Hinkley
EDF Energys plans to build the first of Britains new wave of nuclear reactors suffered a setback after the High Court awarded a judicial review against the flagship project. By gaining the review Innovia Cellophane, which owns a disused factory next to the proposed site in Somerset, has stolen a march on Greenpeace, which last month announced it would seek a judicial review of the Governments nuclear programme. Experts said that the award of the review to Innovia would strengthen the arguments in favour of the coalitions controversial proposed reform of Britains planning regime. EDF Energy wants to build temporary accommodation for 1,000 workers on land adjoining its proposed new reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset. But Innovia owns the 50 hectare site and has already been given the go-ahead to build a school, hundreds of homes and playing fields on the land.
Times 19th Sept 2011 more >>
Companies
Siemens AG said it abandoned a planned return to the nuclear-power industry, following the German government in its retreat from atomic energy in the wake of the reactor catastrophe in Japan earlier this year. The German engineering company will drop plans to cooperate with Russian nuclear-power company Rosatom Corp. in the field of reactors, Chief Executive Officer Peter Loescher told Germanys Der Spiegel magazine, in comments that were confirmed by the Munich-based company. There are no financial implications linked to retreat, spokesman Alfons Benzinger said.
Business Week 19th Sept 2011 more >>
German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry.
BBC 18th Sept 2011 more >>
AFP 18th Sept 2011 more >>
Reuters 18th Sept 2011 more >>
The move ends a two-and-a-half year commitment to form a nuclear power plant joint-venture with Rosatom, Russias state nuclear company. While Mr Löscher said Siemens wanted to work with Rosatom in other areas, he did not offer details. We are no longer going to participate in [the business of] taking responsibility for building nuclear power stations or financing them, While Siemens talked officially of a flood of business from a new generation of nuclear power stations, some within Siemens questioned the ventures viability and all the more after Fukushima when several countries had a nuclear re-think. The deal appeared to make little progress in the past two-and-a-half years as Siemens became embroiled in a legal battle with Areva.
FT 18th Sept 2011 more >>
Radwaste
AN anti-nuclear campaigner says machines needed to build an underground repository for nuclear waste could trigger earthquakes or tremors. Marianne Birkby also claims the hole required would be as big as Windermere and as deep as the Eiffel Tower. Ms Birkby, a wildlife artist and the founder of Radiation Free Lakeland, was addressing Cumbria County Councils cabinet at Barrow Town Hall on Thursday. She was appealing for the authority to pull out of the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership, which is working with the government and the nuclear industry to explore the potential for an underground repository for high-level waste to be built in the county.
Invest in Cumbria 18th Sept 2011 more >>
NW Evening Mail 18th Sept 2011 more >>
Dungeness
Dungeness B nuclear power station in Kent has opened its doors to the public for the first time. The operators of the station wanted to reassure the community about the site’s safety. Martin Pearson, Dungeness B’s station director, said: “We’re all aware of the severe accident in Fukushima in Japan earlier this year. “One of the things that has come out of that is perhaps organisations like ourselves need to be more open and transparent.”
BBC 18th Sept 2011 more >>
Energy Costs
Letter Donna Hume (FoE) It’s high time the big six energy companies faced up to the anger people feel towards them. Their record profits coincide with unmanageable consumer price rises. Instead of investing in the UK’s energy supply, they’ve made enormous payments to shareholders, leaving bill payers and taxpayers to pick up the tab. Ofgem has launched a legal investigation into their charging practices, having found them guilty of ripping us off to the tune of £250m earlier in the year. Our energy system is broken. Six giant companies make massive profits by keeping us hooked on expensive and insecure fossil fuels. Securing energy we can all afford in the long term requires bold leadership by the government. Ministers must help us cut the energy that is wasted in our homes while ensuring a broader base of power suppliers. As a first step, this means guaranteeing an ambitious feed-in tariff scheme that rewards households, communities and businesses for generating clean energy and helps free us all from the shackles of the big six.
Guardian 18th Sept 2011 more >>
Turkey
A joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France’s Areva may land a nuclear reactor order from Turkey, the chairman of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said in a newspaper interview.
Reuters 16th Sept 2011 more >>
Submarines
A SAILOR charged with murder and three counts of attempted murder after a shooting on board a nuclear-powered submarine moored in Southampton was due in court today.
Daily Echo 19th Sept 2011 more >>
Trident
Just a year ago, delegates at the 2010 Lib Dem Conference voted overwhelmingly to put Trident replacement on the conference agenda. Thanks to their principled insistence, what appeared to be leadership attempts to keep it off were defeated and a lively discussion made it clear that there is really very little appetite within the party for nuclear weapons in any form. Notwithstanding the general mismatch between leadership and membership on nuclear weapons (smaller replacement versus no replacement), it is to a great extent due to the Lib Dems in the Coalition that Trident remains a hotly contested issue in government circles. As an anti-nuclear campaigner, I welcome the Trident Alternatives Review, led by Defence Minister Nick Harvey, and his refusal just to roll over in the face of Liam Fox’s antiquated adherence to the so-called ‘deterrent’ in all its cold war glory. What is not so great, and which no doubt irks most Lib Dem members as much as me, is that Nick Harvey’s Alternatives Review is not considering the Alternative of nuclear disarmament only nuclear alternatives.
CND 18th Sept 2011 more >>
Renewables
New offshore windfarm technologies in the battle against seasickness. Giant robotic arms among ideas to win financial backing from the Carbon Trust to fight major obstacle to wind energy: stormy seas.
Guardian 19th Sept 2011 more >>
China’s ambition to build a harmonious clean-tech economy lost some of its sheen on Sunday after a violent confrontation over pollution from a solar panel factory.
Guardian 18th Sept 2011 more >>
Scotsman 19th Sept 2011 more >>
Scotland is in danger of losing its place at the forefront of research into wave and tidal energy because of high connection charges, it has been warned. Industry body Scottish Renewables said projects in the north of Scotland face charges of 56m annually to feed in to the electricity grid. Subsidies to producers south of the border can be worth millions of pounds. The UK’s transmission charging regime is designed to get companies to produce power close to centres of population.
BBC 19th Sept 2011 more >>
