Torness
A nuclear reactor near Edinburgh shut down on Thursday because its seawater cooling system became clogged with seaweed. This is the second time this year that reactors at Torness in East Lothian have been forced to close because of excessive seaweed. In 2011 it was closed by a swarm of jellyfish. EDF Energy was criticised by the government’s nuclear safety inspectors over a seaweed blockage that closed down a Torness reactor in 2010. Inspectors identified “a number of areas where further enhancement may be possible” in the safety arrangements for dealing with seaweed. In a letter to members of the local liaison committee, Winkle stressed that there was “optimum safety at all times”. He added: “Cooling to the reactors was maintained at all times and there were no health or environmental impacts.” Both reactors at Torness were closed down for several days in May this year by seaweed. In June 2011 they were shut because a swarm of jellyfish had blocked the coolant filters.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Edinburgh Evening News 21st Nov 2013 read more »
STV News 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Hinkley
The UK’s National Grid said Thursday it expects to spend around GBP1 billion ($1.6 billion) on new connections and system reinforcements to the power network to connect up EDF Energy’s planned 3 GW new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset. It said it had been consulting with local communities on its proposals, and expects to spend the cash over a period of five to six years up to the date of connection. Hinkley is expected to start operations in 2023, provided the UK government’s planned contract-for-difference support mechanism receives European Commission approval.
Platts 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Dounreay
The last batch of higher activity liquid waste produced during Dounreay’s Materials Test Reactor (MTR) research reactor reprocessing history was cemented into a drum on November 7. It is an important milestone in the processing of the historic liquid waste created during the operation of Dounreay’s three reactors. Between 1958 and 1966, 13,000 Materials Test Reactor (MTR) fuel elements were reprocessed at Dounreay, including fuel from other reactors in the UK and abroad. The spent fuel was dissolved in acid and the re-usable fuel separated from the waste fission products, with the acidic liquor containing the waste, known as raffinate, being held in underground storage tanks in the neighbouring facility known as D1208. The Dounreay Cement Plant (DCP) has been in operation since 1996 processing the MTR raffinate.
DSRL 19th Nov 2013 read more »
NATIONAL Nuclear Laboratory, the government-owned nuclear technology services provider, has won a £750,000 contract to process waste produced by the Dounreay plant in Scotland. Warrington-based NNL will process ranium carbide fuel, currently held at the Scottish site. The contract is its biggest single piece of work for Dounreay. Processing of this fuel will convert it to the oxide form for long term storage, which is a necessary step to allow shutdown of the site’s fuels facilities. Under the contract, the material will be transported to NNL’s Central Laboratory on the Sellafield site for pre-treatment, while the main processing will ultimately be carried out in the NNL Preston Laboratory.
Business Desk 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Radwaste
Friends of the Lake District urges everyone to respond to a consultation which is looking at a new process for siting an underground store for UK nuclear waste in England.The Government’s current consultation asking for views on a revised process for choosing a site for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) – an underground nuclear waste store – started on 12 September and runs until 5 December 2013. Friends of the Lake District is extremely concerned about the new process for selecting a site for an underground nuclear waste store as outlined by the Department for Energy and Climate Change in the new consultation. Vitally, the decision-making process sidelines county councils’ waste and strategic planning expertise, lacks independent evaluation and it fails to truly engage with all relevant affected groups, organisations and communities, including town and parish councils. Our response to this consultation highlights that the proposed decision-making process represents a step backwards, with fundamental changes needed to gain public confidence and trust. Friends of the Lake District has joined the newly formed Cumbria Trust – A voice for Cumbria.
Friends of the Lake District 19th Nov 2013 read more »
Radiation Free Lakeland were at the Cabinet Meeting of Cumbria County Council today in Carlisle. The meeting was to discuss the Council’s “response” to the latest trap for them set by Government. RaFL have been urging people not to “respond” to this trap directly to but write to DECC and others strongly opposing the “process” which leads to only one outcome – a nuclear dump under Cumbria. Understandably Cumbria County Council are very angry that government is planning to airbrush them out of the picture. The CONsultation was written specifically with Cumbria’s two tier authority of District and County Council in mind. Following the County’s NO vote Government now just wants to make a deal with the few nuclear patsies on Allerdale and Copeland’s District Council Executive.
Radiation Free Lakeland 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Letter Eddie Martin et al: Cumbria Trust is delighted to see from Baroness Verma’s prompt reply that she is an avid reader of The Whitehaven News. Given that the search for a nuclear waste repository is supposed to be a national process, we wonder if this interest extends to all local papers around the UK, or if West Cumbria is singled-out for special treatment? The national consultation which she mentions, appears at first glance to be a positive step. Looking a little more closely, however, we find that the most common recommendation to the “call for evidence”, from 59 per cent of responses, was for a detailed national geological survey to take place BEFORE seeking volunteers from geologically promising areas. This advice has been ignored. A national geological survey would cost around £5million, just 0.025 per cent of the total project cost, and yet we are told that this is too expensive. Just three per cent of responses advocated stripping county councils of their democratic right to choose whether a repository search can go ahead in their county. Strangely, this recommendation has been eagerly adopted. If you wanted to manufacture a process to ensure that an underground repository could be built in West Cumbria, irrespective of local opinion and geological suitability, this is how it would be done.
Whitehaven News 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Letter: The Sellafield Workers’ Campaign has gone on record as saying that we were exceptionally disappointed when Cumbria County Council voted against learning more about a geological disposal facility for radioactive waste in West Cumbria in January even though it was its stated policy. We have welcomed the current national consultation about a national issue in which we have a big stake. Seventy per cent of the waste already exists at Sellafield and we firmly believe it should not remain in a state of perpetual storage – as some would have us believe. If the geology is not suitable then the public can be assured that we will be at the vanguard of any campaign against a GDF. But first let us see what the outcome of the consultation brings.
Whitehaven News 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Letter: If Eddie Martin’s self-appointed, self-important group is so convinced that the geology of our area is unsuited to a deep underground repository, then he has nothing to fear from having that theory tested. Sadly, all the evidence suggests that he and his fellow travellers are terrified of having their assertions scrutinised.
Whitehaven News 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Prime Minister David Cameron may be regretting his previous husky-hugging this morning, after issuing a carefully worded response to claims in the Sun that he ordered aides to ditch “crap” taxes on energy bills. Whether or not he used the phrase, there are some good political reasons why ‘green’ subsidies on bills could be harder to cut than the Sun believes. In the end, the cuts to ‘green subsidies’ announced in December’s Autumn statement may well be cosmetic – designed to pacify a restless media and backbench Tory MPs – than genuinely significant. But the political fight they have prompted, and the damage to the UK’s reputation as a good place to invest in low-carbon technologies, could have more long-lasting effects on the country’s energy policy.
Carbon Brief 21st Nov 2013 read more »
David Cameron was at the centre of a storm on Thursday over whether he ordered aides to “get rid of all the green crap” from energy bills in a drive to bring down costs. The language, attributed to Cameron in the Sun newspaper by a senior Tory source, sparked a furious reaction from campaigners accusing the prime minister of abandoning his promise to run the greenest government ever.There is likely to more detail about the Treasury’s plans to bring down energy bills in next month’s autumn statement about which green taxes will be axed or moved into general taxation. More than half are linked to schemes to cut energy usage among the poor.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
How David Cameron went from ‘greenest government ever’ to ditching ‘green crap’.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Direct action groups including UK Uncut are planning a series of protests at the headquarters of RWE npower, British Gas and other large energy companies. More than a thousand people are expected to demonstrate against the big six next Tuesday – the day that the latest winter mortality figures are published by the Office for National Statistics. Protesters will meet under the banner “Bring down the big six – fuel poverty kills” at Exchange Square in the centre of the City of London before marching with coffins filled with energy bills to npower’s supply and trading offices at Threadneedle Street.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
David Cameron has, according to a gleeful Sun, “switched from concerned green to true blue Tory”. The newspaper reports the prime minister as saying, in reference to the green and social levies that make up 9% of energy bills: “We have got to get rid of all this green crap.” No10’s carefully worded response that they did not recognise the language is essentially irrelevant given Cameron’s repeated promises to “roll back” the green levies. I declared October 2011 as the date the hugged husky died, following a contemptuous anti-green speech by chancellor George Osborne at the Conservative party conference. But according to the Sun, his alleged comments reported on Thursday “signal David Cameron’s extraordinary transformation on the environment is complete”. If so, the prime minister who pledged days after taking office to lead the “greenest government ever” and who campaigned with the slogan “vote blue, go green” has committed an extraordinary betrayal of the British people. Rising energy bills are a deadly serious concern – the UK has the highest level of fuel poverty in the EU bar Estonia – but Cameron’s “roll back” of green levies defies both logic and public opinion. Cowed by anti-green headlines and the climate-change denying wing of his party, Cameron has changed colour. He has turned yellow: not the orange hue of the LibDems who are fighting a losing battle over the coalition’s green credentials but the sickly tone of the coward.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Downing Street has said it does not recognise reports that David Cameron ordered aides to “get rid of all the green crap” from energy bills in a drive to bring down costs.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
A Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister today accused right-wing Conservatives pressing for the scrapping of environmental taxes on energy bills of being “full of crap”. Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, stoked up Coalition tensions as he responded to newspaper claims that David Cameron had instructed aides to “get rid of all this green crap” pushing up gas and electricity prices. Although Downing Street insisted it did not recognise the phrase, the reports triggered anger among senior Liberal Democrats and green groups, as well as an extraordinary attack by a prominent Conservative MP on the Prime Minister. Downing Street’s efforts to play down the report failed to placate the Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, a long-standing environmental campaigner, who attacked the apparent change of heart. He tweeted: “‘If the PM can casually drop something that was so central to his identity, he can drop anything’ – tea room Tory chat.” Mr Cameron told the Commons last month he wanted to “roll back” the green levies which add an average £112 a year to energy bills to fund renewable power subsidies and programmes to insulate homes. An announcement is due on December 5 in Mr Osborne’s autumn statement. Mr Clegg confirmed yesterday that the Warm Homes Discount, which gives a £135 rebate to 2m poorer households, could be switched from fuel bills to general taxes. But he stressed: “We are not going to abandon the long-term objective of making sure we reinvest in our energy infrastructure to keep the lights on.”
Independent 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says the green levies on energy bills are not “all c–p”, after it was reported that David Cameron told ministers to scrap the “green c–p” driving up household energy bills.
Telegraph 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Five of the six companies that own and operate Britain’s local electricity network have been told they must do more to cut costs for consumers. Ofgem said it had sent back the five cost-cutting plans for the period between April 2015 and March 2023 as they did not “sufficiently demonstrate value for consumers”.
Telegraph 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Times 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Energy Supplies
National Grid’s chief executive has warned that Britain’s energy supplies are likely to become even tighter as political interference puts investors off financing new UK power generators. Steve Holliday said that “short-term interventions” by politicians has badly shaken confidence. “I have not felt things under threat in the way I feel today,” he said. “There is a perception among foreign investors that the UK has had multiple political interventions and it needs to be careful.” The investment shortfall that is likely to result from this lack of confidence will further increase the prospect of blackouts in an electricity grid already under heavy pressure following the closure of large chunks of Britain’s generating capacity, much of it due to new laws on power station emissions, Mr Holliday said. Mr Holliday stopped short of naming names, although Mr Miliband is clearly implicated, while well-publicised battles between the gas-focussed chancellor, George Osborne, and the renewable power-friendly Energy secretary are widely regarded to have played a role in scarring investors.
Independent 21st Nov 2013 read more »
A wave of new power plants due to come on line in the next two-and-a-half years have now have now been delayed because of political rows and policy uncertainty – increasing the risk of energy shortages, National Grid has warned. More than half of a series of new plants that had been due to start generating across the UK by March 2016 have now had their start dates pushed back, Steve Holliday, the company’s chief executive, revealed. He said that the delays could worsen the risk of power shortages in the winter of 2015-16 and called on politicians to deliver urgent certainty to investors who are now losing confidence in the British energy sector. He also warned that any short-term policy interventions could prove “very dangerous”.
Telegraph 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Japan – Fukushima
Yakuza gangsters ‘forcing homeless people to work on the Fukushima nuclear plant clear-up… who are fired once they suffer high radiation doses’
Daily Mail 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Video: The Tokyo Electric Power Company begins the removal of nuclear rods from the Fukushima Daiichi plant which was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The plant is being decommissioned in a delicate process which involves removing more than 1,500 potentially damaged rods from the unstable reactor.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Iran – nuclear talks
Negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks inched towards a breakthrough deal on Thursday but will need at least another full day if agreement is to be reached. Baroness Ashton, lead negotiator for the EU countries, has been locked in talks with the Iranian delegation led by Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif. If they succeed it will ease tensions, and fears of war, and give all sides six months to come to a more comprehensive agreement.
Sky News 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Iran and America set out starkly differing positions yesterday as “intensive” talks over Tehran’s nuclear programme appeared to make little headway in Geneva.
Telegraph 21st Nov 2013 read more »
BBC 21st Nov 2013 read more »
How the Iran deal could look.
Telegraph 21st Nov 2013 read more »
As negotiators gather in Geneva, the plot of the American TV drama suggests that Iran and the US still have some way to go to overcome mutual incomprehension.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Iran entrenched its position at nuclear talks in Geneva on Thursday, insisting it would not sign an agreement that did not have specific guarantees of its right to enrich uranium.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
One of Iran’s most respected activists, Emadeddin Baghi, has criticised France’s stance in nuclear talks in Geneva. In a letter addressed to France’s president, François Hollande, Baghi said France’s tough position played into the hands of hardliners in Iran and undermined the work of human rights campaigners who were hurt by international sanctions.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Turkey – new reactors
Turkey is pressing forward with an ambitious nuclear program to provide 10 percent of its electricity needs by 2023 and reduce its dependence on imports of oil and gas for nearly all its energy. Turkey’s first NPP complex is scheduled to include four 1,200 MWe VVER-1200 reactors to be built at Akkuyu under a 2010 agreement between the governments of Russia and Turkey, and scheduled to come online in 2019–22. The Russian Federation’s state-owned firm Rosatom subsidiary Atomstroiekhsport, which, like its competitors U.S. firms General Electric and Westinghouse, France’s Areva and Japan’s Mitsubishi, have been scouring the globe for business. If that is the good news, then the potentially bad news for the Akkuyu NPP site near Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast is that the plant would be built in a region subject to earthquakes.
Oil Price 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Trident
The UK government has dismissed a call from MPs to begin urgent contingency planning in case Scotland votes for independence, despite warnings that a yes vote would threaten the UK nuclear deterrent. The committee said in September that the UK government should quickly begin considering how it would respond to a yes vote in next September’s referendum on Scottish independence. “We consider that, in the event of a ‘Yes’ vote, a safe transition of the nuclear deterrent from HM Naval Base Clyde [Faslane] could not be achieved quickly,” the committee said in its report.
FT 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Renewables – Targets
Germany is seeking to force Britain and other European countries to commit themselves to building many more wind and solar farms under a new European Union target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Berlin is demanding that the 2030 emissions target, which the EU is negotiating as its contribution to a global deal on emissions, should include a minimum level of renewable energy. Britain opposes this and says that countries should be allowed to meet their share of the target by whatever means they choose. This would give Britain the flexibility to focus on cutting carbon dioxide emissions by building more nuclear power stations and conserving energy, rather than by installing wind turbines and solar panels across large tracts of countryside. Britain and Germany debated the 2030 target at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Warsaw yesterday. Ed Davey, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, rejected the German proposal and said that Britain wanted freedom to decide how to cut emissions.
Times 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Coal is making a comeback in power generation. Burning coal produced 42% of our electricity in the last quarter of 2012, up from only 23% in early 2010. There has been a similar resurgence across Europe. Wholesale gas prices remain high (partly because many long-term contracts remain oil-indexed, and oil prices are buoyant), and coal prices are low. As the US has switched to shale gas in power production, US exports of coal to Europe have surged and prices have slumped. From an environmental point of view this is the worst of all possible (fossil fuel) worlds. Coal use in power generation has surged, increasing emissions from the power sector in the UK and across Europe in 2012. As Christine Figueres has just said in the lead up to the Warsaw COP, what we should be doing is the opposite – keeping the coal in the ground.
IGov 21st Nov 2013 read more »
An influential countryside campaign group has called for an open debate on fracking and said that it could be “less damaging” to views of the landscape than other forms of extraction. The intervention by the Campaign to Protect Rural England is helpful to Britain’s emerging shale gas industry, which is seeking to win public support after this summer’s protests over a test well at Balcombe in West Sussex. The CPRE’s new policy on fracking states: “We all have a role to play to reduce our energy consumption but we are realistic and recognise there are no easy solutions to our energy mix if we are to meet our current needs and allow for fuel security in the long-term. “Although shale gas exploitation could reduce the use of more damaging resources such as coal we must also continue to move towards a cleaner, more renewable mix.
Times 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Climate
The world cannot afford to wait any longer to make drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, two new studies have shown, as the United Nations climate change talks in Warsaw enter their final stage. The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that delaying reductions in carbon dioxide output would result in faster global warming, and therefore be more difficult to counteract in future years. This contradicts the arguments that some climate sceptics have put forward that drastic cuts can be delayed until future years, because of the current “pause” in global temperature increases, and the finding by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the climate may be slightly less sensitive to the impact of rising carbon levels than the previous highest estimates.
Guardian 21st Nov 2013 read more »
More than 800 activists from NGOs such as Greenpeace and Oxfam as well as trade unions and social movements have staged a mass walkout of the UN climate talks in Warsaw in protest of the lack of action at the conference.
Independent 21st Nov 2013 read more »
