Radwaste
Campaigners from Friends of the Earth demand the 3 Cumbrian Council cabinets halt the nuclear waste plans tomorrow. The 3 Councils – Cumbria, Allerdale and Copeland – will decide tomorrow Jan 30th whether to go forward to the next stage of a process known as Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) to look for a site to bury high level nuclear waste in West Cumbria. FoE says there is no mandate from Cumbria over going forward, and that this is a national issue not a Cumbrian one. There is no suitable geology and no willing community, the two things that the government is looking for.
FoE West Cumbria & North Lakes 29th Jan 2013
Live coverage as Cumbria, Allerdale and Copeland councils vote whether to pursue or end the search to find a suitable location for a geological disposal facility that would store highly radioactive waste.
Times & Star 30th Jan 2013
CUMBRIAN councils will vote today on whether to start the search for a site to store high level nuclear waste. Copeland, Allerdale and Cumbria County must all agree before progressing to the next stage, which will involve geological investigations.Currently, radioactive waste is stored above ground in various sites around the UK, mostly at Sellafield.
Business Desk 30th Jan 2013
A vote is to be held later on whether to go ahead with a search for a site to store high level nuclear waste. Executive members of Cumbria County and one of either Allerdale or Copeland Borough Councils must agree if “Stage 4” of the process is to go ahead. This would include detailed geological investigations and discussions over the social and economic implications. Even if the £12bn underground repository is approved, construction is not expected to begin before 2025. Cumbria is the only area still considering such a facility.
BBC 30th Jan 2013
BBC Newsround 30th Jan 2013
Three councils will decide today whether or not they want to look at possible sites to bury high level nuclear waste in west Cumbria. The executives of Allerdale, Copeland and Cumbria County Council’s cabinet will hear representations from those for and against moving forward in the process. Allerdale and/or Copeland can only move progress to search for sites if they have the backing of the county council.
ITV News 30th Jan 2013
On the eve of one of the biggest decisions west Cumbria has ever faced we have the second of two special reports. Tomorrow 24 councillors will decide whether the west of the county will look for a possible site to bury nuclear waste. Tonight our focus turns to those who want the councils to say no. Opponents say an underground waste store would affect tourism and are concerned that it could be unsafe.
ITV News 29th Jan 2013
ITV News 29th Jan 2013
A protest against a potential nuclear waste store beneath Lakeland’s unspoilt Ennerdale valley was held on Saturday 26 January, in advance of a vote by local councils on whether to proceed with the process of finding a site for the huge facility.
UK Climbing 29th Jan 2013
The 17th-century Pheasant Inn on the banks of Bassenthwaite in the Lake District is an unlikely setting for a political drama with national implications. But a meeting of friends for afternoon tea there late last year set off a chain of events that has culminated in claims of intimidation and threats in the debate over a £12bn plan to dump radioactive waste in the area. Councillors are poised to vote on Wednesday on whether to allow geological testing to find out whether west Cumbria is suitable for burying spent fuel rods from Britain’s nuclear power stations. Construction of a high-level waste repository is seen as vital to government plans to build a new generation of reactors, but the Cumbrian proposal has caused bitter division and allegations of dirty tricks among locals.
FT 29th Jan 2013
AN historic vote will be taken by three Cumbrian councils tomorrow. And the outcome could help steer the decades old debate of where to store the country’s nuclear waste towards a resolution. When the executives of Cumbria County Council and Copeland and Allerdale Borough Councils meet tomorrow, they will cast their vote on whether to progress to the next stage of the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely process – a desk-based assessment of West Cumbria. While the nuclear industry and politicians, such as Copeland MP Jamie Reed, believe the repository could hold the key to West Cumbria’s prosperity, anti-nuclear campaigners say the facility would ruin the Lake District and its tourism industry.
NW Evening Mail 29th Jan 2013
ON the eve of the Cumbrian nuclear repository vote, South Lakes MP Tim Farron has put a motion into parliament to try and stop the ‘undoubted damage’ to the county’s tourism sector. Mr Farron submitted an Early Day Motion – Protecting the Lake District from plans for a Geological Disposal Facility in Cumbria – in to parliament this morning.
Whitehaven News 29th Jan 2013
NW Evening Mail 29th Jan 2013
One of the biggest fears over the proposed siting of an underground nuclear waste storage facility in west Cumbria is the potential impact on tourism leading to the Lake District being branded toxic. Richard Greenwood, Cumbria Tourism’s policy and performance director, said it was widely known that the storage of nuclear waste was a major challenge but it was a problem which needed to be addressed. He added: “Cumbria Tourism has engaged in the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) consultation exercise and after very careful consideration of the facts currently available, take a neutral stance on whether a nuclear waste repository should be based in west Cumbria. “It has taken this position because there is inconclusive evidence that such a repository would have a detrimental impact on the economy and the environment.
News & Star 29th Jan 2013
Nuclear nations have been grappling for decades with how to deal with the toxic spent fuel produced by reactors. Most governments are storing their high-level radioactive waste in temporary facilities. All of them will be watching events in the UK closely. The crisis at Japan’s Fukushima-Daiichi plant in March 2011 underlined the potential dangers. Decades-worth of spent fuel rods had been packed into cooling tanks at the site – each full of radioactive isotopes, including several types of plutonium. The US currently has the world’s only operational deep-level nuclear waste repository, in New Mexico, but it only accepts waste from weapons research and production. Plans to build a permanent facility for civil waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada were scrapped by President Barack Obama amid local opposition. Along with the UK, other countries considering building high-level waste repositories include Sweden, Finland, France, Germany and Canada. Sweden is most advanced, submitting a formal application to build a permanent storage facility in 2011. It took SKB, the Swedish nuclear waste management organisation, 15 years to win local support for its plan, which will see waste buried in copper canisters 500m underground.
FT 29th Jan 2013
Energy Bill
Labour this week moved to beef up the government’s Energy Bill, proposing a series of new amendments designed to accelerate investment in green infrastructure, including a rigorous decarbonisation target for the electricity sector and stricter emissions standards for coal and gas plants. Alan Whitehead, MP for Southampton Test and a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, tabled an amendment to the Bill on Monday evening that would ensure electricity emissions do not exceed 50 grams per kWh by 1 January 2030.
Business Green 30th Jan 2013
New Nukes
Writing in the Town and Country Planning Association’s Journal, Professor Andrew Blowers, in the first of two articles, argues that the case for nuclear power is flawed. The case for nuclear energy is based on two simple and seemingly incontrovertible claims. One is that ‘We need nuclear energy to stop the lights from going out’; the other that ‘We must have nuclear energy to save the planet’. In this, the first of two articles, I shall attempt to refute these claims and argue the contrary; that we can keep the lights on and tackle the problem of climate change without nuclear energy. Indeed, any further commitment to nuclear energy is more likely to hinder than help achieving those objectives.
N2NP 29th Jan 2013
Sizewell
SCIENTISTS trying to predict possible flooding threats to the Sizewell C nuclear power station have created computer models of the adjacent coastline to assist in research. Results from the use of the models will help EDF Energy engineers create a plant designed to withstand future storm surges and rising sea level. Work by scientists at the Lowestoft laboratories of the Government-owned Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), is being financed entirely by EDF which is planning to build a £6billion twin reactor nuclear power station at Sizewell. If plans are approved it will be constructed on a site north of the existing Sizewell B plant. Although parts of the Suffolk coast are eroding, as a result of storm surges and rising sea level, the Sizewell nuclear site is bordered by a strong shingle bank and both scientists and engineers are confident that, with additional defences, the new power station can be protected into the future.
Ipswich Star 29th Jan 2013
Oldbury
OBTAINING approval from regulators for new nuclear reactor technology at the proposed plant near Oldbury could take up to four years, the Gazette can reveal. Hitachi, the firm behind plans for a new power station at Shepperdine, submitted its advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) design for examination, or general design assessment, to the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency this month.
Gloucestershire Gazette 29th Jan 2013
Scotland
The Scottish Government has today unveiled plans to decarbonise its energy sector by 2030 and boost the offshore wind energy supply chain, as it also prepares to update its climate change strategy. First Minister Alex Salmond confirmed this morning that Scotland would aim to cut emissions from the electricity sector from 347 grams of CO2 per kWh in 2010, to 50g CO2/kWh by 2030, as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC).
Business Green 29th Jan 2013
The Scottish Government has published its latest climate change plans, designed to ensure Scotland achieves its legally-binding greenhouse gas reduction targets. The publication of the government’s report on proposals and policies (RPP) has brought a joint call from opposition parties for greater clarity. They claimed that the Scottish government has failed to meet targets and needs to look again at policies across all departments.
BBC 29th Jan 2013
Plans unveiled by the Scottish Government today (Tuesday 29 January) to decarbonise its power sector by 2030 have been welcomed by Friends of the Earth. Friends of the Earth’s Director of Policy and Campaigns Craig Bennett said: “Scotland has stormed ahead of the rest of the UK by pledging to slash its electricity emissions by 2030. “The big question is whether the Coalition listens to British business and its climate change advisors and adopts a UK-wide decarbonisation target.
FoE (EWNI) 29th Jan 2013
The Scottish Government has shown an ‘extremely worrying’ lack of ambition in its new plans to reduce emissions, a leading coalition said today. Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) slammed the government’s second climate action plan, the draft Report on Proposals and Policies 2 (RPP2), accusing it of failing to fully grasp the multiple benefits for the economy, society and the wider environment to be gained from a transition to a low carbon economy. The Royal College of Nursing today added their voice to call for more focus on measures which reduce emissions and can improve the health of Scots across the country. With the Scottish Government having missed its first climate target, SCCS believes this draft plan fails to put us back on track to cut our emissions and play our full part in tackling dangerous climate change, committed to in the 2009 Climate Change Act.
Stop Climate Chaos 29th Jan 2013
Russia
The installation of two 300-tonne tanks has taken the project to build Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant a step further towards completion. The tanks, which provide a shielded housing for the reactor vessels and their cooling circuits, were manufactured by Baltiysky Zavod shipyard, which is constructing the plant for Rosenergoatom. They were lowered into the reactor compartment of the Akademik Lomonosov over two days in an operation made complicated by ice on the Neva river. Baltiysky Zavod general director Alexander Voznesensky described the installation of the tanks as a milestone in the project.
World Nuclear News 29th Jan 2013
Bulgaria
It was clear from the start that the first referendum held in Bulgaria since the fall of communism was going to be a farce. Last Sunday, January 27, the farce reached its conclusion. Bulgarians expressed themselves on the issue of nuclear power by massively staying home. According to exit polls, only 21.8% participated. Of those, 61% voted YES and 39% NO. For the vote to count, 60% of eligible voters had to turn out. So, the poor turnout means the issue now has to be referred back to the Parliament.
Greenpeace 29th Jan 2013
Bulgarian prime minister Boiko Borisov’s party is to go ahead with building a new nuclear power plant after turn-out in a referendum backing it was too low to be valid. Some 60.6 per cent of those who voted were in favour of building the plant, but the turnout of 20.2 per cent was far below the 60 per cent needed to make the referendum binding.
Scotsman 30th Jan 2013
Bulgaria’s government will use its majority in parliament to enforce its decision not to build a new nuclear power plant, despite Bulgarians backing its construction in a referendum just months before a national election.
Trust 29th Jan 2013
Japan
Fukushima crisis update 25th to 28th Jan.
Greenpeace 29th Jan 2013
Tightened safety rules and maintenance of Japan’s two operational reactors could lead to a complete nuclear shutdown by summer for the second time since the Fukushima disaster in March 2012. Power producers, required to avert power shortages, are hard-pressed to import even more highly priced LNG to fuel backup gas-fired power plants, analysts warn.
Gas to Power Journal 30th Jan 2013
China
According to data from the China Wind Energy Association (CWEA), wind energy capacity has now surpassed nuclear power to become the third largest source of electricity in China, after coal, and large-scale hydro-electric plants.
Oil Price 29th Jan 2013
North Korea
GOOGLE has unveiled detailed coverage of North Korea for the first time, offering internet users pinpoint locations of the nation’s landmarks and controversial nuclear research buildings.
Scotsman 29th Jan 2013
In November 2012, a RUSI delegation travelled to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, for extensive, ground-breaking nuclear talks – the first of their kind by a British organisation in recent years.
RUSI 29th Jan 2013
Renewables
Martin Cotterell has been announced as the Chairman of the British Standards committee – BSI Committee GEL/82 Photovoltaic Energy Systems. Working under the direction of the BSI British Electrotechnical Committee and the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee, the GEL/82 Committee is responsible for the UK input to the equivalent international committees (IEC TC 82 and CLC/TC 82) which set the standards for all elements of solar PV systems from the operation of the solar cells to the way the electricity generated is fed into the national grid.
Solar Portal 29th Jan 2013
A new report, Towards co-operative councils, the leaders of 21 Labour local authorities set out their joint vision to “share power and decision-making more equally to achieve the best outcomes for citizens and their communities.” The leaders call for a wider definition of public ownership than is traditionally understood, and the modernisation of the concept of the co-operative to “enable people who care about a particular public service to come together (including as employees) to best achieve what it is they individually and collectively want”. Handing more power and control to the people who use public services has the power to transform them. It’s an opportunity the Tories’ Big Society agenda missed. Handing power to citizens allows us to harness people’s own insights and life experiences in reshaping the services they rely on. It recognises that state ownership is not the only form of public ownership, and accountability to the state is not the only form of democratic accountability.
Guardian 29th Jan 2013
