Energy Bill
Michael Meacher: The Energy Bill, which had its second reading today, has been presented by the government and the press as a bitterly fought compromise between the Tories and Lib Dems. The latter have secured an extra £7.6 billion at today’s prices to support nuclear and renewables up to 2020, while the former have secured the dropping of the target to decarbonise the electricity supply by 2030. That is the picture presented to the public. It is, however, a profound misrepresentation both of the Bill’s contents and of the nature of Britain’s current energy problems. There are two key mechanisms in the Bill which are not even mentioned, but which contain the essence of what this Bill is in reality all about. The first is the awkwardly titled “contracts for difference.” This gives nuclear generators a built-in guarantee that they will get the necessary return on their investment – and nuclear plants don’t come cheap at £8bn a time – courtesy of the taxpayer. Government answers (Hansard March 8 2011) have stated that the cost of generating new electricity will be up to £98/MWh. Even EDF Energy’s chief executive has estimated the strike price will be £140/MWh, which implies public subsidy costs of over £4bn. What the Department of Energy and Climate Change is keeping very quiet about is that nuclear costs are on an ever-rising spiral, while renewable costs are set to fall dramatically – offshore wind to under £100/MWh by 2020, domestic solar tariffs to £77/MWh by 2015, while large-scale solar will reach grid parity prices within the coming year.
Morning Star 19th Dec 2012 more »
Radwaste
I was merrily painting and listening to Radio Cumbria while working on a commission this afternoon when Baroness Verma of DECC came on telling us that “a repository will be a huge opportunity for Cumbria” and she hopes that we will “accept that DECC will work towards a package to ensure the brand of Cumbria is not damaged at all”. This is unacceptable. The Baroness goes on to say that Cumbria has had a long relationship with the nuclear industry. That is true but the relationship is an abusive one and Cumbria is now being aggressively groomed to accept the unacceptable. Please sign this new petition – it is to the Leader of Cumbria County Council. CCC has the right of veto as the overarching authority – if they say no (as they should have done already given that most councillors oppose the dump) then the plan goes no further.
Radiation Free Lakeland 20th Dec 2012 more »
Ennerdale is one of three possible locations for a high-level nuclear waste repository, says Cath Flitcroft, Access and Conservation Officer for the BMC. The proposal includes a huge ground-level facility east of Ennerdale Water, within a stone’s throw of Pillar and High Stile, and well inside the National Park boundary.
UK Climbing 20th Dec 2012 more »
Letter: John Clarke, chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, accused us of scaremongering, speculating and sharing incorrect information (The Whitehaven News, December 13). He says “no locations have so far been identified” and that “in light of experience around the world, the Government also decided that the fairest way to find a suitable place to locate such a facility was to ask communities to volunteer”. Now it is true everyone refuses to name Silloth or Ennerdale. But I think they have been firmly identified. From the size of the facility described in the MRWS process the “rock volume” under Silloth is too small and too far from Sellafield. So I wonder why it is we think Ennerdale is in the frame. With regard to the Government using the experience from other countries, we understand that other nations building geological disposal facilities found a suitable geological area first and then asked for volunteers. Why do we always get it back to front?
Whitehaven News 20th Dec 2012 more »
Letter: I don’t doubt John Clarke and the NDA have safety as a high priority, but how will a Geological Disposal Facility be constructed? Will areas of the Lake District National Park become industrial construction sites? What effect will that have on tourism? Ennerdale is one of the wilder, unspoilt areas of the Lake District. I (and many, many others) want it to remain that way. In his first bullet point, John Clarke states: ‘If at some point in the future, initial studies showed that a particular area could be geologically suitable, and the community is willing, then some test drilling and seismic testing in a narrowly defined area could happen’. The meeting last Monday proved that the community is NOT willing to allow any drilling in Ennerdale or other parts of the Lake District National Park. Why waste money and time proceeding further?
Whitehaven News 20th Dec 2012 more »
Sellafield
SELLAFIELD Ltd’s 10,000 workers have been given a pre-Christmas £1,000 pay treat. It is one part of the annual bonus recognising good performances across a range of activities on the nuclear site. It also recognises £700 million worth of efficiencies – a record for the site.
Whitehaven News 20th Dec 2012 more »
Letter: Is a Sellafield museum what Whitehaven really needs on the harbourside? I can only assume that this proposal is part of a cunning plan to use the building as perfect landscaping to cover the head-workings of a shaft for the nuclear dump (sorry, repository). Brilliant!
Whitehaven News 20th Dec 2012 more »
Waste Transport
Anti-nuclear protests were launched today as troubling new details emerged about 38 transport “incidents” involving radioactive materials in Britain last year, including a collision near Walsall. The Nuclear Free Local Authorities Association (NFLAA) has protested after a freedom of infomation request revealed where accidents occurred in 2011 as deadly materials were shunted around the country. Only some details were revealed in the government’s response to investigative journalist Rob Edwards’s request, but limited accounts showed that almost half of all incidents took place on routes to and from Sellafield in Cumbria.
Morning Star 20th Dec 2012 more »
Areva
Profit warning from French nuclear operator shows industry still struggling.
FT 20th Dec2012 more »
Bradwell
Despite the Government’s bullish noises about the future of energy, in recent weeks the ‘nuclear renaissance’has begun to look dead in the water. Chair of the Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG), Professor Andy Blowers, thinks the programme is slowing down and comments, ‘The way things are going the chances of a new nuclear power station at Bradwell any time soon are beginning to look very slim indeed’. At the same time he warns, ‘history shows things can change rapidly. The nuclear game is by no means over.’
Blackwater Against New Nuclear 20th Dec 2012 (Not on the web)
Science
Some of our gravest challenges—climate change, the energy crisis, national economic competitiveness—and gravest threats–global pandemics, nuclear proliferation—have fundamentally scientific underpinnings. Yet we still live in a culture that rarely takes science seriously or has it on the radar.
Unscientific American 20th Dec 2012 more »
Global Round-Up
As 2012 comes to its close, we can all see that that it’s been yet another terrible year for nuclear power. This year has once again shown the nuclear industry’s incompetence, its waste of valuable time, money and resources, and its cynicism in refusing to learn lessons or listen to reason. It truly has been a case of no steps forward and ten steps back. In rounding up the nuclear industry’s misadventures this year, we doubt we could do better than this excellent piece by Jim Green at New Matilda: The nuclear industry’s biggest enemy in 2012 was itself. Security breaches, leaks, illegal dumping and poor oversight – anything that could go wrong, did.
Greenpeace 20th December 2012 more »
Middle East
Iran’s Middle East rivals have nothing to gain from a nuclear arms race triggered by the Islamic Republic acquiring a nuclear bomb and could be stopped from going nuclear by Western pressure, new research claims.
Telegraph 20th Dec 2012 more »
Japan
Japan’s only reprocessing plant for spent nuclear fuel could sit on an active seismic fault vulnerable to a massive earthquake, experts warned Wednesday.
Phys.org 19th Dec 2012 more »
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has confirmed an incident involving bent fuel rods at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in the city of Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture. The world’s largest atomic plant in Japan has trouble with a pair of fuel rods that were touching as a result of a deformation in a bundle of rods in a fuel pool, reported ABC News. The Japanese regulator said the deformation could have caused the rods to heat up, and it described it as a level-one incident – the lowest on the seven-point international scale.
Energy Business Review 20th Dec 2012 more »
Japan could replace 25 of its nuclear power stations with geothermal energy, according to Stefan Larus Stefansson, Iceland’s ambassador to Japan. “The potential for geothermal energy is only limited by people’s imaginations,” he said.
RTCC 20th Dec 2012 more »
Fusion
Contractor Ferrovial is part of a consortium chosen to design and build a nuclear fusion research centre in Cadarache, southern France.
New Civil Engineer 20th Dec 2012 more »
Green Investment Bank
Britain requires about £200 billion of investment in the next ten years to build out its energy infrastructure to be able to meet its carbon reduction targets. Against that sum, our £3 billion might look small. But it represents a hugely significant vote of confidence in our low-carbon future and will, I hope, encourage many more billions of pounds from international investors and pension funds looking for a secure, long-term home for their money.
Times 21st Dec 2012 more »
