Hinkley
The UK’s parliamentary watchdog has abandoned plans to scrutinise the Hinkley Point C nuclear project after predicting that a deal over state support would not be struck until after the general election in May. EDF, the French company behind the proposed £24bn twin-reactor scheme in Somerset, says it still hopes to finalise a deal by the end of March. Besides concluding negotiations with the Treasury over a financial guarantee to underwrite the project, EDF needs to finalise agreements with investors from China and elsewhere. But the Commons public accounts committee has given up any hope of examining the contract before the election, according to Margaret Hodge, who chairs the influential group of MPs that scrutinises public expenditure. The committee had intended to carry out an inquiry in the next few months. “We don’t think they will have struck a deal by then,” said Ms Hodge. “The National Audit Office have said that it looks increasingly unlikely.” Tim Yeo, chair of the energy select committee, said any further delays to the scheme would be “extremely worrying” for long-term supporters of nuclear power in the UK. “It will be disappointing if it slips to after the election. We do not need yet another element of doubt,” he said. Paul Flynn, a Labour MP, recently pressed Sir Nicholas Macpherson, the Treasury permanent secretary, during a hearing of the public affairs select committee. “You have agreed to a contract, in this time of falling fuel prices . . . to guarantee a price of £92.50 per megawatt hour, which is twice the present going rate for electricity,” he said. “Is this sensible planning?” Sir Nicholas accepted these were “good questions” and said he would report back to the committee.
FT 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Heysham
A reactor at a nuclear power plant in Lancashire has been taken offline due to a technical fault. EDF Energy, operators of Heysham Power Station in Morecambe, said one of the two reactors at the Heysham 1 site was closed down on Tuesday. A water leak had been discovered in a turbine at a non-nuclear part of the plant, a spokesman said. He added that the plant was taken offline as a precaution but could not confirm when it would resume.
BBC 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Energy Live News 28th Jan 2015 read more »
ABWR
The first major permission has been given for the technology to build a new nuclear reactor. Horizon Nuclear power welcomed completion of the so-called regulatory justification process as it presses ahead with plans to build new nuclear power stations at Wylfa in Anglesey, North Wales, and Oldbury in Gloucestershire. The approval by the Government is the first to be put in place, with the final go-ahead expected in 2018.
Energy Voice 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Engineering & Technology 28th Jan 2015 read more »
The first major permission has been given for the technology to build a new nuclear reactor. Horizon Nuclear power welcomed completion of the so-called regulatory justification process as it presses ahead with plans to build new nuclear power stations at Wylfa in Anglesey, and Oldbury in Gloucestershire. The approval by the Government is the first to be put in place, with the final go-ahead expected in 2018.
Wales Online 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Radwaste
A review of the committee that provides independent advice to the UK Government on the long-term management of radioactive waste has been announced. It is the second Triennial Review of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), part of the government’s commitment to ensuring non-departmental public bodies “continue to have regular independent challenge”. The CoRWM also provides independent scrutiny on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s proposals and programmes for geological disposal, storage and long-term management solution for nuclear waste in the UK. Baroness Verma, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said: “The review will examine whether there is a continuing need for CoRWM’s function and its form and whether it should continue to exist at arm’s length from government.
Energy Live 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Utilities
With Eon’s historic decision to restructure we now for the first time will have a large energy supplier not being pulled in two directions, but acting on the single imperative of bringing new energy solutions to customers. This removes one of the key obstacles that has been hindering the energy transition, writes Simon Skillings, former Director of Strategy and Policy at Eon UK and now independent consultant and associate at environmental think tank E3G. But Skillings warns that other obstacles remain: the energy market is riddled with rules and regulations that lock in a future for assets that, he says, “will not be required in the new world”.
Renew Economy 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Proliferation
A former scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US has been sentenced to five years in jail for attempting to pass nuclear bomb-making secrets to Venezuela. Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni pleaded guilty in 2013 to delivering secrets to an undercover FBI agent, who he thought was a Venezuelan official. Pedro Mascheroni, who is 79, is originally from Argentina. His wife was also sentenced to one year in prison. Mascheroni was under investigation for about a year before he was charged.
BBC 29th Jan 2015 read more »
ITV 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Politics
Scrap Trident, ditch Barnett, reverse the cuts – the price of power for Miliband and Cameron in a hung parliament. With polls predicting another hung parliament, The Telegraph reveals what the SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, Ukip and the DUP will demand in return for their support.
Telegraph 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Austria
On 1 January 2015, Austria’s “ban” on imports of nuclear power went into effect as planned. The event has gone as unreported in the English-speaking world as was the original announcement.
Renew Economy 29th Jan 2015 read more »
North Korea
Recent satellite images suggest North Korea may be about to restart the nuclear reactor seen as its main source of weapons-grade plutonium, a US think-tank said Thursday. When fully operational, the five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex is capable of producing around 13 pounds of plutonium a year – enough for one nuclear bomb, experts say.
Telegraph 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Guardian 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Reuters 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Trident
Letter: Reports that the Ministry of Defence is planning to move the submarine bases on the Clyde to Wales are most disturbing. Do those proposing this madness of shutting down the Royal Navy bases in Scotland think they will somehow be safer? Do they imagine if a base in Pembrokeshire was attacked in a future nuclear holocaust that the resultant cloud would stop at the border with Scotland? Or is it merely that they wish to feel morally superior? Do they not realise that the reason for our nuclear arms is as a deterrent and to stop wars and in that they have been eminently successful? In either case the result of this dogma-driven obsession with Trident will be the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and the decimation of an entire economy.
Scotsman 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Secret plans considering relocating Trident to Wales are “logistically untenable” and a “slap in the face” for the people of Wales, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has said. It was revealed yesterday (28 January 2015) that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been conducting closed-door contingency planning for moving the Trident nuclear weapons system to Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. The news comes amidst government fears over the rise of the Scottish National Party, (SNP) in Scotland, which is committed to scrapping Trident and could play a decisive role in coalition negotiations following the general election in May. The MoD has itself previously ruled out Milford Haven as a viable site for the UK’s nuclear-armed submarines on logistical and economic grounds, as the Trident: Nowhere to Go report produced by CND and Scottish CND showed in 2012.
Ekklesia 29th Jan 2015 read more »
The Ministry of Defence says there have been ‘no conversations of any kind’ with the Welsh Government following reports that civil servants have drawn up contingency plans to move the UK’s Trident nuclear submarines from Scotland to Wales. Newspaper reports have suggested that MOD officials have been seriously examining the practicalities of moving Trident from Faslane to Milfod Haven if it were to become necessary as a result of increasing SNP influence or future independence for Scotland.
ITV 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Western Telegraph 28th Jan 2015 read more »
The question of whether Scotland should have nuclear weapons has caused the first major row of the 2015 General Election campaign. It’s seen MP Gregg McClymont blasted by Scottish Nationalist prospective Parliamentary candidate Scottish Nationalist Stuart McDonald.
Cumbernauld News 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Nuclear Testing
After eight years it has finally led to a public inquiry ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron and has already heard the killing was ordered by the Kremlin itself. Can you imagine what it would be like if no-one had investigated, no charges brought and no inquiry held? Imagine – a government responsible for the death by radiation poisoning of a man, and never held to account. Imagine that government could also be responsible for the grief of thousands of mothers who miscarried fetuses warped beyond recognition by that radiation. Imagine that government’s actions may have created thousands more living children, disabled by chronic pain, rare genetic conditions and unusual deformities. Would you expect a public inquiry into that? Would you hope for a criminal investigation, scientific explanation, or at the very least a ‘sorry’? Then you would hope in vain, just as Britain’s nuclear test veterans and families have hoped for 63 years so far.
Mirror 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
Russia’s deputy deputy minister Dmitry Rogozin has claimed the United States would be unable to defend itself from nuclear attack. Announcing new military technological advancements, Rogozin said US missile defence would not be able to handle Russia’s potential arsenal. “We will not disclose those technical details to anybody,” Rogozin said, according to comments quoted by Interfax news agency. “But I can tell you one thing: the work conducted today on combat missile technologies … shows that neither the current, nor even the projected American missile defence system could stop or cast doubt on Russia’s strategic missile potential.”
IB Times 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Renewables
The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has made an extra £25m of funding available through its Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme ahead of the crucial first round of auctions for low-carbon support. The auction, starting tomorrow (29 January), will see low-carbon developers compete for £325m worth of support contracts, up from the £300m promised in October. The funding will be split between technology categories, enabling both established and less established technologies to access support.
Edie 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Cheap oil is not about to kill off wind and solar power as some experts have claimed, the US government’s chief energy analyst said on Wednesday. The historic drop in crude oil prices, with Brent crude trading at $49.04 a barrel in London on Wednesday, had raised fears that renewable energy sources would struggle to compete. But Adam Sieminski, who heads the Energy Information Administration, said oil was not in head-on competition with renewables when it came to electricity generation – and that government policies would help shield the clean energy industries.
Guardian 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Renewables – small hydro
A hydro-electric power plant first installed in 1908 at Blair Castle, near Pitlochry, has now been re-started following a 10-year refurbishment. The hydro scheme will generate enough energy to power the 13th century the castle, offering both financial and environmental benefits to the estate and surrounding area. De-commissioned in 1951 after the arrival of the National Grid, the castle decided to re-visit the original hydro scheme to see if there was a way to develop an income stream to offset the increasing costs of maintaining Blair Castle.
Scottish Energy News 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Micro CHP
Is micro-CHP technology really taking root in the UK at last? Not yet; progress to date has been disappointing for a technology which has been talked-up for at least a decade now. But the last couple of weeks have seen a couple of announcements that suggest change is in the air. Probably most significant is the entry onto the market of the ‘electricity-generating boiler’ from Flow Energy, which can generate 1 kW of electricity and up 18 kW of heat. Ten years in development, the unit is designed and manufactured in the UK. Crucially, the company has launched the unit with a range of payment options, including a ‘pays for itself’ deal in which customers finance the up-front cost through a five-year loan agreement.
Cogeneration & On Site Power Production 27th Jan 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has confirmed that there will a moratorium on granting consents for unconventional oil and gas developments in Scotland whilst further research and a public consultation is carried. UKOOG – the trade association for Britain’s fledgling onshore oil and gas industry – welcomed the temporary ban, but said there was no need for further local research. No such licences have been granted in Scotland – and the Scottish Government is currently pondering a planning appeal for a coal-bed methane application around Airth by Dart Energy. Last Friday, following the publication of the Smith Command Paper on proposed new Scottish parliamentary powers, Ewing wrote to UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey requesting that the UK Government do not issue further licences in Scotland as the powers over licensing are due to be devolved.
Scottish Energy News 29th Jan 2015 read more »
The Scottish government has announced a moratorium on all planning consents for unconventional oil and gas extraction, including fracking. Welcomed by campaigners as “a very big nail in the coffin for the unconventional gas and fracking industry in Scotland”, energy minister Fergus Ewing told the Scottish parliament on Wednesday afternoon that the moratorium would allow time for the government to launch a full public consultation on the controversial drilling technique, and to commission a full public health impact assessment.
Guardian 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Times 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Telegraph 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Scotsman 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Herald 29th Jan 2015 read more »
Planning decisions on the UK’s full scale fracking have been deferred for eight weeks by Lancashire county council (LCC), which was due to decide this week on two proposals from shale gas explorer Cuadrilla. But after council planning officers recommended last week that permission should be refused on the grounds of “unnacceptable” noise and heavy truck traffic, Cuadrilla submitted revised proposals.
Guardian 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Donna Hume: the fracking industry is facing mounting scientific evidence pointing to health, environment and climate concerns. In this crunch week for fracking, what are the top ten questions that need answering?
Independent 28th Jan 2015 read more »
Fracking sites mapped.
Telegraph 28th Jan 2015 read more »
