MOX
A UK firm has developed a new economic simulator to assess the cost of producing plutonium/uranium mixed oxide fuel (MOX). MOXSIM has been developed as a research tool to help governments, regulators, policy-makers, energy utilities and environmental organisations to explore the economic conditions necessary to make MOX nuclear fuel plants work more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Nuclear Engineering International 7th Dec 2009 more >>
Decommissioning
ORGANISERS of a supply chain event say they hope North Wales-based businesses are now better placed to compete for work at the Magnox North sites in the region. The Meet the Buyer day was a joint initiative organised by Menter a Busnes, Wylfa, Trawsfynydd, the Welsh Assembly Government, Anglesey and Gwynedd county councils and Bangor University. Held at the Celtic Royal in Caernarfon the event attracted 143 organisations keen on building a sustainable local supply chain.
Daily Post 8th Dec 2009 more >>
Nuclear Finance
Somehow I doubt markets will have the stomach to back risks such as nuclear unless we insist they are long term, annuity type investments rather than vehicles for short term gain.
Telegraph 8th Dec 2009 more >>
THORP
Flowserve Flow Control has supplied 16 Worcester F911 cartridge valves for a medium active salt-free evaporator (MASFE) installation at the Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant in the north west. The MASFE is primarily used to process medium-active liquors, concentrating them down prior to further evaporation and vitrification into glass.
Engineering Talk 7th Dec 2009 more >>
Dounreay
Small amounts of weapons-grade nuclear material mislaid at Scotland’s Dounreay have been tracked down during the decommissioning of the facility.
Edie 7th Dec 2009 more >>
Fusion
Prof Sir David King, a former chief scientist for the government, now of Oxford University, will remind us that the most radical solution to the underlying problem (and yes, climate-change deniers, there is one), remains the same as two decades ago: nuclear fusion. Sceptics joke that this is the fuel of the future – and always will be. Commercial fusion, they gleefully point out, is as far away now as it was in Toronto, and as it was half a century ago, when Sir John Cockcroft, one of the great nuclear pioneers, began an article in New Scientist with the words: “It has long been the ambition of scientists to emulate the Sun.” The hope is that ITER will pave the way for a demonstration power plant in the 2030s, which will feed energy into the grid by the middle of this century.
Telegraph 8th Dec 2009 more >>
North Korea
A veteran US diplomat will arrive in North Korea today for the first high level meeting between the two countries since Barack Obama came into office, as Washington sought to bring the reclusive nuclear state back to the negotiating table.
Telegraph 8th Dec 2009 more >>
FT 8th Dec 2009 more >>
India
Russia became the latest country to strike a civil nuclear deal with energy-hungry India yesterday when it agreed to supply reactors to Asia’s third largest economy.
FT 8th Dec 2009 more >>
BBC 7th Dec 2009 more >>
Climate
The committee’s first annual report to Parliament this autumn found that a “step change” was needed to limit CO2 emissions on the roads. The committee, which devised government carbon reduction targets and advises ministers on how to meet them, said that motorists should be charged to drive on British roads as well as paying fuel duty. Government grants to people willing to buy electric cars might need to be doubled; 8,000 more wind turbines should be built and three nuclear power stations; and a national programme of home insulation adopted. In summary, Mr Kennedy argued that the Government needed “stronger levers” to force us to cut emissions. “We have to have a more forceful policy, and if we do that we can succeed,” he said.
Times 8th Dec 2009 more >>
Heavy taxes on passengers and a ban on expansion at regional airports will be needed to curb Britain’s insatiable appetite for air travel the Climate Change Committee will say today.
Guardian 8th Dec 2009 more >>
Scientists at the European commission have cast doubt on whether biofuels could ever be produced sustainably in significant quantities, dealing a blow to the aviation industry, which sees such fuel as a key way to reduce its emissions. The researchers argue that the greenhouse gases emitted in making biofuel may well negate most of the carbon dioxide savings made by replacing fossil fuels. Of particular concern is the uncertainty over emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.
Guardian 8th Dec 2009 more >>
Sea levels may rise three times faster than the official predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the global average sea level may increase by as much as 1.9 metres (6ft 3in) by 2100, scientists said yesterday. The new assessment comes just one week after another international scientific body concluded that the IPCC had been too conservative in estimating a maximum of 59 centimetres of sea level rise this century as a result of global warming.
Independent 8th Dec 2009 more >>
Renewables
Tax rebates for people who “go green” by installing solar panels or wind turbines on their homes or swapping their company car for an electric vehicle will be announced by Alistair Darling tomorrow.
Independent 8th Dec 2009 more >>
