Nuclear Subsidy
The renewable power industry has been given a shot in the arm after Alistair Darling’s budget announced over £5bn worth of new funding to hasten an offshore wind revolution and kick-start solar. But there are concerns that oil and even nuclear were being given help and the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) warned that other important obstacles, such as electrical grid connections and planning delays, remained for wind schemes. David Lowry, asked whether this was a small but significant breach of its promise not to give any kind of subsidies to the atomic power sector. Doug Parr, the chief scientist at Greenpeace, said: “Nuclear has had 50 years to get its act together. It should not need more money and this is cash that could and should have all all gone to renewables.”
Guardian 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
BERR Press Release 22nd Apr 2009 more >>
New Nukes
Letters: (1) John Bruce Elliot perpetuates the myth that nuclear fuel will be depleted in the near future because reserves of high grade uranium ore are finite. This is akin to the 16th-century fear that England would run out of trees for charcoal to be used in iron production, just before the introduction of coal for smelting. (2) An Energy Secretary who wants to replace ageing nuclear reactors with new ones without a policy for dealing with the waste they produce shouldn’t even get a hearing.
Scotsman 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
The amount of money generated by the nuclear sector in the north west could double in the next 10 years, an expert has said. Professor Paul Howarth, of the Dalton Nuclear Institute at Manchester University, said the industry could grow to be worth an estimated £5 billion a year. West Cumbria will contribute significantly to that figure, particularly if new reactors are built at the area’s three candidate sites: Sellafield, Braystones, near Egremont and Kirksanton, near Millom.
Business Gazette 22nd Apr 2009 more >>
At the risk of embarrassing environmental activists, it seems to me that the greatest scope for creating a large number of well paid, highly skilled green-collar jobs lies in the development of the nuclear power industry. On this front, the Government is doing rather a good job. It has set up an Office of Nuclear Development to encourage the new investment needed to ensure the lights won’t go out as old power stations are closed. And while the UK will have to farm out the construction of new plants to foreign companies, British companies are already world leaders in the nuclear supply chain. The inconvenient truth is that if you are hell-bent on becoming a green-collar worker, your best chance is to join the car or the nuclear industry.
Telegraph 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
Millom
Angry residents were out in force last night to quiz representatives from RWE npower, which is planning to build a power station on farmland at Layriggs in Kirksanton, during a public debate at Millom School. Kirksanton business owner Lorraine Wilson attacked the representatives over fears tourism could not be sustained if the plant is given the go-ahead. Ms Wilson joined almost 200 people who crammed into the school’s Alexandra Hall, to have their say before the month-long consultation process ends on May 14.
NW Evening Mail 22nd Apr 2009 more >>
Letters about Cumbrian reactor proposals.
Whitehaven News 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
NDA
Nearly £4m worth of bonuses have been paid to public servants working in Britain’s nuclear industry, it has emerged.
Personnel Today 22nd Apr 2009 more >>
Accountancy Magazine 22nd Apr 2009 more >>
US
No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today. “We may not need any, ever,” Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum. The FERC chairman’s comments go beyond those of other Obama administration officials, who have strongly endorsed greater efficiency and renewables deployment but also say nuclear and fossil energies will continue playing a major role.
Greenwire 22nd Apr 2009 more >>
Scientific American 22nd Apr 2009 more >>
Three new nuclear power plants in the next ten years, max. That was the consensus among the experts attending Tuesday’s morning session on nuclear power at Fortune’s Brainstorm: Green conference. Maybe five, said one lonely voice. Either way, that’s far from the nuclear renaissance we were reading about just a couple of years ago. What happened? No1 Global recession; No2, sinking natural; gas prices; No. 3, the credit crunch.
Fortune 22nd Apr 2009 more >>
Japan
The long-pending issue of selecting candidate sites for constructing a national disposal site for high-level radioactive waste has again been thrown in the air after a mayor suddenly backed out of a plan to allow the disposal facility to be built in his town in Fukushima Prefecture.
Daily Yomiuri 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
Trident
A LOCAL environment group has lodged a complaint with West Berkshire Council over the handling of a planning application at AWE in Burghfield. The Nuclear Awareness Group (NAG), based in Reading, have written to the council outlining their concerns about the way plans to build a new nuclear warhead facility were handled.
Newbury News, 22 April 2009 more >>
Reading Evening Post, 21 April 2009 more >>
Green Jobs
As a programme for a green recovery, Alistair Darling’s Budget left a lot to be desired, environmental campaigners chorused yesterday – but it still contained measures that were undeniably significant in environmental terms. They included £525m of new support over the next two years for offshore wind projects, which have languished in the recession; £435m of support to deliver energy efficiency measures to homes and other buildings; and £405m to encourage low-carbon energy and advanced green manufacturing in Britain. Furthermore, the proven energy-saving technology of combined heat and power (CHP) was given a shot in the arm with the announcement that plants using CHP will be exempt from the Climate Change Levy from 2013, while the still-to-be proven technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS) was given new impetus with the announcement that the CCS demonstration plant the Government has been planning will now become two plants, and possibly even four.
Independent 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
Telegraph 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
Adam Bruce, chairman of the British Wind Energy Association said: “This package of measures deserves a welcome from our industry. It also restates the Government’s long-term commitment to the renewable energy sector, and should enable us to unlock up to £10bn of private-sector investment in wind and marine energy projects over the coming few years.”
Telegraph 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
Solar
“This was a good day” for solar power, according to Andrew Lee, general manager of Sharp Solar UK, after the chancellor announced £45m for small-scale renewable energy. Mr Lee had feared the government would leave solar power companies in limbo, because one subsidy system had ended and the new regime will not be introduced until next year.
FT 23rd Apr 2009 more >>
