New Nukes
Catherine Mitchell, Prof of Energy Policy Exeter University: Britain has visionary goals. The Committee on Climate Change says we should have an 80% cut in 1990 levels of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Moreover, through an EU deal, the UK has to provide 15% of its total energy use from renewable sources by 2020, and cut projected energy demand by 20%. If the UK meets these legally binding targets, there is no need for new nuclear or coal plants. Why does government – ie Treasury – policy seem to concentrate on technologies we don’t need?
Guardian 27th Feb 2009 more >>
A number of prominent green activists have decided to do a U-turn and back nuclear power has come as quite a shock to a lot of people. The principal reason given was that nuclear power was needed to combat global warming. So what has worried these once-determined green activists so much that they have had to think the unthinkable? It seems to be a combination of things, none of them positive. Firstly there is the weight of evidence in favour of global warming, evidence that continues to build relentlessly.
Oldham Evening Chronicle 27th Feb 2009 more >>
GMB today welcomed the news that the former director of Greenpeace Stephen Tindale has now come out in favour of nuclear power as a path to sustainable energy. He and other green activists are now campaigning in line with the views of James Lovelock, the scientist and respected environmentalist to ‘endorse nuclear energy as the greenest, safest, cheapest and most secure source of electricity.’
GMB 26th Feb 2009 more >>
RWE Npower has put forward a proposal to build new nuclear stations in Cumbria, near the huge Sellafield nuclear complex. The Big Six generating company said it had taken out options to purchase two sites. One already has agreement to install a 3.6GW connection to the electricity grid. A connection agreement for the second site is expected later in the year. Both sites have coastal access and are currently farmland, one located in mid-Copeland near Sellafield and the other in south Copeland in the Millom area. RWE announced a joint venture agreement with fellow big six supplier Eon in January. The two companies hope to secure land from the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency in March when it auctions land at Wylfa in Wales, Oldbury in Goucestershire and Bradwell in Essex.
Utility Week 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Carlisle News and Star 26th Feb 2009 more >>
Platts 26th Feb 2009 more >>
BBC 26th Feb 2009 more >>
YRM has been confirmed as the first architect to be commissioned to design one of Britain’s new generation of nuclear power stations. The practice has been appointed by French giant EDF Energy to work up the vision and masterplan for the new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) at Hinkley Point in Somerset, a scheme worth over £3 billion and the first of four nuclear plants planned by EDF in this country.
Building Design 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Nuclear Waste
A Lancashire team of nuclear experts have signed an agreement with a second university. The National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), which has a base in Salwick, near Preston, has penned the collaborative agreement with the University of Sheffield to work on ways to immobilise and dispose of radioactive waste having agreed a similar deal with Preston’s University of Central Lancashire last year.
Lancashire Evening Post 27th Feb 2009 more >>
The Engineer 26th Feb 2009 more >>
Scotland
Letter Neil Craig: The assertion from Councillor Euan McLeod that there is “a consensus” against nuclear power in Scotland stands unsupported by any facts from him. “Consensus” does not mean 51 per cent, though I don’t think there is evidence even for that, and the term should not be used lightly, let alone as a club. There may well be a council organisation called Nuclear Free Local Authorities, but if its members were sincere they would refuse to use the 40 per cent of Scotland’s electricity that comes from nuclear.
Scotsman 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Letter Nail Craig: according to Barry Lees, waste from nuclear reactors “will still be dangerous in thousands of millions of years” (Letters, February 27) whereas Professor Colin McInnes in another letter on the same day says reactors currently produce only “small volumes of short-lived waste products”. This neatly encapsulates the difference between the two sides.
Herald 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Wylfa
Greg Evans, site manager at Magnox North’s Wylfa and Maentwrog power stations, was presented with the award for the Leadership in Business with more than 250 employees award at the Leading Wales Awards.
Daily Post 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Coal/British Energy
Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, has warned that coal plants fitted with carbon capture storage (CCS) equipment are unlikely to be ready to make big cuts in Britain’s emissions before 2030. The country’s geology is not suited to the technology, which is expensive and unproven, he said. This meant it would take “at least 15 years and probably closer to 20 years” before companies were in a position to deploy the technology on a large scale. Laidlaw said negotiations were continuing with French-owned EDF Energy over buying a stake in nuclear generator British Energy. EDF signed an agreement in principle to sell a 25% stake in the company to Centrica when the French group bought British Energy last autumn. Since then power and share prices have slumped and some Centrica shareholders are understood to be urging Laidlaw to pull out of the deal.
Guardian 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Centrica has “lots of options” for other investments if the proposed deal to take a 25 per cent stake in British Energy falls through, its chief executive has said.
FT 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Letter from RSPB: Energy secretary Ed Miliband’s efforts to confirm a more definite route to carbon capture and storage are welcome, but without prompt approval from the Treasury on funding for energy companies for CCS demonstration plants, the UK faces being left behind at a time when President Obama has put funding of such demonstrations in the US at the heart of his economic stimulus package.
Guardian 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Companies
French power company EDF and Italian electricity utility Enel have signed two industrial agreements for the development of nuclear energy. The first agreement sets up a 50-50 consortium between EDF and Enel to look into the feasibility of developing a least four nuclear reactors based on EPR technology in Italy.
Energy Business Review 27th Feb 2009 more >>
Yucca Mountain
President Barack Obama is taking the first step toward blocking a nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain by slashing money for the program in his first budget, according to congressional sources. Obama’s budget to be announced Thursday will eliminate virtually all funding for the Yucca project with the exception of money needed for license applications submitted last year to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ‘‘The Yucca Mountain program will be scaled back to those costs necessary to answer inquiries from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission while the administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear-waste disposal,’’ the Energy Department will say as part of the budget document, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the document had not been made public.
New York Times 26th Feb 2009 more >>
Iran
Iran claimed a “symbolic landmark in its quest to join the nuclear club” this Wednesday by staging a dummy run of the long-delayed Bushehr reactor.
Money Week 27th Feb 2009 more >>
European powers are considering new sanctions on Iran.
EU Business 26th Feb 2009 more >>
Jordan
Russia, which is helping Iran build its first nuclear plant, inked a preliminary cooperation deal with Jordan on Thursday to pave the way for producing nuclear power in the energy-poor kingdom.
Yahoo 26th Feb 2009 more >>
Bulgaria
The threat of global warming has given a boost to the nuclear industry in many countries as one way to provide electricity without increasing carbon emissions. But what to do with the nuclear waste, especially the most toxic form – spent nuclear fuel. Nick Thorpe went to see how Bulgaria is coping.
BBC 26th Feb 2009 more >>
Weapons Convoys
AN MSP is demanding reassurances that the safety of people in Clydesdale is not being compromised by nuclear convoys. Aileen Campbell, SNP MSP for South of Scotland, has written to the UK Government demanding reassurances about the safety of nuclear material transported through the Clydesdale area, following reports that an independent nuclear technology watchdog is to be scrapped.
Hamilton Advertiser 26th Feb 2009 more >>
