Middle East joins the throng marketing nuclear reactors to Britain
Wylfa: Chinese, US and Mid East investors ‘may bid for Horizon Nuclear Power’ BBC News North West Wales, 6 May 12 Investors from Chinese, America and Middle East are the latest said to be interested in a bid to build a new nuclear reactor on Anglesey.
Last month Russian state-owned Rosatom was reported to be interested in buying Horizon Nuclear Power to build a replacement for ageing Wylfa reactors.
German owners E.ON and RWE npower have shelved the £8bn plan.
News agency Reuters has quoted industry sources saying the other investors are also interested in Horizon… ”There are five groups interested overall,” said the source , who Reuters said had direct knowledge of the deals but who asked not to be identified…. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-17977739
UK government’s unsustainable push for nuclear power

The eye-watering expense of nuclear power, Guardian UK, by Jonathon Porritt, 4 May 12 The coalition wants us to depend more and more on nuclear power, but quite simply, it is too expensive to be able to deliver “….. It doesn’t really matter what you think: it cannot possibly deliver – primarily for economic reasons.
Nuclear reactors are massively expensive. They take a long time to build. And even when they’re up and running, they’re nothing like as reliable as the industry would have us believe. Read more »
South African govt’s aim for nuclear power is looking unconvincing
The government’s pretence that there is a bidding war between nuclear power providers is also unconvincing. Companies from the US, South Korea and Russia have given up and a joint French-Chinese bid is the only game in town.
Nuclear drive more about foreign policy than energy, ANTHONY BUTLER: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=171008 State’s campaign to win public support for proposed nuclear power programme hampered by logic and chronology 2012/05/04 THE government’s belated campaign to win public support for its proposed nuclear power programme has been hampered by logic and chronology. Read more »
South Korea’s push to export nuclear technology hampered by corruption scandal

Lee’s nuclear push meets obstacle Korea Times, 4 may 12, By Kang Hyun-kyung President Lee Myung-bak’s drive to win nuclear deals abroad has met an unexpected, formidable challenge from within as a state-run nuclear operator has been embroiled in malfunctions and corruption cases. Read more »
$65 for repair to San Onofre nuclear plant
Repair bill for San Onofre nuclear plant could hit $65 million LA Times, May 2, 2012 | Edison International officials estimate that the company’s cost for inspections and repairs at the closed San Onofre nuclear plant will be between $55 million and $65 million, but said that the costs may be recovered under a manufacturer’s warranty. Read more »
USA’s consumer trap of paying in advance for nuclear reactors
![]()
Progress Energy files for more recovery charges after nuclear project estimate soars and is further delayed http://enformable.com/2012/05/progress-energy-files-for-more-recovery-charges-after-nuclear-project-estimate-soars-and-is-further-delayed/
Progress Energy, the electric utility in Pinellas County and much of North and Central Florida, has filed its nuclear cost recovery charges with the state Public Service Commission to assist in continuing work on nuclear reactors which may never be built, or ever return to
service at the Levy and Crystal River sites….
Progress Energy’s charge if granted in full will have a tremendous impact on residential
homeowners, who would be expected to pay an extra fee of $5.09 on a 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential bill beginning next year, compared to the extra $2.86 in 2012. Read more »
Inadequate insurance for Koodankulam nuclear power plant
Koodankulam N-plant insured for Rs 8,000 cr
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/insurance/koodankulam-n-plant-insured-rs-8000-cr-846 By R Srividhya May 02 2012 , Chennai, The controversial Koodankulam Nuclear Plant in Tamil Nadu has been insured by United India Insurance for a sum of Rs 8,000 crore carrying a premium of Rs 35 crore. However, the insurance covers only the equipment and infrastructure and does not include the nuclear reactor and possible human losses arising out of a possible reactor failure.
The installation and erection process of the plant has been insured with the company for the past seven years, company officials said and would continue till the commissioning of the plant.
“After the commissioning of the plant, which is expected to happen in a few months, the coverage would only be for the cold zone, outside the reactor area and would not include the reactor region, known as the hot zone,” said PK Mahapatra, deputy general manager, United India Insurance. About 60 per cent of the risk has been reinsured with Swiss
Re.
The confused issue of the ever-growing costs of nuclear power
Does nuclear power have a negative learning curve? Think Progress By Joe Romm on Apr 6, 2011 ‘Forgetting by doing’? Real escalation in reactor investment costs Drawing on largely unknown public records, the paper reveals for the first time both absolute as well as yearly and specific reactor costs and their evolution over time. Its most significant finding is that even this most successful nuclear scale-up was characterized by a substantial escalation of real-term construction costs. Read more »
Losses and falling demand for uranium – AREVA to sell off nuclear radiation measurement unit
Areva Said to Commence Sale of Nuclear Unit Canberra , Bloomberg, By Anne-Sylvaine Chassany and Francois de Beaupuy – May 2, Areva , the largest nuclear reactor maker, has started a process to sell its nuclear radiation measurement unit Canberra, three people with knowledge of the plans said.
The state-controlled company based in Paris sent financial information to potential bidders for the asset, which may fetch as much as 400 million euros ($526 million), said the people, who declined to be identified as the talks are private. Canberra posted earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about 30 million euros, they said.
Areva Chief Executive Officer Luc Oursel, who took over from Anne Lauvergeon in June, plans to sell at least 1.2 billion euros of non-strategic assets by the end of 2013 to shore up a balance sheet that’s been impaired by the acquisition of uranium mines in Africa, losses at a nuclear reactor under construction in Finland and falling demand for nuclear fuel following last year’s accident at an atomic plant in Japan…. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-02/areva-said-to-commence-sale-of-nuclear-unit-canberra.html
Report on financial problems in investing in new nuclear power
There is increasing recognition in the business world that investing in new nuclear power stations is commercially risky.
This report describes five major types of risk for any investor considering putting money into new nuclear plants, with particular emphasis on the situation in the UK: Read more »
China joins the frenzy to sell nuclear reactors to Britain
CHINA POWERS UP £6BN NUCLEAR BID , Express UK, April 29,2012 By Tracey Boles ONE of China’s state-backed nuclear companies is in talks to invest more than $10 billion (£6 billion) in Britain’s new nuclear reactors.
According to Whitehall sources, the State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation is considering funding a bid for Horizon, the nuclear venture put up for sale by German utilities RWE and Eon. It is in talks about joining forces with Japan’s Toshiba which owns
Westinghouse, the reactor designer formerly owned by the UK government. Over time, the tie-up could be worth $60 billion (£37 billion), sources said. Read more »
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMR’s) – last forlorn hope of the nuclear industry
There just isn’t any proof that small reactors are going to be any more economic than larger ones…. it’s all about hype and hope
Small nuclear reactors generate hype, questions about cost STL Today 29 April 12, “…..Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse Electric Co. announced plans to pursue a $452 million federal subsidy to advance development of small modular reactors that could be built alongside the utility’s much larger Callaway nuclear plant near Fulton, Mo.
While some utilities are still pursuing full-scale plants, there is a parallel push for smaller reactors that could be easier for utilities to finance and minimize sticker shock for regulators and consumers.
But despite a lower total cost, there’s no evidence yet that tiny fission factories would be able to produce electricity at a competitive cost in an era of abundant, cheap natural gas. Read more »
Excessive radiation levels received, but 16 Fukushima workers have to stay on
How’s this for injustice to workers? An illustration of three things: the heroism of Japan’s Fukushima “liquidators”, the nuclear industry’s ruthless lack of concern for its workers, and the desperate situation of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Workers with high radiation levels to stay at N-plant http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120427006236.htm Jiji Press 28 April 12, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday that a total of 16 employees whose cumulative radiation doses have exceeded 100 millisieverts, a government-set limit, will continue to work at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. According to TEPCO, the 16 are engaged in equipment operation and radiation control and have advanced expertise and extensive experience at the nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami last year.
Following the accident at the plant, the health ministry raised the cumulative dose limit to 250 millisieverts for workers there. But this measure will expire at the end of April. The cumulative limits revert back to 50 millisieverts per year and 100 millisieverts over a five-year period.
As the 16 people are vital for containing the plant’s nuclear crisis, the company will keep them at work and take steps to reduce radiation levels at the quake-proof building used for its disaster response team, it said. With TEPCO taking such measures as covering some ceilings and floors with lead in the quake-resistant building, radiation levels there have fallen to 0.7 microsievert per hour from 1.6 microsieverts, according to the utility.
Squabble in UK over who gets the lucrative nuclear decommissioning job
Union fury as US firms eye nuclear work The Independent MARK LEFTLY 23 APRIL 2012 A swath of US firms are preparing to bid to oversee the multibillion-pound decommissioning of 10 obsolete Magnox reactor-powered nuclear stations, angering unionsthat want the work to go to British outfits. Read more »
Financial folly – pipe-dream of Small Modular Reactors for Missouri
“what already is clear.. is that Ameren and Missouri are embarking on financial folly.”
“other electric utilities are using cheaper natural gas, which has made nuclear energy especially uneconomical. In addition, renewable energy and energy efficiency would be more inexpensive alternatives.”
Federal aid sought to build nuclear reactors in Missouri Reactors would be built in Missouri for Callaway plant and for export throughout the world. Kansas City Star, BY JASON HANCOCK AND STEVE EVERLY, 19 April 12, JEFFERSON CITY -- Westinghouse Electric Co. and Ameren Missouri announced Thursday they would seek federal funds to help build a new generation of smaller and safer nuclear reactors.
If Westinghouse wins some of up to $452 million in investment funds from the U.S. Energy Department, then St. Louis-based Ameren would apply for licenses to allow up to five 225-megawatt reactors to be built at the company’s nuclear power plant in Callaway County……
Missouri also could turn into a hub for manufacturing the new reactors — known as Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, or SMRs — to be exported around the world, Gov. Jay Nixon said…… Read more »
-
Archives
- May 2012 (262)
- April 2012 (259)
- March 2012 (342)
- February 2012 (304)
- January 2012 (259)
- December 2011 (274)
- November 2011 (331)
- October 2011 (247)
- September 2011 (272)
- August 2011 (249)
- July 2011 (227)
- June 2011 (195)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- people
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety and incidents
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina background info
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- general
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS













