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Wrap-up of nuclear news 2011

  • Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

    The year started with  a renewed push by the nuclear lobby, for a “nuclear renaissance”.  But already costs and safety problems were slowing this ambition. The “poster boys” for nuclear power Olkiluoto and Flamanville reactors became increasingly costly, and fraught with safety problems, and still not built.

  • No nuclear plants built in USA since the 1970s. Worldwide 16 new ones were under construction in 2010, but only 2 in 2011. Meanwhile 13 closed, and many of the existing 433 reactors are nearing their use-by date. Global nuclear energy generation fell in 2011, due to increasing costs, weaker electricity demand, and falling costs of gas.
  • In March the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe had a sudden impact on the nuclear industry.   As  a continuing human, environmental, and economic disaster, it continues to accelerate the decline of the nuclear industry.
  • USA, France, Russia, and South Korea continued a frantic competition to sell nuclear power to developing countries, seeing they meet strong opposition to selling them to their own people, (except for South Korea)
  • The worldwide nuclear waste problem escalates, yet even in desperate straights because of this, USA and others are happy to continue producing this toxic stuff !
  • Nuclear weapons problems continue, with a little progress towards nuclear disarmament. At the end of the year, the world is at  a nuclear standoff between the Western world and Iran.
  • The global nuclear lobby is resuming its push to market its product as clean, healthy, cheap etc. It continues to tout “new nuclear” – “Generation 4 reactors, and also Thorium reactors – desperate side issues to promote the industry even as it fails. Christina Macpherson, 3 Jan 2012

January 3, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Obama govt doing a balancing act with sanctions on Iran

Sanctions against Iran a balancing act for U.S. FINANCIAL POST, Reuters  Jan 2, 2012 By Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON – The United States has armed itself with some of the toughest sanctions yet targeting Iran but must carefully assess how to avoid catching energy-importing allies such as Japan, South Korea and India in the crossfire.

President Barack Obama signed the law on Saturday imposing sanctions on financial institutions that deal with Iran’s central bank, the main clearinghouse through which OPEC’s No. 2 oil exporter deals with clients around the world. Continue reading →

January 3, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

In UK’s slow economy, renewable energy is coming up trumps

Renewable energy boosts UK economy by £2.5bn Renewable Energy Focus, 02 January 2012 Figures from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show that companies have announced plans for almost £2.5 billion worth of renewable energy investment in the UK, with the potential to create almost 12,000 jobs, so far in the financial year 2011/12. By Kari Williamson

A separate report to the European Commission on renewable energy progress, shows that the UK:

Achieved a 27% increase in renewable energy consumption from 42.6 TWh in 2008 to 54 TWh in 2010 – representing 3.3% of total energy consumed;
Increased wind generation by 46% from 7 TWh in 2008 to 10.2 TWh in 2010, and in 2010 achieved 5 GW of offshore and onshore wind capacity; and
Saw a threefold increase in the use of biofuels in transport from 1% of total road transport fuel supply in 2007/8 to 3.33% in 2010……

Renewable energy saves £84 per person annually Continue reading →

January 3, 2012 Posted by | decentralised, UK | Leave a comment

Britain’s nuclear veterans continue their fight against Ministry of Defence, for compensation

Nuclear veterans hope for new year legal win By TERRY KELLY Shields Gazette 2 January 2012 NUCLEAR test veterans on South Tyneside could hear within weeks if they have won the latest round in their battle for compensation.

Men who claim they have suffered numerous medical problems as a result of being exposed to damaging radiation during allied atom bomb tests in the 1950s have spent years fighting for justice.

The result of the latest stage in their long legal fight is expected later this month. South Tyneside A-bomb test veterans John Taylor, Bede McGurk and Bob Redman are also involved in the legal wrangle.

A Supreme Court appeal hearing in London was adjourned in November, after judges had earlier found in favour of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which has rejected the veterans’ claims….. Mr Taylor and fellow veterans are angry that compensation has already been paid to other nuclear test veterans in Australia, Russia and the Isle Of Man. http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/nuclear_veterans_hope_for_new_year_legal_win_1_4105721

January 3, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Despite public opposition, Spain’s aging nuclear plant may stay open

Spain ageing nuclear plant may stay open: report,  By Martin Roberts; MADRID | Mon Jan 2,  (Reuters) – Spain’s incoming centre-right government may allow an ageing nuclear plant to stay open beyond a 2013 deadline for closing set by its Socialist predecessors, a newspaper report said on Monday.
Environmentalist groups have protested that Spain is out of step with countries like Germany, which closed seven older nuclear plants after Japan’s Fukushima disaster last year and plans to shut the rest within a decade.

In 2009, then-premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ordered the Garona plant to close in 2013, by which point it will have been in operation two years more than a benchmark 40-year lifespan…. Running nuclear plants is profitable, however, and in their unsuccessful election
campaign the Socialists proposed introducing a windfall tax on them.

Spanish voters are generally opposed to nuclear power – which provides about 21 percent of the country’s electricity – and no new plants are planned…….

January 3, 2012 Posted by | politics, Spain | Leave a comment