The fact that the alleged nuclear revival has evaporated into the ether is being trumpeted as breaking news. But there was never a nuclear revival — only “plans” and “aspirations” built on quicksand. The collapse of the South Carolina nuclear new build project at V.C. Summer had been seen coming since it’s first glimmer on paper — by groups such as Southern Alliance For Clean Energy, relegated, as are many of us, to anti-nuclear Cassandras. The same reactor design — the untested AP 1000 — is planned for a site next to the Sellafield reprocessing facility in the UK. But with the implosion of Toshiba under the weight of the Westinghouse financial collapse, that project is under serious threat. The site is owned and operated by the rashly named consortium, NuGen. But as the sign at the site indicates, there is nothing happening there right now as NuGen partners scamper for the exits and the South Koreans — who have forsaken nuclear power at home — mull sticking it on others overseas. If the South Koreans switch out the AP 1000 for their own reactor design at the Moorside NuGen site, it will become very old Gen indeed, with likely many more years of delay. By that time, nuclear energy will have become 100% redundant, as renewables, combined with energy efficiency, will have completely taken over. As Martin Forwood of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment commented in a recent press release: “The latest news of the plug being pulled on the half-built AP1000 reactors in the US and the fall from grace on the Tokyo Stock Exchange of NuGen’s sole investor Toshiba will further add to the increasing uncertainties swirling around in the Moorside mists”.
Beyond Nuclear 10th Aug 2017 read more »
The Japanese consortium behind the UK’s largest planned new nuclear project has unveiled an annual loss of almost $9bn (£6.9bn), underlining the stark risks of the Government’s high-cost nuclear ambitions. Toshiba has delayed publishing its full-year results while teams of auditors pore over the financial damage wrought by the collapse of its US-based nuclear developer Westinghouse, before finally revealing the $8.8bn (£6.7bn) loss for 2016 three months later than planned. The electronics giant has avoided crashing out of the Tokyo stock exchange for filing its accounts late, but its commitment to building the Moorside power plant in Cumbria remains in doubt. Toshiba is now the only investor propping up the Nugeneration consortium that plans to build the 3.8GW Moorside project, and the approved reactor design is Westinghouse-made. The GMB union said the “fiasco” over Toshiba’s financial state “highlights the folly of allowing foreign companies to be in control of the UK’s critical future energy needs”. Justin Bowden, GMB’s national secretary, said Government action was “long overdue”. “The chaos at Toshiba must shake the Government out of its stupor of inertia and produce action to ensure the zero carbon electricity we vitally need is produced at Moorside.
Telegraph 10th Aug 2017 read more »
The Whitehaven News reports today on the worst kept secret that Toshiba is financially torpedoing. Still not to worry eh, there are still slush funds aplenty to greenwash the increasingly despised Moorside plan. Apart from NuGen (100% Toshiba) the other two sponsors are the Copeland Community Fund ( this fund doles out the £millions Cumbria is bribed with to continue to accept nuclear wastes) and United Utilities (in cahoots with the nuclear industryand currently under fire for polluting West Cumbria’s water supply). The nuclear fanatics are calling for the government to “step in” and “save Moorside”- are they joking? Successive governments have never stepped away from throwing public money at the expanding nuclear nightmare.
Radiation Free Lakeland 10th Aug 2017 read more »
Toshiba Corp, which reported its long-awaited earnings results today, says it has “dedicated itself” to eliminating risk related to the overseas nuclear power business, swiftly recovering and strengthening its financial base and strengthening its organisational management. The industrial and electronics conglomerate posted a net loss of ¥965.7 billion ($8.8 billion) for the financial year ended 31 March, an improvement of ¥30 billion from a revised outlook provided in June, but still more than double the loss of the previous year.
World Nuclear News 10th Aug 2017 read more »
The Government needs to “get serious” and step in to make sure Cumbria’s proposed £10bn nuclear new build goes ahead. This call has come from both Labour and Conservative politicians and a leading trade union after Toshiba – which owns NuGen, the company behind plans for a power plant in Moorside, near Sellafield – had made major losses. The news came as the Japanese giant its much-delayed accounts for the 2016 financial year, which show in this period it made a loss of 965.7bn yen (£6.8bn). These results were due to be published in February but this has been repeatedly delayed and Toshiba has now published them in a bid to avoid being de-listed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata signed off the results but have also criticised the company’s governance.
In Cumbria 11th Aug 2017 read more »
