Hinkley
Boris Johnson attacks ‘disgraceful’ spending on Hinkley – just a month after David Cameron hailed the ‘flagship’ deal. Mayor of London said the estimated £18bn cost of Britain’s first nuclear power station in two decades was an ‘extraordinary amount of money’. Asked by Baroness Jones, a Green party London Assembly member who is fiercely opposed to nuclear power, whether he supported the building of Hinkley Point C despite its cost, Mr Johnson said: “I’m totally with you on that one – it’s a disgrace.
Independent 20th November 2015 read more »
Luxembourg joins the Austrian action against the planned nuclear power plant Hinkley Point C in England. In this country, you bet on the environmentally friendly energy sources.
Tageblatt 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Luxembourg will join Austria’s legal challenge to the UK’s support package for the Hinkley C nuclear power station. Meanwhile EDF has laid off 65 engineers working on the project in Paris, and the EU Commission has initiated proceedings against Hungary over its Paks II nuclear project with Rosatom. Speaking in July after Austria launched its legal challenge, Luxembourg Environment Minister Carole Dieschbourg told the Duchy’s parliament: “Further massive sums of public money cannot put into an unsafe and unprofitable technology that will wreck the market price for renewable energy … If we take our anti-nuclear policy seriously, then we must join this lawsuit.” It is no secret that Germany and Sweden, countries that are now in the process of decommissioning their nuclear power legacy and building up renewable energy, are unhappy with the European Commission’s decision to approve the UK’s state aid for Hinkley C.
Ecologist 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Britain’s reliance on “unreliable partners” such as China for key elements of national infrastructure could leave the country dangerously vulnerable, MPs have warned. Ahead of the publication of the Government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) on Monday, the Commons Defence Committee highlighted a series of weaknesses which it said must be addressed. The committee highlighted “serious reservations” about Chinese investment in critical UK infrastructure, including one third ownership of the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant being built by the French company EDF.
Express and Star 21st Nov 2015 read more »
Moorside
Future hospital services must take into account the expected influx of new nuclear staff into west Cumbria.
Carlisle News & Star 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Magnox Decommissioning
Energy Solutions EU (ES EU) and the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) met in court this week over the company’s claim the government agency violated its own rules last year when it awarded a contract to manage the Magnox Ltd and Research Site Restoration Ltd nuclear sites. The NDA concluded a two-year procurement process to appoint a new Parent Body Organisation (PBO) for the 12 sites and announced in March 2014 that it had selected the Cavendish Fluor Partnership (CFP) as the Preferred Bidder. One of the losing participants in the procurement, ES EU, subsequently submitted a claim for damages. ES EU was the minor partner in the Bechtel-led Reactor Sites Solutions consortium that took part in the competition for the contract. However, Bechtel is not taking part in the litigation. There were also three other business consortia, none of which have mounted any legal claims. “Energy Solutions is demanding significant compensation in damages after documentation lodged with the High Court claim the NDA did not follow its own procedures, and should have knocked the winning bidder out of the competition while awarding Energy Solutions more points in the scoring that decided the award,” a spokesperson for the company told World Nuclear News yesterday. “Energy Solutions lost by just one percentage point, based on the NDA’s scoring system,” they added.
World Nuclear News 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Radwaste
A demonstration plant to vitrify radioactive waste has completed initial commissioning prior to its deployment at the UK’s Sellafield site. The full-scale GeoMelt In-Container Vitrification (ICV) plant is a collaboration between the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and US radioactive waste management specialist Kurion. The non-radioactive phase of the commissioning program concluded with a demonstration on simulated Sellafield waste, and showed that the system started up safely, reliably and met its design goals. The system will now be disassembled and moved to the NNL’s Central Laboratory at Sellafield, about 25 kilometres to the south of NNL’s engineering facility in Workington where the non-active testing was carried out. The UK has over 300,000 tonnes of intermediate and low-level waste that could be suitable for treatment using GeoMelt, NNL and Kurion said. Unlike conventional vitrification technology, which requires a homogenous waste feed, GeoMelt can process various forms of waste simultaneously, and can use liabilities such as contaminated soils and inorganic ion exchange media into glass formers. It can also treat radioactive contaminated asbestos, a material found at many plants undergoing decommissioning.
World Nuclear News 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Supplies
Hinkley Point will take 10 years to build and produce power. Because of the chaotic way successive governments have dealt with other parts of the energy mix (coal, gas and renewables) there could be a power supply crisis long before ten years are up — like this winter, in February say.
Proactive Investors 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Climate vs Nukes
NASA scientist James Hansen is heading to COP21 in Paris to berate climate campaigners for failing to support ‘safe and environmentally-friendly nuclear power’, writes Jim Green. But they would gladly support nuclear power if only it really was safe and environment friendly. In fact, it’s a very dangerous and hugely expensive distraction from the real climate solutions. An article co-authored by Hansen and Pushker Kharecha, published in the Environment, Science and Technology journal, claims that between 1971 and 2009, “global nuclear power has prevented an average of 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning”. Kharecha and Hansen ignore renewables and energy efficiency, setting up a false choice between fossil fuels and nuclear. Even as an assessment of the relative risks of fossil fuels and nuclear, the analysis doesn’t stack up. Kharecha and Hansen cite a UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) report to justify their figure of 43 deaths from the Chernobyl disaster.
Ecologist 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
The energy secretary’s much-hyped speech (UK to retreat from climate change goals, says minister, 18 November) was a spectacular display of governmental cognitive dissonance – saying one thing while acting in an entirely contradictory manner. Amber Rudd offered warm words about “a new energy infrastructure, fit for the 21st century”, yet her department ploughs ahead with firing up outdated high-carbon gas power stations set to burn climate changing fossil fuels for decades to come. Shutting coal power stations is a good move – and campaigners should be applauded for their long-running focus on this important goal – but doing so while promising a wave of new gas power stations simply doesn’t go close to ensuring we meet the energy challenges we face. Never has a greater chance for rethinking the way we power our communities been presented to us – yet Rudd and her colleagues look set to squander this unique opportunity by hiding behind hot air and spin while failing to take the urgent action needed to tackle climate change.
Guardian 19th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Costs
Low gas prices are here to stay for the rest of this decade, new official forecasts suggest, raising the prospect of lower fuel bills for consumers. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has slashed its projections for wholesale gas prices for the second year running, cutting its estimate of gas prices for 2020 by 14pc, new figures released on Wednesday show. Wholesale electricity price forecasts, which are linked to gas, have also been revised down again, with 2020 projections cut by 12pc on last year’s – making subsidised renewable energy even more expensive by comparison.
Telegraph 19th Nov 2015 read more »
Utilities
Germany’s RWE could consider pulling out of Britain if it can’t find a way to turn around its Npower business, which has suffered a rapid loss of customers, its chief financial officer told Reuters. RWE is facing the biggest crisis in its 117-year history, grappling with ultra-low wholesale power prices, high exposure to coal and gas and only a small presence in renewables. Its shares are trading around a 24-year low. Bernhard Guenther, RWE’s CFO since 2013, said in the interview it would take at least until 2017 for Npower to return to profit from an expected mid double-digit million-euro loss this year. Investors have questioned whether it is worth keeping. RWE Npower, which employs about 7,000, is among the big six UK household power and gas suppliers – including EDF Energy, E.ON, Centrica’s British Gas, Scottish Power and SSE – which have dominated the market for decades and still control more than 85 percent. But the UK retail market for power and gas is in flux as customers are disenchanted with faceless and expensive large suppliers, turning to smaller new and local firms or aggregators who also sell other services like telecoms.
Reuters 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Japan
Three Japanese reactors have approval to operate for their full licence periods of 40 years after decisions by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). One of the units – Sendai 2 – is already in operation, the other two – Takahama 3 and 4 – are soon to restart. Under Japanese regulations nuclear power plant operators receive a licence that lasts for 40 years, subject to a review at 30 years in which the NRA checks the operator’s maintenance plan for the unit. Success at this 30-year check was announced on 18 November by Kansai Electric Power Company’s Takahama 3 and 4 as well as Kyushu Electric Power Company’s Sendai 2.
World Nuclear News 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Egypt
Russia and Egypt yesterday signed an intergovernmental agreement to collaborate in the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant equipped with four 1200 MWe units in Dabaa. The agreement was signed yesterday in Cairo by Mohamed Shaker, Egypt’s energy minister, and Sergey Kirienko, director general of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom. The signing ceremony was attended by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
World Nuclear News 20th Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Letter: Upon reading “Sunshine revolution: the age of solar power” (November 7), I felt that an important fact was left out, which is that utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies were not emphasised for their cost advantages over residential-based systems. In a recent report conducted by The Brattle Group, we found that utility-scale solar PV technology is more cost effective than residential scale systems as a vehicle for achieving the economic and policy benefits associated with PV solar. Right now, there are around 20,000MW of cumulative solar electric capacity operating in the country and about 60 per cent of that is from utility-scale PV. Larger solar installations are advantageous because utilities place solar panels where they are optimally sited to receive maximum sun exposure. Large-scale solar also scales rapidly – one such plant can supply 30,000 or more homes. C arbon dioxide reductions per installed watt are also twice as high with utility-scale solar compared to residential. Finally, total plant costs are also lower for large-scale PV facilities: utility-scale energy is about half the cost per megawatt basis versus residential rooftop solar ($83/MWh for utility v $167/MWh for residential). These prices are based on historical data, and are not necessarily reflective of current market prices, which continue to rapidly decline. The advantages of utility-scale PV make it essential that we not overlook the role that utility-scale solar has to play in a clean energy future.
FT 21st Nov 2015 read more »
Climate
The UK is reversing its policies on climate change “without offering credible alternatives”, according to an alliance of Britain’s doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), they say that natural disasters, food and water insecurity, the spread of infectious diseases and forced migration “are already affecting human health and provide a glimpse of the near future”.
Guardian 19th Nov 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Since 2007, methane levels over the US, the North Atlantic and Europe have risen sharply, bucking a previous slow downward trend. Satellite observations show that this increase is a result of gas escaping from production wells in the US, and peer-reviewed scientific publications show that the amount released is in the range of 3-15% of total production. This is well above the value that Decc currently assumes in its calculations on greenhouse gas emissions, and – alarmingly – above the threshold where energy production from gas causes more climate change than using coal. Amber Rudd must understand that no fossil fuel is acceptable for future electricity generation and that our security and future prosperity depend on a rapid transition to a zero-carbon economy.
Guardian 19th Nov 2015 read more »
