Bradwell
The deal to build a new nuclear power station at Bradwell is the “most exciting thing that has happened in the district” in more than 20 years, according to MP John Whittingdale. Mr Whittingdale, a longterm supporter of a replacement to Bradwell, which began decommissioning in 2002, said he was convinced the local economy would benefit , despite the fact the plant will be Chinese-led.
Maldon & Burnham Standard 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Hinkley
Letter: The decision to remove availability of tax reliefs for community energy projects, coming at the same time as it is clearing the way (contrary to pre-election pledges) for privately owned, profit-driven fracking businesses to operate wherever they choose, makes explicit the governent’s preference to allow private equity, venture capital and hedge funds to profit rather than allow individuals and families to invest in their own communities. Meanwhile, the chancellor has given the Chinese government a big bundle of post-dated cheques to build a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. Just like PFI (though with guaranteed payments, not even reductions if it does not perform as it should). And so a successor to PFI has emerged in CFI – sadly not a community finance initiative but a communist finance initiative as the Tory government commits us to paying exorbitant sums to the ruling party of China for years to come.
Guardian 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Dounreay
Honey contaminated with nuclear waste has been found near a disused power station in Scotland, scientists have confirmed, with samples of the product testing positive for “elevated” radioactivity. The samples showed levels of radioactive caesium-137 that are 14 times higher than samples of honey from elsewhere in the UK, prompting scientists to call for an investigation into wider contamination at the site. The plant, which closed in 1994, no longer produces nuclear energy. It is still in the process of being decommissioned, however. Independent nuclear energy consultant John Large said bees are an important barometer of environmental health.
Russia Today 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Moorside
A multi-millionaire property developer wants to create a huge complex in west Cumbria to house the thousands of workers who will be needed for a new nuclear power station. Brian Scowcroft has recently finalised plans for a similar project to house 6,000 workers needed for a nuclear development in Anglesey and want to take a similar approach in west Cumbria. His company, Land and Lakes – which has bases in Kendal and Carlisle – is in the talks over options in Cumbria which are believed to include the 1,000 acres site which used to house the Broughton Moor munitions dump.
In Cumbria 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
Sellafield
The decommissioning of one of Sellafield’s most hazardous buildings has taken a step forward with the arrival of a machine that will scoop out its radioactive contents. The 360 tonne ‘SEP’ machine called the Silo Emptying Plant will grab radioactive waste from 22 compartments in the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS), an ageing storage plant prioritised for clean-up by the site’s owners, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). In the coming months the machine will be brought from Wolverhampton to the Sellafield site in 33 different parts and assembled by nuclear experts. The concept of building a machine to grab the waste was first agreed in 1997. The machine will be responsible for collecting 60,000 items of Miscellaneous Beta Gamma Waste including radioactive magnesium swarf, irradiated uranium metal and contaminated engineering debris out of the building and into safer, more modern containment. This process will start in 2017 and take until around 2038 and marks an important step forward in the decommissioning programme at Sellafield. The project is another step in cleaning up the UK’s nuclear legacy. Other recent project include the removal of sludge from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond and the dismantling of ‘Cockcroft’s Folly’ at the top of the Windscale pile chimney, marking a significant change to the Sellafield skyline.
Professional Engineer 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
ABWRs
Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy has reached a regulatory milestone in its progress towards deployment of the UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor, following confirmation that British regulators will move to the final step of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA). The GDA process for the UK ABWR is on schedule for completion by the end of 2017.
World Nuclear News 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Power Engineering 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
ONR
Last year, non-economic regulators were handed guidance entitled “Duty to have regard to growth” by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. Anti-nuclear campaigners fear regulators have been forced to cosy up to the industry and sacrifice some of their safety responsibilities as a result of government changes to their role. At a meeting in Manchester last week, executives from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), which oversees civil reactors and decommissioning, told representatives from NGOs that they now have to encourage the industry’s economic growth in addition to promoting safety.Last year, non-economic regulators were handed guidance entitled “Duty to have regard to growth” by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), but this still requires secondary legislation to come into force. The Government also introduced a Regulators’ Code, which asks them to support the growth of those businesses they oversee.Attendees told The Independent they were immediately concerned that this could mean loosening safety procedures if it stifled work in an industry that is set to boom in the coming years. Professor Andy Blowers, who chairs the Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group that opposes plans for a new reactor in Essex, said: “There’s a kind of dichotomy here, possibly a conflict, between regulating and accelerating [industry growth].” Another attendee, nuclear expert Dr David Lowry, warned that the ONR seemed to be getting “too close” to the industry. He added: “The ONR needs to stand up to Government pressure to act as an arm of the nuclear cheerleaders at the Treasury now making all the nuclear decisions, and carry on implementing the robust UK nuclear safety rules. Nuclear industry regulation is totally unsuitable to the Business Department’s misguided crusade to cut red tape in regulations.“During the Manchester meeting, the ONR seemed to be dangerously edging towards the corporate financial interests of the nuclear industry rather than the public interests of ensuring national nuclear safety.”
Independent 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
At a meeting in Manchester last week, executives from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), which oversees amongst other things, decommissioning at Sellafield, told representatives from NGOs (including Cumbria Trust), that they now have to encourage the industry’s economic growth in addition to promoting safety. Many critics were already worried that the ONR’s split from the Health & Safety Executive last year would undermine its focus on safety.
Cumbria Trust 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
One day, it would be great to write something positive about the current UK government in the energy context. But so long as it carries on the way it is, that won’t happen. Last month, I laid into chancellor George Osborne for the nuclear deal cooked up with the Chinese. The sycophantic fawning that occurred during the state visit of Xi Jinping (“Xi Dada”, or Uncle Xi), with yet more major UK opportunities peddled in Beijing’s direction was nothing short of disgusting. Leadsom and her solar episode: It turns out that she has been accused of “talking nonsense” by small solar companies in her constituency after appearing to suggest that Tory plans to cut subsidies for the industry were supported by “small solar companies in her constituency”. She told members of the Energy & Climate Change Committee at Westminster on October 20 that firms might see the cuts as useful because they would “focus the industry on the most fruitful areas”. But those very same firms have rounded on Leadsom. Graciously, they stopped short of accusing the minister of lying. Rather, she hadn’t a clue. They told the Energy desk at NGO Greenpeace that the minister had “no idea what she is talking about” if she thought companies supported the cuts. In August, figures published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showed that the UK Government may not be looking in the right place if it wants to cut energy subsidies! As noted by the London School of Economics: “The IMF’s latest analysis estimates that the UK will spend about £26billion, equivalent to 1.37% of its GDP, on subsidies for fossil fuels this year.” So what are the renewables subsidies cuts really about? Anyone know? Of course not. Try dogma.
Energy Voice 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Supply Chain
Manchester City Council’s chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein has said that Lancashire can play a full part in realising the government’s Northern Powerhouse ambitions, identifying the aerospace and nuclear sectors as two big opportunities for the county. Sir Howard was speaking at the Leaders Lunch event hosted by Downtown Lancashire in Business at Barton Grange Hotel in Preston, which was attended by 80 business and civic leaders including Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) chairman Edwin Booth. During the speech, he described himself as a “passionate advocate of devolution” and said that hearing the view of the LEP was critical to the credibility of the Northern Powerhouse.
Insider Media 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
Europe
Europe needs banking-industry style regulation to bring more transparency to the costs of nuclear reactors, consultancy Capgemini said in its annual energy market report. Capgemini said gross provisions for decommissioning and long-term spent fuel management work out at 4.7 billion euros (£3.36 billion) per reactor in Germany, compared to just 1.2 billion in France and 3.38 billion euros in Britain. Even if France’s nuclear fleet of 58 reactors is much bigger than Germany’s 17 reactors, economies of scale from the standardization of processes look too big to account for such a difference by themselves, according to Capgemini. “Establishing what methodology is used to estimate the overall cost is essential, but it is never explained in annual reports, with each player relying on the estimates of their own experts in that area,” Capgemini said. Nuclear operators like France’s EDF, Germany’s E.ON and RWE and Sweden’s Vattenfall [VATN.UL] all use different discount and inflation rates to calculate the present value of long-term liabilities and the parameters for these calculations are left to individual companies to decide, the consultancy said. “For obvious reasons to do with transparency, it is urgent that a process be instituted at European level … similar to the international regulatory framework for banks (Basel III) following the financial crisis that affected most European countries,” Capgemini said.
Reuters 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Germany
While Britain visualises a nuclear future, Angela Merkel’s aim of replacing it with renewables by 2022 is well under way. Germany’s push for renewables grew out of the anti-nuclear protests of the 1980s and currently more than a quarter (26%) of its electricity comes from wind, solar and other renewable sources, such as biomass, although 44% is from coal. The country’s government wants to increase the share of renewables in electricity to 40% to 45% by 2025. No other country of Germany’s size has attempted such a radical shift in its power supply in such a short space of time. Described by Merkel as a herculean task, the transition is Germany’s most ambitious economic project since die Wende – the phrase used to describe the fall of the Berlin wall and subsequent reunification of east and west – with an estimated cost of 1 trillion euros (£742bn) over the next two decades. However the Green party’s spokesman for industry in the European parliament, said the really “mind-blowing” energy transition is happening in the UK, where the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset will cost electricity customers at least £4.4bn in subsidies. “They are cutting down on solar, PV [photovoltaics], purportedly for cost reasons, while on the other hand they pledge to guarantee the nuclear industry and energy price twice the market price for the next 30 years. That’s crazy.”
Guardian 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
US – Decommissioning
About 45 miles southeast of San Francisco, in an 800-acre mini-city built to create atomic bombs, there’s a contaminated building slated for eventual demolition. Mark Costella, a facilities manager at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, would prefer to tear down the structure, but doesn’t have the tens of millions of dollars needed. Instead, he’s spending $500,000 to fix the roof. These are the kinds of contradictions at the heart of the complicated, expensive and struggling effort to clean up America’s 70-year-old nuclear-weapons program. The Energy Department’s cleanup operation is wrestling with reduced budgets, tens of billions of dollars in ballooning cost estimates and 2,700 structures on its to-do list. Officials said more than 350 additional unneeded facilities controlled by other programs in the Energy Department are likely eligible for transfer to the cleanup operation. But that office said its funds are limited and it isn’t accepting any more projects for now, no matter their significance. That means some of the nation’s toughest threats are now on the back burner, possibly for decades, while some relatively low-priority work moves forward.
Wall Street Journal 1st Nov 2015 read more »
US – nuclear capacity
Although the US is on the brink of ending a long hiatus in new additions to its nuclear capacity, there’s a very good chance it will see the overall capacity drop before the decade is out. That’s in part because of extensive delays in the construction of some new plants and in part because some of the older, smaller nuclear plants can’t be operated profitably.
Ars Technica 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
Entergy Corporation will close a nuclear power plant in New York which employs more than 600 workers within the next year. The company said its decision to close the James A Fitzpatrick plant in Scriba was based on the “continued deteriorating” economics of the facility. Entergy said the key drives behind the move include significantly reduced plant revenues due to lower gas prices.
Energy Voice 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Sweden
Westinghouse has been awarded a contract to dismantle the reactor pressure vessel internals of the two-unit Barsebäck nuclear power plant in Sweden.
World Nuclear News 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Iran
Iran has begun to decommission uranium enrichment centrifuges in order to fulfil the nuclear deal struck with six world powers in July, its nuclear chief has announced during a visit to Japan.
BBC 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Telegraph 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Reuters 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
North Korea
US Sec of Defense to North Korea: cease nuclear programs.
Reuters 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Trident
Over the weekend, the Scottish bit of the Labour Party voted in favour of getting rid of Britain’s nuclear weapons. The vote came even though Kezia Dugdale, who leads the party in Scotland, wants to keep Trident, which is based in, er, Scotland. The Scottish aspect of this is more important than some people realise. The Royal Navy believes that Coulport in Scotland is the only place in the UK where the boats that carry Trident can be safely based and maintained. If the Trident successor was banned from Scotland, there would no other home for it, at least until a new base was ready, perhaps in Plymouth, something that could take so many years that for some time, Britain’s subs would not have a British base. Meanwhile, the UK Labour Party is led by Mr Corbyn, a man who wants to get rid of nuclear weapons. But his shadow cabinet is full of people who don’t, including his shadow defence secretary and his deputy leader. Mr Corbyn has suggested that in the event of such disputes, the party membership at the annual conference should be “sovereign” and take the final decision. The party membership as it now stands would probably vote to disarm. But the membership isn’t being asked, not least because the unions who largely fund the party are in favour of nukes and the jobs that depend on them.
Telegraph 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Scottish Labour votes to scrap Trident.
Scotland Now 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Businesses and homeowners in Cornwall and Devon could be paid to shift their power demand into the middle of the day in order to help the region cope with soaring amounts of intermittent solar power on the local grid networks. Western Power Distribution (WPD) is investigating the potential for domestic energy customers in the south west to switch to a “sunshine” tariff that offers them lower energy prices when solar power supply is at its highest.
Business Green 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables – floating turbines
The world’s largest floating offshore wind farm is set to be installed off the coast of Scotland after the Norwegian energy firm Statoil was granted a marine licence for the pilot project. The Hywind Scotland project will see five floating 6MW turbines anchored about 25km off the coast of Peterhead. The project will have a generating capacity of 135GWh of electricity every year – enough to power 19,900 homes.
Business Green 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Edie 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Times 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
STV 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Press & Journal 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Commenting on the granting of consent, WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: “Successfully developing floating turbines could enable Scotland to secure even more clean energy from offshore wind in the future. With the right political support for offshore wind and other renewable technologies, Scotland is well placed to become the EU’s first renewable electricity nation by 2030. “As we approach the Holyrood elections, we call on all political parties to set out their plans to create jobs and cut carbon by continuing to grow renewables in Scotland.”
Blue & Green Tomorrow 2nd Nov2015 read more »
Renewables – AD
Scotland’s anaerobic digestion (AD) industry has grown by more than two-thirds in the past 12 months, as policy measures to reduce waste in Scotland take effect, new figures show. There are now 27 AD projects across Scotland turning food and farming waste into biogas, up from 16 this time last year, according to data released last week by the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA).
Business Green 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables – onshore wind
Energy companies have warned that subsidy cuts will prevent them from replacing old wind farms as almost 1,000 turbines approach the end of their lives over the next decade. Turbines are designed to last 20-25 years, and increasing numbers will reach the end of their serviceable life during the next parliament. According to industry body RenewableUK, the UK has 924 turbines that have been operating since before 2004. The energy department insists it is committed to making green technologies “stand on their own two feet”, but developers have accused the government of making it economically unviable to improve existing sites. The industry refers to improvements as “repowering,” but advances in technology mean this often involves completely decommissioning and replacing old turbines, making costs comparable with new developments. Modern wind turbines are mor e than three times the height and provide 10 times more output than turbines from the mid-1990s.
FT 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables – wave
Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has announced the following list of successful applicants following its second, competitive call for novel wave energy converters. Over £2.25m will be awarded to eight technology developers and consortia – including five Scottish companies – all looking to develop their technology through rigorous testing towards commercialisation.
Scottish Energy News 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
100% Renewables
Vancouver continue to demonstrate leadership on the environment and climate change leading up to COP21 in Paris with two significant plans going to Council on November 3rd. The Renewable City Strategy sets out how Vancouver can shift to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050 or sooner. Currently, 31 per cent of the energy consumed in Vancouver is renewable. The strategy makes clear that the 100 per cent target is well within our reach, by focusing on three key priorities in the transportation and building sectors: Reducing energy use; Increasing the use of renewable energy; Increasing the supply of renewable energy. Earlier this month at the Our Cities, Our Climate summit in Washington DC, US Secretary of State John Kerry praised Vancouver’s goal of shifting to 100% renewable energy. “Huge wealth can be created even as you make people healthier, reduce the sickness that comes from particulates in the air and the cancer that comes with it,” said Kerry. “More and more city leaders are coming to that conclusion…it’s why Vancouver set a goal of obtaining 100% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050.”
Vancouver 28th Oct 2015 read more »
National Grid
National Grid confirmed on Tuesday morning that current chief executive Steve Holliday will step down, to be replaced by the executive director of UK operations from next summer.
Utility Week 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
