New Nukes
Campaign group Communities Against Nuclear Expansion (CANE) has applauded the latest criticism of the plans for new reactors across the country. Pete Rowberry (pictured below), Publicity Officer for CANE said: “Our members are not surprised about this decision. It has long since questioned the safety of the two reactor designs proposed for the UK on scientific and technical grounds. However, the government have decided that the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) are expected to pronounce on whether new nuclear power should go ahead the Generic Design Assessment is due to conclude in June 2011. CANE contends that this undermines the vitally important work of our regulators to safeguard the public and the workforce from nuclear risks.’
Get Noticed Online 29th Nov 2009 more >>
Sizewell
One of the county’s biggest road bottlenecks could finally be cleared – fuelled by nuclear power! Energy giant EDF has confirmed that it could help finance a by-pass for four villages on the A12 . . . if it is given the go-ahead to build a new power station at Sizewell. That would mean relief at last for the villages of Farnham, Stratford St Mary, Marlesford and Little Glemham – and a much faster run for motorists to Lowestoft and the Suffolk coast.
Evening Star 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Iran
In response to the revelation that Iran had been building an undeclared nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom, the United Nations nuclear watchdog asked Tehran whether it had any other such building plans. Yesterday the Islamic republic delivered its answer, as the country’s cabinet issued instructions for work to begin on five uranium enrichment plants within the next two months, and five more at some unspecified date in the future.
FT 30th Nov 2009 more >>
FT 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Times 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Guardian 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Telegraph 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Czech Republic
The Czech government will set the parameters of a tender to build new nuclear reactors for power group CEZ and give the deal “meticulous” scrutiny, the finance minister was quoted on Saturday as saying . The tender for the construction of two nuclear reactors at CEZ’s Temelin power plant with an option for the utility to order up to three more nuclear reactors at other stations is expected to be the country’s biggest ever procurement deal. Analysts have estimated the price tag for the entire project at 500 billion crowns ($28.28 billion), about half of the country’s state budget.
Reuters 28th Nov 2009 more >>
Pakistan
Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, has transferred authority over the nation’s nuclear weapons to the prime minister, as he tries to deflect growing criticism that he has too much power. President Asif Ali Zardari, beset by corruption allegations, has been under pressure to give up sweeping powers that his predecessor Pervez Musharraf accumulated for the presidency.The transfer of the chairmanship of the National Command Authority, which oversees Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, came as Zardari faces pressure after the lapse of an amnesty opened several of his top aides to prosecution on corruption charges.
Guardian 30th Nov 2009 more >>
France
France’s nuclear watchdog has expressed concern over the loss of skills in the atomic energy industry after a near 20-year gap in building reactors.
Business Green 30th Nov 2009 more >>
India
Workers at a nuclear power plant in southern India were treated for poisoning after drinking water was deliberately spiked with radiation, government officials said on Sunday.
Telegraph 30th Nov 2009 more >>
US
Linda Gunter, a spokesperson for the Beyond Nuclear advocacy group, points out, “It’s an incredible amount of expense to bring online and pour hundreds of billions into a slow industry that endangers the public with waste, radioactivity and chemical releases.” Meanwhile, the billions in federal guarantees and the funds available from selling “cap-and-trade” emissions permits would, they fear, largely be funneled to the nuclear industry – instead of building renewable energy industries and the green jobs potentially available in solar power, wind power and conservation. “Renewables and energy efficiency will be completely strangled by investing in nuclear power, and will eliminate those opportunities,” Gunter says. And with each nuclear plant taking between six to ten years to start operating – and costs running between $12-$25 billion each for ratepayers, investors or taxpayers – “we’ve got a finite amount of time to face this [global warming],” she says.
Truthout 29th Nov 2009 more >>
Carbon Trading
The carbon market could become double the size of the vast oil market, according to the new breed of City players who trade greenhouse gas emissions through the EU’s emissions trading scheme. The key problem seems to be that ETS carbon prices have remained resolutely low, thwarting low-carbon, high-cost investment. Carbon is currently trading at around $13 a tonne but many believe it needs to be $30, if not $50, to deliver a decisive boost for clean technologies such as wind, solar, CCS and nuclear power. The criticisms of environmentalists such as James Lovelock and Friends of the Earth (FoE) are far more fundamental. The basic charge is that the market has put millions of pounds into the pockets of some without making any real impact on carbon emissions.
Guardian 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Telegraph 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Utilities
The Conservative party is drawing up radical plans to break up the “Big Six” energy companies in an attempt to increase competition and reduce customers’ bills, setting the Tories on a collision course with the industry. Greg Clark, the shadow secretary for energy and climate change, wants to introduce rules to force the big suppliers to divest the bulk of their power plants to allow new entrants into the market.
Guardian 30th Nov 2009 more >>
The man who runs Britain’s largest energy supplier believes that the United Nations Summit on Climate Change will signal the death of the traditional utility company. In a carbon-constrained world, he argues, energy companies must reinvent themselves. No longer can they thrive simply by offering consumers an “all-you-can eat buffet” of cheap gas and electricity, with scant regard for emissions. Instead, they will focus on offering consumers packages of “energy services” that satisfy their daily needs for heat, power and light while minimising the use of polluting fossil fuels and keeping a tight rein on emissions.
Times 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Renewables
Small-scale renewable energy could provide 6% of Britain’s electricity needs – equivalent to more than two Sizewell B nuclear stations or the Drax coal-fired plant – by 2020 if the government improves the terms of a new deal for producers due to be launched next April, Friends of the Earth says today. The environmental campaign group used figures obtained from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and prepared by consultants Poyry and Element Energy to show that introducing a more ambitious scheme than that currently proposed would add only an average £2.37 a year to household electricity bills over the next four years – just £1.20 a year more than the government is already proposing to add to fund the scheme. The figures are published as 30 organisations and businesses – including FoE, the REA, the TUC, the British Retail Consortium, the Co-operative Group, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), the Federation of Small Businesses, Unison and WWF – have written to MPs urging them to support an Early Day Motion (EDM 276) tabled by Alan Simpson MP calling for a much greater level of ambition for small-scale renewable electricity generation than the government scheme proposes.
Guardian 30th Nov 2009 more >>
Energy Efficiency
THE Scottish Government must rethink its plans to eliminate fuel poverty, a charity insisted last night. WWF Scotland want the government to drop their means- tested approach to reducing fuel poverty in favour of a street-by-street home refurbishment scheme to improve energy efficiency and lower heating bills. Figures published last week showed that there are now 600,000 families living in fuel poverty in Scotland. The government’s Energy Assistance Package replaced the Central Heating and Warm Deal package last year. It is designed to help reduce fuel bills and improve the energy efficiency of homes, by using benefits and tax credit checks to identify those most at risk of fuel poverty. The measures also provide a package of standard insulation measures, such as cavity wall and loft insulation, to older households and those on benefits. But the charity said a study conducted with the Energy Agency showed that a non means-tested approach was “highly successful” in reducing the cost of energy as well as lowering the country’s carbon emissions.
Scotsman 30th Nov 2009 more >>
