Hinkley
The UK government has agreed to sign the contracts with french utility giant EDF for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant on Thursday. French financial newspaper Les Echos reported that the signing ceremony will take place in London, not Somerset as it had been planned in July when Prime Minister Theresa May asked for a delay at the 11th hour. The China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN), which is making a £6bn investment in the project, will also be present, it added. Les Echos also said that EDF’s board will meet on Tuesday to discuss the new conditions the UK set for the project. The requirement that EDF must keep a majority stake in the project during construction is expected to be a key focus. The UK government gave the £18bn Hinkley project the greenlight but with a “revised agreement” last week. It had been temporarily halted due to security concerns stemming from Chinese involvement.
City AM 24th Sept 2016 read more »
Communities close to the site of a planned nuclear power station in Somerset are to be given almost half a million pounds. The money from the Hinkley Point C Community Mitigation fund will be shared by communities in Bridgwater and North Petherton
ITV 24th Sept 2016 read more »
Plutonium
Business at its Ugly Usual with DOE and Congress: September 24, 2016, there is Still No Accountability to the Tax-Paying Public for the U.S. DOE’s Grossly Mismanaged Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Project, a Textbook Case of Big Government’s Inability to Manage a Costly, Complex Project. When will Secretary of Energy Moniz and Congress act to hold those responsible accountable for the failed MOX project? When will the 8-year old cost estimate for the project be updated (rebaselined)? Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham, top MOX protector over the last decade, walks free of any accountability for his blind allegiance to the MOX contractor, CB&I AREVA MOX $ervices.
SRS Watch 24th Sept 2016 read more »
SRS Watch has obtained the anticipated DOE MOX cost report, which is devastating to the continuation of the mismanaged MOX project. DOE must have caught wind that it was leaking out and sent it to reporters this afternoon.
SRS Watch 24th Sept 2016 read more »
Fukushima
Fukushima nuclear zone ‘to become world’s next macabre tourist hotspot’ as visitors get set to don radioactive suits.
Mirror 24th Sept 2016 read more »
Energy Policy – Scotland
A top Scottish economist who has been appointed to advise Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, is embroiled in a conflict of interest row over his support for wind farms. Graeme Blackett, the founder of consultancy firm Biggar Economics, has provided evidence to public inquiries into controversial wind farms such as the 59- turbine Dorenell scheme on the Glenfiddich estate, and Stronelairg, a 67-turbine wind farm in Inverness-shire. Blackett’s reports, submitted as independent evidence, often highlight the economic boost that wind farms can generate and, in some cases, have challenged claims that planting giant turbines in some of the country’s most scenic areas can harm local tourism. Blackett, recently unveiled as an adviser to Sturgeon’s “growth commission”, a body set up to explore the economic potential of an independent Scotland, is facing allegations of a conflict of interest after it emerged that he had previously endorsed the SNP’s renewable energy drive.
Times 25th Sept 2016 read more »
Nuclear Convoys
A SERIOUS road accident involving the nuclear bomb convoy in Glasgow could contaminate a large swathe of the city and put hundreds of thousands of people at risk, according to a new analysis. Using US defence software, disarmament campaigners have mapped the impact of a major crash at the junction of the M8 and M74 near the city centre. Radioactive plutonium and uranium could leak from nuclear warheads and be blown up to 17 kilometres across East Dunbartonshire, they say. The analysis assumes that a conventional explosion caused by the crash breaches warhead containment, as emergency exercises conducted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have envisaged. But the MoD insists that a radiation leak is not a “reasonably foreseeable accident scenario”.
Sunday Herald 25th Sept 2016 read more »
Hundreds of thousands of people could be at risk if there was a serious accident involving the nuclear bomb convoy in Glasgow. Our sister title The Sunday Herald reports that disarmament campaigners have mapped the impact of a major crash at the junction of the M8 and M74 near the city centre. They say radioactive plutonium and uranium could leak from nuclear warheads and be blown up to 17 kilometres across East Dunbartonshire. The dangers of nuclear weapons convoys are due to be discussed at a public meeting in Glasgow on Tuesday.
Glasgow Evening Times 25th Sept 2016 read more »
CHP
Hundreds of British industrial sites face being burdened with higher energy costs, in a proposed shake-up of the rules governing small power plants. Some 375 industrial sites around the country that have installed small “combined heat and power” (CHP) plants could take a combined hit of £160m a year under plans being considered by energy regulator Ofgem, according to new analysis. These sites currently benefit from lucrative payments worth an estimated £80m a year for exporting their surplus electricity to the local power distribution network when UK supplies are scarce. They are also currently exempt from paying charges faced by bigger power plants to help fund maintenance and upgrades to the UK’s high-voltage electricity transmission network. These cost reductions are worth an extra £80m a year, according to analysis by the Association for Decentralised Energy, which represents small power plant owners. But Ofgem has said it believes that these so-called “embedded benefits” that small power plants such as CHP and diesel generators enjoy may be “distorting energy markets”. In a consultation that closed on Friday, the regulator considered scrapping the payments the plants receive. It has also indicated it may make further changes, which could include making them pay network charges.
Telegraph 24th Sept 2016 read more »
Renewables – offshore wind
With bigger wind farms being built further offshore, ferrying maintenance crews to and fro every day no longer makes sense. Developers such as Vattenfall are turning to offshore accommodation to cut their costs. The company’s service engineers will spend two or three weeks at a time here, working 12-hour shifts maintaining the turbines of DanTysk and, in due course, Sandbank, a 72-turbine project under construction to the West.
Telegraph 24th Sept 2016 read more »
National Grid
The sale of a key part of the UK’s energy infrastructure should be halted, according to the GMB union. Initial bids were due by Friday night for National Grid’s gas distribution arm, which supplies millions of homes. However, the union called on PM Theresa May to intervene and put the sale on hold until new safeguards covering the sale of national assets are introduced. Foreign bidders are said to be eyeing the business, which analysts believe could be worth £11bn. Potential buyers are thought to include a Chinese consortium and one of Asia’s richest businessmen. The sale comes as the government seeks to tighten up rules surrounding foreign takeovers of critical infrastructure, which will include a review of the Enterprise Act. But the GMB says the sale should now be stopped. The government’s plan for new takeover safeguards emerged last week when it gave the green light to Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear plant in the UK for a generation. China’s CGN will provide around a third of the funding for the £18bn project, with the rest coming from the French energy giant EDF. But in return the Chinese want to build their own reactor technology at Bradwell in Essex, giving their nuclear industry a foothold in the West. The government says that it will take a “special share” in future nuclear projects to prevent stakes being sold without consent.
BBC 24th Sept 2016 read more »
Smart Meters
Science and Technology Committee says government must spell out smart meters’ role in creating a smarter, cleaner energy system Instead of touting their ability to cut consumer energy bills, government should be doing more to promote the role of smart meters in moving the UK towards a smarter, more flexible energy system.
Business Green 24th Sept 2016 read more »
The smart meters project risks being a wasted opportunity for households if they are just fitted and forgotten, a committee of MPs has said. The new real-time meters will only save consumers a small amount of money on their energy bills, the Science and Technology Committee said. The government must do more to convince people of the extra benefits that the system can bring, it said. These included a smarter energy grid and less pollution.
BBC 24th Sept 2016 read more »
More than 3.6m smart meters have already been installed in homes and businesses and 53m are due by 2020 Ministers need to do more to convince homeowners that the UK’s new £11bn smart meter system is safe from hackers, say MPs, who have been warned the devices could be used to sabotage power grids. Experts from the Royal Academy of Engineering and private technology companies have raised concerns about the meters’ security, according to a report from the Commons science and technology committee. Nick Hunn, a wireless technology consultant, said he was worried about the risk of “rogue programmers” in metering companies. British Gas told the Commons committee that people using 100,000 gas and electricity meters installed since 2014 had cut their energy consumption by around 3 per cent a year compared with customers with conventional meters. The former energy department has predicted that by 2020, households could make an annual saving on their dual fuel energy bill of £26, rising to £43 in 2030, while non-domestic customers could expect to save £200 a year in 2020.
FT 24th Sept 2016 read more »
