Wylfa
POLITICIANS have urged National Grid to reconsider using new pylons to carry electricity from Wylfa Newydd to a sub-station in Arfon. The grid has launched a second consultation which runs until December 16 to get the public’s views on a planned pylon corridor across Gwynedd and Anglesey. All three options being consulted on include a new corridor of pylons. National Grid said putting a connection underground costs tens of millions of pounds more per km than an overhead line. Arfon MP Hywel Williams said: “I remain convinced that the only acceptable solution is to carry electricity on undersea cables from the North of Anglesey. “The grid’s own consultation shows that local people want an undersea cable and strongly oppose pylons.
News North Wales 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Sizewell B
Westinghouse Electric Company has signed a support contract that will help protect against the risk of equipment obsolescence by keeping specialist nuclear equipment operational at the Sizewell B nuclear power station potentially for the next four decades. EDF Energy has awarded Westinghouse a long-term contract to maintain the high-integrity control system and the primary protection system at the plant on the Suffolk coast. This new support program will enable EDF Energy to keep these systems operational through the end of the power station’s life, including during decommissioning, potentially for the next 45 years.
Business Wire 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Moorside
Thanks to RaFL member Janet’s questioning, today on Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Facebook page the conservation group outlines the reason for their lack of action over Moorside: “We are neither a pro nor anti nuclear organisation, our only aim is to do all we can for wildlife. We hope to do our best to help the wildlife at Moorside . The government gave approval for Moorside years ago (when we successfully stopped Kirksanton being put forward as a nuclear power site) and so it wasn’t part of any local planning process which is the only way we can engage with developments of any kind in the county. As it didn’t go through planning, there was no opportunity for us to object or suggest mitigation as we do for other developments. We focus our efforts on practical conservation and where we get can get the best for wildlife with the limited resources that we have. We hope to influence NuGen to get the best for wildlife out of this development which is not in our power to stop even if we wanted to. If you want a campaign then I suggest you approach Friends of the Earth or Greenpeace who are experts in this kind of activity – Charlotte”
Radiation Free Lakeland 4th Nov 2015 read more »
NuGen has almost doubles the size of its Manchester operations. The new office space will be used to manage the dcevelopment phase of Moorside.
Bdaily 4th Nov 2015 read more »
New Nukes
A final investment decision for Moorside is anticipated in 2018. This seems to be a little ahead of the FID date of early 2019 being alked about by nuclear developer Horizon (purchased from E.ON/RWE in 2012 by BWR- supplier Hitachi), which is planning twin-ABWR stations (2 x 1380MW) at Wylfa Newydd and subsequently Oldbury B. Developing nuclear new build projects is of course not for the fainthearted or short-term thinkers – as several speakers at NNB15 noted it is certainly more of a marathon than a sprint – and requires very deep pockets. Horizon has for example already spent about £80 million on its supply chain and last year conducted a programme of ground investigation at Wylfa that was the “largest in Europe”, according to Alan Raymant. But the mood among the 300 or so delegates at NNB15 seemed to be broadly positive, greatly encouraged by the apparently unequivocal support being given to nuclear power by the new government, which talked of “significant expansion” in its election manifesto.
Modern Power Systems 7th Oct 2015 read more »
SMRs
US Small Modular Reactor developer NuScale aims to use advanced manufacturing techniques, savings on facility costs and economies of scale to lower the Levelized Cost of Electricity of its plants to $90/MWh (£59/MWh), Tom Mundy, NuScale’s Executive Vice President, told Nuclear Energy Insider in an exclusive interview.
Nuclear Energy Insider 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
Plutonium
The UK is sitting on a plutonium stockpile that represents “thousands of years” of energy in the bank, according to a leading nuclear scientist. Tim Abram, professor of nuclear fuel technology at the University of Manchester made the comments at a briefing to discuss the fate of the UK’s plutonium. The Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria has around 140 tonnes of the material. It is now the largest stockpile of civil plutonium in the world. The government is yet to decide on its fate, although the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) stated a in 2013 preference that it be re-used as fuel, rather than disposed of. This is not a, however, a straightforward process; it requires new nuclear reactors to be built that are capable of using plutonium as fuel.
BBC 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Supplies
National Grid has called on the market to bring forward at least 500MW of extra power generation capacity just three hours before multiple plant break-downs and low wind forecasts result in an expected capacity crunch. National Grid called on contracted companies to reduce their demand on the grid through its demand-side balancing reserve (DSBR) and accepted offers of 40MW of capacity reduction. Both the DSBR and the supplemental balancing reserve (SBR) were put in place last winter but this is the first time that National Grid has faced capacity so constrained it needs to rely on these options. Since then, intra-day trading has seen the price of power rocket to highs of £2,500/MWh. In recent days thermal generation including the Eggborough and Didcot plants have come offline while EDF Energy’s Heysham and Hartlepool nuclear reactors have been removed from the market for offload refuelling. At the same time wind generation levels have dipped to just above 0.5GW, or 1.5 per cent of the total generation market.
Utility Week 4th Nov 2015 read more »
National Grid has for the first time used “last resort” emergency powers to tell companies to reduce their electricity usage in an effort to avoid the risk of blackouts. It asked firms to reduce their power demand immediately, issuing a so-called demand-side balancing reserve (DSBR) notice to companies that have signed a contract to say they will take part in the demand reduction scheme. A spokesman said this measure had never been used before, while the grid has previously said it would “only be used as a last resort, after all other actions available in the market have been exhausted”.
Guardian 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Telegraph 4th Nov 2015 read more »
The scale of Britain’s energy supply crunch was laid bare on Wednesday as an unexpected outage of power plants sent wholesale electricity prices soaring and prompted the grid operator to call for the first time ever for industry to reduce power. National Grid urged a group of heavy users, including businesses, factories and hospitals, to switch to back-up power or to reduce demand to meet the sudden lack of supply. Consumers responded by taking 40 megawatts of demand off the grid — partly by switching to back-up generators. Traders watched in amazement as prices surged, with the grid paying £2,500 per MWh to one operator, Severn Power, as it bought in emergency supplies; the usual going rate is around £60.
FT 4th Nov 2015 read more »
For evidence of just how close to breaking point Britain’s creaking power supply system has come, look at Wednesday’s sharp spike in wholesale prices. As National Grid, reacting to what it called “multiple plant breakdowns”, asked power generators to turn on back-up supplies and then offered to pay big industrial users to curb their demand, prices for electricity soared.
FT 4th Nov 2015 read more »
National Grid used an emergency measure to keep the lights on for the first time yesterday after the unexpected shutdown of two power stations in northern England. Factories and other large consumers of power were paid to switch off or use back-up diesel generators to reduce the risk of blackouts.
Times 5th Nov 2015 read more »
Combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) comfortably remained the UK’s largest source of power generation in October, but coal-fired output hit a six-month high and climbed above nuclear in the generation mix following the return of units from summer maintenance.
Argus Media 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Radwaste
Early on Sunday Oct. 25, an underground fire caused an explosion in a low-level nuclear waste site in the desert 10 miles from Beatty, Nevada, and 115 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The explosion and fire followed flash flooding that shut down Beatty’s escape routes: US 95 and State Highway 373. The 80-acre dumping ground, closed since 1992, is run by — get this — “US Ecology.” The private dump consists of 22 trenches up to 800 feet long and 50 feet deep, and its older trenches have radioactive waste within three feet of the surface, the Las Vegas Sun reported. Certain types of radioactive material are known to catch fire when in contact with water, so the flooding that struck prior to the explosion may have been its cause. Unfortunately authorities don’t know what sorts of radioactive isotopes are buried in the trenches there. Nor does anyone know either how the fire started or how much radioactive waste burned.
Counterpunch 2nd Nov 2015 read more »
A planning application has been submitted by LLW Repository Limited for the phased construction of three new vaults for the disposal of low-level radioactive wastes at the UK’s national repository for such wastes at Drigg in Cumbria. Drigg has been operating as a national low-level waste repository since 1959. It receives wastes from a range of producers, including nuclear power plants, defence establishments, general industry, hospitals and universities. Between 1959 and 1995, some 800,000 cubic metres of waste were disposed of in seven trenches, which have since been covered with an interim cap. The disposal of waste in metal containers placed in an engineered concrete vault (Vault 8) began in 1988. Vault 8 has a total capacity of 200,000 cubic metres of waste and is almost full. A further Vault 9, with a capacity of 110,000 cubic metres, was officially opened in August 2010 but is currently only used for temporarily storing waste. The application submitted by LLW Repository Ltd is for the construction of three new vaults (Vaults 9a, 10 and 11) where waste would be disposed of in specially-grouted containers. If successful, construction work on Vault 9a could start next year and run for almost four years, the company said. The application would also allow higher stacking of containers in Vault 8 and the disposal of containers in Vault 9. It would also permit the construction of a final cap over existing and new vaults and the seven landfill-style trenches where waste was disposed of before the opening of the site’s first vault in 1988.
World Nuclear News 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Europe
The European Commission is seeking your views on how to improve EU rules on notifying nuclear projects in EU countries to the Commission. Under current rules – Articles 41 to 44 of the Euratom Treaty – the Commission examines nuclear investment projects set to take place in EU countries to check their compatibility with the Euratom Treaty. Projects which must be notified to the Commission include mining and conversion of uranium ore, production of enriched uranium, manufacturing of nuclear fuel elements, nuclear reactors of all types and for all purposes and other major investment projects in the nuclear field. However, the current rules can make it difficult for investors to know which projects should be notified, what information should be provided and how they should inform the Commission. Since the entry into force of the rules, new legislation has been adopted on nuclear safety, spent fuel and radioactive waste management and decommissioning, and radiation protection, which will also require the legal framework under Articles 41 to 44 to be updated.
European Commission 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
Ukraine
Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator, has highlighted its progress in working closely with European companies and institutions since opening an office in Brussels a year ago. The latest evidence of this is the signing announced today of an agreement with French engineering firm Areva.
World Nuclear News 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Japan – Fukushima
As time passes, a bona fide message emerges from within the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster scenario, and that message is that once a nuclear power plant loses it, the unraveling only gets worse and worse until it’s at its worst, and still, there’s no stopping it. Similar to opening Pandora’s box, there’s no stopping a ferocious atom-splitting insanity that knows no end. Four years of experience with Fukushima provides considerable evidence that splitting atoms to boil water is outright unmitigated madness. After all, nuclear power plants are built to boil water; yes, to boil water; it’s as simple as that, but yet at the same time it’s also extraordinarily complex. Conversely, solar and wind do not boil water and are not complex and never deadly (Germany knows). As it unfolds, the Fukushima story grows more convoluted and way more chilling. For example, according to The Japan Times, October 30th Edition: “Extremely high radiation levels and the inability to grasp the details about melted nuclear fuel make it impossible for the utility to chart the course of its planned decommissioning of the reactors at the plant.”
Counterpunch 3rd Nov 2015 read more »
US
Nuclear reactors scheduled to be built in the US between 2016 and 2020 could result in the overall nuclear capacity of the country increasing, despite recent closures. More than 2,000 megawatts (MW) of nuclear generating capacity is scheduled to close by 2019, including the 685MW Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts and the 678MW Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey. But figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) outlined on Monday show that more than 5,000MW is scheduled to be built by 2020, with five new reactors already under construction. The Watts Bar Unit 2, located in southeastern Tennessee and expected to begin commercial operation in 2016, alone has an estimated capacity of 1,150MW.
Business Green 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Trident
How will Labour resolve its nuclear dilemma. Shortly after his election, Corbyn sought to manage Labour’s divide by announcing that Maria Eagle, the shadow defence secretary and a Trident supporter, would lead a review. This, Eagle recently told the NS, would examine the UK’s nuclear system with “a completely open mind” on the basis of “facts and figures”. Sources say that the study will take at least a year. Time is against Labour.
New Statesman 4th Nov 2015 read more »
The Scottish Greens have criticised other parties’ failure to take a consistent and principled stance against nuclear weapons. In yesterday’s Scottish Government debate on Trident, MSPs from other parties voted against an amendment proposed by John Wilson, independent MSP and employment spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, that called on the Parliament to adopt an anti-Nato policy and to commit to a funded jobs transition for defence workers as part of its opposition to Trident renewal.
Scottish Greens 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
This astonishing film shows the moment a nuclear weapon in transit is rear-ended by its own armed escort earning it the title of a “Bent Spear” incident. According to reports the weapon of mass destruction was being transported on the back of a lorry surrounded by a convoy of heavily-armoured cars along a busy motorway in the United States.
Mirror 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Renewable Subsidies
Antoine Cahuzac, the chief executive of EDF’s renewable arm, has claimed the government’s recent cuts to subsidies for renewable energy have forced clean energy firms to become more competitive. Speaking at an event in London yesterday, he said changes to renewable subsidies have created a tougher market for clean energy developers than it was in the past, but said there was a “good aspect” to the changes. “It forced all companies involved in renewable energy to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy,” he said, answering questions from BusinessGreen. Last month, EDF announced it would double its global renewables capacity from 28GW today to 50GW by 2030. Cahuzac said he was confident the cost of renewables would fall fast enough to make this achievable, regardless of subsidy changes in individual markets.
Business Green 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Government plans to block the development of new wind farms could derail attempts to lower household bills and reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions, according to new analysis released today by the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). The new report claims excluding onshore wind – the cheapest renewable technology in the UK – from upcoming Contract for Difference (CfD) auctions and future renewable subsidies could result in more expensive renewable technologies receiving higher subsidies instead, adding £500m to electricity bills over the next 15 years.
Business Green 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables – wave
The Scottish Government initiative Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has announced the eight successful applicants that will share a £2.5m fund to advance their technologies in the build up to commercialisation.
Edie 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The government has backed down on its plan to allow fracking in some of England’s most important nature sites. The controversial technique for extracting shale gas will not be allowed in Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) after all, ministers said on Wednesday, after previously opening the door to fracking in such sites in July. However, campaigners said the double U-turn – the government had initially promised in January to ban fracking in SSSIs – would not provide enough protection for the sites.
Guardian 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Telegraph 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Power stations are scrambling to sell a mountain of nearly a million tonnes of British coal in advance of new European rules that effectively will ban it from being burnt from the start of next year. In a crushing blow to an already struggling coal industry, from January 1 British power station operators will be forced to shun locally mined coal and instead import lower-emission varieties from sources such as Colombia and Kazakhstan. This will enable compliance with the European Union’s new Industrial Emissions Directive. British coal has a high sulphur and nitrogen content and under the new rules is unusable without the installation of expensive catalytic converter equipment.
Times 5th Nov 2015 read more »
