Sellafield
Letter Martin Forwood: The controversy of Cumbria County Council’s democratic decision against moving on to the next stage of the MRWS process has thrown up an illuminating insight into exactly how beneficial Sellafield has been to West Cumbria over the last half century. How, if the industry they support has been such a good neighbour, has such a shabby state been reached? The answer of course is that, having once been sacrificed on the altar of the UK’s nuclear weapons programme of the 1940s and 50s, the increasingly commercial nuclear industry in West Cumbria has simply ridden roughshod over the area in its efforts to entrench itself so deeply in the local fabric that local communities would have no option but to live with it irrespective of the socio-economic and environmental damage it was actually doing. The rather obvious correlation between this tawdry track record, both legacy and current, and the present state of West Cumbria – the blighted backwater described by those who apparently saw an underground dump as the area’s last chance saloon – strongly suggests that any prospect of new reactors, new MOX plants or other pipedreams actually rescuing West Cumbria from its current impoverished state are as remote as the promises of the industry’s ‘Trust Us’ brigade have proved to be hollow and worthless. Those politicians and local authorities who persist in dragging West Cumbria to the level of a nuclear pariah state from which there is no return might well reflect on the old saying ‘and who would run, that’s moderately wise, a certain danger for a doubtful prize’ ?
Whitehaven News 22nd Feb 2013 read more »
Plutonium
Britain has accumulated the biggest stockpile of civil plutonium in the world. What was once a valued asset is now viewed as a costly liability and a target for terrorists. Previous attempts to deal with the stockpile have gone wrong and the government now faces a dilemma. Should it try to turn the stuff into nuclear fuel or write off the plutonium altogether?
BBC 24th Feb 2013 read more »
Energy Supplies
What Britain really needs to do is press ahead with building gas-fired power stations, encourage firms to start exploiting shale gas deposits – potentially a rich source of cheap energy – and support nuclear. Alas, not all the parties grasp this. During its time in power, Labour turned its back on coal and nuclear to allay understandable fears about environmental damage. Instead, it signed the country up to ambitious targets for cutting CO2 emissions and committed us to wind as a way to plug gaps in energy supply. Mr Huhne’s colourful record, the by-election in his former constituency and the troubling news abo ut our growing energy gap, ought to clarify the politics for people as they make their choice: on one side we have Labour and the Lib Dems stuck in an outdated mindset, when bold emissions targets and wind power seemed feasible; on the other, the good news is that the Tories understand that while protecting the environment is important, so is getting the economy moving.
Telegraph 24th Feb 2013 read more »
Governments have taken suicidal gambles with our energy supplies. Readers of this column might have been astonished by the media response last week to that warning by Alistair Buchanan, retiring head of the energy regulator Ofgem, that next month we will see the closure of five major coal-fired power stations that between them contribute nearly a sixth of the UK’s average electricity needs. Over the next few years, Mr Buchanan feared, we will be dangerously close to not having enough power in the grid to keep Britain’s lights on.
Telegraph 24th Feb 2013 read more »
Eco-tastrophe! How MPs in the pay of subsidised eco-firms set insane new carbon targets that send your bills sky-rocketing… and drag us to a new Dark Age. MP Tim Yeo was paid £135,970 last year by three ‘green’ companies. He has moved an amendment to the Energy Bill that would set a crippling target for the amount of carbon dioxide by generating power in 2030
Daily Mail 24th Feb 2013 read more »
EFFORTS to tackle climate change are at serious risk from the global recession, according to one of Britain’s leading energy executives. Andrew Gould, chairman of BG Group, the UK’s third biggest oil and gas producer, warned the economic crisis will have “dire consequences” on attempts to limit emissions. In an address to the oil industry in Aberdeen, Gould cautioned that low gas prices in America had displaced millions of tonnes of coal on to the Atlantic market, causing the price of coal to drop in Europe, where gas has now become increasingly expensive. There has been a renaissance in the use of open fires and multi-fuel stoves to heat homes, often using carbonproducing coal.
Sunday Times 24th Feb 2013 read more »
ONE million homes narrowly escaped a power cut last month as bitterly cold weather placed a massive strain on Britain’s creaking electricity network. Shutdown was only avoided because a gas-fired station due to close by next winter came to the rescue. Last night experts warned that life-threatening blackouts are increasingly likely as “we head downhill – fast”. The EU “large combustion plant directive”, aimed at cutting airborne pollution, will force ageing power stations to close by 2015. But they will be shut down before that if they use their allocated generating time earlier. This comes at a time when almost all the country’s nuclear power stations are due to shut down because they have reached the end of their working lives. But although the Government has made a commitment to building new nuclear stations there are no agreements in place to construct them and even the start of building work is some years away. The Energy Bill before Parliament which is due to receive Royal Assent by the end of the year is designed to foster investment in renewable and nuclear power through guarantees backed by taxpayer subsidy. However critics say it has failed to move with changing dynamics of the energy market which now favours gas following the discovery of huge amounts of shale gas in the US and extensive potential supplies in Britain. But even building dozens of new gas plants to fill the generation gap looming in 2015 would mean even higher bills for families and businesses.
Express 24th Feb 2013 read more »
Once upon a time it seemed that 2020 and the phasing out of dirty coal-fired power stations was so far off no one really needed to think much about it. North Sea oil was gushing and wind power hadn’t yet been shown to stop working every time you needed it. Liquefied natural gas, though expensive, appeared to be on offer in huge quantities and Russia hadn’t started putting its supplies of gas to Europe at risk by spats with its Ukrainian neighbour when it felt obliged to turn off the taps. Fast forward a few years and it would be hard to find a greater indictment of our long-term infrastructure thinking than the failure to provide properly for the future energy needs of the nation. It now looks as though the share of gas is going to increase to about two thirds over the next five or six years. It will be even higher if a nuclear-building programme does not start soon.A decision to turn the first sod under Hinkley Point should surely have been taken by now but the Government is still in advanced wrangles with EDF, the only firm still standing in the quest to build new nuclear plants following the recent decision by Centrica that it would withdraw from its partnership with the French firm.
This is Money 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
Alistair Buchanan is not the sort of chap to exaggerate. So when the out-going chief executive of Ofgem warned last week that the UK is facing higher energy prices and a knife-edge, Waterloo-style battle to keep the lights on, then we should start to stockpile the candles. Even if nuclear gets off the ground it’s not going to be ready for at least another decade, if at all. Power from renewable sources – off or onshore wind or biomass – is only running in single digits and is not secure. Thankfully, on-shore wind is tailing off but even the slightly more palatable off-shore wind is becoming more uneconomic as the Government cuts subsidies. Centrica – which has already pulled out of nuclear – is in two minds about developing its next generation of off-shore wind power as the returns are so marginal. What we need is an independent commission – headed by someone like Buchanan and experts from industry – to stake out a thoughtful and long-term strategy and stick to it so that businesses can plan for the future.
Independent 24th Feb 2013 read more »
Oldbury
Following the resumption earlier this month of Oldbury nuclear power station’s decomissioning programme, the first large item of plant has been removed. The generator transformer, which weighs in at more than 170 tonnes, contains more than 30 tonnes of copper and around 120 tonnes of steel, is more than four metres high, nine metres long and four metres wide.
Wotton Under Edge People 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
Scotland
SCOTLAND will continue to fail climate change targets alm¬ost every year under the SNP’s policies for achieving its green ambitions, environmentalists warn. The Scottish Government’s latest draft report outlining how it will reach each annual goal from now until 2027 shows that the policies it currently contains will only make it possible to hit this year’s annual carbon emissions reduction target. Ministers maintain that if all their proposals in the draft are also implemented – and they succeed in lobbying for tougher European standards – then each of the 15 targets will be exceeded. But environmental groups fear that there are too many uncertainties and too few concrete commitments to turn Scotland’s climate change agenda into real change. The concerns were raised as MSPs sought expert views on the SNP’s controversial new report listing proposals and policies for cutting carbon e missions between now and 2027. Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland and a member of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, said: “If we are to hit every target between now and 2027 every policy in this draft has to work fully, every proposal has to be implemented fully and Europe has to move [on toughening emissions targets]”.
Scotland on Sunday 24th Feb 2013 read more »
Japan
Two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a new phenomenon is on the rise: atomic divorce. Abigail Haworth reports on the unbearable pressures and prejudices being faced by those caught in the radiation zone.
Observer 24th Feb 2013 read more »
US
Six underground storage tanks at a nuclear facility in Washington state are leaking radioactive waste, but there is no immediate risk to human health, officials say. The newly discovered leaks, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, come one week after the US energy department revealed that radioactive waste was found to be escaping from one tank at Hanford.
Guardian 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
Telegraph 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
Iran
Days before resuming talks over its disputed atomic program, Iran said on Saturday it had found significant new deposits of raw uranium and identified sites for 16 more nuclear power stations.
Reuters 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
Guardian 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
Scotsman 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
BBC 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
Trident
THE UK Government has confirmed that Scotland would be banned from having nuclear weapons after independence under non-proliferation treaty rules. Coalition Government offi-cials have acknowledged that, under international law, Scotland “would not be recognised as a state entitled to possess a nuclear deterrent”. The statement, in a government analysis report on the effects of independence, appears to rule out the possibility of the UK doing a deal with an independent Scotland to keep nuclear weap¬¬ons on the Clyde indefinitely under a new military pact.
Scotland on Sunday 24th Feb 2013 read more »
Renewables
Thousands of Britain’s wind turbines will create more greenhouse gases than they save, according to potentially devastating scientific research to be published later this year.
Telegraph 23rd Feb 2013 read more »
PLANS to run British homes using volcanic power from Iceland via an underwater cable to Scotland appear to be gaining momentum. Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s state-owned energy company, has been studying the idea and now describes it as “economically feasible” – raising hopes that ministers will endorse it. The firm has been examining the possibility of laying the world’s longest subsea interconnector to supply Britain with power generated from volcanic heat. The 1,170km link to Scotland, which would act like a giant extension cable, would cost about £1.3bn to lay. A further £1.6bn would need to be spent on the construction of several geothermal plants and hydroelectric dams to generate up to six terawatt hours of energy for Britain annually.
Sunday Times 24th Feb 2013 read more »
Shale Gas
Although Centrica is exploring a link with Cuadrilla, the British business “fracking” for shale gas in the Blackpool area, it is believed that the company does not see a huge shale business in the UK.
Telegraph 24th Feb 2013 read more »
In America, where policymakers have spent decades worrying about over-dependence on oil from unstable or hostile regimes, a new technoloy — fracking — is producing such an abundant supply of crude oil that refineries are having difficulties processing it all. The same technology is also adding decades of supplies of natural gas to our available resource base, driving down the price and making it possible for America to become a big exporter of natural gas. Unless, of course, the government accedes to the wishes of DuPont and other large users of natural gas and refuses to allow exports. This plentiful, cheap supply of natural gas makes it difficult to justify the construction of costly nuclear plants, especially since the administration refuses to activate the nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the home state of the leader of the Senate’s majority Democrats and an opponent of bringing nuclear waste into his state. A few of these costly plants will be built in America, as some utilities reckon their customers are willing to pay for insurance against a spike in natural gas prices, but most of the 60 reactors under construction worldwide are in countries such as China, Russia and South Korea, where governments can saddle taxpayers and customers with the high cost of nuclear power and of “energy security”.
Sunday Times 24th Feb 2013 read more »
