Hinkley
Michael Meacher: Despite the government’s constant assertion that funding is impossibly tight and that any departure for a rigid status quo by the Labour party is unaffordable, there seems to be no limit to government subsidies gushing into the doomed nuclear project at Hinkley in Somerset. Last year the government offered the French energy company EDF the contract to build a third nuclear power station paid for by increases in electricity bills over 35 years and Treasury-backed loans. Now confidence in the project is evaporating as it is increasingly realised that the same construction problems, delays and spiralling costs which have devastated EDF’s building similar nuclear plants at Olkiluoto in Finland and Flammanville in France will hit Hinkley C in the UK. Centrica, which was supposed to be a joint partner with EDF, pulled out. EDF then couldn’t sustain the project out of its own finances, so it went cap in hand to Chinese state-owned companies and to AREVA, a French state-owned company. Then 2 months ago it was revealed that AREVA was going bankrupt.
Michael Meacher 23rd Jan 2015 read more »
“Electricité de France (EdF), the French energy group, intends to build one of the largest nuclear power stations in the world at Hinkley Point, United Kingdom. However, this project would be commercially viable only on the basis of massive subsidies granted by the British government, which would clearly violate EU competition law.” The (previous) EU Commission approved these nuclear subsidies. This scandalous decision has the potential to trigger an avalanche of new nuclear power projects across Europe. The Austrian government is determined to take this case to the European Court of Justice, and EWS has lodged a formal complaint directly with the EU Commission.
Radiation Free Lakeland 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Radhealth
Fighting for Gemma.
Discover the Evidence 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Terror
Terrorists could use swarms of drones to bring down passenger aircraft, disperse chemical or biological weapons and target a nuclear power plants in Britain because of our lax aviation rules. The stark warning comes from former Labour security minister Lord West, who is urging tougher laws to stop jihadists taking advantage of the “march of drone technology” to pull off a low-cost, high-impact attack using drones available for just £300 on the high street. In particular, security experts fear that terrorists could use small drones to bring down an airliner over the centre of a British city.
Independent 23rd Jan 2015 read more »
Radwaste
A private consortium formed to deal with Europe’s most difficult nuclear waste at a site in Britain’s beautiful Lake District has been sacked by the British government because not sufficient progress has been made in making it safe. It is the latest setback for an industry that claims nuclear power is the low-carbon answer to climate change, but has not yet found a safe resting place for radioactive rubbish it creates when nuclear fuel and machinery reaches the end of its life. Dealing with the waste stored at this one site at Sellafield—the largest of a dozen nuclear sites in Britain—already costs the UK taxpayer £2 billion a year, and it is expected to be at least as much as this every year for half a century. Among the many other countries that have a serious unresolved nuclear waste problem are the US, Russia, China, India, Japan, France, Germany and Canada, as well as a number of eastern European countries that have ageing Russian reactors. Only Sweden seems to have practical plans to deal with its nuclear waste, and these are years away from completion.
Truthdig 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Climate News Network 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Politics
Ed Miliband’s chances of winning the general election are dealt a blow by research for the Observer showing the surge in support for the Greens could seriously damage Labour’s hopes in 22 seats that will help decide who enters Downing Street in May. With just over 100 days before polling, the rise of the Greens is causing serious anxiety in Labour’s high command, as worries grow that many left-leaning voters, particularly students and first-time voters, are rejecting Miliband’s agenda in favour of a more radical leftwing offering. With the SNP already threatening Labour in at least 20 of its traditional strongholds in Scotland, the Green surge means Labour is facing a second, largely unexpected, challenge from the left, which has made the election result even more difficult to call. Retail political messages or ‘don’t let the Tories in’ appeals are unlikely to work with voters who have lost faith entirely in politics as usual.
Observer 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Iran
Iran’s parliament has started to draft a law that would allow the country’s nuclear scientists to intensify their uranium enrichment, a step that could complicate ongoing talks with world powers. The move, announced Saturday by parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, comes after US lawmakers said they were planning legislation that could place new sanctions on Iran.
Middle East Online 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Trident
Anti-nuclear activists called on the government to “wrap up” the Trident nuclear missiles programme during a protest in central London today.
ITV 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Herald 25th Jan 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The SNP is to back a moratorium on fracking in the UK when the House of Commons votes on the issue on Monday. The Scottish government has also said it will outline plans to strengthen its “precautionary approach” to fracking next week. Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has said he would not allow fracking in Scotland without sufficient safeguards. But environmental groups said Holyrood already had the power to block shale gas extraction. The Scottish Parliament currently has power over planning issues but the Smith Commission has recommended devolution of onshore licensing and mineral access rights. However, those new devolved powers will not come to Scotland until after May’s UK General Election. Last week, the UK government agreed to exclude Scotland from laws making it easier for fracking firms to drill for shale gas.
BBC 24th Jan 2015 read more »
STV 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Labour would use new devolution powers to prevent fracking north of the border, Jim Murphy declared last night. The Scottish Labour leader claimed that the case for fracking “had not been made” and he would oppose it. Mr Murphy said a Labour government in Edinburgh would impose a “triple lock” to ensure that no fracking could take place unless stringent environmental and health safeguards had been met. This would include a local referendum on each application and an outright ban until the lessons from fracking elsewhere in the UK had been learnt.
Times 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Telegraph 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Scotsman 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Herald 24th Jan 2014 read more »
Fracking, so recently seen as solving our national energy crisis, will unexpectedly fight for its future in Britain next week. On Wednesday, Lancashire councillors will decide whether to endorse a surprise recommendation from their officials to prohibit the first shale gas wells in years. And two days earlier MPs from four parties will force votes on temporarily banning the practice altogether. The crisis has blown up out of the blue. And even if the industry gets through the week unscathed, there is a growing feeling that nothing will be the same again. Government sources admit that the pressure for a moratorium is “gaining traction” in parliament, while industry fears that their “window is closing”.
Telegraph 24th Jan 2015 read more »
Fracking. Corré (and his fashion-legend mother) are not fans of the technique, and they’re about to put time and money into trying to derail any UK shale gas revolution through their support for the Green party before this year’s general election.
Observer 25th Jan 2015 read more »
Letter: As a resident of Fylde with some oil and gas experience, I feel there has been too much said and written about fracking (“A county divided: is Lancashire ready for its fracking revolution?”, News, last week). The technology exists (with one exception) to carry out this process with as close to zero risk as any human activity. The technical exception is the radioactive content of the water that comes back to the surface. Your feature mentions the solitary UK frack at Preese Hall, where measurements of the returned water contained between 1.2 and 9 times the radioactivity allowed for general discharge. This was disposed of, untreated, by dilution because the quantity was relatively small. That would absolutely not be acceptable for production quantities. One official suggested that existing treatment processes and facilities would cope with dilution as a solution. They will not even begin to cope. That takes us to the main reason for public hostility. You do not need technical expertise to see that a monitoring of regulations (which do not cover all aspects of fracking, despite what is claimed) to ensure compliance, conducted by a group of agencies each reporting to a different government department, is a recipe for chaos. One senior Conservative admitted at a public meeting that the set-up was “intellectually strange”. Totally dysfunctional is more accurate.
Observer 25th Jan 2015 read more »
Letter: Your two-page spread about fracking in Lancashire missed out the fundamental issue and that is climate change. It’s as though there is a conspiracy to keep quiet about it and see its application to everyday issues as a nerdy or a knitted sandal brigade concern.
Observer 25th Jan 2015 read more »
A MORATORIUM on fracking in Britain in the interests of combating climate change will be demanded by an influential committee of MPs tomorrow. The environmental audit committee will say that the extraction and burning of further fossil fuels will undermine Britain’s pledge to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050. They will also warn that it could destroy landscapes and industrialise the countryside. The report is being published on the same day as a crucial Commons vote on the Infrastructure Bill, which contains a series of measures designed to boost fracking. The report is the latest of several setbacks for the fledgling industry. Last week Lancashire county council’s planning officers said applications by Cuadrilla to drill exploratory wells between Preston and Blackpool should be turned down.
Times 25th Jan 2015 read more »
Exploiting more of the earth’s carbon resources when we know that to stay safe most of them will have to stay in the ground has never looked smart. That is why this weekend’s moves by the SNP and Labour to ban onshore gas developments – at least for a while – are to be welcomed. Crucially, as both parties made clear yesterday, the bans encompass coalbed methane as well as fracking for shale gas. There are live proposals to mine coalbed methane near Falkirk and in Canonbie, and the prospect of fracking applications around Grangemouth from the chemical company, Ineos. Neither SNP MPs’ backing for a UK moratorium of between 18 and 30 months nor Labour’s conditional ban if they get elected mean that these plans are dead – but they are dying.
Herald 25th Jan 2015 read more »
The south Scotland MSP, Joan McAlpine, has privately protested about the behaviour of the Scottish energy minister, Fergus Ewing, after he carpeted her for criticising the Duke of Buccleuch’s plans to mine coalbed methane at Canonbie in Dumfries and Galloway. Ewing’s undisguised support for developing underground gas was damaging the government’s credibility in communities across Scotland, McAlpine warned Sturgeon. Canonbie residents fear that they have been “sold out” in a “stitch-up” by the minister.
Herald 25th Jan 2015 read more »
The SNP disclosed that its MPs in Westminster would be voting for a moratorium on both technologies to make sure that no licences are granted before powers are devolved. If agreed, the moratorium could last between 18 and 30 months. Labour said that if it won the Scottish election in 2016 it would suspend coalbed methane and fracking developments until environmental and health safeguards were in place. Projects would only go ahead if approved by local referendums. Neither party is promising to completely rule out developing onshore gas, but both have significantly shifted their positions in response to growing public concern. The moves were welcomed by environmental groups – though they pointed out that the Scottish government still had to make its position clear.
Herald 25th Jan 2015 read more »
