Russia cutting back on nuclear safety expenditure

now under threat as funds for nuclear safety co-operation have been omitted from expenditure earmarked for local regional purposes.

Cash Cut Threatens Finnish-Russian Radiation Safety Co-operation YLE Uutiset22 Nov 10, Co-operation on nuclear safety between Finland and Russia could grind to a halt due to a lack of cash. According to the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), major safety improvements have been made to nuclear power stations in the Kola Peninsula and Saint Petersburg regions.

According to Jukka Laaksonen, Director General of STUK, nuclear power plants in neighbouring areas no longer pose an environmental risk. Indeed, he adds, their standard is now internationally very high.

His comments, though, are at odds with those by the Bellona Foundation, an international environmental NGO based in Norway. Earlier this autumn, it demanded the closure of all nuclear power plants in the Kola region. This followed three safety incidents this year, the details of which remain sketchy.

Bellona admits nuclear safety has improved in Russia, but only with the help of Finnish co-operation. This is now under threat as funds for nuclear safety co-operation have been omitted from expenditure earmarked for local regional purposes.

Laaksonen says this could lead to an end to joint site inspections.

Cash Cut Threatens Finnish-Russian Radiation Safety Co-operation | News | YLE Uutiset | yle.fi

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Energy efficiency – theme for July 2019

Energy efficiency represents the single largest potential contributor to global emissions reduction, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA 2017). It should be a key part of the global energy strategy, for several reasons:

It could reduce global electric demand by more than 20 per cent, based on current rates in the U.S. power sector, while maintaining high levels of services such as heating and lighting.
It avoids the need for increased energy, capacity and grid services, making it the least expensive way to decarbonise at scale.
It can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by billions of tonnes.

A dramatic example of the power of energy efficiency is lighting. In 2017 the United States passed the milestone of 1 billion LED and CFL lights installed, avoiding 142 million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide emissions, at a cost of about $7 per ton of avoided carbon dioxide. In contrast, the cumulative installed capacity of rooftop solar reached 8,000 MW in 2017, saving 8 million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide, at a cost of $360 per ton. Lighting efficiency thus yielded almost 18 times the avoided carbon dioxide, at about 2 per cent the cost per ton of rooftop solar.

Google provides another example of the power of energy efficiency. Its data centers now use 50 per cent less energy than the average data center, according to the company. Google also developed an improved chip, the TPU, which performs 83 times better than standard CPUs. The new chip allowed Google to reduce power consumption at its data centers by a factor of 30—far exceeding the effect on Google’s carbon footprint of all of the company’s renewable energy purchases. ” – John Woolard, Eco Business, 10 June 2019

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