Hinkley
Sedgemoor District Council has named 13 consultants to form its specialist consultancy panel for planning and technical support to major infrastructure projects and service delivery in its area. Prinicipally, the consultants will help the council assess EdFs planning application for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. Consultants winning a place on the £10M framework are Allen Construction Consultancy, Arup, C J Associates, Capita Symonds, Chandler KBS, Energy and Power, Michele Wheeler Associates, RPS, SKM, Tibbs Morgan, Turner and Townsend, URS Scott Wilson and Wagg Consultants.
New Civil Engineer 29th Nov 2011 more >>
Campaigners yesterday stepped up their battle against a new nuclear power station in Somerset by handing a major petition to 10 Downing Street. Members of the Stop Hinkley campaign dressed up in white overalls and gas masks, as they presented almost 13,000 signatures to Prime Minister David Cameron. They were accompanied by Wells Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt, and Caroline Lucas, the leader of the Green Party.
Western Daily Press 7th Dec 2011 more >>
Nearly 13,000 people have signed a petition against a new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point. The campaign’s opposed to electricity company EDF building the UK’s largest ever nuclear power station. They’re calling on Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne to commit to a programme of renewable energy. They say that most of the signatures are from Somerset residents who would be most affected by the proposals.
Jack FM 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Sizewell & Bradwell
Thousands of jobs could be up for grabs in Norfolk and Suffolk with the building of two new power stations in the next decade – however a new report has warned a skills gap needs to be addressed to meet the demand. The report by construction industry training board, Construction Skills, forecasts that the building of two nuclear power stations in Suffolk and Essex would create 6,000 construction jobs across the whole of the Eastern region and could return the construction sector to pre-recession levels by 2020. But the industry is being warned to act now to ensure this region can take advantage of the jobs bonanza. It is thought that if EDF Energy go ahead with plans for Sizewell C and get permission for the new station then initial construction work could start in 2015 with work on a station in Bradwell, Essex starting in 2017.
Norwich Advertiser 7th Dec 2011 more >>
East Anglian Daily Times 7th Dec 2011 more >>
Evening Star 7th Dec 2011 more >>
Infrastructure Planning Commission
What will happen to applications on the IPC abolition date, expected to be 6 April 2012. You won’t notice a thing, say the government. To put this into practice, the government has just issued a statement about how it is going to handle the transition from the pre-Localism Act to the post-Act world, which can be found here.
Bircham, Dyson & Bell 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Nuclear Skills
The UKs new nuclear programme has been boosted by a memorandum of understanding to improve skills in the sector after research showed that 17,000 construction workers will be required throughout the new build programme. An MoU was signed today between the National Skills Academy for Nuclear and the National Skills Academy for Construction, which is part of CITB-ConstructionSkills, to help put in place the skilled construction workforce needed to deliver the UKs new build programme. Announcing the collaboration, CITB-ConstructionSkills chief executive Mark Farrar said it would enable more UK construction companies to be supply chain-ready and to be able to demonstrate the world class skills, capability, safety culture and behaviours of their workforce to operate in a nuclear context. Three consortia are currently attached to nuclear new build projects, to which the government repeatedly reiterated its commitment, with EDF Energys Hinkley Point C expected to be the first to come on stream within a decade.
Construction News 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Sellafield
A Government decision to revive plans for a new Mox plant to reuse Britains plutonium stockpile has been branded as obscene nonsense by an anti-nuclear group. Ministers announced last week that reusing plutonium as Mox fuel was its preferred method of dealing with the material, much of which is at Sellafield. That opens the door for a possible Mox 2 in west Cumbria, which could create 6,000 jobs. But anti-nuclear pressure group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE) claims a new plant would represent a squandering of £3bn and would repeat the costly mistakes of Sellafields under performing SMP plant, which is facing closure.
Cumberland News 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Energy Costs
The government’s hopes of rebuilding the economy with a “march of the makers” risks being derailed by energy companies that are demanding huge upfront payments to power new factories. Soaring energy prices, which are already hitting homeowners, are also forcing manufacturers to shut down plants or relocate their factories to other countries. The British Ceramic Confederation said some members have been asked to pay deposits of up to £200,000 the equivalent of four months’ worth of power before energy firms are willing to take them on as customers.
Guardian 6th Dec 2011 more >>
The Big Six energy companies have walked into a political storm over executive pay amid revelations that their bosses are earning up to £4m a year as an increasing number of their customers are being pushed into fuel poverty.
Guardian 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Opinion Polls
THE UK and USA are bucking the trend of public opinion in many countries that have nuclear power programmes and fewer people here and in America are opposed to nuclear power development. Polling carried out for the BBC World Service in 23 of the 31 countries with operational nuclear plants revealed the majority of people do not want more nuclear power stations built, believing that conservation and renewable energy can meet future power needs rather than fossil fuels and nuclear energy. And 71 per cent thought their country could almost entirely replace coal and nuclear energy within 20 years by becoming highly energy-efficient and focusing on generating energy from the sun and wind.
Berwickshire News 7th Dec 2011 more >>
There has been dramatic decline over the past decade in the public’s support for tackling climate change in Britain. Backing for higher green taxes and charges has waned and scepticism about the seriousness of the threat to the environment has increased. The British Social Attitudes survey shows that in 2000 43% of the population would pay “much higher prices” for “the sake of the environment”. Last summer support fell to just 26%, with the poorest sections of society most reluctant to save the planet with their cash. Over the same period the public has become much more sceptical about the science behind climate change. In 2010 37% said many claims about environmental threats were “exaggerated”, up from 24% in 2000.
Guardian 7th Dec 2011 more >>
Companies
German power giant RWE failed to raise its targeted 2.5bn (£2.15bn) from shareholders after Standard & Poor’s warning about cutting eurozone credit ratings including Germany’s played havoc with its funding plans.
Telegraph 7th Dec 2011 more >>
East Asia
Of the 65 reactors currently under construction, over half are located in east Asia, predominantly in South Korea and China. This region is also likely to become an important centre of exports of nuclear technology, following the Korean success in winning an order for four large rectors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Nuclear Engineering International 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Japan
Up to 1 million residents of municipalities within 50 kilometers of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will be eligible for nuclear accident compensation, a government committee decided on Dec. 5. People will be able to apply for money even if their homes are located outside the 50-km radius, as long as their municipality has land within the zone, according to the committee set up to deal with compensation disputes arising from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Residents who did not evacuate will also be eligible.
Asahi 6th Dec 2011 more >>
The cost of nuclear generated electricity in Japan is set to skyrocket due to the Fukushima disaster but will remain cheaper than alternative energy sources, according to government estimates quoted by the Nikkei newspaper.
Reuters 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Japan is drawing up plans for a cleanup that is both monumental and unprecedented, in the hopes that those displaced can go home. The debate over whether to repopulate the area, if trial cleanups prove effective, has become a proxy for a larger battle over the future of Japan. Supporters see rehabilitating the area as a chance to showcase the countrys formidable determination and superior technical skills proof that Japan is still a great power. For them, the cleanup is a perfect metaphor for Japans rebirth. Critics counter that the effort to clean Fukushima Prefecture could end up as perhaps the biggest of Japans white-elephant public works projects and yet another example of post-disaster Japan reverting to the wasteful ways that have crippled economic growth for two decades.
New York Times 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Traces of radiation from Japans damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant have been detected in baby formula, in the latest contaminated food case. Food maker Meiji said yesterday it was recalling canned powdered milk for infants, with expiry dates of October 2012, as a precaution. The levels of radioactive caesium were well below government-set safety limits, and the firm said the amounts were low enough not to have any effect on babies health, even if they drank the formula every day. Experts say children are more at risk than adults of getting cancer and other illnesses from radiation exposure.
Scotsman 7th Dec 2011 more >>
A new study by U.S. and Japanese researchers analyzes the levels of radioactivity discharged from the facility in the first four months after the accident and draws some basic conclusions about the history of contaminant releases to the ocean. Their study finds the levels of radioactivity, while quite elevated, are not a direct exposure threat to humans or marine life, but cautions that the impact of accumulated radionuclides in marine sediments is poorly known.
Physorg 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Saudi Arabia
The possibility of Iran having nuclear weapons could have escalated a Middle East arms race months or even years before previously expected. On Monday, a high-ranking member of the royal family in Saudi Arabia said that the kingdom would consider its own nuclear program if threatened by its neighbors. Prince Turki al-Faisal said that Saudi Arabia could be forced to follow suit given the rising tensions in the region. The country is on poor terms with both Israel and Iran.
IB Times 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Middle East Online 5th Dec 2011 more >>
Iran
Has the West’s war with Iran already begun? Mystery explosions at nuke sites, ‘assassinated’ scientists and downed drones fuel fears covert conflict is under way.
Daily Mail 6th Dec 2011 more >>
That Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have been put on a war footing suggests the Islamic Republic is starting to feel pretty isolated. For all the regime’s “Death to America” rhetoric, it appears there is a growing recognition among the ayatollahs that their confrontational attitude towards the West could soon have severe repercussions.
Telegraph 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Terry Jones: And now the same war drums, encouraged by the storming of the British embassy last week, are beating for an attack on Iran. Seymour Hersh writes in the New Yorker: “All of the low enriched uranium now known to be produced inside Iran is accounted for.” The recent IAEA report which provoked such outcry against Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he continues, contains nothing that proves that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.
Guardian 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Renewables
HARTLEPOOL has been given a fantastic boost in its battle to win a 1,000-job wind turbine plant. The Scottish town of Dundee – which was Hartlepools original opponent for the money-spinning deal – has dropped out of the running. But a new Scottish rival has emerged and Hartlepool must now go head-to-head with Leith in Edinburgh. Madrid-based Gamesa wants to build a UK plant to make wind turbines which will create 1,000 direct jobs as well as 800 supply chain posts. A company spokesman said: We can confirm that Dundee is no longer an option for the company. Dundee can not accommodate Gamesas foreseen offshore requirements in terms of timescales and scope in order to achieve the companys overall business plan objectives regarding the manufacture of our G11X-5.0 MW and G14X-7.0 MW offshore wind turbines. She said Leith was another potential site which had been suggested by Forth Ports, the owners of the Port of Dundee. Gamesa is ploughing £128m into its UK offshore wind business and the spokesman said that sort of investment requires thorough analysis of all potential sites.
Hartlepool Mail 6th Dec 2011 more >>
Britain will need a massive expansion of wood-burning stoves, wooden houses, wood-guzzling power stations and other similar technologies if greenhouse gas targets are to be met, the government’s advisers on climate change have warned. But green campaigners said strong safeguards were needed if such a high target was to be met, to ensure that biomass use did not put pressure on forests, mainly in the developing world.
Guardian 7th Dec 2011 more >>
Climate
Kumi Naidoo: ‘I hope sanity will prevail with climate change, just as it did with apartheid’
Greenpeace International’s director says the struggle for climate justice is similar to the fight against apartheid.
Guardian 6th Dec 2011 more >>
A deal in Durban could mean jobs in Britain, argues Andy Atkins, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth.
Telegraph 6th Dec 2011 more >>
