Dounreay
Anti-nuclear campaigners in Cumbria have reacted with fury to plans to empty Dounreays stockpile of nuclear fuel by sending it all to the Sellafield reprocessing complex. A start to the transfer by rail of 44 tonnes of spent fuel used in the sites reactor is due to get underway this summer. This week, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority launched a consultation on plans to do the same with other similar material stored at the Caithness plant. If the proposal is approved, the total inventory would come to around 100 tonnes and include plutonium and bomb-grade highly enriched uranium. The NDA is to finalise its preferred option for these so-called exotic fuels by the end of April and experts say it would be surprising if it did not favour an extension in the use of Sellafield. Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE) opposes the plan. Spokesperson Janine Allis-Smith said the group does not want Cumbria to be the waste-bin for everybody elses nuclear waste.
STV 8th Feb 2012 more >>
The NDA has today published a Credible Options Study covering the remaining nuclear materials at Dounreay referred to as ‘exotics’. The study identifies two strategic options for the material. These are to: transport them to Sellafield for management or manage them at Dounreay.
NDA 7th Feb 2012 more >>
Spent nuclear fuel from Dounreays fast reactor breeders could be transported to Sellafield in Cumbria for treatment, according to plans outlined by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) this week.
New Civil Engineer 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Radwaste
Copeland MP Jamie Reed has called for no time to be wasted in securing an underground dump for Britains nuclear waste in the borough. He told the Evening Mail: Our community and the nuclear industry cant afford to dither and delay on this. The whole of our economic future depends on this. Mr Reed said should the project go ahead then building the repository would be the biggest civil engineering project on the continent as well as a lasting legacy of nuclear excellence in Cumbria.
NW Evening Mail 8th Feb 2012 more >>
A referendum will not be held on whether high-level radioactive waste should be buried in west Cumbria. The group set up to consult the public on plans for a possible underground nuclear repository in either Allerdale or Copeland has ruled out the move for now. However, a telephone poll will be carried out by polling firm Ipsos MORI.
Cumberland News 8th Feb 2012 more >>
New Nukes
OFFICIALS distorted evidence and misled MPs over the need to build a new fleet of nuclear power stations, according to a report written by a Suffolk town councillor.
East Anglia Daily Times 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Graduate engineers were evenly split on the merits of building new nuclear power stations following a lively debate at the ICE this week.
New Civil Engineer 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Hinkley
Early this morning concerned locals occupied threatened ancient oak trees at the proposed site for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point near Bridgwater in Somerset. One of the tree occupiers said of their action – We’re here to stop work on this criminal development and to protect the ancient trees that are surrounded by a special conservation area but mysteriously excluded from it.
Stop Hinkley 7th Feb 2012 more >>
Bristol Indymedia 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Wells People 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Protestors evicted using dog.
Bristol Against the Arms Trade 8th Feb 2012 more >>
This is the West Country 8th Feb 2012 more >>
The UK’s 480-megawatt Hinkley Point B-7 nuclear reactor resumed power production on Wednesday although at low levels, data from transmission operator National Grid showed. The EDF-operated reactor, which went offline on February 1, fed just 30 MW into the grid on Wednesday morning.
Reuters 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Heysham
Nuclear waste flasks travelling from Heysham to Sellafield.
You Tube 7th Feb 2012 more >>
Part 2.
You Tube 7th Feb 2012 more >>
Sellafield
George Monbiot’s oh so persuasive and persistent (!) proposal to ‘let them burn plutonium’ is an example of agnotology.
101 uses for nuclear power 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Fast Reactors
Letter: With one giant leap they are free! How extraordinarily convenient that, just after the nuclear power mega-disaster of Fukushima and just when it is becoming clear around the world that citizens do not want nuclear power and that no one knows how to get rid of the lethal waste, the nuclear industry and government discover we can “safely” have enough nuclear power for the next 500 years not only without creating any nuclear waste but also by consuming the nuclear waste we already have in the power creation process. With this miraculous “new” process we will make the very embarrassing 35,000 tonnes of depleted uranium and 100 tonnes of plutonium disappear “just like that” to quote another well-known comedian. And to help the story along George Monbiot adds his “analysis” with the totally misleading statement that we are confronted with a choice between gas and coal, or nuclear power. Renewables, dear George, renewables.
Guardian 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Tom Burke, Paul Dorfman and John Sauven: Proponents of integral fast reactors have so far failed to answer three key questions: do these reactors work, how much do they cost, and how long to build? There have been many unsuccessful attempts to build a working fast reactor. The Japanese spent four decades and $13bn trying. A UK fast reactor at Dounreay was a costly failure which we are still working out how to decommission. No one has built a fast reactor on a commercial basis. Even if these latest plans could be made to work, prism reactors do nothing to resolve the main problems with nuclear: the industry’s repeated failure to build reactors on time and to budget. Even the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s scientific adviser, David MacKay, says “it isn’t the nuclear fuel that’s the expensive bit it’s the power stations and the other facilities that go with them.” Despite proven green technologies existing we are being asked to wait while an industry that has a track record for very costly failures researches yet another much-hyped but still theoretical new technology.
Guardian 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Walt Patterson: Oh please. Between 1955 and 1995 the UK blew more than £4bn of taxpayers’ money on fast reactors with nothing to show for it but a radioactive mess at Dounreay. The problem is not the reactor. The boilers have thousands of thin metal tubes with water on one side and molten sodium on the other. Every plant of this kind ever built has had boiler leaks with potential hydrogen explosions that make the plant impossible on an electricity system. If General Electric wants to use its own money on this, fine. If it wants to use mine, as a UK taxpayer, count me out.
Guardian 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Royal Society: We need experts in and outside government who understand nuclear technology well enough to ensure the UK avoids making the poor decisions dogging its nuclear programme in recent years.
Guardian 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Jean McSorley: I am mystified by your online headline ‘New generation of nuclear reactors could consume radioactive waste as fuel’, as the article discusses using the UK’s plutonium stockpile in reactors. The majority of the plutonium (approx 95%) is not actually designated as radioactive waste, but as a nuclear material. Anyone with knowledge of the industry would be aware of this distinction. The processing of plutonium into fuel, and its use in reactors, would however result in more nuclear waste. Once created, this waste would be added to substantial amounts of existing nuclear wastes for disposal none of which can be used in reactors.
Guardian 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Supply Chain
A NUCLEAR contract win could help speed up a Teesside engineering firm’s plans for an £8m factory. Darchem Engineering has won a multi-million-pound contract – its first in the nuclear sector for two decades – creating 20 new jobs. The specialist fabrication contract for ACKtiv Nuclear will shore up expansion plans for a factory at Darchems Stillington site that will create a further 100 jobs, as the company grows its share in the burgeoning nuclear market. Darchem was forced to shed more than a tenth of its workforce in early 2010 following a steep decline in defence and aerospace orders, but has since employed 100 more staff, taking numbers to 650.
Evening Gazette 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Energy Costs
Two out of three householders will pay higher energy bills at the end of the decade despite government reassurances that the average home will fork out less as a result of costly energy and climate policies. The figures, obtained by the Guardian, come as the new energy secretary, Ed Davey, dedicated his first speech in the job on Wednesday to announcing new measures to step up home energy efficiency amid concern about public opposition to the cost of government policies. A Decc spokesman defended those policies, saying that overall average bills would be lower than with no government action, and that even homes that paid higher bills as a result would benefit. “The point of a low-carbon Britain is keeping the lights on, not being increasingly dependent on imports from sometimes volatile parts of the world, and also make sure Britain gets its share of the green industrial revolution,” he said.
Guardian 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Within 24 hours, more than 40,000 consumers have signed up to a pioneering campaign in which the consumer group aims to secure cheaper energy tariffs by effectively bulk-buying on behalf of the group. This is the first time that such “collective purchasing” has been tried in Britain – although it is common in other European countries. The initiative has won cross-party support, being endorsed by both the new Energy Secretary, Edward Davey, and his shadow, Caroline Flint.
Telegraph 9th Feb 2012 more >>
Japan
Former special adviser to Naoto Kan, who was prime minister when the crisis started, warned that the situation is far from resolved and said Fukushima has exposed a raft of serious nuclear problems that Japan will have to confront for years. He was one of a select group who glimpsed the secret worst-case scenario document written up by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission on March 25 that was later reportedly quashed by the government. According to the scenario, the biggest risk during the meltdown crisis wasn’t the reactors themselves but the spent fuel pools sitting atop them, particularly the one above reactor 4, which still contains about 1,500 nuclear fuel assemblies, Tasaka said.
Japan Times 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Emails posted on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission website after the Fukushima disaster last March have revealed the agency was kept in the dark about the scale of the crisis. The correspondence, posted after the earthquake and tsunami caused catastrophic damage to the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan, reveals experts in the U.S. disagreed over how to deal with the disaster. And while assuring the U.S. population that there was no danger, the NRC did not disclose a worst-case scenario which could have seen high levels of radiation affecting Alaska if Fukushima could not be brought under control.
Daily Mail 8th Feb 2012 more >>
A relatively reassuring study about radioactive particles released into the ocean as a result of the accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last March has proved popular reading.
Nature 9th Feb 2012 more >>
Eastern Europe
Ten years after the European Union began providing 2.8 billion of financial assistance to Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia for the closure of unsafe Soviet-era reactors, decommissioning of those reactors remains a distant goal, according to a new report. In a special report released February 8, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said that the reactors have all been shut down and partly defuelled, major preparatory works have been implemented and dismantling works have started. However, after more than 10 years of EU assistance, progress has been slow, as many projects still involve preparatory activities. Moreover, the situation is rather unclear concerning the needs still to be met as a result of the early closure since no comprehensive needs assessment exists, the report said.The main work is still ahead and its finalisation faces a significant funding shortfall of around 2.5 billion, the auditors said.
i-Nuclear 8th Feb 2012 more >>
The EU faces a shortfall of some 2.5 billion euros to complete de-commissioning of eight ex-Soviet nuclear plants in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia, the European Court of Auditors said Wednesday.
EU Business 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Engineers are preparing to pour the concrete foundation of the Baltic nuclear power plant in Kaliningrad. Once underway, it will be the ninth power reactor under construction in Europe. The twin VVER-1200 Baltic project is situated in Kaliningrad, an exclave of the Russian Federation that sits between the EU states of Poland and Lithuania. It is a stand-out project for Russia: the first to be opened to investment by European utilities; the first intended to export most of its output; and the first to use Western components such as an Alstom-Atomenergomash steam turbine.
World Nuclear News 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Finland
Finlands nuclear waste organization, Posiva Oy, has awarded a contract for hydrological studies at the nuclear waste repository site at Olkiluoto to the consulting and engineering firm Pöyry, Pöyry said February 8. The site is where spent nuclear fuel from Olkiluoto and Loviisa are to be buried. The studies and measurements to be provided by Pöyry will be on the effects of groundwater flows on the disposal site and on the anticipation of technical barriers, the company said.
i-Nuclear 8th Feb 2012 more >>
US
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions decision to grant a formal combined construction and operating license (COL) to Southern Co. is expected Thursday of this week. The license will pave the way for construction for the first new nuclear power plant in the US in more than 25 years, marking an important milestone for Southern and the greater US nuclear supply chain. The company is also seeking a US loan guarantee for the project.
Nuclear Energy Insider 7th Feb 2012 more >>
France
Following an 18-month review, the French nuclear safety regulator has given its preliminary approval of the safety options for the Atmea1 reactor design. The decision marks an important step to demonstrate the licensability of the ‘mid sized’ pressurized water reactor. Atmea – the 50-50 joint venture formed in late 2007 between Areva and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) – requested that the French nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité De Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), conduct a review of the safety features of the Atmea1 design.
World Nuclear News 7th Feb 2012 more >>
Kazakhstan
KAZAKHSTAN says it could host the worlds first international nuclear fuel bank by late next year, as it seeks to help limit the spread of nuclear weapons. The initiative first made headlines in 2009 and would allow fledgling nuclear states to purchase enriched uranium for use in domestic nuclear power plants without the need to develop their own enrichment technology, which can be tailored to produce weapons-grade material.
Chemical Engineer 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Iran
THE single most important issue on todays political agenda is not bankers bonuses, the economy, the carnage in Syria, or even dare I say it the referendum. It is the danger that some time very soon Israel will launch an all-out air strike against Irans nascent nuclear weapons facilities. Welcome to Disaster 2012.
Scotsman 9th Feb 2012 more >>
Going to war with Iran would not solve the problem. Whatever nuclear facilities you destroy with air strikes could be rebuilt. If the Islamic Republics leaders are (as Ferguson thinks) determined get a bomb now, they will be even more resolute after suffering an Israeli or Western assault.
Telegraph 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Submarines
Letter: I WAS shocked to read the first sentence of the report on the Prime Minister’s visit to Plymouth. It read that Plymouth should have “a great future” and the city will not be just a graveyard for nuclear submarines, says the Prime Minister. The results of the public consultation over the decommissioning of nuclear submarines between Whitehall and the Ministry of Defence will not have even be gathered fully until later this month. As a resident of this area, I am so concerned over this issue that I have emailed 40 Plymouth city councillors. I am surprised that on such an important matter, only a handful replied and of those most seemingly didn’t know if they had a say in the matter. I therefore took the issue before the MoD, wrote to my MP, wrote to the Prime Minister and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond. Part of my submission to them read: “I note that former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is now campaigning for residents who cannot sell their homes in Dalgety Bay, Scotland, where radioactive waste was cut up after World War Two.
Plymouth Herald 9th Feb 2012 more >>
Renewables
Letter NFLA Chair: Germany has created over 350,000 jobs in the renewable energy sector alone and Scotland is creating thousands of new jobs as well, so it’s surprising that so many backbench Conservative MPs seem unwilling to support what could, and should, be a jobs bonanza in their recent letter on wind power to the prime minister.
Guardian 7th Feb 2012 more >>
The new energy secretary, Lib Dem MP Ed Davey, will face down the growing army of renewable power critics inside the coalition by making his first major outing a visit to a wind project. He will open the world’s biggest offshore windfarm on Thursday the £1.2bn Walney scheme, off Cumbria, with more than 100 turbines generating enough power for 320,000 homes. Davey said: “Britain has a lot to be proud of in our growing offshore wind sector. Our island’s tremendous natural resource, our research base and a proud history of engineering make this the No 1 destination for investment in offshore wind.
Guardian 9th Feb 2012 more >>
The planning system for offshore renewable energy projects in Scottish waters is to be streamlined. The move was welcomed by renewable energy firms and environmental groups. They said the new approach would reduce delay while taking account of possible threats to wildlife.
BBC 9th Feb 2012 more >>
A renewables task force is proposing a “blueprint” to streamline the scoping, planning and consenting of offshore renewable energy developments. The report, prepared by Marine Scotland, The Crown Estate, environmental regulators and developers has been welcomed by first minister Alex Salmond at the first 2012 meeting of the Scottish Energy Advisory Board (SEAB). The task force recommends creating a national database of survey data to reduce duplication and minimise costs and times. It also suggests introducing common data collection standards to ensure developers use methodologies consistently and with confidence.
RE News 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Energy Efficiency
Newly appointed Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey will today provide new details on the government’s promised Energy Efficiency Deployment Office (EEDO) at a meeting with industry leaders. In his first set-piece speech since taking up the role of Energy and Climate Change Secretary last week, Davey will tell an audience at the The John Lewis Partnerships’ store on Sloane Square, London that energy efficiency initiatives will be central to his efforts to slash carbon emissions.
Business Green 8th Feb 2012 more >>
Letter Caroline Lucas: The rise in emissions from home heating is especially alarming when you consider that, by the government’s own admission, loft lagging will fall by 93% when the Green Deal starts. If we are to stand any chance of improving the efficiency of our homes and tackling fuel poverty, the new energy and climate secretary, Ed Davey, must make it a personal priority to strengthen this weak and underfunded programme so it delivers a good deal for households. The fact that a six-month shutdown of the Sizewell nuclear reactor was partly to blame for the recorded rise in emissions is yet another reason for the government to ditch its belief that nuclear can deliver the secure, reliable and low-carbon energy we need for the future. This week, the Bank of England is expected to announce a new batch of quantitative easing to the tune of £50bn or more. A new report from the Green New Deal Group and Southampton University economics professor Richard Werner, who coined the term quantitative easing, is calling for such cash to be injected into green investment to support badly needed renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Rather than handing the money over to the banks, who then sit on it, green QE would put money into the wider economy creating thousands of new jobs, improving energy security and tackling climate change at the same time.
Guardian 8th Feb 2012 more >>
