Hinkley
A group of more than 100 engineers at French utility EDF have come out in support of the company’s contentious plans to build a flagship nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in the UK, after some of their counterparts said the project should be delayed. An internal note to company employees by the EDF engineers, which was issued this week, said: “We are convinced that EDF is able to build and deliver the two Hinkley Point reactors on time. Hinkley Point is politically, economically and industrially, one of the most significant projects of our era.” The Financial Times reported last week that some senior engineers at EDF had written a policy paper calling for at least a two-year delay to the £18bn project, which involves two reactors and is meant to be operational by 2025. The paper said that the “realistic service date was 2027” due to the size of the project, continuing design modifications and the “very low” competency of French supplier Areva in making some of the large components. The contrasting visions from the two groups of EDF engineers point to a wider battle going on inside the company over whether to make the much-delayed final investment decision on Hinkley at a board meeting on May 11.
FT 8th April 2016 read more »
Six years ago a French government inquiry issued a warning that makes for chilling and highly relevant reading even today. The report said that the complexity of the kind of nuclear reactor destined for Hinkley Point was itself a “handicap” to its construction and its cost. So it should come as no surprise that wherever the new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) is being installed – in Finland, France and China – the projects are beset by delays and massive increases in price. The EPR is what’s called a Third Generation reactor and it’s designed to be safer, more powerful and more efficient than earlier versions. Ironically, it’s also meant to be easier to build. But so far the reality has been the opposite. As the EDF Board prepares to make its final investment decision, there is not yet a single example that anyone can point to of the reactor actually working. And its development has become something of a saga which not only involves huge questions about finance and politics but also about technology. They found that the dome capping the vessel installed at Flamanville in Normandy contained impurities – amid the steel there was a small zone with too much carbon. This could potentially undermine the vessel’s strength. The intense radiation generated within the reactor bombards the pressure vessel and, over the decades, makes the metal as brittle as glass. Many of the engineers who lived through the challenges of the other EPR projects will be on hand at Hinkley. ‘Veterans’, as Simon Jack, calls them. That could mean they have plenty of useful experience. Or they really know just how uncertain a task they face.
BBC 7th April 2016 read more »
The story of Hinkley Point C is a fraught one. It was first mooted in 2008, we are on our third government and fourth secretary of state for energy since then, and the final decision is still yet to be made. That will fall to the French government, as the 85% shareholder of EDF – the project’s owner. Ministers from both UK and French governments along with the senior management have all joined in a deafening chorus of confidence that it will go ahead, which doesn’t seem to succeed in instilling much confidence.
BBC 7th April 2016 read more »
France’s energy minister Ségolène Royal has backed union demands for the EDF’s Hinkley C project in Somerset to be re-examined, write Angelique Chrisafis & Chris Johnston – adding that the project must not go ahead if it would ‘dry out’ funds needed for EDF’s renewable energy program.
Ecologist 8th April 2016 read more »
The French energy minister Segolene Royal has become the latest and most important person in France to hint that the new Hinkley C nuclear power plant project might be in doubt, as pressure intensifies on EDF to give the go-ahead. Ms Royal’s refusal in an interview on French radio to commit to Hinkley C has increased speculation that the French Government might well order energy firm EDF to stop or at least postpone the project.
Western Daily Press 8th April 2016 read more »
Utility Week 8th April 2016 read more »
The Week 8th April 2016 read more »
Radhealth
Investigative journalist Barbara Koeppel examines how the U.S. is getting away with using radioactive weapons that are causing spikes in birth defects and cancer in both Iraqi citizens and U.S. veterans.
Real News 7th April 2016 read more »
Nuclear Security
Starting in May more than 150 countries will be legally bound to strengthen their protection of nuclear facilities and to cooperate in finding and recovering stolen or smuggled nuclear material, security officials said on Friday. An amendment to the decade-old Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material was ratified after Nicaragua and Uruguay became the 101st and 102nd signatories, reaching the two-thirds of convention members required to make it legal.
Reuters 8th April 2016 read more »
World Nuclear News 8th April 2016 read more »
Plutonium
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeast New Mexico is the nation’s only permanent storage site for waste from nuclear weapons work. The repository is currently closed because of radiation contamination caused by a 2014 chemical reaction in a drum of waste shipped from Los Alamos National Laboratory. But when WIPP is reopened, the U.S. Department of Energy wants to send nearly seven tons of weapons-grade plutonium there to store safely away from rogue countries or terrorists.
Albuquerque Journal 7th April 2016 read more »
Chernobyl
Haunting photos.
IB Times 8th April 2016 read more »
Europe
European electricity association Eurelectric has welcomed the European Commission’s recently published Nuclear Illustrative Program (PINC), but expressed regrets at its failure to address the issue of premature reactor closures due to market conditions. European nuclear industry association Foratom also called on the PINC to address the impact of market conditions on nuclear investments.
World Nuclear News 8th April 2016 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
A father-of-two who twice beat cancer died after being exposed to radiation – from a Cold War US plane that crashed while carrying nuclear weapons. An inquest heard how in 1968 a then 21-year-old Petter Lilleby, from Barrow, in Cumbria, unwittingly worked near contaminated barrels of radioactive ice and wreckage from the crash site.
Mirror 8th April 2016 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News: Council’s still willing to invest in Solar; large Essex AD plant to inject gas into grid; UK’s largest solar car park opens in Nottingham.
Microgen Scotland 8th April 2016 read more »
Renewables – solar
The amount of household solar power capacity installed in the past two months has plummeted by three quarters following the government’s cuts to subsidies, according to new figures. A fall in solar power was expected following a 65% reduction in government incentives paid to householders, but the size of the drop-off will dismay green campaigners who want take up on clean energy sources to accelerate. Data published by the energy regulator this week shows there was 21 megawatts (MW) of small solar installed in February and March this year, after a new, lower incentive rate came into effect. By contrast, energy department figures show that for the same period in 2015, 81MW was installed.
Guardian 8th April 2016 read more »
100% Renewables
In 2012, Ikea made headlines with its pledge to completely power its stores with renewable energy by 2020. Last week, HP, the US-based multinational IT company, made the same pledge, promising to switch completely to renewables by 2020. The fact that both Ikea and HP set the same deadline for renewables, despite the fact that their pledges were separated by four years, illustrates a stunning change in renewable power generation. When Ikea made its promise, it was in the process of installing its own power generation facilities. Four years later, HP has numerous other options. It also has a lot of company on the renewables bandwagon. As part of its pledge, HP signed on for the RE100 campaign, joining fellow corporations Google, Starbucks, Novo Nordisk and Goldman Sachs. RE100 was launched less than two years ago by a coalition of businesses and nonprofits, but participating companies have, on average, already transitioned half of their energy use to renewables, according to a report released last month – and several companies have already hit the target.
Guardian 8th April 2016 read more »
