2013 December 16 « nuclear-news

Warning that UK’s Hinkley nuclear power will be unaffordable

Ineos boss says Hinkley nuclear power too expensive, BBC News 15 Dec 13, Power from the new Hinkley C nuclear generator will be too expensive, the boss of one of the UK’s biggest energy consumers has warned.

Jim Ratcliffe, whose company Ineos owns the Grangemouth plant in Scotland, told the BBC that UK manufacturers would find the price unaffordable.

The government has guaranteed a price of £92.50 per megawatt hour (Mwh). Mr Ratcliffe said Ineos recently agreed a deal for nuclear power in France at 45 euros (£37.94) Mwh.

The government has guaranteed that the new Hinkley station, being development by France’s EdF and backed by Chinese investors, can charge the £92.50 minimum price for 35 years.

“Forget it,” Mr Ratcliffe said in an interview with the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston.

The existing Hinkley station currently produces about 1% of the UK’s total energy, but this is expected to rise to 7% once expansion of the Somerset plant is complete in 2023.

Ministers and EdF were in talks for more than a year about the minimum price the company will be paid for electricity produced at the site, which the government estimates will cost £16bn to build.

In the end, the government guaranteed the group a price for electricity in 2023 at twice the current level of wholesale prices……..http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25390456

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

Controversial entombment of Illinois nuclear power plant

state regulators will not have authority to question how the dismantling is performed or EnergySolutions’ spending decisions.

A group of local citizens has filed suit over the financial handling of the project, claiming there are no safeguards to ensure that EnergySolutions isn’t wasting ratepayer money.

How Zion’s nuclear waste will be entombed on site http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1215-zion-fuel-20131215,0,7912496.story Third-party EnergySolutions to embark on unprecedented, yearlong process By Julie Wernau, Chicago Tribune reporter December 15, 2013

In January, EnergySolutions will begin the most crucial part of its 10-year dismantling of the shuttered Zion nuclear power plant: Safely removing its radioactive fuel rods.

The project is the largest in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry and the first in which a plant’s owner has turned over its license to a third party for the purpose of dismantling it. Utah-based EnergySolutions is staking its future on the project. How it handles the most expensive and risky phase of the project will be crucial to it winning other such work going forward.

The Zion plant, owned by Chicago-based Exelon Corp., the parent of Commonwealth Edison, generated electricity on the shores of Lake Michigan for close to a quarter of a century. By the time the project is complete, it will have taken nearly as long to destroy it. Continue reading →

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Japan joins the frenzy to sell uneconomic nuclear power to UK

Westinghouse to buy 50 per cent stake in NuGen By Guy Chazan, Jim Pickard and George Parker 15 Dec 2013, Westinghouse, the Japanese-owned engineering group, will announce within days that it is buying a big stake in one of the UK’s three nuclear-building consortiums .

Westinghouse, which is owned by Toshiba, is expected to announce it is acquiring a 50 per cent share in NuGen, which owns the right to build a nuclear plant near Sellafield in Cumbria…. Continue reading →

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, marketing, UK | Leave a comment

Iranians keen to continue nuclear talks, despite setback

Nuclear talks are “derailed,” not dead, Iranian official says Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview aired Sunday that negotiations over its nuclear program are not dead even though Iran is angry about a fresh round of sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department.by REBECCA KAPLAN FACE THE NATION December 15, 2013,

The Treasury Department announced last week that it would freeze assets and ban transactions for companies and individuals that attempt to evade U.S. sanctions and continue doing business that helps Iran’s nuclear industry. The move prompted Iranian negotiators to leave ongoing talks in Geneva Thursday evening, saying it was against the “spirit” of the deal reached last month to freeze Iran’s nuclear program for six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

“That was a very wrong move,” Zarif told CBS News’ Elizabeth Palmer in an interview from Tehran. He said he was “saddened” by the move but that he is committed to the short-term deal meant to allow for a longer, six-month period of negotiations.

“We are committed to the plan of action and the implementation of Geneva – but we believe it takes two to tango,” Zarif said. “The process has been derailed, the process has not died,” he added later. “We are trying to put it back and to correct the path, and continue the negotiations because I believe there is a lot at stake for everybody.”

Many U.S. lawmakers are still eager for a fresh round of sanctions against Iran, even if they were only made operative in six months if the attempt to reach a long-term nuclear deal fails…….www.cbsnews.com/news/nuclear-talks-are-derailed-not-dead-iranian-official-says/

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Japanese government panel urges “embracing of nuclear power”

Japan should embrace nuclear power, government panel says Asahi Shimbun, 14 Dec 13 Japan should embrace nuclear power as an “important and fundamental” energy source, a government panel said on Dec. 13, in advice that looks almost certain to be accepted, despite widespread anti-nuclear feeling after the Fukushima disaster. Continue reading →

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics | 1 Comment

Obama to triple USA govt’s renewable energy use

The US government is the single largest consumer of electricity in the country, occupying almost half a million buildings, operating 600,000 vehicles, and purchasing over half a trillion US dollars in goods and services each year.The US military has already launched a program to lift its usage of renewable energy to 25 per cent by 2025 as part of efforts to diminish the size of its carbon footprint.

Obama Commits to Tripling Renewable Energy Use http://sourceable.net/obama-commits-to-tripling-of-renewable-energy-use/ 15 Dec 13, President Barack Obama has issued a mandate for the tripling of renewable energy usage by the federal government by the end of the decade – Obama has issued an executive order, which is the unique prerogative of his office and can be used by presidents to bypass Congress, to mandate that the federal government nearly triple its usage of renewable sources of energy by the year 2020. –

If successfully implemented, Obama’s executive order will raise the usage of renewable energy by the US federal government, including the military, to around 20 per cent within the next six years, as compared to 7.5 per cent at present.

Obama believes the increased use of renewable energy is needed in order to “promote energy security, combat climate change, protect the interests of taxpayers and safeguard the health of our environment.” He hopes the government can assume a leading role in the United States for the adoption of clean, renewable energy. Continue reading →

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Shut down Lynas! Call from Malaysians after 3rd death at rare earths plant

Calls renew for Lynas shutdown after third death at plant Malaysian Insider, 14 Dec 13 Opponents of the Lynas Advance Materials Plant in Pahang have renewed calls for the closure of the controversial rare earth refinery following the death of an engineer who drowned in a pond at the facility yesterday. The Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) movement said the fatal accident, the third in two years at the plant near Kuantan, Pahang, should be viewed seriously, and warranted a full investigation.

“This is very serious. We are demanding the government shut down the Lynas Advance Materials Plant immediately and cease all activities in the plant until a full and comprehensive independent investigation is completed by the relevant authorities like the Department of Occupational Safety and Health to establish the nature and cause/s of the fatal accident,” its chairman Tan Bun Teet said today…….

The plant in Gebeng has been mired in controversy after residents claimed it emits the hazardous thorium compound that can cause cancer among humans. It is known that the processing of rare earth materials would produce a thorium by-product.

The Australian-owned plant’s ability to obtain a temporary licence, despite not revealing a waste disposal facility, has enraged activists who have opposed the company’s practices and the government for allowing such a plant within a 30km radius of 700,000 residents.

Groups have called for the government and Lynas shareholders to remove the company’s operations from Malaysia amid the company’s poor performance in the Australian bourse due to weakened rare earth prices.

SMSL said although previously some of the firm’s shareholders had wanted to conduct best practices in its operations abroad, it has been business as usual for Lynas.

However, yesterday’s death has given the group more cause to question the plant’s operational procedures and safety hazards……http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/calls-renew-for-lynas-shutdown-after-third-death-at-plant

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents, Malaysia, Uranium | Leave a comment

Canada joins the scramble to sell uneconomic nuclear power to India

India, Canada aim for closer ties , THE HINDU, SANDEEP DIKSHIT , 15 DEC 13 After 40 years, the countries are entering into partnership in civil nuclear energy

India and Canada are aiming for closer partnerships in civil nuclear energy and hydrocarbons with the dissipation of distrust that had kept them estranged for 40 years after India conducted a nuclear test in 1974……relationship would be supplemented by a “collaborative approach” in the civil nuclear sector, decks for which have been cleared with the signing of a civil nuclear accord and finalising of the administrative arrangements, High Commissioner for Canada to India Stewart Beck told The Hindu…….

“We are now putting in force a civil nuclear partnership. India has several reactors derived from Canadian technology but since then it has gone on its own path of development. We are now in a situation where the two can talk to each other. There is a huge need in India of Uranium which we can sell,” said Mr. Beck……http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-canada-aim-for-close-partnership-in-civil-nuclear-deal/article5462847.ece

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, India, marketing | Leave a comment

Indian families lose legal case over land taken for nuclear

HC rejects PIL for jobs for land losers in Nuclear plant TNN | Dec 15, 2013, AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court has turned down a PIL demanding jobs for families whose land had been taken over for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kakrapar in south Gujarat. The court rejected the PIL on the ground that the petition was filed 24 years after the project took off and nearly 40 years after the land was acquired.

Residents of Moticher and Unchamata villageshad filed the PIL and sought the high court’s direction to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to give jobs to members of the families whose land was acquired for the project in 1976. They cited a resolution passed in 1989 that the project-affected families will be benefited by granting members jobs in the plant. ………http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/HC-rejects-PIL-for-jobs-for-land-losers-in-Nuclear-plant/articleshow/27419606.cms

December 16, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, Legal | Leave a comment