Hinkley
Hinkley Point is decided. The so-called guardians of EU law failed us, the single energy market broken, the rule of law diminished, and Europe’s so-called “energy union” still born. If we’re lucky it will take us five maybe ten years to recover from the Hinkley scandal. If we’re unlucky, then never.
Mark Johnston 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Taxpayer support for the new Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset is to be investigated by the National Audit Office (NAO) a week after Brussels approved the plan. Now the NAO, which scrutinises public spending, has said it will be assessing whether the guaranteed price on offer through the contracts for difference scheme, aimed at financing low carbon generation, represents value for money for energy billpayers.
Business Green 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Hartlepool/Heysham
Two nuclear plants shut amid safety fears may be restarted at just 75pc usual power output to prevent more cracks developing, EDF says. Power output at two UK nuclear plants will be curbed for up to two years in order to reduce the heat in their boilers and prevent cracks developing, EDF has announced. The two twin-reactor plants at Heysham 1 and Hartlepool have been shut down since August amid safety fears following the discovery of cracks in one boiler structure at Heysham. The ageing reactors are likely to be restarted in coming months at just 75pc-80pc of their usual output in order to prevent high temperatures causing further cracks, EDF said on Friday. The move will further worsen the risk of power shortages this winter and next.
Telegraph 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Daily Mail 18th Oct 2014 read more »
Hunterston
EDF Energy said on Thursday the unplanned outage at its 460-megawatt capacity Hunterston B-8 nuclear unit in Britain will be extended by six days to Nov. 3.It went offline on Oct. 5 after EDF found cracks in two graphite bricks in the core of the reactor and had been scheduled to return to service on Oct. 28. The company said at the time the cracks did not have any safety implications. The unplanned outages, combined with planned, statutory outages mean that nine of EDFs 15 British nuclear reactors, with a total capacity of around 5,200 megawatts (MW), will be offline by the end of Friday. Two EDF reactors at Dungeness with a combined capacity of 1,100 MW are at scheduled to return to service between Oct. 20 and Oct. 21. according to EDF’s website.
Reuters 16th Oct 2014 read more »
Dounreay
A £2.5m police firing range has been opened near the Dounreay nuclear site in Caithness. But when the firing range is no longer needed, it will be demolished and the land reinstated and made available for agricultural use. The eight-lane 164ft-long range is for Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers who guard Dounreay, which is in the process of being closed down and cleaned up in a £1.6bn project.
Aberdeen Press & Journal 16th Oct 2014 read more »
A tiny, rare flower which had to be moved to make way for a £110m nuclear waste dump, is now thriving in its new home, say botanists. Ecologists at Dounreay in Caithness had to relocate nearly 4,000 Scottish primrose plants to another safe location on the site in a painstaking job.
Aberdeen Press & Journal 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Radwaste
The tortured history of the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste project took another twist Thursday as the NRC released a key portion of its Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the project. Judging from the reaction of the nuclear industry and its backers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the release of Volume 3 (of five volumes, three of which are not yet completed) meant that the radwaste trains would begin rolling into the mountain this morning. In a statement on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s website, Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), a steadfast supporter of all things nuclear, called the report “game-changing,” and said the American public can now have confidence that the repository would be in fact “safe for a million years.”
Green World 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Small Reactors
Gordon Mackerron: Owen Paterson, the UK’s former Secretary of State for the Environment – and now scourge of environmentalists – made the most extraordinary speech a few days ago on climate change and energy policy. Among the ‘common sense’ ideas Paterson advocates is exploitation of shale gas and, somewhat bizarrely, the building of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). No SMR (properly defined) has yet been commercialised anywhere in the world, and work on them – mainly in the USA – has been waning , as their developers, notably Westinghouse, have said they cannot find a market. This is unsurprising as their cost per unit of output is higher than the already expensive conventional, larger reactors, unless hundreds can be sold to give manufacturing economies. The MIT, in their study of the future of nuclear power convincingly argue that radically new nuclear technologies take up to 50 years to become established due to factors like the need for safety licensing, prototype experimentation, planning and siting approvals, slow construction times – all in the context of historically rising costs and a need to win public acceptance. So we should expect no significant contribution from SMRs by 2050, even if they do become commercialised, which is far from clear.
Susex Energy Group 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Emergency Planning
Hundreds of thousands of people who live near Ontario’s nuclear power plants will have to be given supplies of anti-radiation pills under new orders from Canada’s nuclear regulator.
Inside Halton 16th Oct 2014 read more »
A series of accidents at France’s controversial Cattenom nuclear power station has prompted the government in neighbouring Luxembourg to take the unprecedented step of issuing free iodine pills to its half a million citizens to help protect them in the event of a serious nuclear incident at the plant. The extraordinary measures were announced on Wednesday this week by Luxembourg’s Interior Minister Dan Kersch, who said they were designed to “prevent panic” and the likelihood of a “rush” on the country’s chemists in the aftermath of an accident at Cattenom. “The keywords here are ‘early precaution’,” Mr Kersch said.
Independent 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Utilities
They may only supply a little over 7% of the UK’s energy, according to Energy UK, but energy companies outside of the traditional Big Six are undoubtedly in ascendance, having grown their collective customer base by 50% in the last year, Energydesk analysis has found.
Energy Desk 14th Oct 2014 read more »
Europe
An ambitious EU 2030 climate package could be crucial to unlocking a global climate deal in Paris next year. Yet EU leaders still can’t agree the details, with just days to go. Uncertainty remains because different EU member states want different things from the 2030 package, which will set the trajectory for EU climate and energy policy for the next 15 years. Some countries want three targets – to cut emissions, increase use of renewable energy and boost take up of energy efficiency. Others want an emissions target only. And a few say they will only accept targets with sweeteners.
Carbon Brief 17th Oct 2014 read more »
After two years of negotiations, the long-running effort to agree a new post-2020 energy and climate change package for the EU approaches the final straight next week with a two-day meeting of member state leaders. The talks will be dominated by attempts to broker a compromise between Poland and the rest of the bloc over the share of emissions cuts different states will face, as well as a host of technical issues regarding renewables and energy-efficiency targets, clean tech fundings, cross-border energy trading agreements, carbon offsets, and reform of the EU’s faltering emissions trading scheme. Earlier this week, Ed Davey, the UK energy and climate change secretary who led the negotiations for Britain prior to this week handing the file to the prime minister, spoke to BusinessGreen about why he remains confident an ambitious deal will be reached.
Business Green 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Ed Davey has hinted that a new round of financial support could be offered to Eastern and Central European states to help them to decarbonise, as part of next week’s round of talks on the EU’s planned 2030 energy and climate change package.
Business Green 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Depleted Uranium
A fifth United Nations resolution has been tabled which calls for states to provide assistance to countries affected by contamination and for research into DU’s health and environmental effects.
ICBUW 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Thorium
Thorium – same old pie in the sky to keep the whole nuclear shebang going… the 3 reactors planned for Cumbria would burn URANIUM. The UK’s insane agenda for new nuclear build is driving the ruthless push for uranium mining in countries previously free from uranium mining such as Peru. Even what should be protected areas are under continual threat such as the Grand Canyon.
Radiation Free Lakeland 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Fusion
Scientists have responded coolly to US aerospace company Lockheed Martin’s claim that it has cracked nuclear fusion, thus potentially solving the world’s energy crisis. The company released a short press release and accompanying video on Wednesday claiming that it was “working on a new compact fusion reactor (CFR) that can be developed and deployed in as little as ten years”.
The Week 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Submarines
A CATASTROPHIC incident onboard a submarine saw temperatures in the nuclear reactor soar and led to the crew being forced to strip off and use rags filled with ice to cool down, according to a copy of the Royal Navy’s investigation report obtained by the Evening Mail. It was later revealed, after publication of the investigation report that the problem was likely to have been caused by a blockage of barnacles in the coolant inlet pipes.
NW Evening Mail 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Devonport Dockyard will not be used as a storage site for nuclear waste from redundant submarines. The dockyard had been in the running to be an interim storage facility for the waste, sparking concerns that the city could be seen as the country’s “nuclear graveyard” but the Ministry of Defence has released a final shortlist of possible locations and Devonport isn’t on it.
ITV 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Radioactive power plant fittings from the Royal Navy’s decommissioned nuclear subs could find their way to Ellesmere Port’s outskirts. Capenhurst Nuclear Services (CNS) has welcomed a Ministry of Defence (MoD) announcement it has been shortlisted to be involved in work connected with the dismantling of 27 British nuclear subs once they have left naval service and have been defuelled. These include 12 subs currently stored afloat at Devonport, Plymouth, the largest naval base in western Europe and seven at Rosyth in Scotland as well as eight subs that are still in service.
Chester Chronicle 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Chester First 16th Oct 2014 read more »
Sellafield is among five contenders for the job of dismantling up to 27 Royal Navy nuclear submarines. A formal public consultation process has now been launched to decide which sites will do the work, which is expected to support 60 skilled jobs. Philip Dunne, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology said: “When the submarines in the Royal Navy fleet reach the end of their lives we need to dispose of them in a way that is safe, secure and environmentally sound. “This open and transparent public consultation process provides the opportunity to work closely with local communities near to potential sites to listen carefully to their views with the aim of delivering a solution that achieves these objectives.
Carlisle News and Star 17th Oct 2014 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News.
Microgenscotland 17th Oct 2014 read more »
