Radwaste
Letter Eddie Martin: The Whitehaven News must be warmly congratulated for its robust and uncompromising editorial (December 5) in criticising the Copeland leadership for the Orwellian double-speak and muddled thinking in its response to the government’s consultation on siting an underground nuclear repository (a GDF). Further, I really can find little of merit in CBC’s response to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). It is anodyne and anaemic. And that is disappointing.
Whitehaven News 24th Dec 2013 read more »
Letter: I was not surprised to learn that Copeland Council is to decide for me whether or not I want to bury nuclear waste. It is in keeping with the attitude of most politicians, whether national or local. They are the ones who make the decisions and it is my place to provide whatever money they demand.
Whitehaven News 24th Dec 2013 read more »
NuGen
Britain’s nuclear power hopes received a boost last night after reports of a mega-deal to boost the building of new reactors. Earlier this week reactor owner Toshiba agreed to take a 50 percent stake in a venture that plans to erect new generators at Sellafield. Now the Japanese giant is planning to buy a majority of the £8.5billion project, according to reports. Yesterday Toshiba’s chief executive Hisao Tanaka said that he expected to strike a deal with both Iberdrola and GDF in the coming weeks. ‘We want a majority to move forward,’ he said. ‘So we would want to take some of GDF’s share, but have them remain as an operator.’ It would reduce its stake in the project after the reactors had been built, he said. He added: ‘We are thinking about an exit, but we haven’t decided anything yet. We will reduce our majority stake over time. We are a plant provider, not a nuclear power provider.’ Toshiba is currently looking for a buyer for 36 percent of Westinghouse, which would leave it with 51pc control of the business.
This is Money 26th Dec 2013 read more »
Waste Transport
A rail wagon transporting a container of nuclear waste derailed earlier this week in the suburbs of Paris. France’s Transport ministry said the train had been travelling at 7km/h when the incident took place at the Drancy-Le Bourget marshalling yard. The rail wagon remained upright and tests on the container showed that it was intact with no sign of radioactive leaks. Around 14 hours after the incident, the train was back on the rails and able to continue its journey.
Lloyds 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Hinkley
THERE was double cause for celebration at the EDF Energy Centre in Bridgwater this month as it welcomed the 10,000th visitor since opening its doors a year ago. To mark the first anniversary, Visitor Centre staff were joined by Peter Evans, Hinkley Point B’s plant manager, Nigel Cann, construction director of Hinkley C, and Shelly Mitchinson of the customer services team.
This is the West Country 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Nuclear Subsidies
Michael Meacher: According to advisers to the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), the government is now giving consideration, on top of the economically very foolish decision to go ahead with a new nuclear plant at Hinkley C in Somerset, to building not another 10 as was originally mooted, but 50! The French EDF and its co-financing Chinese partner refused to proceed with the project (knowing that they had the UK government across a barrel because otherwise there would a big black hole in energy provision in the early 2020s) unless they received potentially enormous public subsidies – cover in case of a major nuclear accident, cover for the costs of disposal of nuclear waste, and subsidies for new investment – in addition to getting a guaranteed minimum price for the electricity generated at double the current price. This such an economic bargain for the British taxpayer that DECC is now contemplating doing it 50 times over. This must be one of the most wasteful white elephants in history. Or a fanatical commitment to privatisation at any cost, sugar-coated with almost limitless public subsidies.
Left Futures 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Nuclear Support
I’m not a big reddit user, but I like the site and find it quite useful at times. Of course, reddit is humongous and the users span the social spectrum. Furthermore, there are hundreds if not thousands of subreddits, each with their own unique subculture. However, time and time again, I see a highly unrepresentative sample of nuclear enthusiasts over there, or in the comments of our posts when someone submits one of our stories to reddit and it does quite well there. The bottom line for nuclear is that it’s far too expensive, hugely unpopular amongst the masses, and poses large financial and environmental risks. It is only really pushed through by corrupt or very confused governments. The private market won’t touch it and projects have no chance where legislation doesn’t ensure profit and put the financial risk of the projects on taxpayers or ratepayers.
Clean Technica 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Energy Supply
Shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex attacked the Government and energy companies for leaving some people without power for five days, saying they should be “working round the clock to get everyone reconnected, especially with warnings of more bad weather on the way”. “People need to know what is going on. The energy companies must ensure they are providing proper information and support to all households without power – and not leaving people’s calls on hold for hours on end,” he said. He added that if the power supply is not urgently restored the Prime Minister should “seriously consider convening Cobra” to ensure everything possible is being done.
Independent 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Outraged MPs hounded energy minister Greg Barker today for attending a hunt while thousands of families were without power. The Tory was blasted for supporting toffs on horseback rather than trying to do something for the distraught households plunged into darkness. At least 50,000 homes have been cut off and around 1,200 flooded during the fierce Christmas storms.
Mirror 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Japan
Editorial: The draft of the basic energy plan the government has drawn up as the energy policy outline for the next two decades or so clearly reflects Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s enthusiasm for keeping nuclear power plants running in Japan. To be sure, the draft contains Abe’s promise to reduce Japan’s reliance on nuclear power as much as possible and references the lessons learned from the accident that crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The government has also made sure that the document doesn’t call for building new nuclear power plants or replacing old ones with new ones. But this policy outline leaves no doubt that the government views nuclear power as an important and basic power source and intends to use it vigorously. This approach is totally unacceptable.
Asahi Shimbun 26th Dec 2013 read more »
Iran
As nuclear experts from Iran and six world powers prepare to resume talks on how to roll out last month’s landmark deal in Geneva, Iran’s nuclear chief has announced that the country is building a new generation of centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
Independent 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Guardian 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
Once they were the most feared men on earth. They had their fingers on the launch keys that could unleash thermonuclear warheads, hurling mass destruction across continents. The men who watch over the US’s arsenal of nuclear weapons were at the tension-filled front lines during the Cold War when the West faced off with Russia. With the flick of a wrist they could bring death to millions halfway across the globe and potentially ignite a conflagration that could consume humanity in a Third World War. But today the crews manning the US’s intercontinental ballistic missiles – ICBMs – are in a deep and worrying malaise.
Express 28th Dec 2013 read more »
Renewables – Scotland
Supporters of renewable energy are calling for more Scottish homeowners and businesses to reap the benefits of solar power, after new figures revealed that the total installed capacity of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the country had passed the 100 megawatt (MW) milestone. Analysis of fresh statistics from Ofgem shows that Scotland now has 106MW of solar PV, a rise of 28MW (36%) from the same time last year and a massive increase of 104MW (5200%) since 2010. Over 28,000 homes and 450 business premises in Scotland now have solar arrays installed, and together WWF Scotland, the Energy Technology Partnership, and the Scottish Solar Energy Group are hailing this as an important achievement.
Blue & Green 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Recharge News 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Aberdeen Press and Journal 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Green Building Press 27th Dec 2013 read more »
PV Magazine 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News.
Microgen Scotland 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Fuel Poverty
An explosion in reports of damp and mould in social housing because tenants on low incomes can no longer afford to switch on their heating has emerged as the latest unwelcome sign of Britain’s cost-of-living crisis. Social housing maintenance experts say a new condensation damp phenomenon – which was considered a marginal issue for social landlords until a few months ago – is a direct result of increasing poverty and rising energy bills.
Guardian 27th Dec 2013 read more »
Peak Oil
A former British Petroleum (BP) geologist has warned that the age of cheap oil is long gone, bringing with it the danger of “continuous recession” and increased risk of conflict and hunger. At a lecture on ‘Geohazards’ earlier this month as part of the postgraduate Natural Hazards for Insurers course at University College London (UCL), Dr. Richard G. Miller, who worked for BP from 1985 before retiring in 2008, said that official data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), US Energy Information Administration (EIA), International Monetary Fund (IMF), among other sources, showed that conventional oil had most likely peaked around 2008.
Guardian 23rd Dec 2013 read more »
