Hinkley
The price that the Government will have to pay EDF for generating energy from Hinkley Point has more than doubled to £37billion, it estimates. As part of a sweetener to persuade EDF to build the nuclear power plant in Somerset, the Government promised to pay £92.50 for each megawatt hour of energy it generates –Wholesale prices have fallen since that deal – known as a contract for difference – was made, meaning it is now worse value for the Government, and for taxpayers. The Department for Energy and Climate Change yesterday estimated that based on the prices of energy in September 2015 the cost of keeping its promise to EDF would be £37billion over the life of the project.
Daily Mail 8th July 2016 read more »
Business Green 8th July 2016 read more »
City AM 8th July 2016 read more »
Moorside
There are a limited number of days until the Nugen Consultation closes on 30th July, 2016. Have you had your say?
Read All About It 9th July 2016 read more »
Wylfa
Horizon Nuclear Power, a unit of Hitachi, has signed an agreement with Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) to provide technical support services to advance the construction of the proposed Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station in North Wales, UK.
Energy Business Review 8th July 2016 read more »
Terror
TO SEE a nuclear horror story unfold, look no further than YouTube. In “My Nuclear Nightmare”, a five-minute graphic film, Bill Perry, a former American defence secretary, describes how a breakaway faction of a rogue state’s security forces enriches 40 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium in a secret facility and then constructs what appears to be a crude bomb, similar in design and yield to the kind that obliterated Hiroshima. It then transports the bomb in a box labelled “agricultural equipment” by civilian cargo aircraft to Dubai and on to Washington, DC. It is soon loaded onto a delivery truck and driven to Pennsylvania Avenue, where it is detonated at the halfway point between the White House and the Capitol building.What follows is excruciating. More than 80,000 people are instantly killed, including the president, the vice-president and every member of Congress present. Another 100,000 are severely injured. Phones are down. A little later, it gets even worse: TV news stations have received a message that there are five more such bombs hidden in five more American cities. One bomb will be triggered each week unless all American troops serving abroad are immediately sent home. Panic ensues as people stream out of cities, and with the administration wiped out by the blast there is a constitutional crisis. Martial law is declared as looting and rioting spread; military detention centres spring up across the country.
Economist 4th July 2016 read more »
Energy Markets
The GB energy system is designed to meet the energy demand of consumers, whether they are domestic, commercial or industrial users. Regardless of the level or timing of demand, the system is designed to ensure there is always sufficient supply available to meet it. This practice dates back to the post war years when the desire was to maximise energy output to keep pace with growing demand, to support economic growth. This supply-oriented focus has changed little since then, despite the then monopoly state owned system being privatised and liberalised. It has led to a GB energy system that is highly centralised (but siloed) across electricity, heat and transport. Energy moves in one direction from production through to consumption and policy and wider governance has become dominated by supply side thinking. It has also led to consumers that are for the most part, especially for smaller energy users, passive and disengaged from energy. The energy system is now undergoing rapid and profound change, due to a range of different drivers from technology and ICT developments through to new business models and social practices. The latest Energy & Climate Change Committee report on low carbon infrastructure highlighted how significant quantities of generation, such as small-scale solar and wind, are connecting to the distribution networks. These forms of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) are part of wider range of options that include demand reduction, demand side resources, and storage, many on the customer side of the meter. Despite all sorts of barriers to development, there are also new entrants in the market, including local authorities and companies offering a range of services, including aggregation, virtual power plants/markets, etc, and there has been a growth in community energy schemes and investment in in small and large renewable energy schemes by individuals. Our governance approach in GB still seems to view consumers as passive takers of energy. It is time that was rethought so that both GB and (all) customers can capture the benefits or system change and avoid unnecessary disruption.
IGov 8th July 2016 read more »
Molten Salt Reactors
Transatomic Power Corporation has released technical information on the design of its molten salt reactor (MSR), which it says offers multiple advantages over existing generation technologies. The technical white paper issued by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company outlines how its 1250 MWth reactor design – the TAP MSR – uses the properties of its liquid fuel to increase fuel utilization while decreasing the overall amount of waste produced. Transatomic published the white paper after the US Department of Energy awarded it a $200,000 grant under its Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) Nuclear Energy Voucher pilot program. The funding will enable the company to perform high-fidelity modelling of the design in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The reactor technology on which the TAP MSR is based was first demonstrated at ORNL in the 1960s.
World Nuclear News 8th July 2016 read more »
SMRs
Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd (SFIL) and NuScale have announced they will work together to develop the manufacturing techniques required for the future deployment of small modular reactors in the UK. SFIL will forge a large civil nuclear reactor vessel head by the end of 2017, as part of a program supported by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to develop and validate innovative forging and fabrication solutions for the nuclear industry. NuScale Power said it is providing funding to support the use of the geometries required by its innovative SMR design.
World Nuclear News 8th July 2016 read more »
City AM 8th July 2016 read more »
The Engineer 8th July 2016 read more »
Submarines
A Wirral site has been selected to store nuclear waste from decommissioned submarines. After being shortlisted the Ministry of Defence says now Capenhurst Nuclear Services (CNS) will be used for the storage project. It will hold steel Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPVs) from 27 defuelled nuclear submarines after they have left the Royal Navy’s service. The announcement was made in a written ministerial statement to Parliament by Minister of State for Defence Procurement Philip Dunne MP. The decision follows a site selection process conducted by the MOD over the past two years including a formal 12-week consultation with the community around Capenhurst between November 2014 and February 2015.
Liverpool Echo 9th July 2016 read more »
BBC 8th July 2016 read more »
Radioactive fuel cells on a dozen disused nuclear submarines languishing in Plymouth are to be removed and taken to a site in the North of England for storage and eventual disposal. The Ministry of Defence yesterday revealed the fate of the boats which are currently stationed at Devonport but said no date has yet been fixed for the process to begin Defence Minister Philip Dunne said the highly toxic part of the decommissioned submarines would be removed at a date to be set.
Plymouth Herald 8th July 2016 read more »
The Ministry of Defence has ruled out a Scottish site as a possible location to store waste from nuclear submarines. Chapelcross near Annan was on a shortlist of five potential locations. Capenhurst in Cheshire has been selected to store the nuclear components, with Aldermaston in Berkshire as a “fall back” option. The Scottish site was ruled out along with Sellafield in West Cumbria and Burghfield in Berkshire following public consultation. Chapelcross was home to Scotland’s first commercial nuclear station, which was built on old airfield in Dumfriesshire. The site ceased generation in 2004. The nuclear components are from 18 redundant submarines and nine still in service. The redundant Royal Navy submarines are currently stored afloat at Devonport in Plymouth and Rosyth in Fife, but cannot be dismantled until the reactor components have been removed.
BBC 8th July 2016 read more »
ITV 8th July 2016 read more »
Energy Supplies
Power supplies will be sufficient to keep the lights on this winter, the operator of Britain’s electricity transmission system has forecast, but only because of emergency measures introduced to avoid blackouts. National Grid predicted the buffer between supply and demand during the winter months was likely to average 5.5 per cent — similar to last year’s margin — and said this was “manageable”. However, the margin would have been just 0.1 per cent without spare capacity that power generators are paid to keep on standby, as well as a scheme to pay industrial users to reduce demand at peak times. National Grid has handed lucrative contracts to several energy companies to keep mothballed coal-fired power stations available for use at short notice as Britain’s creaking electricity network has come under increasing strain.Until new nuclear arrives, the UK will become more dependent on inherently unreliable wind power as well as electricity imported from continental Europe by interconnectors. National Grid said demand management had an increasingly important role to play, with growing numbers of industrial users signing up to its scheme to incentivise lower power consumption at times of high demand.
FT 8th July 2016 read more »
Joan MacNaughton, executive chairwoman of the World Energy Council’s World Energy Trilemma, said: “The UK, like almost every other major economy, is on a journey from an old-fashioned, baseload-heavy system to a more flexible, cleaner future. But the UK lacks a clear plan and stability and clarity are paramount right now. The capacity market is a short-term fix.”
Times 9th July 2016 read more »
Chernobyl
A group of youngsters from the Eastern European country of Belarus have arrived in Swansea for a holiday designed to bring some respite from the aftermath of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
South Wales Evening Post 8th July 2016 read more »
Bulgaria
Bulgaria has signed a €72 million ($80 million) agreement with a consortium to build a radioactive waste repository for its Kozloduy nuclear power plant that is expected start operations in 2021, the country’s energy ministry said yesterday. The consortium consists of German Nukem Technologies, which is owned by Russia’s AtomStroyExport, and four Bulgarian companies.
World Nuclear News 8th July 2016 read more »
Renewables – wind
A deal that will pave the way for major expansion at a Kintyre manufacturer of towers for wind turbines has been agreed. The £27m investment in the Campbeltown factory is expected to boost jobs at the plant and treble its capacity. The investment from Siemens comes five years after the site was saved from closure through a takeover by SSE and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The factory has recently been taken over by Korean firm CS Wind. The number of workers at the factory has recently risen from 135 to 170. That figure is expected to rise again to about 300 by the end of 2017.
BBC 8th July 2016 read more »
TWO wind farms, which will between them provide enough power for more than 60,000 homes, have been given the go-ahead by the Scottish Government.Economy Secretary Keith Brown granted permission for 18 turbines to go up in Cloich Forest, near Peebles, and also approved the 24 turbine Stranoch wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway. As well as providing enough electricity to power the equivalent of 26,968 homes, the Cloich Forest project, when completed, could generate community benefit funding of up to £6 million for the local area.
Scotsman 8th July 2016 read more »
Community Energy
M&S Energy Society has raised over £870,000 of the £1.23m required in just over two weeks, which is a fantastic response. Energy4All has worked with Marks & Spencer to design and deliver this project and is the manager of M&S Energy Society. Please support us to raise the final £360,000 needed and help us by spreading the message of this exciting project to others who you think may be interested
Energy4All 8th July 2016 read more »
Deadlines are looming on opportunities to invest in Bath & West Community Energy and Bristol Energy Cooperative projects. So head over to our open offers page now if you are thinking about making an ethical investment.
Mongoose Energy 8th July 2016 read more »
Iran
Iran has attempted to acquire nuclear technology in Germany even after the atomic accord it reached with western powers in Vienna last July, according to the German domestic intelligence agency.
FT 7th July 2016 read more »
