Sellafield
The strategic review confirms the NDA’s position that completing the reprocessing contracts at THORP remains a viable and cost-effective strategy. Any remaining AGR fuel, including any future arisings, will be placed into interim storage pending a decision to dispose of it in a geological disposal facility. This will result in the reprocessing contracts being complete by 2018, at which time THORP would cease reprocessing activities and enter a post-closure and clean out phase prior to decommissioning. Confirmation of the position concerning the future of THORP means that there is now no safety, operational or strategic requirement to replace the existing HASTs (Highly Active Liquor Storage Tanks) that receive this by-product of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Therefore, following dialogue between NDA, Sellafield Ltd and regulators, there is now no need to procure the replacement HAST project.
NDA 7th June 2012 more >>
In a decision that reverberates across the Sellafield estate, the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority confirmed June 7 that it will close the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) at Sellafield towards the end of 2018, upon completion of existing foreign and domestic reprocessing contracts. The NDA had previously expected to complete reprocessing contracts at Thorp in 2010, but operational difficulties both in Thorp and in downstream support plant, had delayed the completion of that work. The NDA also said June 7 it is abandoning a project to build up to six highly active (liquid) storage tanks, or HASTs, at Sellafield estimated in 2010 to cost up to £1.5 billion. The new HASTs were meant to replace capacity from an aging 21-tank complex that started storing the sites liquid reprocessing wastes in 1955. The tanks are used to store highly radioactive liquid wastes generated by the B205 magnox reprocessing plant and by Thorp. But in a statement June 7, the NDA said its site license company, Sellafield Ltd, have determined that there are significant margins of safety and contingency with the current fleet of HASTs to complete the remaining reprocessing programmes.
i-Nuclear 7th June 2012 more >>
SELLAFIELDs Thorp plant will stop reprocessing oxide fuel in six years time, it was confirmed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority on Wednesday.Workers, trades union representatives and stakeholders were told during the afternoon just after The Whitehaven News went to press that 2018 is to be the cut-off point. It means that by then all site reprocessing will have ceased because Magnox fuel is due to end the year before. Although a large proportion of the 10,000 strong Sellafield workforce is employed on reprocessing, the anticipated number of job losses is not as great as first expected due to more focus on removing Sellafields high-hazard risks and increased NDA financial resources to accelerate decommissioning projects.
Whitehaven News 7th June 2012 more >>
Independent 7th June 2012 more >>
Huffington Post 7th June 2012 more >>
BBC 8th June 2012 more >>
Extending Thorps life would require investment well in excess of £1bn, the NDA said, including the construction of £600m of storage tanks for the highly-radioactive liquor that is produced by reprocessing. It would be very expensive to carry on much longer, said Bill Hamilton, head of stakeholder relations at the NDA. If there was a market out there, there would be a reason to invest, but there is no major appetite. As well as the high cost, reprocessing is controversial because the plutonium produced could be used to make nuclear weapons, and the waste is much more radioactive than spent fuel. Mr Hamilton said that reprocessing in the UK could be revived in the future, but would require a more modern plant. Thorps not the answer, it has done its job, but not as well as its designers planned.
FT 7th June 2012 more >>
BRITAINS biggest nuclear project, now delayed at Sellafield, has racked up a staggering overspend of anything between £200 million and £270 million of taxpayers money. The Whitehaven News can reveal that the cost of Evaporator D has soared as high as £673 million from its original budget of £397million. Evap D is Sellafields future reprocessing lifeline but there will be no added call on the public purse. The massive extra cost will have to come from the £1.5 billion a year Nuclear Management Partners gets from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to run the site. But NMP stands to pay a heavy price in having millions of pounds sliced from the annual fee for good site performance. The cuts will be over three years.
Whitehaven News 6th June 2012 more >>
New Nukes
Letter NFLA: Instead of flogging the dead horse of new nuclear, we should be developing a renewable revolution which can also address concerns over intermittency (Geothermal energy could be part of the renewable mix, 30 May). Yet again, we read that the government’s inflexible subsidy regime is providing a barrier to development. If research shows it is an environmentally sound process, geothermal should become part of a renewable mix, with wind, tidal, wave, solar and combined heat and power, alongside more energy efficiency and microgeneration. We should develop an energy policy that makes the most of our engineering talent, provides needed skilled jobs, is sustainable and will be more cost-effective than the billions proposed for new nuclear, which always comes in well over budget.
Guardian 7th June 2012 more >>
NuGen
ENERGY giant NuGen is set to pay for Copeland Council staff to do work for it to help pave the way for a planned nuclear power station. The aim of the proposed work is to progress an application for development order consent leading to construction but without prejudice to whether or not the Moorside reactors are built near Sellafield. A new National Infrastructure Directorate will decide on all new UK power station applications, including Moorside. But decisions will be made by the government body based on views from the councils, consultations and from prospective developers. Subject to Planning Performance Agreements being signed off around the end of June, NuGen will fund a legally-binding contract for a wide range of work to be done on its behalf by both Copeland and Cumbria County Council staff.
Whitehaven News 7th June 2012 more >>
Hinkley
Three Somerset councils have combined forces to raise concerns of the possible impact of the building of a third nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point power station. Somerset County Council, Sedgemoor District Council and West Somerset Council have responded to the Planning Inspectorate’s request for comments on other organisations’ Local Impact Report’s and written representations relating to EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C proposals.
Wells Journal 7th June 2012 more >>
Radwaste
WINNER OF THE COMPETITION TO DESIGN A SYMBOL WARNING FUTURE GENERATIONS The competition was open to all ages and all abilities and even attracted professional artists to have a go at designing a symbol. Winning design is by Adam Moffatt of Kendal – *Congratulations* to Adam and the mug is winging its way to him! The Rock Solid? mug will hold hot liquids but is guaranteed to leak within ….
Rock Solid 7th June 2012 more >>
Decommissioning
The majority of planned nuclear power closures globally are forecast to take place in Europe, with 150 plants in line for closure by 2030. That’s the conclusion of a new report by energy intelligence provider GlobalData, which revealed that Europe accounts for 69% of the 200 closures globally. In contrast, the US was shown to have granted a life extension to 71 plants and is expecting to close just five plants – out of an estimated 200 power closures anticipated globally.
Edie 7th June 2012 more >>
Click Green 7th June 2012 more >>
France
Nuclear-reactor makers are offering prices too low to cover costs to win orders abroad in a strategy that puts earnings at risk, the head of the industrys watchdog in France said. Export contracts for nuclear plants are being obtained at pure dumping-level prices, Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of theAutorite de Surete Nucleaire regulator, said today at a conference organized by LUsine Nouvelle magazine in Paris. Prices accepted by vendors and obtained by buyers are unsustainable, Lacoste said. There arent many tenders, which is why competitors are ripping each other off. Its already a serious matter, and we need to make sure that theres no dumping on safety on top of that. Areva SA (AREVA), the worlds largest provider of nuclear equipment and services, has booked more than 2.8 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of costs since 2005 because of delays and cost overruns at an atomic plant its building in Finland. The Paris-based company and General Electric Co. (GE) were beaten in 2009 on a four-reactor order in the United Arab Emirates by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEP) in the Seoul-based companys first export contract.
Bloomberg 7th June 2012 more >>
Iran
If the last round of Iranian nuclear talks in Baghdad were preceded by what turned out to be excessive optimism, the next round, due to take place in Moscow starting June 17, is suffering from the other extreme. Expectations are so low, the talks are in danger of not happening at all.
Guardian 7th June 2012 more >>
Tensions have spilled into the open in the run-up to the critical next round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme in Moscow due to start on June 17. Nerves are on edge after the disappointment in Baghdad last month, where there was no real progress, stoking anxiety over what might happen if the diplomatic process collapses.
Guardian 8th June 2012 more >>
EU Business 8th June 2012 more >>
Senior EU officials expressed concern on Thursday that international dialogue over the Iranian nuclear program is close to collapse, amid signs that Tehran is preparing for the failure of a forthcoming round of key talks.
FT 7th June 2012 more >>
Forget for a moment well-rehearsed arguments about enrichment, the non-proliferation treaty, UN sanctions and military strikes, The stand-off with Iran over its nuclear ambitions needs a wider focus. The present regime in Tehran believes it will be safer with the bomb. Unless negotiations can change that calculus they are doomed to failure.
FT 7th June 2012 more >>
Hungary
Russian firm Rosatom is keen to upgrade and expand Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant, including financing and construction of new power blocks. An official from Rosatom was quoted by the business daily Napi Gazdasag as saying that the company intended to fully finance the estimated 3 trillion forints ($12.4bn) construction cost of the plant. The Hungarian government is expected to float the construction tender for up to 3,000 megawatts (MW) in new nuclear power capacity at the Paks site to augment an aging fleet of power stations.
Energy Business Review 7th June 2012 more >>
Germany
Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall moved one step closer towards suing the German government over its decision to permanently close the two nuclear reactors it jointly owns with German utility Eon. Vattenfall said it has filed a request with the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement for Investment Disputes (Icsid) to set up an arbitration tribunal regarding the closure of the Krummel and Brunsbuttel nuclear plants last year. An arbitration tribunal is a prerequisite for taking legal action against the German government. The utility has not filed a lawsuit yet but maintains that it is seeking compensation.
Argus Media 7th June 2012 more >>
Japan
The former president of Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co faces questioning for the first time on Friday by a high profile investigative panel seeking to uncover the causes of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Reuters 8th June 2012 more >>
Denmark
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — This city plans to invest in wind farms, electric cars, bike paths and energy-efficient buildings in an effort to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025.
Scientific American 5th June 2012 more >>
Microgeneration
Letter Robin Russell-Jones: Generating electrical power and heat locally from renewable sources is a no-brainer for the farming community, but microgeneration schemes could also be exploited by hundreds of communities. The problem is that government policy is wedded to the six big energy companies, which see the consumer as the lucrative end-point of a massive distribution system, with power stations miles from the point of delivery. Not only is this macro-model highly prone to blackouts, it is massively inefficient: as much as two-thirds of the energy generated is lost even before it leaves the power station.
Guardian 7th June 2012 more >>
Green Deal
A group of companies expected to finance the government’s Green Deal energy efficiency scheme have issued a stark warning to the Deputy Prime Minister that its flagship policy is in jeopardy as a result of funding delays. Thirteen companies, including E.ON and SSE, wrote to Nick Clegg on Wednesday to inform him that they have halted work on a Green Deal Finance Company a non-profit consortium that will provide low-cost loans to homeowners wishing to install energy-efficiency measures when the Green Deal launches in October.
Business Green 8th June 2012 more >>
Gas
In a report today, Policy Exchange argued that the government should scrap 4GW of its planned 13GW target for offshore wind generation by 2020. By building cheaper gas generation instead it could save £700-£900m a year in costs that would have been passed onto billpayers, it calculated. These savings could be redeployed by insulating hundreds of thousands more homes and doubling public funding for research and development in key low-carbon technologies, it said. That would still leave enough money to buy and retire sufficient carbon permits each year to reduce emissions by six times as much as the 4GW of offshore wind. Jenny Banks, policy officer at WWF-UK, said: Its ridiculous to expect that a dash for gas at the expense of building renewable generation would somehow lead to bigger carbon cuts. This is based on a very idealistic view of the effectiveness of the EU emissions cap.
Telegraph 8th June 2012 more >>
Can you spot the oxymoron: “sustainable development of Arctic energy”? As the polar ice melts, taking the opportunity to drill out more of the fossil fuel that via global warming is driving that melting can hardly be described as sustainable. But that oxymoron is at the heart of the “landmark” energy agreement prime minister David Cameron struck with his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday. The deal, according to the press release, “emphasises not only the ongoing importance of fossil fuel production, but also the need to promote low carbon growth through renewables and CCS.”
Guardian 7th June 2012 more >>
Fusion
Engineering consultancy Frazer-Nash has successfully completed analysis and design optimisations for the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), in support of the ITER Fusion test reactor project. The ITER project at Cadarache, southern France, is a pioneering scheme to demonstrate the capabilities of fusion nuclear power on a large scale. In order to initiate and maintain fusion, the plasma within the tokamak reactor needs to be heated to very high temperatures using Neutral Beam Injectors.
Process & Control Today 7th June 2012 more >>
