New Nukes
A Conservative government would allow a new nuclear power station to be opened every 18 months to address the threat of a power shortage according to Greg Clark, the shadow energy spokesman. There would be “no limit” on the growth of nuclear power in Britain under a Conservative administration.
Telegraph 19th Mar 2010 more >>
Daily Mail 19th Mar 2010 more >>
The opposition Conservative party’s plans to limit the powers of Britain’s planning body for major projects may derail construction of new nuclear plants and hold up key infrastructure investment, industry executives said. The Conservatives had set out plans to scrap the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), an unelected body set up by the ruling Labour party to approve large infrastructure projects. They have since moderated the plans, saying they will change its name and make it more democratically accountable, with a government minister — a secretary of state — giving the final approval on major projects.
Interactive Investor 18th Mar 2010 more >>
STV 18th Mar 2010 more >>
Huge offshore wind parks and new nuclear reactors to be financed by a state-backed Green Investment Bank would be built under plans to reform energy policy and meet tough emission reduction targets to be announced by the Conservatives today. In a package of measures with far-reaching implications for industry and consumers, David Cameron is also expected to call for a floor price for carbon to be set as a way of stimulating investment in cleaner forms of energy. The policy will punish coal and gas-fired power generation while benefiting producers of wind and nuclear electricity. Greg Clark, Shadow Energy Secretary, did not reveal details, but said: “We believe that the time has come to establish new financial mechanisms to make it easier for people to invest. At the moment it is too difficult.”
Times 19th Mar 2010 more >>
The government is facing competing calls over the future of nuclear power in the UK. A group of 80 academics, scientists and politicians led by the Liberal Democrats has claimed that the justification for new nuclear reactors has not been made and has asked energy secretary Ed Miliband to call an inquiry.
Planning 19th Mar 2010 more >>
Supply Chain
Westinghouse Electric has revealed its intention to become a participant in a new manufacturing facility for nuclear components in the UK. The company has said that it plans to make a substantial contribution to the proposed new 15,000 ton press to be built at the Sheffield Forgemasters plant in Sheffield, Yorkshire.
Energy Business Review 18th Mar 2010 more >>
Sheffield Forgemasters International (SFIL) has secured an GBP80m loan from the UK government, enabling it to install a 15,000 tonne forging press to make nuclear components.
Energy Business Review 18th Mar 2010 more >>
A second nuclear science company is to expand at Warrington’s Birchwood Park. Nuvia has signed up for 35,000 sq ft just months after the National Nuclear Laboratory agreed to take 17,000 sq ft. The park’s landlords are now claiming Birchwood Park as the region’s nuclear industries hub.
Manchester Evening News 18th Mar 2010 more >>
DavyMarkham has thrown its weight behind the multimillion pound Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre due to open at the Advanced Manufacturing Park towards the end of next year. The Darnall-based heavy engineering group has become the first company from the second tier of potential suppliers to the civil nuclear power industry to join the Nuclear AMRC’s founding industrial partners in backing the initiative.
Sheffield Star 18th Mar 2010 more >>
Terror
The United States is woefully unprepared to protect its nuclear power plants from a terrorist attack, a former CIA officer divulged on CNN.com yesterday. Charles S. Faddis, the former head of the CIA’s unit on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, writes that he investigated security measures at many U.S. nuclear power plants during research for a book on the state of U.S homeland security. He found them wanting.
Security Management 16th Mar 2010 more >>
Hinkley
PROTESTERS met face-to-face with energy bosses considering running pylons across the Somerset Levels and demanded that alternative options be considered. As reported last week, pre-ssure groups are furious that National Grid believes 46-metre high pylons are the best way of transporting el-ectricity from the proposed Hinkley C power station up to Avonmouth. The protesters say pylons would destroy the Levels, and last week they met with National Grid bosses at the Webbington Hotel in Loxton to discuss its consultation over the plans.
This is the West Country 18th Mar 2010 more >>
US
The head of an energy trade group said Thursday he expects the development of nuclear power plants to be pushed back by two or three years as the industry waits for energy demand to return. “The recession has decreased demand of electricity everywhere,” Nuclear Energy Institute chief Marvin Fertel said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You’re seeing a natural movement” away from early completion dates. Fertel didn’t identify any specific plant that would be delayed. But nuclear power plants with projected completion dates of 2017 or 2018 probably “are 2020 projects now,” he said.
Business Week 18th Mar 2010 more >>
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a Special Inspection Team to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio to review the discovery of “crack indications” in multiple control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) nozzles, which guide the control rods into the reactor core to shut down the reactor. On March 12, while performing NRC-required inspections of CRDM nozzles, plant workers discovered preliminary indications of cracks in some of the nozzles that penetrate the reactor vessel head. These inspections, which include bare metal visual and ultrasonic testing, are ongoing. When the testing of 69 CRDM nozzles is complete, the utility will determine the number of nozzles requiring repair.
Powergen Worldwide 18th Mar 2010 more >>
Barack Obama has become the “policy patron” of a renaissance in nuclear energy, writes FBR Capital’s Benjamin Salisbury in a note to clients. This may be old news to many investors, who’ve frankly tired of waiting for such a resurgence, writes Salisbury, but it’s worth staying the course and looking for progress in the political fortunes of nuclear technology providers and those attached to the industry. For example, he thinks Fluor, McDermott, URS and Shaw Group are among contract construction firms that could benefit. For example, Fluor is under contract from nuke plant owner NRG Energy for that firm’s planned nuclear plant in south Texas.
Barrons 18th Mar 2010 more >>
Russia
Russia will strive to control a quarter of the global nuclear power market and will boost nuclear energy use at home, starting with a $6 billion investment this year, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.
Reuters 18th Mar 2010 more >>
Iran
Russia and the United States publicly clashed over Iran’s nuclear program on Thursday after Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would start up Tehran’s first and only nuclear power plant this summer.
Telegraph 19th Mar 2010 more >>
Middle East Online 18th Mar 2010 more >>
Poland
Hanna Trojanowska, government commissioner for nuclear energy, announced on 16 March the results of a survey carried out by a panel of experts on the siting of future nuclear power plants (NPP) in Poland. The survey identified Zarnowiec, located on the Baltic Sea 40km from Gdansk, as the best location for the first NPP to be built in the country by 2020. This site is near the site of Baltic NPP, which is currently under construction in the Neman district of Kaliningrad
Nuclear Engineering International 18th Mar 2010 more >>
Disarmament
Gordon Brown is going to say something later today (Friday) about Britain’s nuclear deterrent, but the message emanating from Downing Street is: don’t expect history to be made. This was originally intended to be a speech that would lay out what the UK would be offering the world, in disarmament terms, before the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty comes up for review in May. The event has now been downgraded to a few introductory remarks followed by questions.
Guardian 18th Mar 2010 more >>
France has offered to create a joint UK-French nuclear deterrent by sharing submarine patrols, the Guardian has learned. Officials from both countries have discussed how a deterrence-sharing scheme might work but Britain has so far opposed the idea on the grounds that such pooling of sovereignty would be politically unacceptable.
Guardian 19th Mar 2010 more >>
IN THE next few weeks, President Barack Obama will publish his delayed Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), setting out the role nuclear weapons play in US defence. This is Obama’s opportunity to end one of the most dangerous legacies of the cold war: the nuclear missiles the US and Russia keep ready to fly in minutes. The signs are that he is unlikely to take it.
New Scientist 18th Mar 2010 more >>
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says there has been “substantial” progress on a new nuclear disarmament deal with Russia. In Moscow, Mrs Clinton and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) should be finalised soon.
BBC 18th Mar 2010 more >>
