Fast Reactors
Japans long and expensive pursuit of a super-efficient nuclear reactor a model once touted as the key to its energy future now teeters on the brink of failure amid new government concerns about its runaway costs. The four-decade project to develop a so-called fast-breeder reactor has consumed more than $13 billion in funding, so far producing only accidents, controversies and a single hour of electricity. The government last month decided on sharp budget cuts for the project, and one top nuclear official in November raised the possibility of scrapping the plan.
Washington Post 31st Jan 2012 more >>
New Nukes
Parliament was kept in the dark and fed false information that boosted the case for nuclear power, campaigners claimed today. MPs were handed a dossier earlier this week which suggests that evidence given to ministers and Parliament promoting the use of nuclear power was “a false summary” of the analysis carried out by governmental departments. Specifically the report claims that on the basis of the government’s own evidence there is no need for the controversial new generation of nuclear power stations if Britain is to achieve 80 per cent reductions in carbon dioxide by 2050. The report also alleges that government statements claiming that electricity supply will need to double or even triple in order to achieve a low-carbon economy are disproved by its own evidence.
Morning Star 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Politics
Soaring energy bills, falling investment in green energy, rising fuel poverty, the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident, fractious climate change negotiations, veiled attacks from the chancellor even without the tumult in his personal life, Chris Huhne has faced a turbulent scene since taking over as energy and climate change secretary, one of the most senior cabinet roles taken by the junior partners in the coalition. But Huhne won plaudits from many in the green movement who saw him fight for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) against sceptics in the Treasury and secure vital funds for key projects despite dismal government finances. “Most greens think he has done well,” said Lady Worthington, a labour peer and environmental campaigner. “He has held his own in the battles against the Treasury, secured funding for renewable heat and the green investment bank, and he has been very approachable, which is a good thing in a cabinet minister.” Andrew Simms, fellow at the New Economics Foundation, said: “A major failure was allowing George Osborne to set such a medieval tone for environmental policy, possibly the most regressive proclamation by such a senior figure for decades. The green deal is pitifully small, and Huhne must take some responsibility for the feed-in tariffs fiasco.” David Porter of the Association of Electricity Producers added: “At first I was concerned about his past position on nuclear power [which the Lib Dems opposed before the coalition], but in office he seemed to cope with that and help bring [nuclear power] forward.”
Guardian 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Ed Davey, the new secretary of state for energy and climate change, faces a daunting in-tray of policies that will create battles with industry, electricity consumers, anxious renewable energy investors and green campaigners but the toughest challenge of all is likely to come from his cabinet colleagues.
Guardian 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Energy Policy
Ed Davey has a golden chance to drive away from an energy policy which might have been designed to make energy expensive and electricity unreliable. This deadly combination might be called the Windmill Solution to oil and coal dependency, and the former Energy Secretary spent his last months flailing around like a demented turbine trying to make the numbers add up. While Huhne was tilting at windmills, the energy game has been changed utterly by the emergence of shale gas. This rapidly emerging technology promises relatively cheap and abundant natural gas for at least the next two decades. The UKs reserves may not add up to another North Sea (although some believe that they might) but they do give the country the chance to keep the lights on when the existing nuclear stations cant be patched up any longer and before their replacements are built. All that is needed is a policy which sees gas-fired power as part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.
FT 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Supply Chain
A NORTH-EAST engineering firm has taken on more staff after winning a multi-million pound contract in the nuclear sector. The contract, which involves work for existing nuclear facilities in the UK, means Darchem Engineering taking on up to 20 more staff, taking employee numbers at the firm’s base in Stillington, near Darlington, to 650, an increase of 100 since the middle of last year.
Northern Echo 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Japan
Researchers working around Japan’s disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life. In the first major study of the impact of the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, the researchers, from Japan, the US and Denmark, said their analysis of 14 species of bird common to Fukushima and Chernobyl, the Ukrainian city which suffered a similar nuclear meltdown, showed the effect on abundance is worse in the Japanese disaster zone.
Independent 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Leaks of radioactive water have become more frequent at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant less than two months after it was declared basically stable. The problem underlines the continuing challenges facing Tokyo Electric Power Co as it attempts to keep the nuclear plant under control. A massive earthquake and tsunami badly damaged the plant last March, resulting in the melting of three reactor cores.
Japan Today 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Less than two months ago the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant at Fukushima was declared stable. Yet now it has emerged that radioactive water is continuing to leak at the stricken site. These were spotted by workers at the reprocessing areas and were found to release enough beta rays that can lead to radiation sickness.
Daily Mail 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Municipalities and farmers in Fukushima Prefecture are furious at the national government for ignoring the state of local farmland in extending subsidies for decontamination of areas tainted with radioactive substances.
Mainichi 2nd Feb 2012 more >>
Fukushima Update 31st Jan – 2nd Feb.
Greenpeace International 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
France
The Court of Auditors in France has this week published a report revealing that the cost of producing nuclear energy is set to surge in France as old plants need updating and new safety standards put in place. Nuclear will require significant investment in the short and medium term at a rate of at least double the current level of investment, the Court says.
According to EWEA analysis on the true costs of electricity, nuclear will cost 102 /MWh in 2020 the average price across Europe taking into account the fact that nuclear plants take a long time to build which pushes up the initial capital cost. Onshore wind energy meanwhile will see a price drop by 2020 falling to 58 /MWh and offshore wind will cost 75 /MWh.
EWEA 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
US
The future direction of the US nuclear industry’s mutual insurer, Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited (NEIL), remains unclear at the start of 2012 as the organisation faces the challenge of possibly the largest claim in its 38-year history. The $1.9bn claim relates to Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant in Crystal River, Florida. The power plant, owned by Progress Energy, is the third plant built as part of the 4,700 acre Crystal River Energy Complex.
Inside FAC 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
North Korea
North Korea may have conducted two covert nuclear weapons tests in 2010, according to a fresh analysis of radioisotope data. The claim has drawn scepticism from some nuclear-weapons experts. But if confirmed, the analysis would double the number of tests the country is known to have conducted and suggest that North Korea is trying to develop powerful warheads for its fledgling nuclear arsenal.
Nature 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Tactical nuclear weapons in Europe are a Cold War anachronism and should be removed from combat bases, argues the group Global Zero in a new report.
BBC 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
The US and Russia should pledge to scale back the deployment of their tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, moving them from combat bases across the continent to deep storage facilities where they would be more secure, the leading international movement for nuclear arms control argued on Friday.
FT 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Guardian 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Submarines
The Royal Navy is sending a nuclear submarine to the South Atlantic to protect the Falkland Islands from the threat of Argentine military action. Prime Minister David Cameron has personally approved plans for one of the Navys most sophisticated Trafalgar-class submarines to sail to the region. Significantly, the heavily-armed vessel is set to be in the islands waters by April the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1982 war.
Daily Mail 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Letter: To attend the meetings regarding the consultation on nuclear submarine work in our city is, in my view, becoming more and more of a surreal experience. The people attending are ordinary Plymouth citizens, most more concerned for their children and grandchildren, than for themselves, such is the long shadow cast by this work. But to me the problem they are presented with appears far from ordinary, indeed so bizarre, so huge in its implications and threat that one feels increasingly divorced from reality. For we, the people of Plymouth, are being asked to consider the Ministry of Defences plans to bring 27 nuclear reactors into our city, with various options as to how they might be dealt with, while lodging here, cheek by jowl with our schools and housing.
Plymouth Herald 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
Renewables
Is the roof-top solar panel industry nice, green and eco-cuddly or no better than a bunch of double-glazing sales sharks? This week a colleague received a call from a solar panel company promising that after the industry’s court victory against the government, she could now pick up the juicy 43.3p per kWh feed-in tariff for generating electricity. She was told it made installing a system on her south-facing roof a no-brainer, it was money for old rope. New adverts all over Google say much the same.
Guardian 3rd Feb 2012 more >>
The fledgling solar industry has been flourishing, but the halving of government subsidies has thrown it into confusion.
Telegraph 4th Feb 2012 more >>
