British scientists distressed at loss of funding as Britain leaves the nuclear safety agency Euratom
Nature 29th May 2018 , Prime Minister Theresa May conceded on 21 May that a post-Brexit Britain
was willing to pay to “fully associate” with Euratom, Europe’s nuclear agency. The details of the arrangement, similar to many that surround the controversial exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, still have to be ironed out.
And among those watching the negotiations with mounting concern are scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) near Oxford, UK, who currently benefit greatly from Britain’s membership of the agency. The hundreds of researchers at JET receive annual funding of around €60 million (US$70 million), because Britain is part of Euratom. As it stands, that funding will cease at the end of this year.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05283-x
In a drill, fake terrorists take over Russia’s Arctic radioactive waste storage site
In a drill, fake terrorists take over Arctic radioactive waste storage site
Russian officials have said they thwarted a terrorist attack at a facility storing old radioactive components from nuclear vessels located in the Arctic — but don’t worry. It was just a drill. Bellona, by Anna Kireeva
Russian officials have said they thwarted a terrorist attack at a facility storing old radioactive components from nuclear vessels located in the Arctic — but don’t worry. It was just a drill.
The simulated siege was part of a large-scale exercise called Atom-2018, and was meant to prepare workers at the Sayda Bay for the worst – an armed incursion into a sensitive facility within Russia’s vast but fragile nuclear waste storage industry, complete with bombs, hostages and political demands.
According to reports, staff at the facility were alerted to the fact that the exercise was a drill. The purpose of the fake crisis, rather than scaring workers at a radioactive materials storage site, was to prepare officials from Russia’s security services to map out countermeasures specifically designed for the Sayda Bay site.
Sayda Bay is a part of the Murmansk branch of RosRAO, the state operator responsible for the management and storage and handling of non-nuclear radioactive waste, as well as decommissioning nuclear vessels, especially submarines.
Located 60 kilometers from Murmansk, Sayda Bay is itself an old Soviet-era military base. Since 2004, it has been tasked with storing reactor compartments from the dismantled submarines of Russia’s once overwhelming Northern Fleet of nuclear submarines.
Later, facilities were built at Sayda Bay to handle and condition radioactive waste. Currently it houses about 80 single unit reactor blocks and has space for 40 more. Eventually, the site will hold the irradiated remains of the Lepse, a nuclear icebreaker refueling vessels that is carefully being pulled apart at the Nerpa Shipyard near Murmansk.
It was the radioactive waste storage facility at Sayda Bay that was targeted by the would be terrorists. According to a release on the exercise, the assailants seized the facility, took hostages from among its workers, and put forth a demand for regime change. Unless their demands were met, said the insurgents, they would detonate a bomb…….http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2018-05-in-a-drill-fake-terrorists-take-over-arctic-radioactive-waste-storage-site
Licence exists for dumping mud at North Cardiff – but they don’t need Hinkley’s suspect “mud”
Barry GEM 29th May 2018 Graham Vodden: I read with interest your article in The GEM regarding Hinkley Mud, and I have to say that I have no confidence in the National Assembly making the correct decision on this matter. I fully endorse the petition calling for the licence to be suspended to allow for a full environmental assessment before any dredging and dumping is started.
We already have a problem with excess mud coming ashore on Penarth beach because somebody decided years ago to dump local dredged mud out of Cardiff Dock entrance at the North Cardiff buoy, instead of where it used to be dumped at the Middle Pool buoy, where it would disperse and not cause any environmental problem.
The question that needs to be addressed is why does EDF want to bring this mud all the way from Hinkley beach to the North Cardiff Buoy position for dumping? The answer to that is there is already a licence issued for dumping mud or sediment here, which makes the whole process easier.
The other question which needs to be asked is why can’t they dump this sediment outside Hinkley? There is plenty of depth in that part of the channel and it would not cause any problems, it would just disperse. The answer to that is that EDF would have to go through the whole process of licence application again. My message to EDF is, keep your suspect ‘mud’ in the area of Hinkley. The last thing Penarth needs is a massive mud pollution increase on our beach.
http://www.barry-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=119999&headline=Why%20does%20EDF%20want%20%20to%20dump%20mud%20from%20%20Hinkley%20on%20our%20coast?§ionIs=news&searchyear=2018
Wylfa Newydd nuclear plant protesters go to Japan
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-44281941 28 May 18 A group of anti-nuclear campaigners have travelled to Japan to petition the government to withdraw support for a nuclear power station on Anglesey.
A petition against the Wylfa Newydd nuclear plant signed by almost 6,000 people was handed to Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Pawb’s (People against Wylfa B) trip comes amid reports of UK and Japanese government investment in the project.
Technological giant Hitachi said there had been “no changes to disclose”.
Hitachi’s Horizon Nuclear Power wants to start building on Anglesey in 2020, but recent reports say the British government is to offer £13.3bn to support the project.
Prime Minister Theresa May met Hitachi’s chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi earlier this month to discuss support.
Speaking to BBC Wales from Japan, Meilyr Tomos from Pawb, said: “There’s huge uncertainty. It’s a scheme that requires two governments to prop it up, so there’s no certainty on anything at this stage.
“It’s not a commercial proposition. You need the biggest bang for your buck, that’s not something nuclear can deliver, it’s far too expensive.
Britain’s “nuclear renaissance” in the balance as Hitachi ponders Wylfa nuclear project
Times 27th May 2018 , The fate of a £15bn-plus nuclear power station is set to be decided this
week — and with it the future of Britain’s atomic renaissance.
The Japanese industrial giant Hitachi is due to decide Monday whether to
proceed with Wylfa. Hitachi’s decision has huge implications for
industrial collaboration between Britain and Japan and the country’s
nuclear power industry.
The project hinges on winning financial support
from Westminster. This weekend, ministers are expected to set out their
offer to Hitachi in a letter ahead of the crucial meeting. The proposal is
expected to include UK taxpayers taking a direct stake in the plant,
alongside Hitachi and the Japanese state, as well as guaranteeing loans. In
return, Westminster wants Hitachi to substantially undercut on price the
£20bn Hinkley Point plant in Somerset, which is being built by EDF.
TheFrench company struck a deal with the government for a guaranteed payment
of £92.50 per megawatt hour for 35 years. Ministers are expected to make
an announcement once they return from this week’s parliamentary recess.
They will herald it as an example of the type of post-Brexit trade deal
Britain can expect.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/deadline-day-for-japans-hitachi-over-wales-15bn-horizon-nuclear-plant-mdxhnj9x8
Germany is ready to support Iran in restoring its economy as long as Iran adheres to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
Germany to assist Iran in restoring economy while Tehran adheres to JCPOA https://en.mehrnews.com/news/134429/Germany-to-assist-Iran-in-restoring-economy-while-Tehran-adheresTEHRAN, May 29 (MNA) – Germany is ready to support Iran in restoring its economy and also, to continue bilateral trades, as long as Iran adheres to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
“We will continue to make efforts to fulfill Iran’s hopes for economic recovery and good trade relations as long as Iran is ready and able to prove that it adheres to its obligations under the nuclear deal,” Maas said at the Global Solutions Summit held in Berlin, sputnik reported on Tuesday.
In a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Maas has mentioned that US and Germany are pursuing “two entirely separate paths” regarding Iran’s issue.
US president Donald Trump withdraw from JCPOA on May 8 and reintroduced sanctions against Iran. This is while other signatory states of the deal including Russia, China and European countries don’t support US decision and have repeatedly highlighted their commitment to the agreement and guarding Iran’s interests.
UK is not correctly testing Hinkley Point dumped mud for radioactivity
Barry GEM 28th May 2018 ,Richard Bramhall. Referring to The GEM’s recent article on the dumping of
mud from Hinkley Point in the Bristol Channel, campaigners oppose the
dumping not because of ‘passion’ but because of science.
EDF’s references to bananas, radon and cosmic rays are unscientific. Potassium 40
(in the bananas), radon and cosmic rays are evenly distributed in body
tissue and the radiation effects are well understood.
The radioactive particles which EdF refuses to look for in the mud are quite different. The
UN has published data showing enormous amounts of particulates from Hinkley
Point. These are microscopic fragments of uranium oxide and probably
plutonium which are small enough to inhale. From the lung they can travel
anywhere in the body — to the lymph nodes, for example. Such particles
emit very short-range radiations all the time, continually hitting the
cells within a few microns. To treat this as an average all-body dose is
like thinking you can safely keep your baby warm by tucking a soldering
iron into her babygro. The Government laboratory that tested mud samples
did not use techniques capable of detecting uranium or plutonium. This is
why campaigners demand thorough testing.
http://www.barry-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=119988&headline=%E2%80%98Hinkley%20Point%20mud%20needs%20more%20testing%E2%80%99%20%E2%80%93%20a%20GEM%20reader%27s%20letter§ionIs=news&searchyear=2018
28 May – deadline day for Hitachi over whether or not to proceed with UK Horizon nuclear power plant
Deadline day for Japan’s Hitachi over Wales £15bn Horizon nuclear plant Sunday Times, 27 May 18 The fate of a £15bn-plus nuclear power station is set to be decided this week — and with it the future of Britain’s atomic renaissance.
The Japanese industrial giant Hitachi is due to decide tomorrow whether to proceed with Horizon, a twin-reactor plant on Anglesey, north Wales.
Hitachi’s decision has huge implications for industrial collaboration between Britain and Japan and the country’s nuclear power industry. The project hinges on winning financial support from Westminster.
This weekend, ministers are expected to set out their offer to Hitachi in a letter ahead of the crucial meeting. The proposal is expected to include UK taxpayers taking a direct stake in the plant, alongside Hitachi and the Japanese state, as well as guaranteeing loans.
In return, Westminster wants Hitachi…(subscribers only) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/deadline-day-for-japans-hitachi-over-wales-15bn-horizon-nuclear-plant-mdxhnj9x8
MS Tûranor PlanetSolar – huge solar-powered ship
Business Insider 26th May 2018, This huge seacraft is developed by Swiss company PlanetSolar, who wanted to
create a vessel which was environmentally friendly and produced
zero-emissions. Developed in 2010, the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar is the
largest solar-powered boat ever built. Its 500 solar panels can provide 120
kilowatts of energy, allowing the ship to travel around 5 knots.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/this-huge-seacraft-is-entirely-powered-by-solar-energy-planet-solar-2018-5
Britains big future nuclear power plans hang on government subsidising Hitachi
UK nuclear plans ‘risk collapse if Hitachi talks fail’https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/25/new-uk-nuclear-power-plants-hinge-on-deal-between-hitachi-and-government– Adam Vaughan
Japanese group believed to be demanding direct financial support with consumers making up the difference.
Britain’s hopes for a number of new nuclear power stations could collapse if the government and the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi fail to make a breakthrough on talks for a plant in Wales, a top nuclear lobbyist has warned.
Hiroaki Nakanishi, the firm’s chairman, met Theresa May earlier this month, to press the prime minister for financial support for two reactors at Wylfa on the island of Anglesey.
The company’s board is understood be meeting on Monday to decide whether it can proceed with the UK’s subsequent offer, believed to include a multibillion-pound loan.
Tim Yeo, chairman of the industry-backed group New Nuclear Watch Europe, said the outcome of the negotiations had huge consequences for other international firms hoping to build reactors in Britain.
“If Hitachi walk away from Wylfa that probably spells the end of new nuclear in the UK,” he said.
The 3GW plant at Wylfa by the Hitachi subsidiary Horizon Nuclear Power would be the UK’s second new nuclear power station after EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C, under construction in Somerset.
More are planned: EDF wants to build at Sizewell on the Suffolk coast, South Korea’s Kepco at Moorside in Cumbria and China’s CGN at Bradwell in Essex, with EDF’s help.
Hitachi wants to build abroad because of a moribund home market,
while the UK government sees nuclear as an important source of low-carbon power.
Despite the protracted discussions between the two parties, London appears to still be committed to making the economics of nuclear work.
“I sense there’s still a lot of political will to make new nuclear happen from government, and backbenchers seem to want it in their areas,” a Whitehall source said.
An industry source said the deal would work if the government offered some form of financial support directly, while energy bill payers footed the rest through a subsidy known as a contract for difference.
That would mean Hitachi receiving a guaranteed price of power, likely to be around £80 a megawatt hour, lower than Hinkley’s £92.50 but still nearly twice the wholesale cost of electricity.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is understood to be enthusiastically backing the project, while the Treasury, which would have to see an equity contribution or loan for the construction period on government books, is more sceptical.
Paul Dorfman at the Energy Institute at University College London said: “This would mean the hardworking UK taxpayer and energy consumer, who are labouring under ramping austerity, are being asked to stump up for an extraordinarily expensive nuclear plant just at the time that renewable costs are plummeting.”
Japanese media have reported the UK government’s loan for the project could be as much as £13bn, and put the total cost of the plant at more than £20bn, even more than Hinkley Point C. The details are understood to have been leaked by the Japanese government, not Hitachi, and the UK government has said it “does not recognise” the reports.
Greenpeace said the UK was wrongly pursuing a “dinosaur” technology and should focus on renewables, batteries and interconnectors to other countries.
Kate Blagojevic, the group’s head of energy, said: “It’s unacceptable the Japanese public are hearing about this before the British public, if what we’re hearing is true that over £13bn of British taxpayer money is going to a Japanese company to build a plant in Wales.
“It’s pretty outrageous the government hasn’t been upfront about what they’re proposing and why.”
A spokesperson for BEIS said: “These discussions are commercially sensitive and we have no further details at this time.”
A Horizon spokesperson said: “It’s no secret we’re in discussions with the UK and Japanese governments, and have been for some time, over support for our project. With these discussions still ongoing it is too early to comment on the specifics of what a future deal may look like.
“We’re confident, given the strategic importance of our project to both nations, we’ll reach a successful conclusion to these discussions in the near future.”
Iran negotiating with Europe to stay in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
Iran asks Europe what it can offer to keep it in the nuclear deal after U.S. pullout, WP, By Michael BirnbaumMay 25 Email the author
VIENNA — Iran will decide within weeks whether to stay in a faltering deal to restrain its nuclear program and is pressing Europe to compensate for President Trump’s decision to reimpose sanctions, a senior Iranian official said Friday.
The official warned that Tehran could also pull out from a separate treaty that limits the spread of nuclear weapons.
The caution came ahead of the first talks involving all the remaining parties to the landmark 2015 deal since the United States pulled out this month.
An official report Thursday declared that Iran is still in compliance with the stringent controls on its nuclear program.
Iran has long declared that its program is limited to the peaceful generation of nuclear energy and production of medical isotopes. If it were to pull out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the 1970 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and seek nuclear weapons, it could spark an arms race in the already volatile Middle East.
The United States and Israel have also warned that an Iranian nuclear weapons program would be countered with force……….https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/iran-asks-europe-what-it-can-offer-to-keep-it-in-the-nuclear-deal-after-us-pullout/2018/05/25/f0e8be70-6011-11e8-8c93-8cf33c21da8d_story.html?utm_term=.74b34870a29f
German government to compensate utilities over the phaseout of nuclear power
Germany To Compensate RWE & Vattenfall Over Nuclear Phase-Out, Clean Technica, 25 May 18 The German Government has passed a bill that gives the country the legal right to proceed with its phase-out of nuclear power but will open the door to companies like Vattenfall and RWE to receive compensation for their investment into nuclear power plants.
Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Germany made the unprecedented decision to close down all its nuclear power plants — the oldest eight power plants were closed immediately, while the remaining nine are scheduled to be turned off by 2022.
“A decision has been taken to shut down eight plants before the end of this year and they definitely won’t be reactivated. And the remaining nine will be shut down by the end of the decade,” Juergen Becker, deputy environment minister at the time, told Reuters. “Japan has shown that even if there is a minuscule occurrence, the residual risk is too high to justify the continuation of nuclear power (…) It is better to go for other energy services in a civilized country.”
In response, German utility RWE and Swedish power company Vattenfall sued the German government, arguing that they were due financial compensation for investing in a technology that, at the time, the German government was supporting, and that in suddenly reversing direction, the companies would suffer significant financial losses.
In December of 2016, the German Federal Constitutional Court confirmed that the government’s decision to phase-out nuclear power was “essentially constitutional.” This week, the German Federal Government approved a bill which implemented the findings of the Court, giving the country the right to proceed with its phase-out but also allowing utilities to seek “adequate financial compensation for so-called frustrated investments they made in nuclear power plants between 28 October 2010 and 16 March 2011.”
“The bill passed today ensures that the accelerated phasing out of nuclear power plants, which was initiated in 2011, will be continued consistently and in accordance with the provisions of the Basic Law,” said Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze. “Each nuclear power plant will retain its current statutory cut-off date by 31 December 2022 at the latest of nuclear energy in Germany.” …….. https://cleantechnica.com/2018/05/25/germany-to-compensate-rwe-vattenfall-over-nuclear-phase-out/
Toxic radioactive mud dumping is a toxic issue for Wales
BBC 23rd May 2018 Plans to move mud from alongside the Hinkley Point nuclear site in Somerset
to a dumping ground off Cardiff Bay have been debated by AMs. It comes
after a petition to the assembly against the plans attracted over 7,000
signatures. Other online petitions gathered tens of thousands of
signatures. The assembly petitions committee took evidence on the issue and
published a summary of the evidence it had heard and requested the debate
in the Senedd.
As part of plans to build the new Hinkley Point C nuclear
power station in Somerset – 300,000 tonnes needs to be dredged from the
seabed nearby. The developers are set to move it within weeks to a disposal
site off Cardiff Bay. Both developers EDF and Natural Resources Wales
insist tests have shown the sediment poses no risk but campaigners claim it
could be contaminated by discharges from the old Hinkley Point A and B and
argue the mud has not been adequately tested.
Plaid Cymru’s Simon Thomas said the issue illustrated that “we have so little control of our natural
resources, that we have to accept the spoil of a nuclear power station in
Hinkley Point”. He said that as a matter of principle it is was the Welsh
parliament that should decide what happens in Welsh waters.
The company behind Hinkley Point C – EDF – said the mud has been tested independently
to internationally accepted standards and shown to pose no risk to human
health or the environment. It has refused a Petitions Committee request to
pay for further sampling – arguing claims the mud is toxic are alarmist and
wrong, and that any sampling would yield the same results and would not
remove the petitioner’s objection about the testing process. Energy
Secretary Lesley Griffiths said Natural Resources Wales was satisfied there
was no risk from the dredged material to people, the environment, or the
wildlife that lives there. However, she said she has asked NRW to review
the way it communicated its decisions over this licence.
Independent AM Neil McEvoy, who met the demonstrators, dismissed the suggestion the mud
had been tested properly and described the situation as a “dereliction of
duty”. He said: “We have a Welsh Government allowing Wales to be dumped on
and the mud hasn’t been tested… The top soil was tested – [but] you’ve
got five samples only under five centimetres for 300,000 tonnes of mud.”
Anti-nuclear campaigner Tim Deere Jones, who submitted the petition, is
unhappy with the level of testing undertaken. He said: “What kind of
radioactivity is in the mud, how much of it is in the mud, if you dump it
into the Cardiff grounds which is a dispersal site – where will it disperse
to?”
Richard Bramhall is from the Low Level Radiation Campaign, chairman of
the Welsh Anti Nuclear Alliance and a former member of the government
advisory committee advising on the radiation effects of internal emitters.
“The idea that the average radioactivity in the mud is at a low level is of
no comfort at all to the people of south Wales,” he said. “The particles
will blow ashore and once they’re in your lungs that’s not a low dose.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44223979
Scotland’s ambitious target for 100% renewable energy
Scottish Government 24th May 2018 Scotland will become one of the first countries to achieve a 100% reduction
in carbon emissions, Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham has said.
The new Climate Change Bill will immediately set a target of a 90%
reduction by 2050, which the UK Committee on Climate Change (UK CCC) states
is currently “at the limit of feasibility.”
The draft Bill sets out that the Scottish Government intends to go further still and achieve a 100%
reduction in emissions, known as ‘net-zero’, as soon as possible.
Ministers will be legally required to keep the net-zero target date under
review by seeking expert advice on the issue every five years. The target
date will become legally-binding, subject to the consent of the Scottish
Parliament, as soon as there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate the date
is credible and achievable.
As well as increasing long term ambition, the
new Bill also includes the most ambitious interim targets in the world, as
well as stretching annual targets for every year between now and 2050. This
means action will need to increase immediately, across every sector of the
Scottish economy. It will also require action by individuals, communities
and businesses – as well as government.
https://news.gov.scot/news/commitment-to-net-zero-greenhouse-gas-emissions
UK short of funds for its £51bn nuclear defence programme
Nuclear defence programme to cost £51bn over next decade National Audit Office predicts total spending and warns of £2.9bn shortfall, Ft.com Peggy Hollinger, Industry Editor
The cost of building and maintaining the UK’s nuclear defence programme will add up to £50.8bn over the next 10 years, the UK’s public spending watchdog has said. The National Audit Office predicted a £2.9bn shortfall on the programme in that period, assuming the Ministry of Defence delivers the cost-cutting it has promised. The assessment is the first time the NAO has looked at the cost of the entire network of programmes, equipment and people needed for the UK’s nuclear deterrent between 2018 and 2028. As well as itemising completion of the current Astute submarines, the report looks at the costs of building the new Dreadnought class that will eventually replace the four Vanguard nuclear-armed boats from the early 2030s. The report showed that the top four suppliers — Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Babcock International and AWE Management — have won 97 per cent of contracts for nuclear defence………..https://www.ft.com/content/08d19194-5d0e-11e8-ad91-e01af256df68
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23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
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Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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