Hunterston
Largs Community Council have debated an application by EDF to change nuclear waste arrangements for Hunterston. Fears that nuclear waste might be transported on local roads have been expressed by Largs Community Council. Members have severe concerns over a plan by the operators of Hunterston nuclear power station to change the way radioactive waste is handled. EDF Energy want to vary the authorisations for Hunterston and Torness to enable radioactive waste to be moved between sites for “accumulation” before being disposed of elsewhere via road convoys through the central belt. This has led the community council to question the implications for the area if waste is brought from elsewhere.
Largs and Millport News 29th July 2014 read more »
Moorside
THE first contract has been put out to tender for the Moorside nuclear facility in Cumbria. A firm is being sought to obtain samples from material underground, which will give an insight into the history of glacial movements in the area. Rizzo Associates, acting as principal contractor, is inviting businesses to apply for the work before August 8. The drive to create Moorside is set to create more than £10bn of investment and 21,000 jobs.
NW Evening Mail 29th July 2014 read more »
PLEX
Thales has been awarded a 10-year contract to support computerised control system services at all but two of EDF Energy’s nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom. The Long Term Support contract, worth over £30m, was awarded by EDF Energy as part of their continuing commitment to securing the UK’s future energy generation requirements. The extended safe operation of the nuclear generation fleet is an essential part of securing the UK’s energy future until the next generation of nuclear power stations comes on line.
Real Wire 29th July 2014 read more »
Waste Transport
U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Monday defended his agency’s controversial move to consider processing spent nuclear fuel from Germany at South Carolina’s Savannah River Site nuclear facility, saying the proposal is consistent with U.S. efforts to secure highly enriched uranium across the globe. The United States has for years accepted spent fuel from research reactors in various countries that was produced with uranium of U.S. origin as a part of U.S. nuclear non-proliferation policy and treaties. Receiving the German spent fuel would be “very much in line with our mission of removing the global danger of nuclear weapons material,” Moniz told reporters before a visit to the South Carolina nuclear facility. The decision on whether to accept the German fuel is still under discussion, he said.
Baltimore Sun 28th July 2014 read more »
Radwaste
CoRWM response to Eddie Martin’s letter of 10th May.
Cumbria Trust 30th July 2014 read more »
Campaigners have vowed to continue their fight to prevent Cumbria hosting an underground nuclear waste store. The Government set out its new process to search for a site for a geological disposal facility (GDF) last week to dispose of the country’s highly radioactive waste – of which 70 per cent is currently stored in west Cumbria at Sellafield. Last year the search in Cumbria collapsed when the county council overruled both Copeland and Allerdale’s vote to move forward with investigations. However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have revealed in its new white paper, that no single authority in local Government will now be able to veto any decision. Instead they will each have an input and it will be the community which has the final say, through a test of public support. Pressure group Cumbria Trust – which was set up in the wake of last year’s decision – is passionate in making the point clear that Cumbria is not the “right place” to build a GDF.
Carlisle News & Star 29th July 2014 read more »
Floating Reactors
Russia and the world’s top energy user China may jointly develop six floating nuclear power plants (NPPs), Russia’s nuclear export body said on Tuesday, a further joint energy project since the signing of a $400 billion gas supply deal. Rusatom Overseas, the export branch of state nuclear reactor monopoly Rosatom, said it signed a memorandum of understanding with China on the development of floating NPPs from 2019.
Reuters 29th July 2014 read more »
Energy Costs
Household energy bills should fall by £12 a year, under new plans to cap spending on Britain’s power networks, regulator Ofgem has said. The energy regulator said on Wednesday that it had approved plans for electricity distribution companies to spend £17bn upgrading and maintaining their networks over the eight years from 2015 to 2023. But Ofgem said the decision would actually cut consumer energy bills as the spending was lower than companies were currently allowed. About 8pc, or £111, of an annual dual fuel energy bill currently funds the power distribution networks. Ofgem said this component of the bill should fall by an average of £12 from April, to £99.
Telegraph 30th July 2014 read more »
Capacity Markets
Households are set to pay “schizophrenic” subsidies to Britain’s largest power station to burn coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, to keep the lights on and also biomass to reduce carbon emissions. Drax, which generates about 7 per cent of Britain’s electricity, wants its generating units that have not converted from burning coal to biomass to receive new capacity subsidies that will cost households £13 a year. These capacity subsidies, which are to be auctioned by the government in December, will pay power stations to stay open to avert blackouts at peak demand if alternative energy sources, such as wind farms, are out of action.
Times 30th July 2014 read more »
Iran
The lead U.S. nuclear negotiator declined to give a final deadline on Tuesday for negotiating a final nuclear agreement with Iran, but said participants mean to finish the international talks at the end of the current four-month extension.
Reuters 29th July 2014 read more »
Germany
According to the official statistics for the first half of this year, Germany has installed 1.7 GW of onshore wind and remains on course for a record level for the year as a whole. The main reasons are policy changes. According to the data collected by Deutsche WindGuard on behalf of the German Wind Energy Association BWE and German engineering association VDMA Power Systems, 1,723 megawatts of new wind power capacity was installed in the first half of this year, 66 percent more than the 1,038 megawatts installed in the first two quarters of last year. And while the official press release does speak of “rush” brought on by policy changes, the strong growth is expected to continue this year, with a record 3,500 megawatts possibly being built in 2014 on the whole.
Renewables International 29th July 2014 read more »
North Korea
North Korea threatens to launch nuclear strike on ‘the sources of all evil’ – or the White House and the Pentagon – as it accuses Washington of raising military tensions in Korean peninsula.
Daily Mail 29th July 2014 read more »
Telegraph 29th July 2014 read more »
Trident
CND has slammed David Cameron’s ‘sinister sidestepping’ of Parliament over a secret, decade-long, nuclear agreement with the United States. The amendment and extension of the Mutual Defence Agreement, which was first signed in 1958, is fundamental to the replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system: allowing for the transfer of information relating to nuclear technology and US-UK collaboration over their nuclear weapons programmes. Yet the British Government has not only denied Parliament the opportunity to discuss it, it will not even disclose the content of the agreement.
CND 29th July 2014 read more »
A new agreement critical to Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system, was signed the other day by British and US officials. Whitehall was silent. We had to rely on the White House, and a message from Barack Obama to the US Congress, to tell us that the 1958 UK-US Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA) had been updated.
Guardian 29th July 2014 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
Russia may be on the point of walking out of a major cold war era arms-control treaty, Russian analysts have said, after President Obama accused Moscow of violating the accord by testing a cruise missile. There has been evidence at least since 2011 of Russian missile tests in violation of the 1987 intermediate range nuclear forces (INF) treaty, which banned US or Russian ground-launched cruise missiles with a 500 to 5,500-mile (805 to 8,851km) range. But the Obama administration has been hesitant until now of accusing Moscow of a violation in the hope that it could persuade Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to stop the tests or at least not deploy the weapon in question, known as the Iskander, or R-500.
Guardian 29th July 2014 read more »
The Week 29th July 2014 read more »
Are you ready for war—including possibly nuclear war—between the United States, Europe, and Russia? That is the question that everyone should be asking him- or herself in light of the developments since the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. The crisis provoked by American and European charges of Russian responsibility for the shooting down of flight MH17 has brought the world the closest it has been to global war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. But the situation today may be even more dangerous. A half century ago, the Kennedy administration—haunted by fears that miscalculations on either side could precipitate a nuclear exchange—sought to keep the lines of communications open and avoid the demonization of Soviet leaders. Today, on the other hand, the CIA is directing an incendiary propaganda campaign against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, a campaign that seems intent on provoking a direct military confrontation with the country with the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world
World Socialist Web 30th July 2014 read more »
Renewables – offshore wind
Out of the top 10 largest offshore wind farms in the UK, 6 belong to the UK. These include the Siemens-owned London Array and the Greater Gabbard wind farm, the largest and second largest, respectively. However, that all could change soon, as the UK’s government moved last week to cap renewable energy subsidies at £200 million per year. The idea behind the move is to subsidize renewable energy producers who offer electricity with lower carbon emissions than those providing the same service with fossil-fuels. They hope to foster competition so renewable energy is provided to the consumers at the lowest possible cost.
Energy Digital 28th July 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Overwhelming opposition to the government’s plans to expanding fracking across Britain was expressed by interest groups during an official consultation, whose results were released a day after ministers signalled a go-ahead for shale gas drilling around the country. The Department of Energy and Climate Change’s report on the government’s Strategic Environmental Assessment of its nationwide fracking plan recorded a wide range of objections, including from bodies such as Public Health England and the Natural England. In conclusion, the document stated: “An analysis of the responses indicated that a substantial majority were against the licensing plan being adopted because of concerns over environmental effects.”
Guardian 28th July 2014 read more »
Here is a troubling truth for environmental groups. The biggest grassroots green campaign in Britain in the past decade has been one they have almost universally opposed: the groundswell of local opposition to onshore wind farms. The likes of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth may have been right to support wind power as an increasingly cost-effective form of renewable energy. But its large visual imprint is a blot on many landscapes and horrifies countryside lovers. So green groups must be thankful to have a popular countryside crusade they can embrace – opposition to the nascent fracking industry, which the government kickstarted this week by announcing that most of the country is open for prospecting for shale gas. But it is not obvious that they are winning the race yet or even that they have backed the right horse. Campaigners are sincere, and probably right, in their belief that the world has to end its addiction to carbon-based fossil fuels. A future stable climate depends on it. So there is a reasonable case against starting a new branch of that industry by adopting advanced drilling technologies and power blasting to release gas trapped in underground beds of shale. But there is another side to the argument. Natural gas may be a carbon-based fuel but burning it produces only half as much carbon dioxide as burning coal, which still generates 30% of our electricity. By replacing coal, fracked gas has brought US CO2 emissions back down to levels last seen two decades ago. If, as leading climate scientists such as the US’s Jim Hansen argue, the overriding need right now is to banish coal, then gas can be a big part of that.
Guardian 29th July 2014 read more »
Surely the right response for a government that supposedly believes in free markets and property rights is to extend ownership of mineral rights down to the centre of the Earth, as in the US? The exploration firms would then buy the rights directly from whoever owns the land and vast wealth would be generated for the community affected.
Telegraph 29th July 2014 read more »
Letters: Tony Bosworth: Your editorial says “there are serious reasons why fracking is likely to be part of Britain’s future” but misses many reasons why it shouldn’t be. Fracking in the UK will just add to a stock of fossil fuels we cannot afford to burn if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Shale gas won’t magically replace coal: the government’s chief scientist has said that without a global climate deal, new fossil fuel exploitation is likely to increase the risk of climate change.
Guardian 29th July 2014 read more »
Letter: Keith Barnham: fracking companies could follow Greenfield Energy, now drilling below the carparks of a leading supermarket chain for geothermal heat. Most scientists agree we cannot burn more than one-third of the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves if we are to slow global warming. Why exploit new, unproven gas resources of uncertain yield? At far shallower depths there is sufficient geothermal energy to heat and cool buildings.
Guardian 29th July 2014 read more »
Letter: So, drilling rigs are acceptable, but wind turbines, which produce benign energy, are not. The community-owned, renewable sector is the way forward – benign energy production with no legacy problems, community involvement and ownership, great returns on investment, and a percentage of profits going to the local area. We have been part owners of Baywind Energy Cooperative for many years, with average returns of 6.37% – the return in 2012 was 10.4%. Go to energy4all.co.uk to see the portfolio of community-owned schemes across the UK.
Guardian 29th July 2014 read more »
Climate
The White House has warned that delaying action on climate change would carry a heavy price, racking up an additional 40% in economic losses from climate impacts and other costs over the course of 10 years. White House officials said the stark finding from the president’s council of economic advisers underlined the urgency of Barack Obama’s efforts to cut carbon pollution.
Guardian 29th July 2014 read more »
Here are ten reasons to be hopeful that humans will rise to the challenge of climate change.
Guardian 30th July 2014 read more »
