Radwaste
The group looking into whether west Cumbria should put itself forward to host an underground nuclear waste store will consider its report at a meeting in Keswick today. Last month the majority of people living in the west of the county said they would be happy to go to the next stage. The Managing Radio Active Waste Safely Partnership will consider the first draft of its final report, which they are due to finalise and present to the decision making councils – Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council in July.
ITV Border 25th June 2012 more >>
EDF
This week Vincent de Rivaz, the French boss of EDF Energy, will pop round to Clarence House at the personal invitation of his chum, the Prince of Wales, to be awarded an honorary CBE. Prince Charles is an old friend. He is a man I admire enormously, says 58-year-old De Rivaz, whose award is for transforming EDF into Britains leading nuclear company. But first, De Rivaz has a mountain of work. By the end of the year he must officially press the button on Britains multi-billion-pound nuclear investment programme. He must make sure the sums stack up to persuade the EDF board in Paris it should start to spend more than £10 billion on four reactors in Britain, creating more than 25,000 jobs. At a time when the new French socialist government is having second thoughts about nuclear expansion, this is not a foregone conclusion.He is increasingly confident that EDF will be satisfied with its negotiations with the Government over minimum prices. That must have been at the back of his mind when EDF last week selected a French company, Bouygues TP, and Dartford-based Laing ORourke as contractors for a £2 billion contract to build a new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset. De Rivaz insists that the company is not contemplating nuclear failure. There is no plan B, absolutely not, he says. There is no alternative to security of supplies, there is no Plan B to keep the lights on, there is no alternative to tackle climate change, there is no Plan B to remove CO2 emissions. This will happen. We feel a very strong sense of responsibility to make it happen.
This is Money 24th June 2012 more >>
Horizon
The US-Japanese joint venture bidding to build nuclear power plants in the UK could struggle to rush its reactor designs through Britain’s notoriously lengthy licensing process. GE Hitachi is keen to introduce its own boiling water-based reactor for its bid for the Horizon nuclear project, which will invest £15bn in plants in Anglesey and Gloucestershire. Toshiba-owned Westinghouse and France’s Areva have advantages over GE Hitachi because their own reactors are going through the UK’s Generic Design Assessment for approval. A Whitehall source said: “GE Hitachi has built a lot [of reactors] so they think they could get through the GDA faster and then build faster. That may not be easy they don’t have a UK supply chain so it won’t be that fast.” It is rumoured that Westinghouse has a stronger financing plan in place than Areva, making it a slight favourite to snap up Horizon.
Independent 25th June 2012 more >>
Dungeness
EDF said it restarted its Dungeness B-21 reactor in southern England after an unplanned halt. The plant resumed operating at 00:03 a.m. London time today after closing on June 22 due to a fault on the main boiler feed pump, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
Bloomberg 24th JUne 2012 more >>
Sizewell
Mike Lavelle of EDF Energy gave a talk and hosted a discussion on the construction and effect of the proposed EDF Energy development of a twin Pressurised Nuclear Reactor at Sizewell C.
ICE 19th June 2012 more >>
Friends of the Earth
Nuclear power yes, please! Could it be true? Are the greens about to embrace nuclear power? Hard to imagine, perhaps, but a revolution is taking place in the environmental movement. After decades of fervent, often hysterical, opposition to new technologies such as genetically modified (GM) food and atomic energy, a new generation of technocratic greens is rejecting the tenets of the campaign. There are even hints that the most influential environmental organisation of all may be about to make a historic U-turn on nuclear power. In fact, all this is looking like environmentalisms clause 4 moment, akin to when the Labour party ditched its pledge on nationalised industry. Is this techno-greenery spreading to Friends of the Earth, the biggest green organisation of all? Ten days ago Mike Childs, its chief scientist and head of policy, seemed to suggest that the organisation was no longer wedded to the abolition of nuclear power in Britain. In an interview published on Lynass blog, he said Friends of the Earth had commissioned a review by the Tyndall climate change research centre in Manchester to decide what its nuclear policy should be. Since then, Friends of the Earth, while admitting that Childs had been quoted correctly, has denied that it is about to become pro- nuclear, saying nothing has been decided, the organisation is strictly evidence-based and it will wait for the Tyndall report before reassessing its policy.
Sunday Times 24th June 2012 more >>
Scotland
Nuclear power in Scotland is an issue thats not going to go quietly. On the face of it, the Scottish Government has made things pretty clear. In its new green revolution, it wants to get electricity from renewable sources, such as wind or wave and not from uranium, that while cleaner than, say, coal, is still a fossil fuel. After 2023, when both Hunterston B in Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian will close, there are no plans to build any more nuclear plants. In the last edition of Holyrood, Stewart Stevenson MSP, the Environment and Climate Change Minister, was adamant about nuclear powers future, the bottom line is, we dont need it and the SNP has insisted that future renewable sources are enough as it aims to achieve 100 per cent of Scotlands electricity use from renewable sources by 2020. That is why the most recent energy announcement was seized on by opposition MSPs because the new national electricity contract has gone to the French firm EDF energy. The deal, which will save £40m over three years, will see energy going to councils, hospitals, schools and other buildings across 99 per cent of the public sector.
Holyrood 25th June 2012.
Politics
Two Conservative cabinet members have asked the prime minister to do more to boost investment in low carbon energy and other green infrastructure. The latest intervention comes after the foreign secretary, William Hague, urged David Cameron to provide more support to help green industries boost the economy, stop the UK falling behind international rivals, and avoid losing its global leadership on the environment. In response to Hague’s letter in March, the development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, and environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, both Conservatives, have also written to the PM supporting the former party leader, the Guardian has learned. A group of backbenchers have secured a debate in the House of Commons on Thursday on “fiscal measures to promote the green economic sector”, which they hope will enable supporters to challenge opponents in their own party before crucial decisions are made in the coming months about energy policy. Thursday’s backbench debate will be introduced by Laura Sandys, who has support from 25 Conservative colleagues, including the Tory eco-activist Zac Goldsmith, and three other MPs, including the Green party’s Caroline Lucas.
Guardian 24th June 2012 more >>
