New Nukes
The Environment Agency thinks both of the potential new designs of nuclear plant vying to replace the UK’s aging fleet – Westinghouse’s AP1000 and EDF/Areva’s UK EPR – could be accepted under the Generic Design Assessment. The agency said a Statement of Design Acceptability could be issued but wants further work undertaken on: decommissioning arrangements; filtration and ventilation systems; disposability of spent fuel; and monitoring of discharges and disposals of radioactive waste.
Utility Week 29th June 2010 more >>
Energy Supplies
Letter from Tony Lodge: New statistics from the Department of Energy and Climate Change should concern those now in charge of energy policy. They show that although energy demand is down, due to the recession, the UK’s gas imports rose sharply in the past 12 months. Imports of natural gas in the first quarter of 2010 were 31 per cent higher than a year ago. In the first quarter of 2010, and for the first time since 1968, gas imports exceeded indigenous production. Importantly, gas use for electricity generation was 18.4 per cent higher than in the same period last year. Coal burn to generate electricity was down by 17.8 per cent. Gas is clearly displacing coal and new nuclear is years away. Over 90 per cent of planned and new power plant construction in the UK is gas fired; by 2020 it is estimated we may need to import about 80 per cent of our total gas requirements, with over a third of this used in gas fired power stations. This is not a balanced or strategic energy policy. The challenge must be to speed up approval for new nuclear and clean coal, support more reliable renewables and consequently prevent our over-exposure to one fuel, which will lead to price volatility and affect our future economic competitiveness.
Times 28th June 2010 more >>
Planning
Ministers will regain the final say over major planning projects such as airports – after abolishing the new Infrastructure Planning Commission.
BBC 29th June 2010 more >>
Business groups yesterday accused the government of playing politics with the planning system after the coalition confirmed it would close Labour’s new planning body despite fears the move could slow delivery of vital infrastructure. Industry had encouraged the previous government to set up the Infrastructure Planning Commission to help push through key schemes, such as nuclear power stations or airports, that might otherwise become bogged down in local planning disputes. The quango had the power to override local authorities if projects fulfilled national objectives such as delivery of essential new energy capacity. John Healey, shadow planning minister, said the coalition had simply moved officials from one quango to another “at huge administrative cost.”
FT 30th June 2010 more >>
FT verdict The coalition insists that its system will “fast-track” many schemes, with a statutory obligation to proceed at the same pace as the IPC. But business is right to be worried about this: politicians sometimes do what is best for their party rather than the country.
FT 30th June 2010 more >>
Areva
Standard & Poor’s said on Monday it had lowered its rating on French nuclear group Areva by two notches because of delays to the construction of a reactor in Finland.
Swedish Wire 29th June 2010 more >>
Mineweb 29th June 2010 more >>
Sizewell
Suffolk councillors pass nuclear waste store. A nuclear waste dry store for Sizewell B power station, now awaiting government approval, is likely to be the first of many should a new generation of plants be built.
ENDS June 2010 more >>
Hinkley
EDF Energy is to hold a public exhibition in Burnham-on-sea next month as part of its second stage of public consultation on plans to build a new nuclear station at Hinkley.
Burnham-on-sea.com 29th June 2010 more >>
Iran
A man who says he is an Iranian nuclear scientist claims to have escaped after being abducted by US agents. In a video shown on Iranian state TV, he says he has escaped in the US state of Virginia and is now on the run.
BBC 29th June 2010 more >>
Telegraph 30th June 2010 more >>
Crucial aspects of Iran’s nuclear program remain a puzzle to the outside world, amid uncertainty about whether Tehran has begun building an atomic bomb, analysts said Monday.
Middle East Online 29th June 2010 more >>
UAE
The United Arab Emirates is “taking action” to maintain nuclear security, its envoy to the atomic watchdog said on Tuesday after a reported UAE crackdown on Iranian firms dealing in dangerous materials.
Yahoo 29th June 2010 more >>
Yucca Mountain
Federal regulators on Tuesday denied a request by the Obama administration to withdraw an application for the first national nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. A three-judge Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel said that Energy Secretary Steven Chu doesn’t have the power to withdraw the application because 1982 law “does not give the secretary the discretion to substitute his policy for the one established by Congress.”
Wall St Journal 30th June 2010 more >>
Climate
Britain needs to build twice as many wind farms every year, put more than a million electric cars on the road and insulate every home in the country in order to meet ambitious legally-binding climate change targets, Government advisers have warned. Under new laws brought in by the previous Labour Government, the UK is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 34 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020. However, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), set up to advise ministers on progress against the target, today warns that at the moment, the country is on course to fail.
Telegraph 30th June 2010 more >>
Independent 30th June 2010 more >>
Scores of government-backed organisations face being swallowed by a new UK Green Investment Bank, under radical proposals announced today. Billions of pounds that are being spent by disparate quangoes and officials funds should instead be ploughed into an eco-bank, a group of leading financial and environmental experts recommended. The Green Investment Bank Commission argued that cutting the number of state-funded green bodies would “radically improve” the task of cutting the nation’s carbon output – an area where Britain continues to lag behind official targets.
Guardian 30th June 2010 more >>
Bryony Worthington on a Green Investment Bank: The EU Emissions Trading Scheme is a different story. The price has recently been hit by the recession which sent emissions tumbling while supplies of permits remained abundant. With the cost of a tonne of carbon emissions at about 15 – roughly half of original projections – the return on investing in emissions savings have been seriously reduced. To fund the GIB, the Wigley report eyes part of the £40bn revenue stream from carbon trading that is meant to materialize between 2012 and 2020 once power companies are required to buy permits in auctions. Sadly this number is out of date – if caps stay where they are the likely income for the UK could be as low as 15bn only rising to 25 bn if caps are tightened at a European level. Overall, the report has smart ideas on how to boost the speed and scale of investment in low carbon projects and companies in the UK, and on where some of the funding can be purloined from. If a GIB could make Government spending more efficient and, crucially, help create more policy certainty then it may just be the breakthrough we need to kick-start a low-carbon UK.
Guardian 30th June 2010 more >>
Britain will need up to £1 trillion of investment to replace and decarbonise infrastructure over the next 20 years, according to a report by the Green Investment Bank (GIB) Commission on behalf of the Government.
Telegraph 30th June 2010 more >>
Bob Wigley’s Green Investment Bank Commission has delivered a blueprint for how private sector funds can be successfully diverted into funding essential investment, particularly in energy.
Telegraph 30th June 2010 more >>
