Planning
Planning and Major Infrastructure – Key Issues for the new parliament, June 2010 more >>
New Nukes
Many of the age-old arguments being used to renounce the nuclear renaissance fail to address the structural changes that have occurred in the industry in the last 20 years.
Nuclear Engineering International 2nd July 2010 more >>
An £80million Government loan which would enable Forgemasters to build a crucial new bit of kit has just been torn up – on the grounds that we can’t afford it. No matter that it would have placed Sheffield, and thus Britain, at the forefront of building the next generation of nuclear power plants all over the world.
Daily Mail 3rd July 2010 more >>
Hinkley
West Somerset Council has highlighted the potential contracts local businesses could benefit from, should a new nuclear power station be built. It comes ahead of a UK supplier event taking place on Tuesday, 6 July aimed at firms based in Somerset. It is being held by EDF, the energy supplier hoping to secure the go-ahead to build a new reactor at Hinkley.
BBC 2nd July 2010 more >>
The UK new-build arm of utility EDF has begun preliminary work on its planned EPR location in Somerset, UK, in advance of its final investment decision deadline in 2013. Although the site looks no more than an empty field, EDF is taking steps toward the site licence and is hosting a round of supply chain meetings at Hinkley Point, site of two 660MW AGRs, and also at its other primary site, Sizewell in Suffolk, in early July.
Nuclear Engineering International 2nd July 2010 more >>
Trawfynydd
HUNDREDS of people could lose their jobs at Trawsfynydd nuclear power station sooner than expected if the Government agrees a bid to speed up its closure. Owner Magnox North wants to finish removing low and intermediate nuclear waste from the site by 2014 rather than 2022. At present 560 people work on decommissioning – 205 permanent, 50 agency and 305 contractors.
Daily Post 2nd July 2010 more >>
High Level Waste
HALEF, a consortium comprising Areva, Amec and Balfour Beatty, has been awarded a contract by Sellafield for a highly active effluent storage facility project at the Cumbria complex in northwest England. The pre-construction contract requires the consortium to work together with Sellafield to develop the concept design of the facility, which will span two years. It will be followed by a 4-year procurement construction and commissioning phase, due to start by mid-2012. The total project budget will exceed GBP250m.
As per the contract, Areva will provide engineering management and process design services in addition to procurement and commissioning of highly active storage tanks and associated equipment. Radioactive effluents arising from nuclear processing operations will be stored at the new facility, which will comprise a series of high integrity highly active storage tanks in a seismically qualified reinforced concrete building.
Energy Business Review 2nd July 2010 more >>
Sellafield
A union has attacked Sellafield’s “harsh and unfair” redundancy rules for part-time workers. Bosses plan to cut 800 jobs at the site and want volunteers to come forward. There are said to be many people keen, but hundreds of part-time workers have now learnt their redundancy packages will be calculated on part-time earnings only, regardless of how long they had previously worked full-time.
Many workers on the site put in decades of full-time service before switching to part-time hours.
Cumberland News 2nd July 2010 more >>
Companies
Poyry has acquired 100% of the shares of Brennus Ingenieurs Conseils, the company which runs Numex, Europe’s platform for operators of nuclear power plants (NPP). Numex is renowned by the nuclear energy industry as a facilitator of exchange of NPP related maintenance experience and as a forum for best-practice maintenance procedures. The current members of Numex include NPP operators in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland, UK, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.
Energy Business Review 2nd July 2010 more >>
NPT
As a 4th round of UNSC Iran sanctions is passed and the NPT Review Conference is brought to a close, the emergence of new nuclear diplomacy interlocutors with distinct interests will make non-proliferation consensus-building a more complex affair. Egyptian diplomats have traditionally served as a principal channel of non-nuclear weapons state ambitions and frustrations at NPT Review Conferences. The status of Egypt as authoritative dealmaker in international nuclear policy is disproportionate to its actual global military and economic power. The landmark consensus statement of the 1995 NPT Review Conference, issuing support for a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in the Middle East, is widely credited to the intransigence of Egypt in demanding language against Israel’s nuclear arsenal in return for its support toward a final consensus.
Oil Price 2nd July 2010 more >>
France
Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest power generator, is facing demands to justify ballooning cost estimates for extending the lives of French nuclear reactors as the government opens the market to competitors. EDF will have to spend about 600 million euros ($750 million) on each of its 58 reactors to keep them in service for more than four decades, according to Chief Executive Officer Henri Proglio. That’s 50 percent more than an estimate given earlier this year. The utility will have to fork out almost 35 billion euros to keep aging plants in working order, the CEO has said.
Business Week 2nd July 2010 more >>
Bloomberg 2nd July 2010 more >>
Japan
Representatives from the atom-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki demanded Friday that the Japanese government halt negotiations with India to seal a civilian nuclear cooperation pact, saying the move hampers international efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons.
Japan Today 3rd July 2010 more >>
Korea
SOUTH Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction has been awarded a $3.9b contract to supply four APR 14000 reactors for the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE’s) first nuclear power plant. Doosan was awarded the contract by Korean state energy company Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco). According to World Nuclear News, under the contract, Doosan will provide the reactor pressure vessel, steam generators, pressurisers and coolant pumps.
Chemical Engineer 2nd July 2010 more >>
Morocco
France signed a cooperation accord with Morocco on Friday to help the north African country advance its plans to build a nuclear power plant. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the agreement was “not a commercial deal to build a nuclear reactor” but rather a “framework accord that will help Morocco prepare its entry into the field of nuclear energy.”
Middle East Online 2nd July 2010 more >>
Finland
The Finnish parliament has approved, with a clear majority, the applications submitted by TVO and Fennovoima for the construction of two more nuclear reactors in Finland.
Nuclear Engineering International 2nd July 2010 more >>
Submarines
An investigation into claims that a US nuclear submarine accidentally sunk a French fishing boat in 2004, killing five sailors, is to be reopened.
BBC 2nd July 2010 more >>
Renewables
The introduction of ‘Feed-in Tariffs’, that pay homeowners for electricity fed into the grid, has led to a rise in demand for solar panels. But householders who have installed the expensive technology are unable to start generating electricity because of a shortage of “inverters”. Solar panel manufacturers say the shortage is a “blip” that will not stop the massive growth of solar in the UK in the long run.
Telegraph 3rd July 2010 more >>
