Electricity Market Reform
A green stealth tax to encourage new wind farms and nuclear power plants could push tens of thousands of households into fuel poverty but do nothing to reduce emissions. The carbon floor price, announced in the March Budget, could even end up giving climate policies a bad name, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has warned. To be introduced in 2013, the tax is intended to encourage investment in low-carbon energy and raise billions for the Treasury. IPPR estimates that 30,000 to 60,000 more households will be pushed into fuel poverty. The think-tank report also said that because the floor price was announced in the Budget, it would be open to annual review meaning it would not have the certainty needed by investors looking at putting money into low-carbon energy projects such as wind, wave and nuclear power.
Daily Mail 28th June 2011 more >>
Sellafield
A senior councillor remains optimistic that a nuclear renaissance could bring billions of pounds to Cumbria. Tim Knowles says the county would cement its place at the heart of the countrys atomic industry if new reactors were built here. The Government last week confirmed that Sellafield was one of three sites deemed suitable for a new generation of nuclear power plants. And it has reignited hope that the reactors could be operational by as early as 2023. Last weeks statement also confirmed the Government is satisfied that the geological disposal of radioactive waste is technically achievable. It also highlights the fact that a suitable site can be found to do that work. Debate is ongoing as to where that could be.
Cumberland News 27th June 2011 more >>
Heysham
EDF Energy returned its 450-megawatt Heysham 1-2 nuclear reactor on Saturday following refuelling, a spokeswoman said.
Reuters 27th June 2011 more >>
US
As America’s nuclear power plants have aged, the once-rural areas around them have become far more crowded and much more difficult to evacuate. Yet government and industry have turned a blind eye, even as plants are running at higher power and posing more danger in the event of an accident. Populations around the facilities have swelled as much as four-and-a-half times since 1980, a computer-assisted population analysis shows.
Daily Mail 28th June 2011 more >>
A raging forest fire threatened the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico on Monday and led to the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents. The fire started in Santa Fe national forest on Sunday and has so far burnt 200 sq km (78 sq miles). The Las Conchas blaze started a 4,000-sq-metre “spot fire” on the sprawling property where scientists worked on the first atomic bomb 50 years ago. So far several thousand people have fled the town of Los Alamos, which has a population of about 12,000.
Guardian 28th June 2011 more >>
Reuters 27th June 2011 more >>
Wales Online 27th June 2011 more >>
Express 27th June 2011 more >>
Two Nebraska nuclear power plants have planned properly to protect themselves from the swollen Missouri River and keep the public safe, the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Monday.
Reuters 28th June 2011 more >>
Belfast Telegraph 28th June 2011 more >>
A water-filled berm protecting a nuclear power plant in Nebraska from rising floodwaters collapsed Sunday, according to a spokesman, who said the plant remains secure. Some sort of machinery came in contact with the berm, puncturing it and causing the berm to deflate, said Mike Jones, a spokesman for the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), which owns the Fort Calhoun plant.
CNN 27th June 2011 more >>
Japan
Operators of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have begun pumping decontaminated water in as part of a system to cool damaged reactors. The government hailed the move as “a giant step forward” in bringing the facility under control. Some 110,000 tonnes of water have built up during efforts to cool reactors hit by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.
BBC 28th June 2011 more >>
THE operator of Japans Fukushima nuclear plant moved closer to ending its radiation crisis yesterday with the start of a system to cool damaged reactors that could also help avoid dumping highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.
Irish Examiner 28th June 2011 more >>
Tokyo Electric Power Co shareholders gathered in record numbers on Tuesday for an annual meeting that will vote on a stockholder motion calling for the utility to abandon nuclear power. Although proposed annually by anti-nuclear activist shareholders, the proposal to scrap nuclear power this year takes on greater resonance with radiation still escaping from damaged reactors at the utility’s plant in Fukushima, 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of the capital. Shareholders at the meeting appeared split on the issue.
Reuters 28th June 2011 more >>
Shareholders of the company known as Tepco will vote today on whether the utility continues with nuclear power and the future of 17 board members.
Bloomberg 28th June 2011 more >>
The Japanese government has launched a campaign to persuade communities to support the resumption of nuclear reactor operations following the Fukushima crisis. The PR drive came as 15 people were confirmed to have suffered internal radiation exposure. Central government officials held the campaigns first meeting in Saga prefecture, where two reactors at the Genkai power plant were among several across the country halted for safety checks in the aftermath of March 11. Local officials in the region have since cited concerns surrounding safety standards at the plant as a reason for subsequently withholding routine consent for operations to resume. Their stance reflects the growing anti-nuclear mood spreading across Japan as a result of the ongoing crisis at Fukushima power plant which was triggered when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out its crucial cooling systems.
Telegraph 27th June 2011 more >>
Nearly 70 per cent of Japanese oppose the restart of nuclear reactors following the Fukushima crisis, a poll has revealed. Public fears about nuclear power have increased after the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, where workers are struggling to control radiation leaks from meltdowns after reactor cooling systems were knocked out by the earthquake and tsunami.
Engineering & Technology Magazine 27th June 2011 more >>
France
France will invest 1bn euros (0.8bn) in nuclear power despite warnings after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, President Nicolas Sarkozy says. The new investment will include a boost for research into nuclear safety. The French nuclear giant Areva is developing the fourth generation of reactors.
BBC 28th June 2011 more >>
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has bucked the anti-nuclear trend following Japan’s Fukushima disaster by pledging 1bn of investment in atomic power. Despite growing worldwide concern about the safety of nuclear plants, Sarkozy said the moratorium on new nuclear reactors adopted by certain countries since the Japanese nuclear crisis in March “makes no sense”. “There is no alternative to nuclear energy today,” he told journalists on Monday. “We are going to devote 1bn to the nuclear programme of the future, particularly fourth-generation technology,” Sarkozy said.
Guardian 27th June 2011 more >>
Telegraph 27th June 2011 more >>
Bouygues Construction has issued a statement saying that it challenges the findings of a report by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) concerning under-reporting of accidents at a reactor site in Flamanville. Bouygues said that it firmly refutes any intention not to report accidents on the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) and has taken no initiatives either to avoid informing the work inspectorate or to distract it from surveillance.
Construction Index 27th June 2011 more >>
Philippines
In a fresh but ambiguous take on ecotourism, travellers in the Philippines can visit a remote turtle sanctuary and then venture into the heart of a nearby nuclear power plant. If tourists feel too weary to make the three-hour bus drive back to Manila after their unique day of sightseeing, they can stay at a guesthouse overlooking pristine South China Sea waters at the atomic site’s private beach. This tour-with-a-difference is part of the government’s latest effort to make use of the idle Bataan Nuclear Power Plant – one of the country’s most expensive and troublesome burdens.
The Move Channel 27th June 2011 more >>
Pakistan
Pakistan is unable to protect its growing atomic arsenal from the threat of Islamic extremists according to one of the coiuntry’s leading nuclear scientists. Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy, who teaches at universities in Lahore and Islamabad, said there was evidence that the Army had been infiltrated by extremist elements. “We have reason to worry because the most secure installations, bases, and headquarters of the military have been successfully attacked by Islamic militants who have sympathisers within the military,” he said. “What is the proof that nuclear installations or weapon stocks would be exempt from this? My worry is not limited to nuclear arsenals because places that deal with fissile materials can also be similarly infiltrated.”
Telegraph 27th June 2011 more >>
Canada
The Harper government is set to announce the sale of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to Montreal-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin Group, a major gamble that Canadas nuclear program can stand on its own amid growing global resistance to nuclear energy.
Globe & Mail 27th June 2011 more >>
Nuclear Testing
The story of Kazakhstanis being used as guinea pigs to test nuclear weapons has been picked up by More4 for documentary strand True Stories. After the Apocalypse, which is part funded by More4 and produced by Tigerlily Films and Dartmouth Films, looks at the stories of people from Semipalatinsk whose children were born with defects. One in twenty children are born with defects in the area, which the families believe is a result of the testing, despite no scientific consensus on the effects of radiaton.
Broadcast Now 27th June 2011 more >>
Renewables
Up to 20 million is to be invested in the marine energy industry to take power devices to the next level of development, the Government said. Climate change minister Greg Barker said generating energy from the power of waves has the potential to meet 15% to 20% of the UK’s current electricity demand by 2050. Mr Barker will visit Pelamis Wave Power at Leith Docks in Edinburgh to announce funding of around 20 million to help develop marine energy devices from the prototype stage to “bigger formations in the sea”. The money will come from the Department of Energy and Climate Change budget of more than 200 million to fund low carbon technologies, announced in last year’s Government spending review. Mr Barker said: “Marine power has huge potential in the UK not just in contributing to a greener electricity supply and cutting emissions, but in supporting thousands of jobs in a sector worth a potential 15 billion to the economy to 2050.
Herald 28th June 2011 more >>
