New Nukes
The U.K. should build more nuclear reactors than planned and slow down investment in offshore wind power to meet targets for carbon emissions and renewable power, the governments climate advisory panel said. Two more reactors than currently planned, totaling 3.2 gigawatts, will be needed by 2030, Committee on Climate Change said today in a report to the government. It noted the disaster at a Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant in Japan may delay nuclear developments in Britain and recommended delaying some offshore wind parks, saying current targets are aggressive.
Bloomberg 9th May 2011 more >>
Construction Enquirer 9th May 2011 more >>
Scotsman 9th May 2011 more >>
Two more nuclear reactors than envisaged initially might be needed within 20 years if carbon reduction targets are to be met in a cost-effective way, the governments climate change watchdog has found.Plans to dot offshore areas with thousands more wind turbines by the end of the next decade might have to be slowed because of the cost, according to a study of renewable energy by the Committee on Climate Change.
FT 9th May 2011 more >>
Ministers are backing the construction of too many expensive offshore wind farms too quickly, senior advisers on green policy warn today.In a report into the future of energy, the influential Committee on Climate Change calls on the Government to scale back plans to build thousands of turbines off the coast of Britain. Instead, the report calls for hundreds more wind turbines to be built onshore at a lower cost over the next eight years.
Daily Mail 9th May 2011 more >>
The Committee on Climate Change said nuclear would be the most costeffective way of providing lowcarbon electricity into the 2020s, and called for about 14 new plants by the end of the next decade. It would mean extending plans to build 12 reactors on seven sites by 2025. The committee also said the “very aggressive pace” of government plans to build offshore wind turbines over the next nine years should be “moderated” because of its expense.
Telegraph 9th May 2011 more >>
Nuclear power will remain the cheapest way for the UK to grow its low-carbon energy supply for at least a decade, according to government advisers. But renewables should provide 30-45% of the nation’s energy by 2030, says the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). Its new report suggests ministers may want to temper ambitions for offshore wind, which is still fairly expensive.
BBC 9th May 2011 more >>
Kennedy said he was confident that nuclear power could make up 40% of the UK’s future energy mix, despite the high-profile problems in Japan, where the Fukushima plant has been leaking radioactivity, and another is due to be closed. He said: “There is no obvious implication for the UK from Fukushima. Japan is more vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis, and the age of the reactor [Fukushima was built in the early 1970s] was a big factor.” Green groups rejected this analysis, however. Keith Allott, head of climate change at WWF, said: “Unfortunately, the government and the Committee on Climate Change are basing their assumptions on highly optimistic and theoretical nuclear cost estimates . Given the industry’s history of massive cost overruns now being repeated with new reactors in France and Finland the view that nuclear is more cost-effective than renewables is highly contentious. The recent disaster in Japan and associated safety reviews can only lead to a further hike in nuclear costs and greater public opposition to new reactors and the government needs to urgently switch its focus to the renewables solution.”
Guardian 9th May 2011 more >>
Manufacturers will today call on the Government to reconsider targets for the growth of renewable energy, following a new report that claims it may be too expensive. The EEF manufacturers’ organisation said warnings that renewable energy would remain more costly than the alternatives for many years to come should prompt ministers to consider other opportunities. Otherwise, the EEF added, energy users in Britain, including consumers, would be forced to pay higher bills than necessary, while businesses would be put at a competitive disadvantage to international rivals.
Independent 9th May 2011 more >>
Britain must build 14 new nuclear plants, setting aside fears over radiation leaks, because that is the cheapest way of meeting compulsory carbon reduction targets, according to the Governments climate change watchdog. The number of offshore wind turbines planned for 2020 should be cut by up to third, because they are too expensive. The Committee on Climate Change says heavy reliance on offshore wind could result in unacceptable increases in fuel bills. The committee today delivers recommendations on how to meet Britains EU obligation to increase the share of energy from renewable sources from 3 per cent to 15 per cent by 2020. It will also dismiss concerns over safety raised by the leaks from the tsunami-hit Fukushima reactors in Japan. The watchdogs intervention comes amid nuclear industry fears that Japans disaster could result in a delay in the approval of new reactors and an escalation in the cost of safety systems. Before the Fukushima disaster, the Government and nuclear industry had been planning to build 12 new reactors on seven sites by 2025. The committee recommends that all these reactors should be built without delay and that sites should be found for at least two more reactors by 2030. It says the extra reactors could either be built on the site of the existing Hartlepool nuclear power station or at one of the other seven sites approved by the Government for new nuclear plants.
Times 9th May 2011 more >>
Letter: By downplaying the effects of the Fukushima disaster Roy Hicks (letter, 29 April) ignores the fundamental difference between a nuclear disaster that could have been avoided and a natural disaster over which we have no control. We may need energy but we don’t need nuclear the risks are too extreme and long lasting. The natural disaster of the earthquake and tsunami may have caused more immediate loss of life on a massive scale but the nuclear lobby still wants us to ignore and forget the inconvenient truth about nuclear.
Independent 9th May 2011 more >>
Nuclear Subsidy
We wait with bated breath for Chris Huhne’s U-turn on nuclear power. You are a firm adherent to the letter of the Coalition Agreement, which says ‘no public subsidy’ for nukes. You inherited (from Ed Miliband !) a department that you now realise has been thoroughly suborned by nasty nuclear and which has, in a ‘ruthless and calculating’ way introduced all manner of devious subsidies in the plans they have drawn up for encouraging nukes, and which you nearly fell for.
Capitalist @ Work 8th May 2011 more >>
Opinion Polls
The partial meltdown at the Fukushima plant in Japan has left no dent in public support for nuclear power in Britain, a new poll has found.The Populus survey found more than eight in 10 people were either fully supportive of nuclear as the best way to tackle climate change or thought it might have a role to play in the UKs future energy mix. Only 16 per cent opposed it under any circumstances. These are about the same figures Populus has found every time it has asked the question since 2007.
FT 8th May 2011 more >>
Radhealth
A new report has concluded that the incidence of childhood leukaemia in the vicinity of nuclear power plants in Great Britain is extremely small, if not zero.
The Engineer 9th May 2011 more >>
Sellafield MoX Plant
The future of a nuclear fuel plant at Sellafield in Cumbria hangs in the balance after the Japanese Prime Minister called for the closure of a nuclear power station near Tokyo, which was to be the UK plant’s most important customer. The setback is the latest blow to Britain’s faltering strategy for dealing with its growing mountain of reprocessed nuclear waste, and further evidence of the extent to which the devastating Japanese earthquake of 11 March has changed the nuclear picture in particular the international trade in reprocessed nuclear fuel. If the power plant at Hamaoka, 200km from Tokyo, closes, shipments of nuclear fuel to Japan from the Sellafield Mox Plant would stop before they had even started. It is the latest in a long series of problems for the nuclear fuel plant at the Sellafield complex which had already cost taxpayers £1.34bn even before the impact of the earthquake and tsunami was felt.
Independent 9th May 2011 more >>
When the troubled Sellafield Mox Plant was built in the 1990s it had to wait several years before it was given an operating licence. The principal justification for awarding the licence in 2001 was the belief that it would supply hundreds of tonnes of mixed oxide (Mox) fuel to Japanese reactors and so provide a cash benefit for UK plc. We now know that only one Japanese company Chubu Electric Power, which operates the Hamaoka power plant has a definite contract with Sellafield, now run by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The other nine or so Japanese power companies are watching to see whether this order is fulfilled before they sign any contracts. It now appears that the Hamaoka complex may well have to shut down because of fears relating to the fact that it sits on two geological faults. If it does, then this would surely spell the end for the first and only Japanese contract for reprocessed nuclear fuel made at the Sellafield Mox Plant.
Independent 9th May 2011 more >>
Letter Tim Knowles: Steve Connor asks “How do we solve the plutonium conundrum?” (6 May 2011). In Cumbria we believe using the plutonium to generate electricity is the least costly option for the taxpayer and the right approach putting plutonium beyond weapons use. We have the skill base in Cumbria to do this. It will not be easy. We do have a huge problem to solve and it will have an impact on the public purse. If we were starting over again, and with the benefit of hindsight, we might have done things differently. But we have to deal with the world as it is. We need to start clearing the plutonium stockpile, not just wringing our hands and passing the problem to the next generation.
Independent 9th May 2011 more >>
Europe
In the wake of Fukushima, Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy, announced rigorous stress tests for all the nuclear power plants in the EU. But now, it turns out to be a fake. According to current drafts, these tests fall far short of rigorously assessing the safety of Europe’s nuclear reactors. Most scandalously the draft excludes the risk of airplane crashes, terrorist attacks and human failure. It is widely known that human failure and terrorist attacks are among the most immediate nuclear risks.
European Green 8th May 2011 more >>
Japan
Japan on Monday announced a tiny radiation leak at a nuclear reactor on its west coast, while another power company is expected to close a nuclear plant in central Japan due to its vulnerability to a major quake.
Reuters 9th May 2011 more >>
Chubu Electric Power Co. has scheduled a special meeting of its board today, during which the company will agree to suspend operations at the Hamaoka nuclear power station in Shizuoka Prefecture. Naoto Kan, the prime minister, said on Friday that all operations at the facility must be suspended due to fears – heightened by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that wrecked the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in northern Japan – about its safety.
Telegraph 9th May 2011 more >>
Atomic power will remain a major part of Japan’s energy policy despite the ongoing crisis at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima plant and the looming shutdown of another plant while its earthquake defences are improved.
Telegraph 8th May 2011 more >>
Independent 8th May 2011 more >>
The operator of Japan’s “most dangerous” nuclear plant is to decide whether to comply with a government request to temporarily close the facility and carry out work to improve its ability to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis. Chubu Electric is considering the request to close the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan, which is thought to be the country’s most vulnerable nuclear facility.
Guardian 9th May 2011 more >>
Chubu Electric Power Co shares tumbled as much as 14 percent on Monday after Japan’s prime minister called for a shutdown of its nuclear plant in central Japan due to worries a large earthquake could trigger another nuclear crisis.
IB Times 9th May 2011 more >>
Japanese officials said yesterday they were committed to nuclear power after the prime minister called for a plant to close, but that the target of obtaining half of Japans electricity from nuclear power by 2030 needed a rethink. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called for the closure of a nuclear plant in central Japan, citing the risk of another disastrous quake after the Fukushima Daiichi plant was destroyed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
City AM 9th May 2011 more >>
Switzerland
Operators of Swiss nuclear power plants will have to improve instrumentation as well as earthquake and flooding resistance after a safety review. The changes may be made during operation, said the safety authority, as there is no immediate danger.
Your Industry News 9th May 2011 more >>
Submarines
The Royal Navys latest £1.2 billion nuclear submarine, HMS Astute, has been towed back to base after a malfunction which could have killed the entire crew, the Sunday Herald can reveal. The hi-tech stealth vessel was taken to the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde late on Friday when it suffered a technical issue with hydraulics, according to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) source.
Sunday Herald 8th May 2011 more >>
Climate
An imminent decision by David Cameron on climate change will be “the key test” of the government’s green credentials, according to the UK’s chief climate adviser, although squabbles among ministers mean it is a test that is in danger of being failed. Within the next two weeks, the cabinet must decide whether to accept the recommendations of its climate advisers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. However, several government departments, including the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department of Transport, are understood to be against approving the plan, which was proposed by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the statutory body set up to advise the government on global warming policy. The recommendations of the committee were accepted in full by the previous government, but Whitehall insiders warned that the advice was now in danger of being ignored. Cameron may have to step in personally to defuse a row that is threatening to tarnish the government’s green credentials.
Guardian 9th May 2011 more >>
Renewables
Renewable energy could more than meet the expected growth in the world’s needs, with solar power holding out the greatest hope, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN-convened body, consisting of the world’s leading climate scientists. The report marks the first time the IPCC has examined low-carbon energy in depth.
Guardian 9th May 2011 more >>
