British Energy
When EDF British Energy for £12.5 billion, it agreed to pay, in cash, British Energy’s shareholders 774p for each of their shares – way in excess of the market value. Intriguingly, they shareholders an alternative: 700p in cash plus a “contingent value right”. This contingent value right would be turned into a tradeable security, a Nuclear Power Note that would pay a dividend every year over a 10-year period calculated on a mixture of the annual output of British Energy’s reactors and the prevailing annualised price of electricity. If British Energy’s performance continued to be as poor as it had been in 2008 and power prices over the long term fell and stayed low, then potentially these Nuclear Power Notes would not pay out a penny. They’d be worthless. Multiple failures at Hunterston, Heysham and Hartlepool meant more than a quarter of the UK nuclear fleet was out of action in 2008 when British Energy produced its worst-ever output of 40 terawatt hours. However, the current performance indicates the fleet could produce around 55 TWh in 2009.
Evening Standard 4th June 2009 more >>
Eon
Paul Golby, Chief Executive, E.ON UK, discusses the status of E.ON’s UK joint venture with RWE npower; his optimism that there would be a “progressive reduction in licensing risk over the two remaining stages” of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate’s generic design assessment (GDA) process; and provides details of the grid investment necessary should E.ON build at all of its current sites.
Platts 4th June 2009 more >>
Labour Policy
Joan Ruddock: Labour’s commitment to the trinity of energy sources, clean fossil fuels, nuclear and renewables, means we can be serious not only about decarbonising the energy supply of the UK without the lights going out, but also the UK can have the edge when it comes to developing green manufacturing and jobs.
Guardian 3rd June 2009 more >>
Letter from Colin Challen MP: Boldness, for me, would mean recalling parliament in September to hear an early Queen’s Speech with the following commitments: to legislate for proportional representation in time for the next general election; to repeal ID cards legislation (I was wrong to support it); to introduce a strategic defence review predicated on dropping Trident; to re-energise Labour’s traditional internationalist stance; to abandon new nuclear power and to commence a green industrial strategy.
Guardian 5th June 2009 more >>
Chapelcross
A £4,000 boost has been given to children’s sports in Annandale and Eskdale by Magnox North Chapelcross.
Dumfries Standard 3rd June 2009 more >>
Companies
A ROBOTICS company will double the size of its headquarters and invest in a £250,000 groundbreaking test facility as it prepares to step up its presence in the nuclear energy market.
NEBusiness 4th June 2009 more >>
Dounreay
An area of seabed equivalent in size to more than 10 football pitches is to be monitored over the summer during the next phase of implementation of Dounreay’s particle recovery programme.
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd 4th June 2009 more >>
Herald 5th June 2009 more >>
Scotsman 5th June 2009 more >>
Test Veterans
Around 1,000 servicemen who blame their ill-health on involvement in Britain’s 1950s nuclear tests will learn today whether they can sue the MoD for compensation.
London Evening Standard 5th June 2009 more >>
BBC 5th June 2009 more >>
Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, has died after years of congestive heart failure, aged 88.
Telegraph 5th June 2009 more >>
China
A consortium of Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (Westinghouse) and the Shaw Group Inc. (Shaw Group), is planning to commence construction of the next phase of its Sanmen nuclear plant by the end of 2011. Both the companies are together building the first of their AP1000 reactors in Sanmen in Zhejiang province, near Shanghai. The firms have started building the first phase, two of a total planned six AP1000 reactors, and expect it to start operating in 2013.
Energy Business Review 4th June 2009 more >>
A government official says China must have installed 100 GW of wind power by 2020 to balance projected reliance on coal. That would be more than triple the wind target until now and more than double the capacity being planned for nuclear generation.
Windpower Monthly June 2009 more >>
Iran
President Barack Obama has called for a new beginning in US relations with the Muslim world in a keynote speech in Egypt. On the Iranian nuclear issue, Mr Obama said: “No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons” and said Iran had the right to peaceful nuclear power.
BBC 4th June 2009 more >>
Japan
Japan’s power industry group has asked member companies to rethink their plans for plutonium-thermal power generation because they are unlikely to meet their current targets for adopting the technique. The plan was for 16-18 reactors to use MOX by March 2011, but only three are ready.
Japan Times 5th June 2009 more >>
US
U.S. lawmakers on Thursday sought to increase incentives for nuclear power and energy efficiency in a measure that would require utilities to generate a certain amount of electricity from renewable sources. Nuclear power is not currently considered a renewable electricity source in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee bill. Under the bill, a percentage of utilities’ total power production would have to be dedicated to renewables.
Interactive Investor 4th June 2009 more >>
UAE
The United Arab Emirates will likely award a contract for the construction of two nuclear reactors in the second half of 2009, a senior executive at French oil major Total said on Thursday.
Yahoo 4th June 2009 more >>
North Korea
On 25 May North Korea conducted a successful test of a plutonium-based nuclear weapon. Since the detection of the blast – similar in force to that of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the question of how to read this action, and how best to respond, has reverberated through the media and the halls of power.
New Statesman 4th June 2009 more >>
Open Democracy 4th June 2009 more >>
