New nukes
More than 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster, the question of whether to allow the construction of nuclear reactors remains one of the most controversial in the global energy industry. A growing desire to tackle the twin problems of climate change and energy security, however, means that the prospect of new nuclear power plants is much more acceptable to the public than it has been for some time.
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Although there is a shortage of engineers and other skilled staff throughout the energy industry, nowhere is it more acute than in nuclear power. Especially in countries such as the US and the UK, where no reactors have been built for several decades, much of the nuclear workforce has retired or moved into other industries and there has not been enough activity to attract new talent. As the US embarks on an ambitious programme of reactor building and the UK government weighs up whether to revive the country’s nuclear sector, there is a growing recognition that the lack of skills is a serious problem.
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
When Gwyneth Cravens set out to write about nuclear energy, it was going to be an article, not a book. She was against nuclear, first of all, and did not think anyone would want to read a full book about the energy source. That was 1999. This year, she published Power To Save The World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy. In the intervening eight years, not only had Ms Cravens changed her mind about nuclear, but the US had too. “It has been amazing how quick the turnaround has been.”
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Nuclear Waste
There is clear evidence that there are no suitable rocks for a nuclear waste repository in Cumbria according to Prof David Smythe,
Whitehaven News 8th Nov 2007 more >>
NDA
The NDA’s budget will be £8.5bn for the next three years, an increase of £671m over the previous three years.
Whitehaven News 8th Nov 2007 more >>
British Energy
BRITISH Energy yesterday said it could not yet provide a date for the return to service of its nuclear site on Teesside which closed two weeks ago. The site, in Hartlepool, has been out of action since the discovery of wire corrosion in a boiler closure unit during an inspection. Tests have shown a similar problem at one of the two reactors at Heysham, in Lancashire.
Northern Echo 8th Nov 2007 more >>
Pakistan
Pentagon officials say Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure in military hands, but some U.S. lawmakers and experts warn that nuclear material and designs could leak out if political instability persists.
Reuters 8th Nov 2007 more >>
Pakistani intelligence officials on Thursday dismissed suggestions that the country’s nuclear arsenal could be at risk of falling into terrorist hands in the volatile political climate created by General Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of a state of emergency and brushed aside concerns expressed by a senior US general and Nicolas Sarkozy, French president .
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Independent 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Iran
U.S. defense officials have signaled that up-to-date attack plans are available if needed in the escalating crisis over Iran’s nuclear aims, although no strike appears imminent.
AP 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz called for Mohamed ElBaradei to be removed as head of the UN nuclear watchdog, saying he had turned a blind eye to archfoe Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The call for ElBaradei’s dismissal comes just days before the International Atomic Energy Agency is due to publish a new report on Iran’s nuclear programme, to serve as a key part of further discussions at the UN on whether to impose a third set of sanctions on Tehran.
Interactive Investor 8th Nov 2007 more >>
Middle East Online 8th Nov 2007 more >>
Lithuania
Lithuania’s Soviet-built nuclear power station was shut down on Thursday due to an electrical malfunction but there was no danger of any radiation. The Ignalina nuclear plant has the same type of reactors as those which caused the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, though Lithuania says its plant was made safer. It shut one reactor after joining the European Union and the other is due to be closed in 2009.
Reuters 8th Nov 2007 more >>
Gulf States
The six pro-Western Gulf states have completed a feasibility study on a proposed civil nuclear programme, the bloc’s secretary general said on Wednesday at a meeting of Gulf defence ministers.
Middle East Online 8th Nov 2007 more >>
Korea
AFTER 15 years of trying, the effort to prise North Korea out of the bomb-making business has just got encouragingly technical. A team of experts, led by America, started work on November 5th to disable three of North Korea’s nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.
Economist 8th Nov 2007 more >>
Test Veterans
A Norfolk MP last night called for Britain’s nuclear test veterans to be given £4,000 each from the government in goodwill interim payments. Ian Gibson, MP for Norwich North, said a new streamlined tribunal system was needed to recognise a possible link between service exposure to radiation during Britain’s nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and subsequent ill health among veterans and their families.
East Anglian Daily Press 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Thousands of ex-servicemen struck down by illness since witnessing British nuclear bombing testing in the 1950s are in line for compensation. Ex-servicemen, and their offspring who suffered a catalogue of genetic disorders, are set to benefit from the £4,000 compensation payouts.
Daily Mail 8th Nov 2007 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Letter: The International Court of Justice made clear that systems such as Trident, indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction, are illegal.
Herald 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Energy Demand
China is set to overtake the US as the world’s largest energy user soon after 2010, according to the Interna-t-ional Energy Agency, whose report this week concentrated on problems resulting from an expected doubling of energy demand in China and India by 2030. The IEA called for greater investment in renewables and nuclear power to ease press-ure on scarce and ever more expensive commodities.
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
The International Energy Agency, the rich countries’ watchdog, estimates the world will need $22,000bn to be invested in energy infrastructure by 2030, to replace capacity that is going out of service and meet growing demand. That works out at about $130 a year for every man, woman and child on the planet, or getting on for 2 per cent of global gross domestic product.
FT 9th N0v 2007 more >>
The need for investment into the world’s energy infrastructure is a challenge on the scale of the Apollo space programme or the electrification of the US, according to John Krenickie, the chief executive of General Electric’s energy business. “I don’t think that anyone was asking ‘what was the internal rate of return on that in four years’ time?'” he says. “And that is what is on the table here.”
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
China
If Chinese domestic investor sentiment is anything to go by, the local energy sector is in for boom times. In October, a unit of the Shenhua Group, China’s largest coal company, raised $8.9bn (RMB66.2bn) in an initial public offering in Shanghai. Until this week, it was the largest IPO in the world this year, but it was 30 times oversubscribed, locking up about $350bn in funds during the lottery for shares, and then jumped an astounding 87 per cent on the first day of trading.
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
India
To sustain blistering annual growth of more than 9 per cent, India is urgently seeking more sources of energy. The country has 132,000MW of energy capacity for its population of 1.1bn, compared with installed capacity in the US of 850,000MW for a population of 300m. Nuclear energy accounts for less than 3 per cent of the country’s power generation but has been in the spotlight because of a landmark deal with the US that, if finalised, would allow India to significantly ramp up its nuclear energy programme. The US has prohibited civil nuclear co-operation with India for 30 years because the country developed nuclear weapons and has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Hydrogen
Jeremy Rifkin has joined the battle over the future of energy, championing the causes of small-scale electricity generation and hydrogen fuel cells. He remains a controversial figure, described dismissively as a “futurologist” by some and a “Luddite” by others. But his vision of a “third industrial revolution” in energy use has brought his ideas to the heart of power in the European Union. Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission’s president, used the phrase in a speech in Madrid last month.
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Fusion
The world gained a new international organisation last month. Iter – which stands for International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor and also means “the way” in Latin – was formally established on October 24, with a mission that could hardly be more long-range or more ambitious. Iter aims to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a clean and affordable energy source for the late 21st century.
FT 9th Nov 2007 more >>
Lovins
Nuclear power is unnecessary and uneconomic, so we needn’t debate its safety. As retirements of aging plants overwhelm construction, global capacity and output will decline (as they did slightly in 2006). Most independent analysts doubt the private capital market will finance any new nuclear plants. Even in the United States, where new subsidies would roughly repay the next six units’ entire capital cost, Standard & Poor’s said this wouldn’t materially improve the builders’ credit ratings. I expect this experiment will be like defibrillating a corpse: It’ll jump, but it won’t revive.
Mother Earth April 2007 more >>
