Nuclear Finance
Prof Dave Elliott: What’s not sorted is the money. It may be hard to reform the market and the EU-Emission Trading System enough to make nuclear viable without formal subsidy. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne’s shifting definition of subsidies has raised some eyebrows. While he still says ‘there will be no levy, direct payment or market support for electricity supplied or capacity provided by a private sector new nuclear operator’ he now adds ‘unless similar support is also made available more widely to other types of generation.’
Environment Research Web 27th Nov 2010 more >>
Europe
Research Ministers of the EU Member States and Associated Countries, together with the European Commission, are announcing in Brussels today three new pan-European energy research infrastructures. A wind research facility is planned in Denmark, a concentrated solar power installation in Spain and a nuclear research reactor in Belgium.
eGov Monitor 30th Nov 2010 more >>
Nuclear Research
Work starts today on a multi-million pound nuclear research facility in west Cumbria which will create 45 jobs. The £20m scheme at Westlakes Science and Technology Park in Moor Row, will house the staff and postgraduate students when it is complete next September. A joint venture between Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the University of Manchester, the centre will have close links with the existing National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield.
Carlisle News & Star 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Radwaste
People in Cumbria are being asked for their views on plans to bury nuclear waste in the county. The government wants to find a permanent home for the waste currently stored at Sellafield. The government has urged communities to “volunteer” to take it. So far the only place expressing an interest is West Cumbria. Local councils involved, Copeland, Allerdale and Cumbria County Council, stress no commitment has been made. A number of consultation sessions are taking place but environmentalists are sceptical about the impartiality of the consultation. Ruth Balogh, from West Cumbria Friends of the Earth, described it as “tokenistic.” She said: “I do not believe we can have a voice in a process in which the nuclear industry is so dominant.”
BBC 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Supply Chain
A ROTHERHAM-based engineering firm has won a ten-year, multi-million pound contract to supply parts for the nuclear industry. Newburgh Engineering has been awarded the contract by Westinghouse Electric UK and Springfields Fuels Ltd to supply components for use at existing UK nuclear power stations.
Rotherham Advertiser 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Nuclear Skills
Walking through the expansive complex, at Olkiluoto, still missing a domed cover on the reactor building, it takes a while to make out a peculiar but important detail: many of the engineers and building experts working here are in their late 50s and early 60s; some are in their 30s, but few are in between. There’s a hole in the nuclear workforce, not just in Finland but across the Western world. For the moment, the operator of the Olkiluoto 3 plant, power utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), is getting by with its most experienced staff. As those workers retire, though, the skills shortage could become a crisis.
Reuters 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Oldbury
GOVERNMENT officials are set to visit Thornbury to discuss why Oldbury is on the list of potential new nuclear power stations in the country. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is due to visit Thornbury for a consultation event this month. It has been organised after South Gloucestershire Council and members of the community called for a meeting to give local residents the chance to hear how the Government’s proposed policies for energy have changed and also to ask questions about the inclusion of Oldbury in the list of potential new nuclear power stations.
Gloucestershire Gazette 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Bradwell
THE case for a new nuclear power plant in Essex will be put forward by the Government’s head of nuclear development at a public meeting. A campaign group fighting the plans for a plant at Bradwell will also have the opportunity to argue its case about why the site is unsuitable. The public meeting is taking place at The Mersea Centre in High Street, West Mersea, at 7pm on Wednesday.
Suffolk Evening Star 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Hinkley
SOMERSET County Council has welcomed National Grid’s decision to consider underground and subsea cables as well as pylons as part of its plans to power Hinkley Point C, as recently reported in the Weekly News.
This is the West Country 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Sellafield (new reactor)
The Joint Venture to develop new nuclear build at Sellafield, NW England, “NuGen,” has finally been established. Three companies – GDF Suez , Iberdrola and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) – teamed together to buy 190 ha (470 acres) land at Sellafield from the NDA in 2009. The consortium paid an upfront payment of GBP19.5 million, with a further payment of at least GBP50.5 million to follow in the next six years.
Telegraph 30th Nov 2010 more >>
Nuclear Engineering International 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Penn Energy 29th Nov 2010 more >>
World Nuclear News 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Platts 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Energy Business Review 30th Nov 2010 more >>
Dounreay
Forthcoming Scottish Government Consultation: Proposals in this consultation document are to allow two forms of waste substitution. The substitution of one type of cemented waste with another and the substitution of vitrified waste in place of cemented wastes.
Scottish Government 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Iran
Tehran today accused the west and Israel of dispatching a hit squad against its atomic programme, after an Iranian nuclear scientist was killed and another injured in co-ordinated attacks.
The attackers rode up on motorcycles and stuck bombs to the windows of the scientists’ cars as they were leaving their homes in Tehran on the way to work. Seconds later the bombs detonated.
Guardian 30th Nov 2010 more >>
Scotsman 30th Nov 2010 more >>
Telegraph 30th Nov 2010 more >>
Daily Mail 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Mirror 30th Nov 2010 more >>
A theme that stands out from the first batch of US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks is Washington’s abiding fear about weapons proliferation – particularly concerning Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes.
FT 30th Nov 2010 more >>
Iran has publicly blamed malware for causing “limited” problems with the country’s nuclear program.
eWeek 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Belfast Telegraph 29th Nov 2010 more >>
BBC 29th Nov 2010 more >>
US/EDF
named Eric Bret as president and chief executive officer of its U.S. unit, with a mandate to develop nuclear business there. Bret, who has been with EDF for 28 years, has run the company’s 58 nuclear reactors in France since 1996, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. He’ll start his new role on Jan. 1, 2011.
Bloomberg 29th Nov 2010 more >>
India
The Indian government has barred a group of nuclear scientists from meeting in New Delhi, where they planned to challenge key elements of the nation’s nuclear programme, Nature has learned. The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) is an independent group of two dozen scientists and policy analysts devoted to stirring debate on issues related to nuclear ma terials. The group was formed in 2006 and is funded by the MacArthur Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in Chicago, Illinois. The panel’s draft version of the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, a proposal that would ban production of weapons-grade nuclear material worldwide, has received backing from Japan, Canada and the Netherlands in United Nations disarmament discussions. IPFM openly oppose nuclear reproces sing, in which fuel is chemically separated and reused in either power reactors or nuclear weapons, and breeder reactors, which generate new nuclear fuel in addition to producing power. Many panel members believe that such technologies are not economically viable and increase the risk of nuclear war or terrorism. India’s nuclear ambitions are at odds with those views. The nation has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is designed to slow the spread of nuclear weapons. It is actively pursuing nuclear reprocessing, both for weapons and for power, and is near completion of a 500-megawatt plutonium breeder reactor in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu. That reactor will pave the way for future breeder reactors capable of converting the nation’s vast thorium reserves into uranium-233 fuel.
Nature 29th Nov 2010 more >>
North Korea
North Korea has said it has “cutting-edge” nuclear fusion technology, claiming a breakthrough in a field that has defied the world’s scientific community.
Telegraph 30th Nov 2010 more >>
North Korea detailed for the first time its expanded nuclear programme today, saying it had thousands of working centrifuges, as pressure built on China to rein in its ally amid tensions on the peninsula. Pyongyang’s revelations about its uranium enrichment, which gives it a second route to make a nuclear bomb, came a week after it fired an artillery barrage at a South Korean island, killing four people including two civilians.
Independent 30th Nov 2010 more >>
BBC 30th Nov 2010 more >>
North Korea has been secretly assisting Iran develop a weapons programme under the auspices of the Chinese government, American officials believe.
Telegraph 30th Nov 2010 more >>
An engineering firm based in west London was accused in a leaked diplomatic cable of illegally helping Iran’s nuclear programme.
Telegraph 30th Nov 2010 more >>
Pakistan
US diplomatic cables released on Sunday show that since 2007 the United States has been engaged in a secret effort to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani research reactor. According to the documents released by a whistle-blowing website called Wiki-Leaks, the US administration authorised this effort because American officials feared the material could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device.
Dawn 29th Nov 2010 more >>
Russia
Fortum Corporation and Russia’s atomic agency Rosatom have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of nuclear power. By developing nuclear power markets, both the companies will expand the long-standing cooperation between them in applying their nuclear competences in future nuclear power projects.
Energy Business Review 29th Nov 2010 more >>
