Energy efficiency and renewables – faster, safer, than nuclear power, to move away from Russian fuel, and combat climate change.
A recent paper by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change says reducing
our oil and gas consumption could be an important tool to help Europe
through the medium-term challenge of moving away from Russian energy.
There is a need to address energy demand now, according to Prof Nick Eyre,
director of the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions at Oxford
University, both as a result of the Ukraine crisis and to tackle climate
change.
Reducing demand and decarbonising our energy systems is something
we should be doing anyway for climate reasons, said Eyre, in order to meet
our targets for net zero. “This energy security and price crisis is
another prompt to do this,” he said. “It will be expensive – but a
windfall tax on companies who, at best, have had a pretty dubious
relationship with Russia, would help pay for it.”
Eyre said collective
action was needed, driven by government, who should bring forward immediate
detailed policies on decarbonising domestic heating in the UK. Domestic
heating produces about 14% of UK emissions, and decarbonising the way homes
are heated – meaning more efficient homes and the electrification of most
heating systems – would cost an estimated £200bn over the next 30 years,
according to the Institute for Government. Between now and 2050, emissions
from residential buildings need to fall to zero at a rate of 3.4% a year
based on current emission levels, according to the Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Eyre believes any new energy supply policy
– expected to be announced by Boris Johnson in the coming days – will
make no sense if it does not include energy reduction measures and the
bringing forward of detailed plans to decarbonise our homes.
“If it’s
all about building nuclear power stations, this would take 10 years, so
it’s not a very sensible strategy,” said Eyre. “Energy efficiency and
renewable energy can provide what we need more quickly and less
dangerously.” Molly Scott Cato, former Green MEP and professor of
economics at the University of Roehampton, says the UK government should
launch a massive, nationwide, and publicly funded home insulation programme
backed up by information campaigns about how to use energy efficiently,
including reducing the thermostat settings on central heating systems and
introducing a 55mph speed limit on the national road network to cut energy
demand.
Guardian 23rd March 2022
Europeans stocking up on anti-radiation pills
People across Europe are stocking up on iodine tablets against the
backdrop of fears that the Russian invasion of Ukraine may “go
nuclear.” Following antagonistic comments from President Vladimir Putin,
people living in many former Eastern Bloc states, including Poland,
Bulgaria, and Czechia, have been flocking to pharmacists to stock their
cupboards with iodine tablets, Reuters reports. There have been similar
reports of iodine selling out in pharmacies in Finland, which shares a
border with Russia.
IFL Science 22nd March 2022
British public in the dark about what ”Modular” nuclear reactors really means (hint -they’re like Lego pieces)
What does “modular” mean here? I haven’t the faintest. Isn’t it to
do with university courses? I’ve been quizzing friends and so far only
two even took a stab: one thought it might mean being able to have them
together, or not, or something. The other thought it might mean
“portable”. My guess is that the British population shares my
ignorance, but thinks you don’t say “small reactors” without
inserting “modular”. Obviously, we’ll have to ramp these modularities
up. On multiple occasions. Onwards, then, to my next small, modular item.
Times 23rd March 2022
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/this-craze-for-modular-must-be-a-fission-thing-s35qx0ktq
Boris Johnson determined to show ‘leadership’ on nuclear power
Johnson announces aim for UK to get 25% of electricity from nuclear power. PM meets industry bosses to discuss new power stations, with several reactors slated for closure as energy demand rises, Guardian, Jasper Jolly and Rob Davies 22 Mar 22,
Boris Johnson has told nuclear industry bosses that the government wants the UK to get 25% of its electricity from nuclear power, in a move that would signal a significant shift in the country’s energy mix.
Johnson on Monday met executives from major nuclear utilities and technology companies including the UK’s Rolls-Royce, France’s EDF, and the US’s Westinghouse and Bechtel to discuss ways of helping to speed up the development of new nuclear power stations.
The UK generates about 16% of its power from nuclear power stations, but several reactors are slated for closure, while electricity demand is expected to rise steadily in the next decade. That would mean large investments in new power stations would be required just to keep the share of nuclear constant, let alone increase it to a record level of just over a quarter of electricity use.
Also present at the meeting were a series of big pension companies and insurers, including Aviva, Legal & General and Rothesay Life, alongside major foreign investors including Australia’s Macquarie and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Ministers have wrestled for years with how to attract private capital to invest in nuclear – but companies have balked at putting pension and insurance cash at risk.
The government is considering changes to insurance rules set by the EU and copied by the UK to make it easier for insurers and pensions to invest. The UK is switching to a “regulated asset base” model, which it hopes will give long-term investors more certainty on returns, a change it hopes will address limitations to the current rules, known as Solvency II.
The government wanted to show the nuclear and investment industries that it had a “clear ambition for more nuclear” in part to balance out intermittent renewable power sources, according to a government source briefed on the discussion.
………………..According to an aide who was present at the meeting, Johnson told industry heads and financiers that there had been a “chronic absence” of leadership by successive British governments on nuclear energy and that the country was “being left for dead” by other nations, such as France, on the issue.
Speaking after the meeting, Tom Greatrex, the chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA), said: “Accelerating nuclear projects is absolutely essential to keep energy costs down, cut expensive gas imports and strengthen our energy security as we move towards net zero.
“That means urgently investing in a fleet of large and small nuclear stations, alongside renewable investment, to deliver the clean, sovereign power we need.”
The UK has struggled to build new nuclear power stations in recent decades, with the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi in 2020 pulling out of plans to build a new reactor at Wylfa, north Wales, and geopolitical tensions making the government less keen on attracting Chinese investment to Sizewell C on the Suffolk coast.
Meanwhile the existing nuclear fleet has been in steady decline, with Hunterston B in Scotland retiring earlier this year, Hinkley Point B in Somerset due to follow suit in the summer, and Heysham I and Hartlepool I due to shut down in 2024.
At that point, nuclear capacity is expected to fall as low as 3.6GW.A cross-party group of MPs that campaigns on nuclear issues has called for the government to increase its annual nuclear power capacity to 15GW by 2030 and 30GW by 2050, far above the 12.7GW installed at nuclear power’s peak in 1995.
Major obstacles include difficulty in securing funding from private investors and a ban on new nuclear projects, which was among the factors that scuppered the Wylfa project in north Wales.projects in Scotland, imposed by the devolved government, which prevents Hunterston B being replaced.
The government is examining a plan to revise the financing model for major projects, which was among the factors that scuppered the Wylfa project in north Wales.
Under plans for Sizewell being discussed by Whitehall officials and EDF, the government could take a stake in a development company that will push it through various stages of planning and bureaucracy, sharing the costs with EDF.
Private sector investors such as the insurance funds L&G and Aviva would then be lured in at a later stage in return for a government-backed funding model called the regulated asset base (Rab), diluting the taxpayer and EDF.
Legislation on Rab funding – the same model used to fund airports such as Heathrow and water companies – is due to progress through parliament next month. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/21/johnson-announces-aim-for-uk-to-get-25-of-energy-from-nuclear-power
Renewable energy: Austria, a leader of anti-nuclear advocacy in Europe
Renewable energy: Austria, a leader of anti-nuclear advocacy in Europe, https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/focus/20220321-renewable-energy-austria-a-leader-of-anti-nuclear-advocacy-in-europeBy:
Vianey LORIN|Anthony MILLS, The EU is proposing to put nuclear power on its list of sustainable energy sources. But Austria is threatening to file a case with the Court of Justice of the European Union to get that text annulled. The country has never embraced nuclear energy and is even home to the world’s only power station to have been built but never fired up. Austria produces more than 75 percent of its electricity from renewable energy and is a leader of anti-nuclear advocacy in Europe. Our correspondents report.
Deal on Ukrainian nuclear safety to come ‘soon,’ says IAEA chief
Deal on Ukrainian nuclear safety to come ‘soon,’ says IAEA chief, https://www.politico.eu/article/deal-ukraine-nuclear-safety-iaea-chief-russia-war/
Agency hopes to send experts to Ukraine to get ‘credible, objective’ on the ground information.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is closing in on a deal to guarantee the safety and security of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, according to its chief Rafael Mariano Grossi.
“We are negotiating, we are approaching what we want to be the final stages of our consultations,” Grossi told European lawmakers on Monday, adding he hoped to reach a deal “very soon.”
The discussions, which started on March 10, are “very delicate” diplomatically, he said.
The future framework will make “no political references to the situation in the plants or no connection that could be construed as legitimizing the presence of anybody in a foreign territory,” according to Grossi, responding to concerns that it could be used by Moscow to legitimize control over parts of Ukraine’s territory.
He added that it will require Russia and Ukraine to “observe some of the rules … that have been repeatedly violated with enormous risk for the population, local, regional, European populations” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Russian troops have taken control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the active nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia, prompting fears of potential nuclear disaster and large-scale environmental damage.
Grossi has repeatedly expressed his concerns about nuclear safety as the conflict unfolds, but at no point has the IAEA warned of explicit and immediate danger outside Ukraine.
Speaking to MEPs on Monday, he stressed that “nuclear power plants are very robust, they can sustain an airplane that falls on them.” It would take “massive means” to get to the core of a reactor. He also repeated that targeting nuclear plants would constitute a breach of international law.
Once the framework is agreed, Grossi said he hopes to send IAEA experts to Ukraine “to facilitate the situation there, also as a deterrent to new, complicated, dangerous occurrences taking places.”
Experts will also look to gather “credible, objective information” about the situation on the ground, he said, noting that it is becoming “increasingly difficult” to ascertain the facts of the situation “because there are conflicting narratives about what is happening.”
Chernobyl radiation monitors ‘not working’
Chernobyl radiation monitors ‘not working’ https://www.cessnockadvertiser.com.au/story/7667680/chernobyl-radiation-monitors-not-working/?cs=6981Australian Associated Press 21 Mar 22,
Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency says the radiation monitors around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the world’s worst meltdown in 1986, have stopped working.
In a statement on Monday, the agency also said there are no longer firefighters available in the region to protect forests tainted by decades of radioactivity as the weather warms.
The plant was seized by Russian forces on February 24.
According to Monday’s statement, the combination of risks could mean a “significant deterioration” of the ability to control the spread of radiation not just in Ukraine but beyond the country’s borders in weeks and months to come.
Management of the Chernobyl plant said on Sunday that 50 staff members who had been working non-stop since the Russian takeover have been rotated out and replaced.
UK’s Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng considering launching State-owned nuclear company
Government ministers are mulling over plans to launch a state-owned
nuclear company, which would assume stakes in future domestic projects.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is considering the move as he looks to
speed up the development of nuclear plants – which have suffered years of
delays- and reduce the UK’s reliance on foreign energy, according to The
Sunday Times.
City AM 20th March 2022
Boris Johnson all for nuclear power – but there are tensions with the Treasury about this
Boris Johnson will host a meeting with leaders from the nuclear power
industry today as part of efforts to boost domestic energy supplies. The
prime minister wants to remove the barriers to the raising of Britain’s
nuclear power output and sees the industry, along with renewables, as key
to reducing energy imports.
Today’s meeting with nuclear industry bosses
will inform the prime minister’s British Energy Security Strategy, which
has been hit by delays. It is unlikely to be unveiled until early next week
because of tensions with the Treasury and the prime minister’s travel
arrangements, which include a trip this week to a Nato summit in Brussels.
A government source said that the Treasury had delayed Johnson’s plans
for a significant increase in the number of nuclear power plants out of
concern about the feasibility and cost.
Times 21st March 2022
Boris Johnson ‘gung ho’ for new nuclear power, but Chancellor Rishi Sunak applying the brakes
Boris Johnson in ‘gung ho’ push for more nuclear power as energy
crisis starts to bite. Boris Johnson will on Monday sketch out to industry
bosses what one minister called his “gung ho” approach to boosting
Britain’s nuclear power sector, as officials draw up plans that could
target a fivefold increase in capacity by 2050.
The prime minister vowed
this month to make “a series of big new bets on nuclear power” and
government insiders say this could imply the construction of at least half
a dozen big new stations between 2030 and 2050.
Rishi Sunak, chancellor,
last week applied the brakes to Johnson’s plans to set out an energy
security strategy this week, amid Treasury fears about the cost to the
public purse. New nuclear power stations each require close to £ 20bn to
build and the industry is prone to cost overruns.
Sunak, who presents his
Spring Statement this week, is trying to hold down spending to give him
space to cut taxes. “We need to do more work on the nuclear strategy
before we press ahead,” said one ally of the chancellor. But one cabinet
minister said: “Boris has had something of an evangelical conversion, in
the past few months – he has been really gung-ho for nuclear.” The
energy strategy is due before the end of the month.
FT 20th March 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/17852c7c-fd92-40cb-b4ec-9767c6069677
Evangelical fervour for new nuclear power in UK’s Tory government
Wylfa on Anglesey could get three new nuclear reactors as the Prime
Minister is said to be ‘enthusiastic’ about accelerating plans in order
to reach the UK’s future net-zero targets and close an energy black hole.
US nuclear company Westinghouse has put together a consortium with
construction group Bechtel to revive plans for two nuclear reactors at
Wylfa since Hitachi, a Japanese conglomerate, abandoned their own plans in
2019.
A consortium led by Rolls-Royce also wants to place one of their own
‘small’ modular reactors on the site. According to the Financial Times,
Boris Johnson is “enthusiastic about Wylfa’s prospects,” with one
cabinet minister telling the newspaper he “has had something of an
evangelical conversion, in the past few months”.
Ynys Môn MP Virginia
Crosbie has also been enthusiastic about the plans, describing herself in
the House of Commons as “the Atomic Kitten”. However, Chancellor Rishi
Sunak is said to be less enthusiastic given the cost to the taxpayer of
financing such huge projects that would not be operational for decades,
with a target of meeting the UK Government’s ‘net zero’ goal by 2050.
Nation Cymru 21st March 2022 https://nation.cymru/news/wylfa-could-get-three-new-nuclear-reactors-as-boris-johnson-enthusiastic-about-accelerating-plans/
Boris Johnson in the grip of the nuclear lobby
Prime minister Boris Johnson is expected this week to meet the bosses of
leading power and energy development companies to discuss ways of
increasing Britain’s electricity and gas supplies.
Officials from EDF, developer of the proposed Sizewell C nuclear power plant, are expected to
be invited to the talks. Rolls-Royce and nuclear company Westinghouse are
also understood to have been invited. EDF and Sizewell C declined to
comment.
But Stop Sizewell C said the Suffolk power project was not the
solution to the energy crisis as it stepped up its campaign again at the
weekend by projecting messages onto Sizewell B on Saturday night.
East Anglian Daily Times 20th March 2022
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/business/sizewell-projections-message-on-nuclear-power-8768518
Catholic bishops assert their opposition to nuclear weapons
Catholic bishops assert their opposition to nuclear weapons, THE organisation Justice & Peace Scotland have reaffirmed their opposition to nuclear weapons and have marked the 40th anniversary of the Scottish Bishops 1982 landmark statement entitled Peace and Disarmament.
A video, recorded in conjunction with Sancta Familia Media, features clergy, young people and laity reaffirming their opposition to nuclear weapons, and the reasons for their stance.
The video features Archbishop William Nolan (Glasgow), Archbishop Leo Cushley (Edinburgh), Bishop John Keenan (Diocese of Paisley), Bishop Brian McGee (Diocese of Argyll and the Isles) as well as young people from every Catholic diocese in Scotland…………. https://www.irishpost.com/news/catholic-bishops-assert-their-opposition-to-nuclear-weapons-231766
The energy crisis is now, new nuclear will be (at least) twenty years too late – UK’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA)
The energy crisis is now, new nuclear will be (at least) twenty years too late
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities were dismayed to hear that the door of Number 10 will today once more be held open for guests from the nuclear power industry as Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosts a roundtable with prospective commercial partners, ahead of a new energy statement later this week.
Following Johnson’s proclamation that he will look to ‘place big new bets on nuclear’ and with one cabinet member allegedly describing the Prime Minister as ‘really gung ho for nuclear’, the participants are likely to meet with a firm ally. Government resolve will also be bolstered by the publication last week by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Nuclear Energy of a ‘roadmap’ to make sites, money and a pared-down regulatory environment available to the nuclear industry to enable the development of a further 15 Gigawatts of new nuclear generating capacity by 2035 and 30 GW by 2050.
The NFLA believes that this hyperbole ignores the reality that any new nuclear projects will take too long, cost too much and have too many uncertainties to provide a meaningful solution to the energy and climate crisis that Britain faces now.
“Despite the need to generate ‘more electricity more greenly’ now, the Prime Minister seems determined to ignore the obvious solution that would result from a far greater and more urgent investment in renewable technologies and is instead taking us once more along the increasingly well-trodden and costly road to no-where that is new nuclear”, said Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA, in response to the news.
“Every pound spent on nuclear is a pound denied to renewables. New nuclear has a lamentable history of being delivered at far greater cost and far more slowly than was at first predicted. New nuclear plants take decades to deliver with Hinkley Point C currently estimated to cost at least £23 billion. Renewables have been proven to deliver electricity far more cheaply, far more quickly and far more safely than new nuclear ever can – and renewable energy comes without the additional eye-watering cost of decommissioning nuclear plants and managing the legacy of radioactive waste for millennia that comes with it.”
The NFLA would like the government to change tack and look to harness natural energy sources to generate power to meet our needs, whilst saving our environment.
“The irony is that we already have the solutions to our energy and climate crisis to hand. When you live in a country that is surrounded by seas and has unpredictable weather it is surely a far safer bet to invest in tidal energy, hydro power, solar panels and wind turbines to draw energy from Mother Nature. The NFLA believes this, combined with investment in innovative energy storage solutions and in retrofitting our cold and draughty homes to a far higher standard to reduce energy use, could meet Britain’s energy needs, reduce fuel bills, and safeguard our planet in the here-and-now, not the never-never.”
Ends//…For more information please contact Richard Outram, Secretary, NFLA Email Richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk / Mobile 07583 097793
People Against Wylfa-B (PAWB) calls for sanctions on UK importing enriched uranium from Russia
PAWB has written to Ynys Môn MP, Virginia Crosbie, who is a member of the
All Party Nuclear Group in Westminster. We urge the group to call for
sanctions on raw and enriched uranium from Russia, and that such sanctions
are imposed internationally. Russia has 35% of the world market for
enriched uranium.
We also condemn in the strongest terms, the All Party
Nuclear Group’s totally reckless and irresponsible call for 30 Gigawatts
(30,000 Megawatts) of electricity through nuclear by 2050. This shows an
astounding economic and environmental illiteracy. This would be 3 times the
peak of electricity generated by nuclear power in Wales, England and
Scotland during the mid 1990s.
It appears Boris Johnson is listening too
much to this completely misguided nuclear cheerleading by the All Party
Nuclear Group. The Group totally ignores the challenges of climate change,
rising sea levels and the severe threats from storm surges to all coastal
nuclear sites in Wales, England and Scotland. Also, in the context of the
war in Ukraine where 15 operational nuclear reactors are potential dirty
bombs that could poison the whole of Europe with radioactivity, can the All
Party Nuclear Group and Boris Johnson answer how the British state can
justify building new nuclear reactors, obvious targets for hypersonic
missiles by potential enemies?
PAWB 20th March 2022
https://www.stop-wylfa.org/news/
1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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