New Nukes
Some see nuclear power as an important ‘tool in the box’ to limit carbon emissions and stop climate change. It’s more like a spanner in the works. Nuclear power is inadequate, unnecessary as well as dangerous. It’s also a hugely expensive distraction from work to limit the impacts of climate change.
Greenpeace UK Briefing December 2010 more >>
National Policy Statements
The Energy and Climate Change Committee will hold its second oral evidence session on The Revised Draft National Policy Statements on Energy on Tuesday 14 December 2010 in Committee Room 17, Palace of Westminster. Witnesses include RSPB, FoE, CPRE, Renewable Energy Association, Nuclear Industry Association.
Parliament 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Transcript of session with Charles Hendry, Hergan Haye and Anne Stuart
Energy & Climate Change Committee 6th Dec 2010 more >>
Waste Costs
The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change released Tuesday new details of its clean-up proposals for future nuclear power plants. The proposals were eagerly awaited by utilities that plan to build new nuclear plants in the UK over the next decade, including EDF Energy, Centrica, E.ON, Scottish and Southern Energy and RWE. DECC said Tuesday two separate consultations were released, one on the price charged to operators transferring nuclear waste from reactors to the UK’s future long-term disposal facility, and the other on decommissioning. The government had already consulted on both proposals, in September 2008 and March, respectively, but the latest proposals represent the government’s final view. DECC said utilities should not pay more than three times current cost estimates to transfer waste to the central repository, increasing certainty for investors in new nuclear power plants.
Platts 7th Dec 2010 more >>
Energy Business Reviews 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Radwaste
Hundreds of Cumbrians have given their views on whether the county should host an underground nuclear dump. A total of 500 people have attended sessions across the county to discuss whether a geological disposal facility for high-level waste should be built in the area.
Cumberland News 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Whitehaven News 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Sizewell
October 2010 Sizewell C Project Update
Suffolk Chamber of Commerce 7th Dec 2010 more >>
Twinned with Chernobyl. This postcard was produced by Leeds Postcards in 1987 and was in support of the Campaign Against Nuclear Energy and the Stop Sizewell ‘B’ Association. It shows a ‘twinning’ sign with Sizewell ‘A’ nuclear power station in the background.
Etsy Dec 2010 more >>
DNA Bank
From 2012, thousands of west Cumbrian-born children will have a pretty big decision to make as they blow out the candles on their 16th birthday cakes. It won’t be A-levels versus vocational courses, or Ibiza versus Magaluf. They’ll need to decide whether to give scientists permission to keep their DNA and personal data for medical research. The pioneering scheme – the North Cumbria Community genetics Project (NCCGP) – harvested samples from the umbilical cords of babies born at the West Cumberland Hospital between 1996 and 2003. Based at the British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) and Newcastle University backed Geoffrey Schofield Laboratories at the Westlakes Science and Technology Park in Whitehaven, the scheme also kept personal data on file too. Between 80 and 90 per cent of mothers who gave birth at the hospital gave the samples.
Carlisle News & Star 6th Dec 2010 more >>
Heysham
UK nuclear output hit 8 GW early Wednesday morning for the first time in almost two months, following the restart of the Heysham 1-1 nuclear reactor on Tuesday. The UK’s nuclear power stations were producing 8,001 MW at 0330 GMT Wednesday, the first time nuclear output has breached 8,000 MW since October 20, data from National Grid showed. The 640 MW Heysham 1-1 nuclear reactor in Lancashire was restarted early Tuesday morning, easing some of the pressure on the UK power system caused by the cold temperatures of recent days. Three of the UK’s 19 nuclear reactors remained offline Wednesday: Oldbury-2 in South Gloucestershire, Hartlepool-2 in County Durham and Heysham 1-2 in Lancashire.
Platts 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Heysham power station has moved quickly to calm fears about a fire at the installation yesterday. Heysham 2 power station called Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to site at 10.00pm on Tuesday after smoke was detected in an electrical room in a non-nuclear area of the plant. A spokesperson for the station told virtual-lancaster there was no effect on any operational plant and therefore, no challenge to the operation of the station. Along with the site’s own fire team, Lancashire Fire and Rescue used thermal imaging equipment to confirm that the source was a failed bearing in a heater which has been isolated pending repair and the smoke dispersed.
Virtual Lancaster 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Hinkley
Website provides a comprehensive list of important documents and website links related to EDF’s proposed new nuclear build at Hinkley Point C.
Somerset County Council 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Sellafield
SELLAFIELD Ltd will be a “good neighbour” to west Cumbria and use local companies wherever possible, bosses have pledged. Speaking at a Meet the Buyers event attended by 152 businesses, Sellafield Ltd commercial director Keith Case said management took their social and economic role seriously.
Whitehaven News 8th Dec 2010 more >>
ONE of Sellafield’s top bosses has been named the first chairman of Cumbria’s Local Enterprise Partnership. George Beveridge, deputy managing director of the West Cumbrian nuclear complex, will fill the role, it has been announced. The partnership will lead economic regeneration across the county following the closure of the Northwest Regional Development Agency in 2012.
Whitehaven News 8th Dec 2010 more >>
DETAILED plans will soon be underway for building a new jobs-boosting nuclear power station at Sellafield. NuGeneration Ltd, a joint venture company, will take forward the plans in the hope that at least one electricity-producing reactor will be in operation in just over a decade – 2023. Energy Minister Charles Hendry said last week that nuclear new built can bring billions of pounds worth of investment to West Cumbria. NuGen has been established by a consortium which has an option to build on 470 acres of land surrounding the existing Sellafield nuclear site. The consortium of Iberdrola, GDF Suez and SSE paid £70 million for the land in an NDA auction.
Whitehaven News 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Uranium
The economic advantage of commercial nuclear power relies on the low price of its fuel. However, the gap between the spot price and long-term price for uranium demonstrates its imperfections as a commodity trading market. Although things are getting better, quoted prices should be treated with caution. Even if prices have to rise substantially to induce the required level of supply, nuclear economics can withstand the impact. But the uranium age is ultimately likely to go the way of the Stone Age, which certainly didn’t end owing to any shortage of stones. The nuclear sector will eventually move onto something better, and this will be the next generation of nuclear reactors, the so-called Generation IV, which will be fuelled very differently. Given the need to do something about the world’s inventory of used fuel, it is likely that new reactors will be fuelled by advanced reprocessing technologies. But the precondition is that there must be a boom in reactor construction today using existing technology – only then will the research funds come forward to bring on the newer designs.
Nuclear Engineering International 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Spot prices for uranium have recently bubbled up to around the $67 (£42.38) mark following confirmation that China’s plans for its nuclear industry are far more ambitious than previously thought. At the recent International Nuclear Symposium held in Beijing, Chinese authorities announced that the People’s Republic intended to construct up to 245 reactors over the next 20 years, at a projected cost of $511bn (£323bn).
Investors Chronicle 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Cyber Security
DevonWay, an enterprise-class SaaS-based solutions provider for the nuclear power industry, has reported the availability of its cyber security offering, CyberWay. This new product expands DevonWay’s commitment to supplying next-generation enterprise asset management solutions. CyberWay will assist cyber security program managers with an efficient approach to complying with 10 CFR 73.54 requirements, including extension of the plant configuration to include support for critical digital assets and providing a fully-attributed cyber-security Controls Library reflecting NEI 08-09-Rev. 6 guidelines.
Energy Business Review 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Thorium
AKER Solutions’ Teesside team has designed the world’s first nuclear plant of its kind. Bosses say the operation to bring a 600 megawatt pilot plant onstream by 2030 could bring global recognition – and hundreds of jobs – to Teesside. Their Accelerator Driven Thorium Reactor (ADTR) could revolutionise the global nuclear sector by becoming the first commercial-scale plant to use thorium as a fuel instead of uranium.
Evening Gazette 8th Dec 2010 more >>
US
President Barack Obama’s proposed $36 billion expansion of loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors would be scaled back to $7 billion, according to legislation from House Democrats to fund the U.S. government into next year. The loan-guarantee expansion is part of a $1.1 trillion measure that is scheduled for a vote today in the U.S. House.
Bloomberg 8th Dec 2010 more >>
A firm in Utah is looking for permission to burn radioactive waste shipped from Germany at its Oak Ridge incinerator facility. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has opened up a forum for comments at the request of EnergySolutions, which wants to burn around 1,000 tonnes of German hazardous waste at its plant in Oak Ridge. It would then return the waste ashes back to Germany for further disposal.
Recycle.co.uk 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Germany
Germany’s extension of the legal lifetimes of 17 nuclear power plants passed into law Wednesday, with President Christian Wulff assenting to the legislation in Berlin. The 12-year deferment of the sunset date for nuclear power, a key policy plank of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, still faces challenges by anti-nuclear opponents in the courts.
Monster & Critics 8th Dec 2010 more >>
India
India’s Nuclear Power Corporation is a sleepy public utility that runs 17 atomic plants not very efficiently. Last year, it made headlines for the wrong reasons, when an act of apparent sabotage at one plant put the whole country on high alert. Prime minister Manmohan Singh also frequently laments that Asia’s third largest economy only produces just 3 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power. Areva, France’s state-owned nuclear power company, wants to change all that. Amid a $9bn deal with NPCIL, it has big ambitions for the Indian giant, possibly bigger than the company has for itself. It’s offering NPCIL investment opportunities in its global mining operations, which span more than half a dozen countries from Niger to Kazakhstan.
FT Blog 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Venezuela
Documents disclosed by WikiLeaks pour cold water on Venezuela’s nuclear ambitions while acknowledging the country’s willingness to buy in power plants. US Ambassadors reporting to Washington on conversations with Venezuelan scientists described nuclear cooperation agreements with Russia as “pure political theatre.” Venezuela does not have the ability to cooperate with Russia in a meaningful way, they wrote, due to a “sporadic” interest in nuclear since the 1970s which has left laboratories, personnel and practices seriously depleted.
World Nuclear News 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Today, nearly two decades after the Cold War ended, there are still 23,000 nuclear warheads in the world. They are held by just nine countries: the US, Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. Worryingly, more than 2,000 of them are still on hair-trigger alert – ready to launch at short notice, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Greenpeace UK December 2010 more >>
New anti-Trident Video December 2010 more >>
Gordon Brown’s suggestion of slimming down Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent caused surprise and concern among Whitehall officials, leaked US diplomatic cables have revealed.
Telegraph 9th Dec 2010 more >>
Two senior Whitehall officials assured US diplomats that the renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent would go ahead, apparently contradicting then prime minister Gordon Brown’s public statements proposing some disarmament by the UK, according to leaked US embassy cables.
Guardian 9th Dec 2010 more >>
Submarine Decommissioning
The Navy needs to dismantle its old nuclear submarines. The work will be done in Devonport or at Rosyth in Scotland. SCRAPPING the Navy’s 27 nuclear submarines would provide work for at least 30 years. Eighteen of the submarines are already decommissioned and stored at Devonport and Rosyth. The work could be seen as a consolation prize for Plymouth, which is likely to lose all but one of its surface ships in the wake of the Strategic Defence and Security Review. Although dismantling involves low-level radioactivity and is less risky than the de-fuelling or refuelling that is already done in Devonport, the image of a “nuclear scrapyard” raises the hackles of some local people.
Plymouth Herald 9th Dec 2010 more >>
Climate
The citizens of Derby, Leicester, Northampton, Lincoln and Nottingham are currently being treated to the sight of giant posters in prominent locations, featuring the face of Roger Helmer, the Conservative MEP for the East Midlands constituency. Against a background of wind turbines, the portrait of Helmer is accompanied by the slogan: “Green climate change policies: Probably unnecessary, Certainly ineffectual, Ruinously expensive.”
Guardian Blog 8th Dec 2010 more >>
Renewables
Current policies among the world’s richest 20 nations will result in $546bn (£348bn) less being invested in clean energy by 2020 than is needed to prevent dangerous climate change, according to a new report. The report also predicts that the UK will become a much more significant investor in green technology globally, increasing its spending by 260% over the next decade. But despite this boost to renewable energy and other green industries, the authors believe that India will nudge ahead of the UK into third place by 2020.
Guardian 9th Dec 2010 more >>
