New Nukes
Alan Whitehead says having multiple nuclear plants running by 2030, as an alternative plan to having multiple plants running by 2025, as an alternative plan to having …er…multiple plants running by 2018 smacks a little of not learning from reality.
Alan Whitehead 19th April 2013 read more »
“The high cost of nuclear has always been known. Witness the fact that Sizewell B is the only evidence of Thatcher’s nuclear vision”. In August 1987 construction of Sizewell B began, kicking off Margaret Thatcher’s vision to build a nuclear station every year for ten years to safeguard the nation against coal dependence. Her vision failed. Nineteen years later prime minister Tony Blair reversed decades of Labour opposition to nuclear power with his controversial U-turn speech to the CBI in 2006. At the time, he said that failure to replace the UK’s ageing nuclear and fossil fuel plants would fuel global warming, threaten the nation’s energy security and be a “dereliction of our duty to the future of this country”. Three years and much argument later, then energy secretary Ed Miliband followed up with policies to fast track a new generation of UK privately funded nuclear power. These policies, inherited and built on by the coalition, hoped to ensure that in the face of impending power station closures, the nation’s lights stayed on. But they were intended to protect the tax payer and the consumer from the high cost of nuclear and ensure that the UK was low carbon and energy self-sufficient. Seven years on it is clear that the UK’s energy generation policy is still in a mess. More worryingly, there are few signs that the coalition’s current dithering over options and policies is set to change any time soon.
Power Engineering 18th April 2013 read more »
Politics
Sometimes the wonderful wacky world of Westminster becomes a little weird. I’m suffering slightly from weirdness as I write this. It all started with my attention being drawn (as they say) to a speech a few weeks ago by David Cameron that didn’t in fact exist. He had, apparently given a lengthy speech to the Royal Society on renewable energy and climate change, all prepared notes etc. which was quite interesting and more onside on climate change and renewables than not. I’ve seen the speech, which was mercifully fully recorded on the day, and I have to say it is not at all bad, and certainly not what John Hayes would have wanted to hear, had he still been Energy Minister.
Alan Whitehead MP 19th April 2013 read more »
Dungeness
Groundwater at a nuclear power station has been found to contain a radioactive substance above agreed levels. EDF Energy, which owns and operates Dungeness B in Kent, said the tritium was found during routine sampling. The energy firm said there was no risk to the public or its workers from the leak, which had been contained. The Environment Agency said it and the Office for Nuclear Regulation had been informed. EDF is investigating the source of the tritium.
BBC 19th April 2013 read more »
Nuclear power station has been leaking radioactive waste ‘for months’, says Environment Agency.
Daily Mail 19th April 2013 read more »
Uranium
French nuclear giant AREVA recently revealed information about a new uranium discovery in Mongolia.
Mining.com 17th April 2013 read more »
Europe
The European Commission (EC) has opened a new nuclear security training centre in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany. Situated at the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) premises, the new training centre will instruct front-line officers, trainers and experts on how to detect and respond to illicit trafficking of nuclear or other radioactive materials. The new training centre, dubbed as EUSECTRA, will enhance cross-border cooperation and experts’ networking and provide a centralized knowledge management tool.
Energy Business Review 19th April 2013 read more »
Areva
France-based Areva has secured a contract from the US-based energy firm Exelon to provide nuclear fuel fabrication services to Dresden and Quad Cities nuclear power stations in Illinois, US. The agreement also requires Areva to continue providing fabrication services to Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
Energy Business Review 19th April 2013 read more »
Japan
A series of mishaps comes at an awkward time for the government. For a few days last year it looked as if Japan would phase out nuclear energy entirely. After an earthquake and tsunami created a creeping nuclear catastrophe two years ago the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) said it would get the country out of nuclear energy by 2040. Although it quickly backtracked, almost all of Japan’s 50 commercial reactors are still lying idle.
Economist 20th April 2013 read more »
Fukushima Crisis Update 12th to 18th April.
Greenpeace 19th April 2013 read more »
Iran
Two senior U.N. nuclear watchdog officials who have been leading talks with Iran will leave this year, potentially robbing it of experience and expertise in dealing with Tehran over its disputed atomic programme. The management reshuffle coincides with apparent deadlock in the agency’s push since early last year to coax Iran into allowing its inspectors to restart a long-stalled investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by the Islamic Republic.
Reuters 19th April 2013 read more »
The U.N. nuclear watchdog and Iran may resume talks next month over a long-stalled investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by the Islamic state, but no date has yet been fixed, a diplomatic source said on Friday.
Reuters 19th April 2013 read more »
Disarmament
Momentum is gathering for global nuclear disarmament initiatives. And as states gather in Geneva next week at the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s Preparatory Committee, the UK ‘cannot afford to sit on the fence’, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has said. Despite the British Government’s stated commitment to multilateral disarmament initiatives, it pointedly failed to attend a major conference in Oslo last month on the humanitarian consequences of a nuclear blast – despite Defence Secretary Philip Hammond being in Norway that week to oversee a military exercise. MPs are calling on the government to commit to attending a follow-up conference in Mexico. As we approach the NPT Prepcom next week (22 April – 3 May), CND urges the UK government to live up to its word on a commitment to a nuclear weapons-free world.
CND 19th April 2013 read more »
ONE of the UK’s leading campaigners for nuclear disarmament has called for Rolls-Royce to stop building submarine reactors and move into green energy instead. Bruce Kent, 84, the honorary vice-president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), made the comment after giving a talk at Derby Cathedral yesterday.
Derby Telegraph 19th April 2013 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News, includes news on the National Trust’s renewable plans; Leeds Green Deal; Energy Efficient Appliances and two hydro investment opportunities.
Microgen Scotland19th April 2013 read more »
Renewables
This new report, drafted by a group of 12 internationally renowned renewable electricity policy and market experts, sets out 14 policy principles for ensuring renewable electricity investments for a post-2020 perspective. It reflects the shared views of the expert group on policy principles that need to be met by a framework for post-2020 renewable electricity (RES-E) investments. The aim of this paper is to provide policy makers and interested stakeholders with a set of consensual principles for designing future remuneration schemes that will provide an effective, efficient and societally acceptable framework for RES-E investment in the coming decade.
IGov 19th April 2013 read more »
Chris Goodall: The National Trust’s opposition to wind turbines outweigh its heavily publicised efforts to improve its energy performance.
Guardian 19th April 2013 read more »
Carbon
Up to $6tr of oil and gas assets could be left stranded over the next decade, throwing investments into disarray, should international climate agreements hold firm.
Business Green 19th April 2013 read more »
Bill McKibben & Jeremy Leggett: Six trillion dollars is what oil, gas, and coal companies will invest over the next ten years on turning fossil fuel deposits into reserves, assuming last year’s level of investment stays the same. Reserves are by definition bodies of oil, gas or coal that can be drilled or mined economically. Regulators allow companies, currently, to book them as assets, and on the assumption that they are at zero risk of being stranded – left below ground, “value”unrealized – over the full life of their exploitation. Yet a report published today shows they are at very real risk of being stranded, and in large quantity. The pooled message to regulators, from Carbon Tracker analysts and 350.org activists alike, is clear. Do your job. Start requiring recognition of stranded carbon-asset risk in capital-markets processes. Start deflating the carbon bubble before it pops. The message to all the players across the financial chain, from ratings agencies through accountants, to actuaries, investment advisors and all the rest, is also obvious. If the regulators won’t do their job, do it for them. Jump, before you are pushed.
Guardian 19th April 2013 read more »
Colin Hines: Laudable and crucial as Lord Stern’s and Carbon Tracker’s warnings are their success will depend on the existence of a plausible, large-scale investment alternative that can provide secure returns. Without this, investors’ money will continue to fuel the overheating of the planet. The role of pension funds is crucial here since they are heavily dependent on fossil-fuel investments to finance their present and future pensioners’ needs. Two areas that would provide the stable long-term income they require are energy efficiency in buildings and renewables. Investment in the former would be repaid out of the resulting lower fuel bills and would have the additional bonus of creating a huge range of jobs and a new career path in every town and city. In terms of investing in renewables, repayments would be made via energy bills and government-backed payment mechanisms, as is the case today. These are lower risk and less volatile options than the stock market and, as such, pension funds should reduce their expected levels of returns from them and compensate for this by a huge increase in such low-carbon investments.
Guardian 19th April 2013 read more »
Gas Strategy
How the Government might use the 2014 review of the carbon budget to junk emission targets and carbon budgets.
Alan Whitehead MP 19th April 2013 read more »
Coal
Almost 600 people have been made redundant, following the collapse of one of Scotland’s biggest coal-mining companies. Directors of Scottish Coal have put the firm into administration. Its six open cast mines in East Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and Fife have stopped production. Falling coal prices and rising operational costs have been blamed for causing losses and “significant cash flow pressures”.
BBC 19th April 2013 read more »
