New Nukes
The Government has today been forced to remove a controversial clause from its new Energy Bill which could have made the nuclear industry eligible for bailouts following opposition from Conservative and Lib Dem MPs. Ministers argued that the clause – highlighted by Friends of the Earth in April – was essential because it reduced risk for those investing in nuclear power. Friends of the Earth and others said it didn’t reduce risk, it simply transferred it from nuclear companies to the taxpayer – effectively a subsidy. Ministers are expected to introduce an amended clause at a later stage in the Energy Bill. Under existing law, Ministers must agree a clean-up plan and the funding arrangements required with any company building a new nuclear power station. Crucially however, Ministers can amend these plans should something happen which means new safety measures are required, or there is another unforseen change in circumstances. The proposed clause 102 (now withdrawn from the Bill) would have allowed Ministers to promise the companies they would not change these plans, unless they agreed. This made it possible for nuclear companies to refuse to agree to new safety measures unless Government funded them.
FoE Press Release 21st June 2011 more >>
Oldbury
Land at a nuclear plant near Bristol could be reused after a project said there was no risk from radiation. The study, at Oldbury power station, saw soil analysed to assess the impact of nuclear operations over the past 50 years. It means that 32 hectares (79 acres) of land around the station could be reused. The remaining 39 hectares (96 acres) are made up of the plant including the turbine hall and reactor buildings. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) issued the variation to Oldbury’s licence which releases the land for future use.
BBC 21st June 2011 more >>
Hinkley
A corner of the Somerset Levels could be about to change forever with plans for three separate wind farms and a new pylon route.
Western Daily Press 21st June 2011 more >>
ANTI-NUCLEAR group Stop Hinkley says it will be campaigning at this weeks Glastonbury Festival. Members will be displaying flags with anti-nuclear slogans, running a campaign stall and playing a short film supported by Greenpeace.
This is the West Country 22nd June 2011 more >>
Energy Supplies
Green Alliance said the UK’s first dash for gas in the 1990s was good for the country because it brought down carbon emissions and electricity prices as power generation switched from more-polluting coal to gas. But the UK now has a slew of new gas plants, being built or planned, and a report from the think tank warns that they could lead to the UK missing its carbon targets for the 2020s. Fitting gas-fired power stations with unproven technology to capture and “permanently” store emissions once they have been built, to cut carbon, could increase the cost of producing electricity for firms who will pass the extra cost onto customers. Alternatively, if the Government presses ahead with its plans for new nuclear power plants and a much bigger role for renewables, it could make redundant up to half the number of the gas plants expected on the grid by 2030, wasting £10 billion in investment.
Telegraph 22nd June 2011 more >>
Ofgem has told Britains big six energy suppliers that sweeping reforms are needed to the retail gas and electricity market to encourage competition as prices rise. Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem chief executive, said: We will pursue breaking up the stranglehold of the Big Six on the electricity market to encourage more firms, like new arrival the Co-op, to enter the energy market and increase the competitive pressure. Ofgem said that wholesale energy costs had risen by 30 per cent since December, making competition in the gas and electricity market even more important. However, Centrica, EDF Energy, Scottish and Southern Energy, ScottishPower, E.ON and RWE npower have escaped a damaging formal investigation by the Competition Commission that could have taken up to 18 months to complete.
Times 22nd June 2011 more >>
First Utility, the UKs largest independent energy supplier with more than 60,000 customers, has warned that Ofgems plans are unlikely to boost competition as it claims. One of the key reforms that Ofgem announced in March, after its latest retail market review, was to force the Big Six to auction up to a fifth of the electricity they generate to help new entrants such as First Utility to gain a bigger share of the market. According to First Utilitys submission to Ofgem, all the power generated by the Big Six should be auctioned, rather than up to a fifth.
Times 22nd June 2011 more >>
World Nukes
Japan will not stop using nuclear power. Instead, its engineers will develop better and safer plants, most likely relying on the miniaturised nuclear reactors that were planned to replace the ageing plant at Fukushima. Most Japanese have remained rational in the face of their country’s tragedy, as have most people in neighbouring Asian countries like China and South Korea, which, likewise, have not abandoned their commitment to nuclear energy. This is not the case in Europe and the United States, where Fukushima’s ideological aftershocks have been most destructive. German chancellor Angela Merkel’s government was the first to decide to close down all nuclear reactors in the coming years – a radical move driven by domestic politics. Ms Merkel’s government does not include Germany’s Greens, but the Green ideology has become a widely shared national creed in Germany.
Scotsman 22nd June 2011 more >>
IAEA
In a burst of activity on Monday, the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) despatched the two potentially exciting documents of its week-long ministerial meeting into the public domain.This is the meeting where IAEA member governments decide what changes they want to make to international regulation of nuclear industries, among other things. And in the wake of the biggest nuclear accident for 25 years, at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power station, this was clearly one where major shake-ups were possible. The most likely candidate for change was the regime of international inspection, which is currently very light-touch. In the run-up to the meeting, German and Swiss ministers alarmed by the proximity of French and Czech reactors to their borders said that governments should have the right to see safety assessments compiled by neighbouring states. And in his opening speech to the IAEA assembly, its chief Yukiya Amano suggested that countries should have to open their doors to inspectors sent by the IAEA on spot-check missions. To no-one’s great surprise, neither option proved palatable to governments conscious of the near total sovereignty they retain over nuclear safety.
BBC 21st June 2011 more >>
Emergency Planning
New details have emerged of how seriously the British government was bracing itself for a full scale nuclear crisis in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster. Documents show how advisers rushed to work out how bad the crisis might get, and the plans drawn up for ‘the worst case scenario’ to protect British citizens – including the British Embassy in Tokyo issuing iodine pills to expats and visitors in the capital and Sendai, 70 miles from Fukushima.
Daily Mail 21st June 2011 more >>
Scotland
Patrick Harvie (Green) MSP: A shift to renewables will mean a substantial short-term increase in investment, but alternatives like carbon capture technology or nuclear won’t give us a free ride they, too, would require huge investment. In the longer term, though, relying on Scotland’s own wind, wave and tidal resources will certainly be cheaper than continued dependence on diminishing supplies of fossil or nuclear fuel even without considering the much higher capital cost of nuclear power. That calculation also leaves out the employment and economic opportunities that come from moving quickly into this growing market. That’s one Green way to cut bills for the long term but the other route is support for energy efficiency. A Scotland-wide programme to insulate every home would pay for itself, region by region, in just 18 months, cutting household bills as well as emissions. Those benefits should be available for everyone, not just home-owners who are well off enough to pay for the work themselves.
Scotsman 22nd June 2011 more >>
US
AP defines the process as fudging of calculations and assumptions to yield answers that enable plants with deteriorating conditions to remain in compliance. In one of the examples cited in the report, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has twice raised the acceptable level of radiation damage reactor vessels can sustain, after several plants violated or came close to violating the original standard.
Forbes 21st June 2011 more >>
An investigation by AP reveals how the industry has found a simple solution to ageing: weaken safety standards until creaking plants meet them.
Guardian 21st June 2011 more >>
Dangerous radiation has leaked from three-quarters of all U.S. nuclear power stations raising fears the country’s water supplies could one day be contaminated. The number and severity of leaks has increased because of the many old and unsafe plants across America, a new investigation has claimed. Radioactive tritium has escaped at least 48 of 65 of all U.S. sites, often entering water around the plants through rusty old pipes.
Daily Mail 21st June 2011 more >>
UK Daily Nuclear News reported on the story below about spent fuel storage in the US on 25th May when it covered:
IB Times 24th May 2011 more >>
Here is the original Bob Alvarez article. U.S. reactors have generated about 65,000 metric tons of spent fuel, of which 75 percent is stored in pools, according to Nuclear Energy Institute data. Spent fuel rods give off about 1 million rems (10,00Sv) of radiation per hour at a distance of one foot enough radiation to kill people in a matter of seconds. There are more than 30 million such rods in U.S. spent fuel pools. No other nation has generated this much radioactivity from either nuclear power or nuclear weapons production. Even though they contain some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet, U.S. spent nuclear fuel pools are mostly contained in ordinary industrial structures designed to merely protect them against the elements. Some are made from materials commonly used to house big-box stores and car dealerships.
Institute for Policy Studies 24th May 2011 more >>
U.S. regulators see room to improve safety at the country’s nuclear power plants even though tests after the Fukushima disaster have shown they are fundamentally sound, the top U.S. watchdog said on Tuesday. More than two-thirds of the way through a 90-day task force review to see if the Japanese catastrophe had exposed any issues that needed quick action, a mixed picture was emerging, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said.
Reuters 21st June 2011 more >>
Japan
Japanese parents living near the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant issued an “emergency petition” on Tuesday, demanding the government do more to protect their children from radiation exposure. A coalition of six citizens’ and environmental groups called for the evacuation of children and pregnant women from radiation hotspots, stricter monitoring and the early closure of schools for summer holidays. They voiced concern that authorities had focused on testing for radiation in the environment and not on people’s internal exposure through inhaling or ingesting radioactive isotopes through dust, food and drinks.
AFP 21st June 2011 more >>
Germany
Plans by the German government to axe all the country’s nuclear power stations by 2022 are under threat from legal action by aggrieved energy companies that claim Berlin’s plans are unconstitutional.
Telegraph 21st June 2011 more >>
France
France will unveil in the next few weeks a substantial rise in research funds for nuclear safety in the aftermath of Japan’s nuclear crisis, a ministerial source told Reuters on Monday.
Reuters 20th June 2011 more >>
Czech Republic
In October, a huge project to build two nuclear reactors begins in earnest with the publication of the tender parameters. The importance of this deal for the three bidders – France’s Areva, Westinghouse Electric of the US and a Russo-Czech consortium led by Atomstroyexport of Russia – promises to make this a hard-fought battle. Public opinion is not a worry – a recent G allup poll found national support for nuclear power at 63 per cent, even after events in Japan. A more likely source of trouble is financing. The cost of building Europe’s first pressurised water reactor in Finland was estimated by Areva at 3bn in 2003, but has since grown to about 6bn amid delays. Together with the possibility of further safety measures stemming from the EU’s reactor stress tests and uncertainties over the price and demand forecasts for electricity, some believe state guarantees will be needed to finance Temelin’s expansion. “Without state guarantees, this project is dead,” says Jan Ondrich of Candole Partners, a consultancy, adding there are echoes of the collapse in 2010 of Constellation Energy’s plan to build a reactor in the US, after the company could not accept the conditions attached to a $7.5bn federal loan guarantee.
FT 22nd June 2011 more >>
Russia
The Russian Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov has completed successful tests of the world’s first aerial transport container for spent nuclear fuel from research reactors. The Russian Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov in Nizhnii Novgorod oblast undertook the reportedly successful tests, the Press Center of Nuclear Energy and Industry reported. The tests involved transport packaging containers for transporting spent nuclear fuel from TUK-145/S research reactors by air and were undertaken in order ascertain that the containers met the requirements of Russian and international regulations applied for S-type containers used for transporting research reactors spent nuclear fuel by air.
Oil Price 22nd June 2011 more >>
Iran
A journalist from Qom who says he originally wrote the hypothetical piece in April on what would happen if Iran conducted its first nuclear test, which caused quite a stir after it was republished by Gerdab, a website run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Guardian 21st June 2011 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
A movie that charts the history of the atomic bomb has been dubbed “the horror film to end all horrors”. Countdown To Zero is produced by filmmaker Lawrence Bender and is being screened as part of an international campaign called Global Zero. The campaign is working for the phased elimination of nuclear weapons.
Sky News 22nd June 2011 more >>
Submarines
A US nuclear submarine nearly ran aground, following an incident in which two of its crewmen died near Plymouth, a report has revealed. The attack submarine the USS Minneapolis-St Paul was trying to leave Plymouth Sound after a visit to Devonport naval base in 2006 when it hit rocks and became stuck with consequences that could have been “catastrophic”, the Royal Navy report, released through the Freedom of Information Act, said.
Independent 22nd June 2011 more >>
Telegraph 21st June 2011 more >>
Earlier submarine accidents.
Telegraph 21st June 2011 more >>
Renewables
A floating doughnut wave energy device has so excited a French multinational engineering giant that it has bought 40 per cent of the Inverness company that makes it. Alstom, maker of the French TGV high-speed train, was so impressed by the device designed by AWS Ocean Energy, a rediscovery of a forgotten 1980s technology, that it has made its first investment in the wave energy sector. The move is a huge coup for the Inverness company, which employs just 14 people. Investments of this type are normally only made when the design has been proven to work as a full-size prototype. But AWS has so far only tried out a one-ninth scale model of their machine in the calmer conditions of Loch Ness, rather than the more hostile conditions it will encounter at sea.
Times 22nd June 2011 more >>
PA 22nd June 2011 more >>
BBC 2nd June 2011 more >>
SCOTLAND’S renewables sector has marked two further breakthroughs following the launch of a large-scale solar deal in the Borders and confirmation of a major investment in a Highlands wave energy business. Global power and infrastructure group Alstom has taken a 40 per cent stake in AWS Ocean Energy of Inverness, paving the way for its workforce to double to 30. The agreement, welcomed last night by First Minister Alex Salmond, marks the first investment in wave energy by Alstom. London-based ISIS solar has raised 2 million to install solar equipment at rural businesses within the Borders Machinery Ring, a co-operative of farmers and contractors with more than 850 members. About 20 applicants will benefit initially, but ISIS expects this to exceed 100 within weeks, and is already looking to expand the offer elsewhere in Scotland. The announcement comes within weeks of the UK government’s decision to significantly reduce the feed-in tariff for larger solar installations of 50kW or more. This does not affect ISIS, whose arrays are on a smaller scale.
Scotsman 22nd June 2011 more >>
