Sellafield
A powerful committee of MPs will investigate whether they were given misleading evidence by the boss of Sellafield nuclear facility during a probe into the £70bn-plus cost of cleaning up the hazardous site. Margaret Hodge, the chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, pledged last night to re-examine information given to her inquiry by Sellafield managing director Tony Price, after learning his claims conflicted with what is actually happening on site. At a hearing on Wednesday, Mr Price hailed the vitrification plant, which turns deadly radioactive waste into glass for safer storage, as one of the “successes” of the much criticised way that Sellafield has been run. When quizzed by Labour MP Meg Hillier over whether there were problems with the plant, he insisted it was running as usual and that staff were able to work there as normal. Mr Price said it was “not correct” that the plant’s ventilation system was not working properly. However, other sources at the nuclear plant said that at that very moment, up to 40 staff were unable to get to their workplaces because of dangerous levels of radiation in part of the plant. A power cut the previous Wednesday caused ventilation fans to fail and, as a result, an area known as Line 3 was heavily contaminated. The level of radiation is understood to have been 400 times the amount that, if found on a worker’s clothes, would prevent them from entering Sellafield’s offices or canteens.
Independent 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Hinkley
AN TAISCE’S challenge to a nuclear power station in Britain has not been supported by the Irish Government, a High Court in London heard yesterday. The two-day hearing is continuing today with the Irish national trust body contesting that there was a failure to consult with the Irish people prior to permission being granted in April by the British Government for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset. An Taisce has sought a judicial review, arguing that the British energy secretary, Ed Davey, “acted unlawfully” without consultation with the Irish that An Taisce claim would have allowed proper and full consideration of the surrounding impact of the plant, which will be located 150 miles from the Irish coast.
Irish Post 6th Dec 2013 read more »
Urenco
Government plans to raise £3bn from the sale of its stake in the nuclear company Urenco are facing mounting Dutch political pressure, which could delay any deal for at least a year. Mei Li Vos, an MP in the Dutch Labour party which is in a coalition government, told The Telegraph she could see “no good reason for selling the Urenco stake”. The Dutch and UK governments own a third of the uranium enrichment business, with the rest split between the German utilities E.ON and RWE.
Telegraph 7th Dec 2013 read more »
Radwaste
AN “administrative error” which meant an anti-nuclear group was not invited to a consultation on radioactive waste has been described as “unacceptable” by the Welsh Government. The error meant that Anglesey anti-nuclear group Pobl Atal Wylfa B (PAWB) was not told of a meeting held in Llandudno during the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Geological Disposal Facility siting process review. Dylan Morgan of PAWB said the incident, along with a technical issue which has led to the extension of the consultation, did not inspire confidence in DECC. The consultation, which looks at managing the use and disposal of radioactive and nuclear substances and waste, included a meeting in Llandudno on November 19.
Daily Post 7th Dec 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Sir Roger Carr, the chairman of Centrica, has turned on the critics of the “Big Six” energy companies, saying that ill-judged attacks will put off investors and that it was time to end the “Punch and Judy” debate. As new figures revealed that up to £11bn had been wiped off the value of energy stocks in the past two months, Sir Roger said that any attempt to enforce price caps was illogical and would be a threat to the “financial fabric” of the energy companies.
Telegraph 7th Dec 2013 read more »
Roger Carr: In pursuing a morally admirable green agenda, successive UK governments have added to escalating commodity costs with additional charges at a time the consumer can afford them least.
Telegraph 7th Dec 2013 read more »
Elderly customers of npower have told the Telegraph of the frustration and uncertainty caused by a year of bungled bills sent out by the energy giant. These people are among a million customers who face either a hefty charge or refund. Our postbag was last week deluged with fraught letters from npower customers after our consumer champion, Jessica Gorst-Williams, resolved a billing complaint for a reader. Pleas for help were sent by pensioners as old as 90, who for months had been sent only “estimated” bills, despite repeated requests for accurate meter readings. Some were certain they had paid too much for gas during the summer and were desperate for a refund. None had received the £100 “bonus” for using npower’s dual fuel tariff.
Telegraph 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Geoffrey Lean: No prizes for guessing who got most from the Government’s attack on green taxes. One big winner emerges from the Government’s plans to limit rises to fuel bills – the Big Six energy companies. And there is one big loser, Britain’s poorest people. Consumers make relatively small, and possibly only temporary, gains. And despite the Prime Minister’s reported determination to cut the “green crap”, the environment ends up more or less where it started. The Big Six cash in mightily from the decision to stretch out payments under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), which insulates the houses of the poor people, among other things, over four rather than two years: the Association or the Conservation of Energy (ACE) calculates that this will save them £1.3 billion. And as I reported a month ago, they have already collectively collected about £1 billion from consumers to pay for the measures, while only spending about a third of this amount. By contrast there has been no attempt to claw back any money from them, even though their profits have increased five times over in just the last four years.
Telegraph 4th Dec 2013 read more »
Japan
Fukushima Crisis Update 3rd to 5th Dec. TEPCO announced this week it had found radioactive contamination 36,000 times permissible levels in water taken from an observation well.
Greenpeace 6th Dec 2013 read more »
Iran
President Barack Obama said Saturday he believed the chances for a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran are 50-50 or worse, yet defended diplomacy as the best way to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons.
Daily Mail 8th Dec 2013 read more »
President Barack Obama said on Saturday that the recent nuclear deal with Iran was the best strategy for preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. On the same day a spokesman for Iran’s atomic energy agency said it was moving ahead with testing more efficient uranium enrichment technology.
Guardian 7th Dec 2013 read more »
Inspectors from the UN nuclear agency have arrived in Tehran to visit a nuclear facility that has long been off-limits to outside experts. Two inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency will visit the heavy-water production plant in the central city of Arak today. Iran agreed last month with the IAEA to allow expanded UN monitoring at nuclear sites.
Herald 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Independent 7th Dec 2013 read more »
US Defence Secretary stresses formidable amount of American firepower that still remains based in Gulf region in effort to calm allies.
Telegraph 7th Dec 2013 read more »
Trident
Letter: Part of the SNP’s Scottish defence policy is now, as a potential separate Nato member, to retain a nuclear capability, but not in Scotland. This last appears to be for cost purposes – Alex Salmond recently spoke of the “countless billions” that could be saved by not having Trident. This is hyperbole and the net effect of Scotland having or not having Trident is likely to be, in national terms, in the small change bracket. So exactly what and why is the policy?
Scotland on Sunday 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News.
Microgen Scotland 6th Dec 2013 read more »
Renewables
Christoper Booker: It has long been obvious that by far the most delusional element in the Government’s shambles of an energy policy is how it subordinates all else to an obsession with building thousands of hopelessly inefficient and absurdly oversubsidised windmills. This is now only made worse by George Osborne’s bid to appease his backbenchers by transferring a fraction of the 100 per cent subsidy paid to those increasingly unpopular onshore wind farms to the giant offshore wind farms, which already receive a 200 per cent subsidy, making such electricity as they produce six times more expensive than that we get from coal. It is now a year, however, since a report for the Renewable Energy Foundation by Prof Gordon Hughes, a former senior energy adviser to the World Bank, dropped what should have been a further huge bombshell into the energy debate. Using official data from the UK and Denmark, Prof Hughes showed that we have now been building turbines long enough to see that, due to wear and tear on their mechanisms and blades, the amount of electricity they generate very dramatically falls over the years; so that a turbine that initially produces on average at 25 per cent of its “capacity” can degrade over 15 years to produce less than 5 per cent. With offshore turbines, the effects of weather and salt corrosion are so damaging that output falls from 45 per cent to barely 12 per cent.
Telegraph 7th Dec 2013 read more »
Failure to develop a UK supply chain before handing high subsidies to offshore wind industry has diverted job opportunities overseas, according to a new report. Britain missed out on thousands of jobs building offshore wind farms because the Government failed to develop a UK supply chain before handing high subsidies to the industry, according to a former civil servant who was central in the development of the North Sea oil industry. Efforts to increase the UK share of work on offshore wind projects may now be “too little, too late”, but ministers must take urgent action to prevent the same mistake being made in the shale gas industry, Norman Smith said in a report for the independent think tank Civitas.
Telegraph 7th Dec 2013 read more »
A GREAT-GRANDSON of Winston Churchill is leading a battle to save his corner of the English countryside from solar farm developers. Jack Churchill, 38, has launched the Wake Up Wiltshire campaign in his home village of Seend. It is situated near farmland where energy firms want to erect hundreds of solar panels, including one solar farm that would be the largest in Britain.
Sunday Times 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
BRITAIN’S festive high streets are radiating far more than just goodwill: a study has found that many of the nation’s largest — and supposedly greenest — retailers are pouring heat and greenhouse gases into the environment by keeping their doors open all through winter. Lush and the Body Shop, which promote themselves on their sustainability, are among the worst offenders, according to a survey of shops carried out by Close the Door, an environmental pressure group.
Times 8th Dec 2013 read more »
I would really love to live in a house built to passive-house standards. It’s the ethical thing to do, but the cost is high. What options are there for passivhaus living? Who wouldn’t want to live in a passivhaus (passive house, or PH)? This Swedish/German system of building gives a house an air-tight, highly insulated shell (imagine a tea cosy) that avoids pesky interruptions from things like normal windows. Heat loss is reduced to the extent that PH fans say a smallish room can be heated using just 10 tea lights. Long term, you can live in year- round thermal comfort for the cost of running a hair dryer.
Observer 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
THE founder of the controversial shale-gas explorer Cuadrilla Resources wants to hand towns and villages billions of pounds from fracking what he calls “the people’s gas”. In his first interview in Britain, Allan Campbell, the Australian behind Cuadrilla, claimed his company has discovered “another North Sea”, but bemoaned the lack of political will to develop it.
Sunday Times 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Cuadrilla Resources, has discovered under northwest England an unfathomably huge gas reservoir — equal to more than half a century of Britain’s needs. “This is the North Sea all over again,” Campbell says. “In America they are playing with 300ft of [gas-bearing rock layers]. We’ve got 6,000ft of this shit, mate. When I show this to our guys in the US, they’re like, ‘F***, this is a game-changer’.”
Times 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Letter: Both Labour and the coalition are blaming the big six energy companies for high prices. The problem lies with the last Labour government, which had no long-term plan for energy. It knew that our generating plants would need replacing and that nuclear plants would take years to complete. It decided to pursue green policies with vast subsidies and so backed unreliable and expensive green energy such as wind farms. The present government has also expanded renewable energy with large subsidies and carbon taxes. This policy will no doubt lead to the death of old people this winter and make our industry less competitive in the world. We must, as a matter of urgency, start “fracking” for our own gas.
Times 8th Dec 2013 read more »
THE world’s largest food company is working on a novel way to answer critics of the controversial shale gas industry: organic fracking. Anti-fracking campaigners cite the use of millions of gallons of noxious drilling chemicals to break apart gas-bearing rock as one of the reasons they oppose drilling. Cargill is developing fluids derived from vegetable oils, or even corn. Chris Mallet at Cargill said the grain trading giant has been developing the technology over “the past few years”.
Times 8th Dec 2013 read more »
Local authorities are missing a massive £200 million from the funds they need to clean up the mess made by 32 opencast coal mines across central Scotland, a Sunday Herald investigation has revealed. According to informed industry sources, the cash set aside by two major coal companies before they collapsed this year amounts to only a quarter of the sum now needed to restore scarred landscapes as local communities were promised. As a result, most of the mines that are disfiguring large areas of East Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife and Midlothian are likely to remain derelict, or to be cleaned up on the cheap. The revelations have prompted furious reactions this weekend from leading politicians, environmental groups and local communities. It is a “national scandal” and a “betrayal”, they say.
Sunday Herald 8th Dec 2013 read more »
