New Nukes
Roger Carr, chairman of Centrica, has warned that Britain has to wake up to its future reliance on nuclear energy if it wants “to keep the lights on”. There are currently plans for 10 nuclear reactors in the UK, with Centrica involved with France’s EDF in financing and building four reactors, including the first of the new wave to be up and running at Hinckley Point, Somerset, by 2018. The current plans mean there will be 10 new British reactors by the mid-2020s, with additional reactors likely to come on stream after that. Mr Carr said he was speaking out on the subject to spur the Government into ensuring a “fast-track” planning approach to stop future reactors from being mired in the local planning system.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2010 more >>
EDF Energy is looking to secure high-level agreements with the UK’s largest unions to remove any threat of strikes on a proposed £20bn nuclear power plant. The French giant plans to build the first of a new wave of nuclear power plants at Hinkley Point and Sizewell by 2018 and is keen to ensure it lays the groundwork for a smooth construction process. Government officials need nuclear developers to meet a strict timetable to tackle a yawning energy gap. Hinkley Point and Sizewell, two of 10 nuclear reactor sites identified by the previous government, will create 5,000 construction jobs and 900 permanent jobs.
Independent 19th Sept 2010 more >>
Companies
Pursuit Dynamics can help brewers make beer more efficiently, fire fighters extinguish fires more effectively and hospitals decontaminate wards infected with pernicious superbugs. It can also enhance the way soups are made, speed up the process that turns corn into ethanol and even clean up decommissioned nuclear sites. This may sound almost too good to be true, but Pursuit Dynamics has pioneered two revolutionary technological processes – an atomiser that enables water or chemicals to be distributed in a fine mist and a reactor that mixes and heats products faster and more successfully than anything else on the market.
Daily Mail 18th Sept 2010 more >>
Hinkley
Photos from Hinkley demo.
Indymedia 16th Sept 2010 more >>
Japan
Tokyo Electric Power Co. started its first plutonium-thermal power generation, known as “pluthermal,” at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Saturday morning, the utility company said.
Japan Times 19th Sept 2010 more >>
Germany
Tens of thousands of nuclear-power opponents marched through downtown Berlin to show their disapproval of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s proposal to let German reactors run as much as 14 years longer than planned. About 100,000 people took part in today’s protest, which went past the Federal Chancellery, where Merkel has her office, Christoph Bautz, a spokesman for the organizers, said in a telephone interview. Berlin police spokeswoman Claudia Frank said the number exceeded the 30,000 demonstrators expected by organizers. She declined to give a more precise estimate.
Bloomberg 18th Sept 2010 more >>
Middle East
Egypt’s plan to build four nuclear powerplants by 2025 underscores the emerging interest in atomic energy across the Middle East, where even oil-rich nations such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are eyeing fossil fuel alternatives to satisfy growing demand.
Yahoo 18th Sept 2010 more >>
Trident
The coalition split over replacing Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent widens dramatically today as a Liberal Democrat cabinet minister insists the party will “go on” demanding a cheaper cruise missile-based alternative.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2010 more >>
Defence Secretary Liam Fox was heading for a showdown with David Cameron last night over the Coalition’s decision to delay renewing Britain’s Trident nuclear submarines until after the next Election. Reports that the Prime Minister planned to put off a decision on the UK’s nuclear deterrent were denied by Downing Street last week. But senior Government sources have told The Mail on Sunday Mr Cameron is determined not to commit himself until after the next Election, due in 2015.
Mail on Sunday 19th Sept 201p more >>
Renewables
It is fair to assume that the millions of viewers who tuned into EastEnders a week last Monday did not simultaneously give thanks for the wonder of wind. But it would have been right for them to applaud the spinning turbines which, we were later told by the National Grid, were providing a record 10% of all the electricity being used in Britain at the time.
Observer 19th Sept 2010 more >>
Behind the fog of official spin, it becomes ever more obvious that the schemes devised to meet the EU target of generating nearly a third of our energy from renewable sources by 2020 – six times more than at present – are a massive self-delusion. Even though they will cost us hundreds of billions of pounds, paid largely through soaring electricity bills, the energy they produce will be derisory – certainly nowhere near enough to plug the looming 40 per cent shortfall in our supplies, as many of our older power stations are forced to close.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2010 more >>
A pact between Scottish conservation groups and the energy industry is to pave the way for the nation’s peat bogs – some of the country’s most delicate ecosystems – to become the site of major wind farm projects. Until the new agreement, many green groups opposed any building of wind farms on peat bogs as interference would release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. However, assurance has now been given by renewable energy companies that they will fund research into reducing any environmental impact from erecting wind farms on the bogs. RSPB Scotland, WWF Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust have all worked with industry body Scottish Renewables to draw up guidelines for the building of turbines on peatlands.
Sunday Herald 19th Sept 2010 more >>
SCOTLAND’S bid to be at the forefront of the marine energy revolution could be thwarted by other countries, including Ireland and Portugal, which are fast catching up, a report warns today.
Both the Scottish and UK governments need to come up with swift answers to problems such as how to connect large projects in remote waters to the grid if they want to hold on to Britain’s competitive edge, the report says. Aquamarine Power is urging Holyrood and Westminster to look at the lessons learned from the wind industry which, because of a lack of financial commitment and assurances from British politicians, was allowed to fall into the hands of the Danes and the Germans.
Scotland On Sunday 19th Sept 2010 more >>
