16 billion. On top of that, the European Commission says that total public subsidies could reach £17 billion, which is more than the cost of the plant itself. What are the benefits of having a private-sector electricity generating industry when high financial returns have to be paid to the shareholders for decades, and the Commission has to be satisfied that the subsidies don’t amount to illegal state aid?
Telegraph 18th March 2014 read more »
Since 2010 about 15GW of capacity, mostly from renewables, has come on to the system – compared with 9GW of coal, oil and nuclear plants closed in the same period. But that belies Britain’s desperate need for more new capacity. Last November the government finally signed a deal to subsidise the first new nuclear power station in a generation – at Hinkley Point.
FT 18th March 2014 read more »
The Treasury will roll out a red carpet to sovereign wealth funds on Budget day, publishing a £50bn list of infrastructure projects open to private investment. These include wind farms, wave power projects and a giant Thames Tideway sewer. Yet many key UK road, rail and energy projects have only inched forward under the coalition, despite the government’s announcement in 2011 of a National Infrastructure Plan with a shopping list of more than 500 schemes worth £375bn.
FT 17th March 2014 read more »
Carbon Tax
A controversial government measure aimed at increasing the price of fossil fuels looks likely to be frozen in this week’s budget, in a move the Telegraph says will “reignite the row over green taxes”. But unusually for low carbon legislation, the carbon price floor (CPF) is unpopular with green campaigners, while attracting support from some in the energy industry. What is it, and why is it earmarked to be chopped?
Carbon Brief 17th March 2014 read more »
Energy Policy
IGov argues that governance of an energy transition is not just about understanding its technocratic requirements; nor is it confined to understanding the policy, regulatory, institutional and incentive requirements, and how they fit together. As important is to understand the politics behind energy governance structure. This is not just what rules and incentives are in place but how and why they are in place. The WP gives a brief introduction to the governance of the electricity and heat sector; asked how institutions, rules and incentives are put in place; gives examples of links between governance and innovation (change) or inertia; sets out the IGov early thinking on challenges in the current energy system; early thinking on governance issues; it sets out possible hallmarks of a governance system which encourages change; and it concludes.
IGov 17th March 2014 read more »
Last week, in our special pre-Budget survey, we asked Conservative members to prioritise various policies ahead of the Chancellor’s statement on Wednesday. The results tell their own story, so I’ll only add a few brief observations: Energy still top: We asked a similar question to this, with fewer policy options, ahead of last December’s Autumn Statement. Back then, “cut green energy taxes” and “engineer deals for more nuclear power stations” finished first and second, with average ratings of 7.98 and 7.55 respectively. They may have swapped around this time, but they’re still the top pair – which suggests that Party members think Osborne still hasn’t done enough to combat rising (always rising) energy prices.
Conservative Home 17th March 2014 read more »
In the past year alone, we have seen soaring domestic bills; energy bosses warning of blackouts; businesses claiming high prices would force them to close factories; increasing numbers of people choosing between heating and eating; a fight over how to divide dwindling resources if Scotland breaks away; and headline-grabbing protests over shale gas. Meanwhile, after years of declining, greenhouse gas emissions are suddenly on the increase yet again. Britain is not alone in facing these problems. The “energy trilemma” – a term coined by the World Energy Council – sums up our difficulty in finding secure energy supplies and catering to rising demand without prices becoming unaffordable, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Guardian 17th March 2014 read more »
Caroline Flint: Britain’s energy market is broken. Gas and electricity prices are uncompetitive. Bills are rising year on year. The market has failed to unlock the investment the country needs. Public trust and consent has been lost. And, for millions of people, the decision about whether to heat their homes or put food on the table is one they grapple with every day. When markets are not working and regulation is failing, it’s time to step in. That’s why at Labour party conference last year Ed Miliband and I announced radical reforms to deliver a fairer energy market that works for ordinary people, rebuilds trust and delivers investment for the future.
Guardian 17th March 2014 read more »
Chernobyl
Nearly 30 years have passed since the Chernobyl plant exploded and caused an unprecedented nuclear disaster. The effects of that catastrophe, however, are still felt today. Although no people live in the extensive exclusion zones around the epicenter, animals and plants still show signs of radiation poisoning. However, there are even more fundamental issues going on in the environment. According to a new study published in Oecologia, decomposers—organisms such as microbes, fungi and some types of insects that drive the process of decay—have also suffered from the contamination. These creatures are responsible for an essential component of any ecosystem: recycling organic matter back into the soil. Issues with such a basic-level process, the authors of the study think, could have compounding effects for the entire ecosystem.
Smithsonian 14th March 2014 read more »
Fukushima
“Out of work? Nowhere to live? Nowhere to go? Nothing to eat?” the online ad reads. “Come to Fukushima.” That grim posting targeting the destitute, by a company seeking laborers for the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is one of the starkest indications yet of an increasingly troubled search for workers willing to carry out the hazardous decommissioning at the site.
New York Times 16th March 2014 read more »
Protest
Bromley and Beckenham peace campaigners marched on London at the weekend to take part in a protest on nuclear power. Members of the areas’ Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) descended on Hyde Park on Saturday March 15 – the third anniversary of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi tragedy that saw 20,000 people die and countless more displaced after the plant was damaged in an earthquake and tsunami.
News Shopper 17th March 2014 read more »
Radhealth
Turn on any old science fiction film and odds are that you’ll see someone listening to the ominous chirping of a Geiger counter. It’s very dramatic, but not very precise and, unfortunately, nuclear scientists and engineers of today are stuck with the same problem. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a faster, cheaper way for nuclear power plants to detect and map dangerous hot spots and leaky fuel rods using a camera that maps radiation in real time.
Gizmag 17th March 2014 read more »
Nuclear Security
World leaders are expected to call next week for more action to minimize civilian use of highly-enriched nuclear fuel to help prevent al Qaeda-style militants from obtaining atomic bombs, a draft summit statement shows.Holding a third nuclear security summit since 2010, in The Hague on March 24-25, leaders from 53 countries – including U.S. President Barack Obama – will say much headway has been made in reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism in the past four years. But they will also make clear that many challenges remain and stress the need for increased international cooperation to make sure that highly-enriched uranium (HEU), plutonium and other radioactive substances do not fall into the wrong hands.
Reuters 17th March 2014 read more »
More than four decades after the creation of its “safeguards,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) still cannot confidently detect the removal from fuel facilities of many bombs’ worth of fissionable material in time to prevent the manufacture of one or more nuclear weapons. That is the key finding of a new study – “Can the IAEA Safeguard Fuel-Cycle Facilities?” – released today by the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project (NPPP), at the University of Texas at Austin, co-authored by the NPPP’s coordinator, Alan J. Kuperman, David Sokolow, and Edwin S. Lyman, Senior Scientist in the Global Security Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project 18th March 2014 read more »
Scotland
SCOTLAND faces higher energy bills and taxes or cuts to public services such as benefits, education and health if it leaves the UK, Energy Secretary Ed Davey will warn today. The energy powering Scotland’s three million homes is subsidised by the 33 million homes across the UK, Mr Davey will tell the Scottish Renewables Annual Conference in Edinburgh. Scotland would have to devote a larger share of its national budget to support renewable energy generation, he said in advance of the speech.
Scotsman 18th March 2014 read more »
THIS is a historic year for Scotland, and a vital 12 months for Scotland’s renewable energy industry. The successes of recent years have seen us invest billions of pounds into Scotland’s economy, finally make some progress on renewable heat and become Scotland’s second source of electricity. But it is clear that we are entering a new phase, with harder times ahead. The Electricity Market Reform (EMR) process, which is now reaching its final stages, has brought the biggest shake-up of the renewable energy sector since the dawn of large-scale wind power in the UK. EMR is designed to drive investment into the energy markets of the future, as well as to protect consumer bills – and few in the industry would argue with those objectives. The final parts of the EMR framework will make or break the level of future growth onshore, offshore and on the islands. At the halfway point of the process, last summer, often against the prevailing mood of our membership, I felt positive that all the pieces of the jigsaw were ready to fall into place – and that it would all be alright in the end. Fast-forward six months, and today I feel much less certain about the future. Some of the pieces are still to materialise, let alone find their place in the bigger picture, and it’s difficult not to feel nervous when there is so much to be won or lost in the next few weeks.
Scotsman 18th March 2014 read more »
France
Around 60 activists from environmental group Greenpeace occupied France’s oldest nuclear power station on Tuesday to highlight the lack of security and denounce “the risks” taken by France and other countries in Europe by continuing to use nuclear power.
The Local 18th March 2014 read more »
Iran
Iran has selected 16 potential sites for the construction of new nuclear power plants (NPPS) to generate up to 20,000MW of electricity, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) deputy head Mohammad Ahmadiyan has revealed.
Energy Business Review 17th March 2014 read more »
Iran and six world powers will try to make headway toward resolving their nuclear dispute in talks starting in Vienna on Tuesday, with Western officials hoping the uphill challenge will not be made even more difficult by the Ukraine crisis.So far, diplomats say, there is little sign that the worst East-West confrontation since the Cold War will undermine the quest for a deal to end the long standoff over Iran’s atomic activity and avert the threat of a Middle East war.
Reuters 17th March 2014 read more »
Iran has pursued a longstanding effort to buy banned components for its nuclear and missile programmes in recent months, a U.S. official said, a period when it struck an interim deal with major powers to limit its disputed atomic activity.Vann Van Diepen, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation, added that a Chinese businessman indicted in the United States in 2009 over sales of missile parts to Iran continued to supply such items despite U.S. pressure on China to tighten export controls.
Reuters 17th March 2014 read more »
US – PLEX
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeks public comment on a draft report assessing the environmental impacts of extending the operating license for the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station is a single pressurized water reactor and is licensed to operate through April 22, 2017. First Energy Nuclear Operating Co. applied on Aug. 27, 2010, to renew the license for an additional 20 years.
Energy Business Review 17th March 2014 read more »
Submarines
One of the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines was forced into a 2,000-mile detour when it was mysteriously refused entry into the United Arab Emirates. HMS Tireless spent a week in international waters while it sought permission to dock before deciding to divert to Goa in India. Ministry of Defence officials have not revealed the reason for the snub but insist there was never any safety issue.
Daily Mail 17th March 2014 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
A Kremlin-backed television presenter has warned that Russia could turn the United States into “radioactive dust” in the wake of the Crimean referendum.
Independent 17th March 2014 read more »
Microgeneration
The government has retained a key planning rule enabling councils to impose local targets for green energy in new homes, but looks set to remove their powers to set energy efficiency goals. Last year’s Housing Standards Review consultation proposed amending or removing the so-called Merton Rule, which allowed local authorities to set renewables and efficiency standards above national Building Standards.
Business Green 17th March 2014 read more »
Commuters in a small town in northern France are to illuminate their station under a British scheme to use footsteps to create energy. Pavegen is to supply high-tech tiles that will harness the kinetic energy generated by pedestrians for lighting.
Times 18th March 2014 read more »
Renewables
Some of Scotland’s finest hill country has become a no-go zone for outdoor enthusiasts because of an explosion in the number of wind turbines, according to an authoritative new report. More than two thirds of hillwalkers and climbers believe that parts of the country are less appealing because of wind farms, the survey suggested, while almost the same proportion felt that the whole country was less attractive because of their proliferation. The research, for the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, was taken up immediately by other outdoors organisations, furious at the “industrialisation” of the countryside. An estimated 6,000 turbines have been built or are under planning consideration across the country.
Times 18th March 2014 read more »
Telegraph 18th March 2014 read more »
Scotsman 18th March 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Coal seam gas mining will not bring down the gas price in Australia according to a report which also found there has not been enough research into the impact of fracking on people’s health. The progressive thinktank the Australia Institute (TAI) has released a report, Fracking the Future, on what it calls the “myths” surrounding the coal seam gas (CSG) industry. It found the gas price was likely to increase with the expansion of fracking in Australia and the economic benefits, including the number of people employed by the gas industry, were overstated.
Guardian 17th March 2014 read more »
A public inquiry into controversial proposals to drill for gas in the Forth valley begins in Falkirk later. Dart Energy has outlined plans to drill 22 wells in an area near Airth known as Letham Moss. The development site straddles the boundary of Falkirk and Stirling councils. The company’s proposal to extract methane from the coal bed deep underground have faced opposition from local residents and campaigners. More than 2,500 people have lodged objections to the proposals.
BBC 18th March 2014 read more »
Climate
Climate change will displace hundreds of millions of people by the end of this century, increasing the risk of violent conflict and wiping trillions of dollars off the global economy, a forthcoming UN report will warn.
Independent 18th March 2014 read more »
