Nuclear Subsidies
Letter European Commission: The commission has no plans to encourage such aid or to make it easier for member states to grant it. State aid for nuclear power is currently not prohibited by EU rules: member states’ plans in that respect are notified to the commission and assessed directly under the Treaty rules, in the absence of specific commission guidelines in this sector. The purpose of this assessment is to check that such subsidies do not unduly distort competition in the EU single market, as member states are of course free to make their own choices when it comes to nuclear power. The commission is planning to adopt guidelines on state aid for energy and environmental protection in 2014. In that context and given that some member states wish to subsidise nuclear power, the commission is considering whether or not to include in those guidelines specific provisions on state aid for nuclear energy. The guidelines would only set out clear and transparent principles, discussed ex ante with stakeholders, for the assessment of such notifications. The commission has not yet taken a position on whether or not such specific rules are needed and will launch a public consultation in the autumn to gather the views of member states and stakeholders. If no specific provisions are introduced in the guidelines the commission would simply keep assessing notifications under the general Treaty rules on state aid, building specific criteria through its case practice. In any event it should be clear that the commission has no plan whatsoever to “exempt” nuclear power from “the general restrictions on state aid” or even to facilitate the granting of such subsidies compared to the present situation. Each notification by a member state would of course still be subject to a case-by-case analysis by the commission.
FT 22nd July 2013 read more »
The EU is formulating legislation that aims to exempt all nuclear power projects from restrictions on state aid in a move that will be welcomed by the UK and France. Under the plans state aid rules will be changed to make it easier for member countries to subsidise nuclear power, but the news is likely to go down badly in anti-nuclear Berlin.
Power Engineering International 22nd July 2013 read more »
A leaked draft of a European Union (EU) working paper suggesting that member countries may be allowed to directly subsidise nuclear power has prompted widespread consternation. The paper has been drafted by the European Commission’s Competition directorate as part of an ongoing review of guidelines on environmental and energy aid. In it, proposals are set out that could see EU member states allowed to offer limited state aid to support the development of nuclear energy in cases where a specific problem is preventing the ability of the market to deliver the necessary investment by itself. The document then sets out various criteria that would have to be met by any such aid program.
World Nuclear News 22nd July 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Price forecasts – particularly for gas – are being used to justify both public policy (including heavy subsidies to renewables in many parts of Europe) and investments in very expensive sources of supply. But when events start to show that the forecasts are wrong, both policy makers and investors can be left stranded. Here are four reasons why world gas prices are likely to fall.
FT 22nd July 2013 read more »
Report commissioned by DECC from Parson Brinkerhoff provides an update to supporting information on the cost assumptions and technical inputs for non-renewable electricity generation technologies for the DECC Levelised Cost Model.
DECC 17th July 2013 read more »
Energy Policy
Tim Montgomerie: The cash wasted on failed global warming policies would be better spent on tackling the problems faced by the poor. Outside of last week’s welcome but overdue encouragement of fracking, Britain’s statute book is still creaking under the weight of yesteryear’s laws and their commitments to invest in expensive green energies. Until those laws are repealed British businesses and consumers will be paying a very high price for no earthly benefit.
Times 22nd July 2013 read more »
Nigel Lawson attacked environmentalists in 2009 for their “alarmist” attitude to it. He is not a climate change denier but believes that scientists, in their eagerness to prevent problems tomorrow, are too casual about economic growth today. “The greens are the new Reds,” he tells me over coffee in the House of Lords. “They have the same enemy but they are distinct. The Reds were professionally optimistic. They believed in a better world. The greens are professionally pessimistic, and would have us believe that we are about to be broiled to death or wiped off the face of the Earth. But the two appeal to the same constituencies, those who have lost their religion and are looking for a new meaning of life. The environmental cause is not a matter of reason but of belief.”
Telegraph 19th July 2013 read more »
Ed Balls understands that, to have economic credibility, he needs to understand where the biggest potential UK investments are right now. Those are indisputably going into low carbon infrastructure. And this isn’t niche. They regularly feature on the front page of the FT, so it has to matter to someone who wants to run the economy. Referring to Green Alliance’s recent analysis of low carbon infrastructure, Balls himself said he was “particularly struck by the fact that, in offshore wind alone, investment planned and in the pipeline is worth more than all planned spending on gas, roads and airports combined”.
Business Green 23rd July 2013 read more »
Cumbria
LAND once earmarked for a new nuclear power station in Cumbria has been sold. The land at Kirksanton, near Millom, has been sold to the existing tenants by owners RWE npower for an undisclosed fee. The proposals for the site in Kirksanton were first tabled in 2009 along with plans for Braystones, in West Cumbria by the firm. In 2011, the Government published its Energy National Policy Statement (NPS), which did not include the sites in Cumbria – instead naming NuGen’s Moorside site, near Sellafield as the preferred option.
NW Evening Mail 22nd July 2013 read more »
Proliferation
Dr David Lowry examines the historical role of Britain’s civilian nuclear exports in the weapons programmes of countries like North Korea, and fears that the latest government initiatives will lead to history repeating itself. Article from SGR Newsletter no.42, autumn 2013; advance online publication: 22 July 2013. The veteran Labour politician, Tony Benn, who was responsible for the British nuclear power programme in the late 1960s, was asked by The Times if he had made any political mistakes in his life. He responded: “Yes, nuclear power. I was told, when I was in charge of it, that atomic energy was cheap, safe and peaceful. It isn’t.” Since the 1950s there has been widespread sympathy and support – by both political and scientific leaders – for nuclear power. This is despite clear evidence that the spread of civilian nuclear technologies and materials has contributed to nuclear weapons proliferation. This article looks at some examples from Britain’s nuclear history, and questions why our government is, once again, ramping up its support for nuclear exports.
Scientists for Global Responsibility 22nd July 2013 read more »
Plutonium
Communication Received from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Concerning its Policies Regarding the Management of Plutonium.
IAEA 22nd July 2013 read more »
Protest
Revellers at a festival in Suffolk were given an impromptu taste of musical protest when German electronic legends Kraftwerk made a stand against nuclear power over the weekend. A crowd of thousands gathered to watch the group headline on the main stage at Latitude on Saturday night. The group played a remix of their 1975 tune called “Radioactivity” which included references to an English nuclear waste processing site and Fukushima, the 2011 Japanese nuclear disaster.
Energy Live News 22nd July 2013 read more »
Russia
Backed by President Vladimir Putin, state-run atomic energy company Rosatom is redoubling its efforts to sell to developing countries such as China, India, and Vietnam. Now a player in almost every global tender, it is marketing the legacy of the former USSR’s own nuclear disaster, at Chernobyl in 1986, as a lesson learned in nuclear safety. “We want to make profits out of nuclear energy. We want to power the world,” Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko, a reform-minded politician and Russia’s youngest-ever prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, told the IAEA forum.
Reuters 22nd July 2013 read more »
Japan
You might not want to eat your vegetables for an entirely new reason after seeing some strange fruit and veggies that reportedly have turned up in villages surrounding Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Images of the bizarrely deformed flora – which range from tomatoes with tumor-like growths to monstrous cabbage and conjoined peaches – turned up on the website Imgur this week, with the title, “Effects from the Fukushima radiation disaster?”
ABC News 18th July 2013 read more »
Actor Taro Yamamoto, an independent newcomer who campaigned on a platform of abandoning nuclear power generation, was elected to the Upper House on July 21 from the Tokyo five-seat district for the first time.
Asahi Shimbun 22nd July 2013 read more »
The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Monday admitted for the first time that radioactive groundwater has leaked out to sea, fuelling fears of ocean contamination. The admission came the day after Japanese voters went to the polls in an election for the upper house, handing the largely pro-nuclear party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a handsome majority. Earlier this month Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said groundwater samples taken at the battered plant showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 had shot up more than 110 times in a few days.
Fox News 22nd July 2013 read more »
FT 23rd July 2013 read more »
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has won a majority in the upper house, ending a political stalemate as he now controls both houses of parliament. The reshuffle paves the way for Japan to return to nuclear power, in a move poised to curb LNG imports and reduce the share of gas for power generation. All but two of the Japan’s 50 nuclear reactors are currently mothballed and refused permission to operate. However, newly adapted safety regulation may help operators to restart their nuclear plants.
Gas to Power Journal 22nd July 2013 read more »
France
France’s daily nuclear availability outlook fell Monday after EDF delayed the restart of several reactors, the latest data from grid operator RTE shows. EDF notified the grid Monday that the 900 MW Fessenheim 1 reactor is to be restarted on Wednesday, two days later than Sunday’s forecast. The restart of the 1.5 GW Civaux 1 reactor was delayed from Thursday to Saturday, and the restart of the 900 MW St Laurent 2 reactor was delayed from Thursday to July 29, according to data published early Monday. As a result, the national nuclear outlook for Tuesday fell by 700 MW on the day to 45.2 GW, and there were larger drops for days later in the week.
Platts 22nd July 2013 read more »
French Environment Minister Philippe Martin on Sunday confirmed the closure of the country’s oldest nuclear plant of Fessenheim by the end of 2016, a local paper reported. In an interview with the weekly Le Journal de Dimanche (JDD), the newly-appointed minister said “Francois Hollande’s nuclear commitments will be held in the five-year period.”
Shanghai Daily 21st July 2013 read more »
Energy Business Review 22nd July 2013 read more »
US
“Worrisome” spike in deadly birth defects around leaking U.S. nuclear site — Officials claim “it could be a complete coincidence” — No news reports mention it’s by the most contaminated area in Western Hemisphere Hanford.
Energy News 22nd July 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
A new interactive map lets users nuke any location in the world with a nuclear bomb of their choosing. The Nukemap 3D uses Google Earth images to simulate the nuclear attack and bases the animations on how mushroom clouds have behaved using information from various nuclear tests since the 1940s. Users can select a location, choose their weapon and their viewing location, and see the bomb drop and the cloud develop. The altitude of the cloud, how far it spreads and the number of casualties is also shown.
Daily Mail 22nd July 2013 read more »
Renewables
More than 400 solar PV system owners are taking part in a new smart grid project designed to shed light on how Britain can become low-carbon. The Customer-led Network Revolution (CLNR) project will monitor users across the North East of England and Yorkshire to determine their energy consumption and generation habits. Trials are already underway with the data being analysed by academics from Durham University.
Solar Portal 22nd July 2013 read more »
Footage of the Oyster 800 in waves over eight metres high at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney. Waves this severe are encountered less than 1% of the time. To give an idea of scale, the Oyster 800 machine is 26 metres wide and 12 metres high, and the largest waves are higher than a two storey house.
Guardian 22nd July 2013 read more »
Former first minister Lord McConnell is to chair an expert panel which energy giant SSE claims could allocate £90m to local communities over the next 25 years. The panel was set up by SSE to decide who should receive payments in areas where it is constructing a wind farm. The new fund will be available to groups such as non-profit-making organisations and charities. Projects it will support include those which promote skills development. The first round of funding will be for groups in the Highlands, with £325,000 available when applications open in September.
BBC 22nd July 2013 read more »
Herald 23rd July 2013 read more »
Scotsman 23rd July 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Energy efficient street lighting in Bristol set to save the council £500k a year.
Business Green 22nd July 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Local communities are set to lose control over key environmental decisions affecting whether fracking can go ahead within their midst, it is claimed. Campaigners opposing the industrial-scale exploitation of shale gas reserves in the British countryside said the Government has removed key democratic controls in its dash to bring unconventional energy resources on stream. Under planning guidelines published last week, councils will no longer be able to investigate issues such as seismic activity, flaring and venting as well as the potential impact on ground water supplies before granting planning permission for new wells.
Independent 22nd July 2013 read more »
Climate
Huge amounts of heat – equivalent to the power of 150 billion electric kettles – are being continuously absorbed by the deep ocean, which could explain why global warming has “paused” over the past 10 to 15 years, scientists have concluded in a series of reports to explain why the Earth’s rate of warming has slowed down.
Independent 22nd July 2013 read more »
Times 23rd July 2013 read more »
Guardian 22nd July 2013 read more »
Herald 23rd July 2013 read more »
Slowing or not, the trajectory of global temperatures remains unremittingly upwards and our output of carbon dioxide only increases Evidence from the Met Office that the rise in global temperatures has flattened out in recent years is grist to the mill of those who would deny the existence of climate change. Warming does appear to have “paused” – where the average rate of increase over the 30 years from 1970 was 0.17 C per decade, since then it has dropped to 0.04 C. Yet, with a leap of logic that defies good sense, sceptics conclude that all computer modelling is therefore flawed and the dangers of a steadily warming planet overblown. If only it were true; but it is not. Slowing or not, the trajectory remains unremittingly upwards and our output of carbon dioxide only increases. In May, the concentration in the atmosphere passed 400 parts per million for the first time in several million years.
Independent 22nd July 2013 read more »
