Mayor of London 11th May 2018 ,The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today set out his ambitious vision for London’s environment in 2050, presenting his Environment Strategy to the
London Assembly for consideration before final publication in the coming
weeks.
The strategy outlines Sadiq’s plans for making the city a greener,
cleaner and healthier place by targeting London’s toxic air, increasing
its green cover and making London a zero-carbon city by 2050 with energy
efficient buildings, clean transport and energy and increasing recycling.
All this will boost London’s green spaces, clean up its air, and help
safeguard the health and wellbeing of all Londoners. For the first time,
this strategy brings together approaches to every aspect of London’s
environment in one integrated document. The publication follows one of City
Hall’s largest ever strategy consultations with almost 3,000 Londoners
and 370 stakeholders responding to the draft Strategy launched last August.
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/london-environment-strategy-sets-out-vision
May 14, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
renewable, UK |
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Times 12th May 2018 , Independent think tanks are being paid by companies to write policy reports
and to gain access to senior politicians. In the past year leading charitable think tanks have earned millions of pounds from private organisations that want to have influence in Whitehall, research by The Times has found.
The think tanks have commissioned research and published reports in areas of interest to their corporate sponsors and arranged events to discuss them with politicians. Some, such as Policy Exchange, have refused to publish details of their funders. One senior figure at a think tank said that the arrangement allowed companies to “launder their interests” through independent groups with close links to officials.
All the reports seen by this newspaper drew conclusions favourable to the companies concerned. Policy Exchange published a report calling on ministers to invest in small nuclear reactors. The report was funded by Rolls-Royce, the British engineering company that has significant investment in the technology, but this was not stated in the report.
Instead the acknowledgment section thanked “Rolls-Royce for its support of the Energy and Environment Unit”. It did not disclose the funding or the possible conflict of interest. Rolls-Royce said: “While Rolls-Royce funded the report on SMRs [the reactors], the independent research was conducted by Policy Exchange and we categorically had no influence.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/big-companies-buy-influence-with-funding-for-think-tanks-6x85mpx9q
May 14, 2018
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spinbuster, UK |
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Environmental research web 12th May 2018 ,Dave Elliott: Although progress has been relatively slow, France has a
quite ambitious energy policy, with nuclear to be cut back by around 25%, by 2025, so that it supplied a maximum of 50% of power, and renewables accelerating to supply 32% of energy by 2030 and doubling their share of electricity to 40% by then.
And last year, according to BNEF data, France invested $5bn in Clean Energy, up 15% on 2016. It has some interesting
renewable energy projects at a range of scales. For example, the go ahead has been given for 17GW of small-scale renewables. At the larger scale, a 493 MW offshore wind farm also got a go ahead off Brittany- its biggest offshore project so far.
http://blog.environmentalresearchweb.org/2018/05/12/renewables-in-france-slow-progress/
May 14, 2018
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France, renewable |
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Le Monde 12th May 2018 [Machine Translation] Energy: “French stubbornness on the nuclear path is a
risky strategy”. The French choice for nuclear power is all the more dangerous because it is economically outpaced by other sources of energy, says economist Aurélien Saussay in a forum at the “World”. With the new
multiannual energy program (EPP), in public debate until June 30, France seems to have to renew its wishes for nuclear loyalty. The proponents of the status quo advance mostly economic arguments. Only nuclear electricity, flagship of French technology, would be able to meet our needs for a reasonable cost, while not emitting greenhouse gases.
The economic health of the sector is however not reassuring. Contrary to the hopes of a “renaissance” raised in 2007 at the launch of the EPR project in Flamanville, the past decade has proved disastrous for French and international nuclear power. Areva, which had designed and managed the EPR, was in a critical situation in 2016, after suffering a cumulative loss of 10 billion euros from 2011 to 2015. Only the injection of nearly 5 billion euros by the state and a drastic restructuring saved the company from bankruptcy.
Numerous reactor projects have been canceled in recent years in Brazil, South Africa and the United States. Main exception: China, with 20 reactors under construction and 60 more planned for the coming decade. The world’s first EPR commissioned will be located in southeastern China.
Apart from this Chinese specificity, how to explain the defeat, in France and abroad, of an industry promised to the most beautiful future only ten years ago? If “historic” nuclear power cost only € 0.04 / kWh, an EPR kWh
should exceed € 0.12. However, other technologies for generating electricity without greenhouse gas emissions, such as solar photovoltaic or wind, have followed an exactly opposite cost trajectory. In the case of solar, the fall is spectacular: some international projects have crossed the threshold of 0.04 € / kWh.
http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/05/12/energie-l-entetement-francais-sur-la-voie-du-nucleaire-est-une-strategie-risquee_5297979_3234.html
May 14, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
ENERGY, France |
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https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/macron-calls-friend-trump-angry-iran-nuclear-move-55124699
French President Emmanuel Macron has called his friend and ally U.S. President Donald Trump to say he’s very worried about tensions in the Middle East, after Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord.
Macron’s office said the two leaders spoke Saturday and the French leader expressed his “great concern about stability” in the region. Macron strongly opposes Trump’s pullout from the 2015 global deal curbing Iran’s nuclear activities. Hostilities between Iran and Israel have already escalated in recent days.
Macron and Trump also discussed trade issues. European governments are scrambling to save billions of dollars in trade with Iran that resumed thanks to the 2015 accord.
In addition, France and the EU are pressing Washington for exemption from Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs.
May 14, 2018
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France, politics international |
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Dave Toke’s Blog 10th May 2018, A fake price for the faltering proposed Wylfa nuclear plant will obscure
the fact that the project, backed by Hitachi, will be even more expensive than Hinkley C. Negotiators for the Wylfa project are clamouring for the Government to use taxpayers money and a commitment to pay at least some of
the risks of construction cost overruns to massage the price of the deal
down compared to Hinkley Point C.
If this is done, then the combined support for Hinkley C and Wylfa projects through loan guarantees, equity
support and risk underwriting could rival the size of bill the UK has to pay the EU for Brexit.
But a carefully contrived fake price produced by giving a massive taxpayer funded handout to the project will obscure this terrible consequence. Hinkley Point C (HPC), scheduled to be built by EDF, is now said to cost around £20 billion, almost exactly the same as the cost of the Hitachi-led Wylfa project.
In fact both of these figures do not appear to include interest charges, and so will be underestimates of the
total mount of money needed to be paid out before the plant is even built. But the interesting thing is that whilst the Hinkley C project is 3.2GW, the Wylfa project is smaller, at around 2.9 GW, which actually makes the Hitachi project even more expensive!
http://realfeed-intariffs.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/hitachis-wylfa-project-is-even-more.html
May 12, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, politics, UK |
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Nikkei Asian Review 11th May 2018 The British government has proposed to arrange all 2 trillion yen ($18.2
billion) in lending that Hitachi says is needed to build a nuclear power
plant in Wales, as the Japanese side seeks to reduce its risk and encourage
the U.K. to put more skin in the game.
London had previously suggested that it guarantee 1 trillion yen in lending, but to get the project moving it
changed its offer to include approaches such as direct financing in order
to reduce Hitachi’s financial exposure.
The plan also calls for a totalinvestment of 900 billion yen, with Hitachi as well as Japanese and British
public-private interests each taking a one-third stake, and guarantees for
corporate loans. The total cost of the plant, to be built on the Isle of
Anglesey, is expected to swell to 3 trillion yen.
Hitachi Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi met with Prime Minister Theresa May in London last Thursday to
ask for greater backing. The original plan called for the loans to be
provided by private lending institutions from both countries and guaranteed
equally by each government. State funding would come at a lower cost than
borrowing from private institutions and would demonstrate the U.K.’s
increased involvement as a backer of Hitachi’s nuclear power business,
which would ease raising funds and help secure investors.
The offer reflects the U.K.’s strong desire to proceed with the project, since
bankruptcy could place a burden on British taxpayers. The U.K. government
will submit a formal proposal to the Japanese side soon. Hitachi will then
make a final decision on whether to continue with the project at a board
meeting at the end of the month.
Some at Hitachi and in Tokyo have expressed concern about Japanese interests retaining leadership of the
project with two-thirds control. Hitachi and the U.K. are thought to be
discussing ways to prevent Hitachi’s exposure risk from rising, such as by
raising London’s stake or issuing dual class shares. But the British
Parliament is likely to oppose expanding the government’s stake, which
could throw a wrench in the project’s final shareholding structure or
allocation of costs. Hitachi is also requesting that the electricity’s
purchase price be raised, but the U.K. is opposed. It hopes to satisfy
Hitachi by covering all loans and raising its stake in the project.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-Deals/London-offers-18bn-in-loans-for-Hitachi-s-UK-nuclear-plant
May 12, 2018
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business and costs, politics, UK |
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Reasons Why a Floating Nuclear Power Plant in the Arctic is a Terrible Idea http://www.maritimeherald.com/2018/reasons-why-a-floating-nuclear-power-plant-in-the-arctic-is-a-terrible-idea/, BY SVILEN PETROV, -11 May 18, This enormous monstrosity is the first floating nuclear power plant built in the world. And now it’s heading to the Arctic. No, it’s not a joke or science fiction, it’s really happening.
Rosatom, Russia’s state-controlled nuclear giant, has just launched the Akademik Lomonosov, the first of a fleet of floating nuclear power plants that Russia plans to build and sell to other countries such as China, Indonesia and Sudan. It is currently being towed across the Baltic Sea, where it will travel all of Scandinavia to Murmansk, to be supplied and tested, before departing on a 5,000 kilometre trip through the Arctic.
We already know the risks of drilling for oil in such a fragile and wild environment as the Arctic, but a nuclear reactor floating in its waters could aggravate things much more. This is why:
- It is a matter of time that a catastrophe occurs
Rosatom has said that the plant “is designed with a large margin of safety that exceeds all possible threats and makes nuclear reactors indestructible in the face of tsunamis and other natural disasters.” Remember what happened the last time they said a boat was “unsinkable”?
Nothing is indestructible. The problem is that this nuclear Titanic has been built without independent experts to verify it. The same lack of supervision that there was in Chernobyl.
The flat bottom hull of this plant makes it especially vulnerable to tsunamis and cyclones. A large wave could launch the station to the coast. Also, he can not move alone either. If you release moorings, you can not move away from a threat (such as an iceberg or a strange vessel, for example) increasing the risk of a fatal incident. A collision shock would damage your vital functions, causing a loss of power and damaging your cooling function.
- Imagine how difficult it would be to deal with the consequences
There are so many things that could go wrong here: it could flood, sink or run aground. All of these scenarios could lead to the release of radioactive substances into the environment.
In case of a collapse, the ocean water would cool the core. It may seem like a good idea, but when the fuel rods are melted with seawater, there would first be a water explosion and possible explosions of hydrogen that would propagate a large number of radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere.
Damage to the reactor could contaminate much of the marine wildlife that is nearby, which means that fish populations could be contaminated in the coming years. The radioactive Arctic is not the most beautiful scenario. The areas around Fukushima and Chernobyl are already difficult to clean, imagine in the polar night, with sub-zero temperatures and snowstorms.
- The terrible trajectory of nuclear ships, icebreakers and Russian submarines
In Russia, there is a very long list of accidents with nuclear submarines and icebreakers.
The first nuclear icebreaker, Lenin, suffered a cooling accident in 1965, which caused a partial melting of the nucleus, which ended up pouring into the Tsivolki Bay near the Novaya Zemyla archipelago in 1967. In 1970, the reactor of a nuclear submarine ( K-320) was launched at the Krasnoye Sormovo pier in Russia, releasing large amounts of radiation and exposing hundreds of people. An accident during the fuel loading of a nuclear submarine reactor in Chazma in 1985 irradiated 290 workers, causing 10 deaths and 49 injured people. And the list goes on …
Rosatom’s plans to build a fleet of floating nuclear power plants pose an increased risk of unprecedented nuclear accidents in the Arctic.
- A nuclear dump in the water
We already have enough radioactive waste without knowing what to do with them. We do not need more.
The reactors of this plant are smaller than those found in a nuclear power plant on land and will need to be refuelled every two or three years. The radioactive waste will be stored on board until it returns after the designated 12 years of operation. That means radioactive waste will be left floating in the Arctic for years.
This is not only incredibly dangerous, but there is still no safe place to transport the fuel used once you step on firm ground. No source of energy must generate waste that takes thousands of years to be safe.
- Is using nuclear energy to facilitate the extraction of more fossil fuels
If this floating nightmare were not already absurd enough, the reason they are towing it to the Arctic is to help Russia extract more fossil fuels. Its main mission is to provide electricity to the northern oil, gas, coal and mineral extraction industries.
And it is not necessary to repeat the reasons why more fossil fuels are synonymous with more climate change. We only have to protect the Arctic from this potential catastrophe.
Responsible for the anti-nuclear campaign of Greenpeace Spain, Source: El Independiente
May 12, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
ARCTIC, Russia, safety |
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Sellafield faces huge fine over worker’s exposure to radiation Nuclear regulator prosecutes waste firm after injury leaves employee open to exposure https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/11/sellafield-faces-huge-fine-over-employees-exposure-to-radiation Adam Vaughan, 11 May 18
Britain’s biggest nuclear waste storage and reprocessing site is facing a potential multimillion-pound fine after an employee was exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation.
The nuclear regulator said its investigation had led it to prosecute Cumbria-based Sellafield Ltd, which handles the waste from the UK’s nuclear power stations as well as spent fuel from Japan and the US.
It is the first time in five years that the Office for Nuclear Regulation has prosecuted the company.
Last time, Sellafield was fined £700,000 for sending bags of radioactive waste to a landfill dump instead of a specialist facility.
Now, if the prosecution is successful, the firm is understood to be facing the prospect of a substantial fine, likely to be much larger because an individual was affected.
The fine would be proportionate to the scale of the business, which has a £2bn-a-year turnover.
The case relates to an accident in February 2017, when a site employee was wounded while handling equipment, leaving him open to internal radiation exposure.
He was decontaminated afterwards, but an investigation found the individual may have been exposed to radiation up to three times the annual limit. The regulator is taking the firm to court over offences under the Health and Safety at Work act.
Both Sellafield and the ONR said they were unable to comment further for legal reasons.
The prosecution is due to begin at Workington magistrates court in Cumbria on 20 July.
Sellafield has been state-run since 2016, after MPs raised concerns over how much it was costing taxpayers under private ownership.
The facility is in the process of a major transformation from a reprocessor of nuclear waste, where it turns spent fuel from power stations into uranium that can be used again, to solely focusing on storage.
The site’s Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) ceases operations in November this year, and will then be dismantled. Sellafield’s Magnox reprocessing plant, which handles waste from Britain’s early nuclear power stations, is scheduled to close in 2020.
May 12, 2018
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Legal, UK |
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Times 11th May 2018 , The environment will have less protection after Brexit because the proposed
new green watchdog will lack the power to hold ministers to account,
conservation groups have said.
Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has
unveiled plans for a new independent statutory body to replace the role of
the European Commission in ensuring compliance with rules on reducing air
and water pollution and protecting wildlife in Britain.
An Environmental Principles and Governance Bill will be published in draft form this autumn
and will establish what the government described as a “world-leading body
to hold government to account for environmental outcomes”. However, unlike
the commission, which can take legal action against the government for
failing to observe environmental laws and impose fines, the new body may
only have the authority to issue advisory notices.
A Whitehall source said that Mr Gove wanted the body to have much stronger powers but that this had
been resisted by Philip Hammond, the chancellor, who is concerned that
tough enforcement of environmental rules could harm economic growth.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/gove-s-new-green-watchdog-will-leave-environment-unprotected-after-brexit-zflnfgv9h
May 12, 2018
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environment, politics, UK |
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The National 10th May 2018 , NICOLA Sturgeon has welcomed the decision by the French energy giant EDF to
buy a large offshore wind project off the coast of Scotland for more than
€500 million from its Irish developer.
The project, dubbed Neart naGaoithe, which means “strength of the wind” in Gaelic, was delayed by
several years because of a legal challenge concerning its impact on
seabirds, but ultimately gained approval and won a government subsidy
contract. The deal follows similar investments by EDF, which has pushed
into renewables in recent years with big deals ranging from solar in Dubai
to wind projects in Chile.
http://www.thenational.scot/business/16218325.First_Minister_welcomes_French_energy_giant__39_s_wind_farm_acquisition/
May 12, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
renewable, UK |
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Julian Assange stuck without a phone, can’t see guests at Ecuador’s embassy in London, Washington Examinerby Anna Giaritelli | May 11, 2018
Ecuador’s embassy in London will continue to ban WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from using the phone or meeting guests, after British and Ecuadoran officials failed to reach an understanding on whether and how to reconnect him to the outside world.
In late March, Assange tweeted criticism about the United Kingdom’s decision to expel Russian diplomats from England following the poisoning of former Kremlin operative Sergei Skripal.
Assange’s outside communications were shut off in an attempt to prevent him from issuing statements reflecting his personal views, over fears they could further complicate relations between Ecuador, England, and Russia. “He still has no access to the Internet and communications (…) there is a dialogue, there is a will and an interest to move forward in the solution of that matter,” Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told reporters this week……https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/julian-assange-stuck-without-a-phone-cant-see-guests-at-ecuadors-embassy-in-london
May 12, 2018
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secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK |
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Europe scrambles to salvage Iran nuclear deal after US withdraws https://nypost.com/2018/05/10/europe-scrambles-to-salvage-iran-nuclear-deal-after-us-withdraws/ ANKARA , 10 May — European countries are powerless to salvage the nuclear deal with Iran after the United States pulled out, the deputy head of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) said Thursday.
Britain, France and Germany said they remained committed to the deal despite Tuesday’s decision by President Trump to withdraw.
But Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami said Europe “cannot act independently over the nuclear deal,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that Tehran would remain in the 2015 agreement, though Europe had only a “limited opportunity” to preserve it.
On Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast doubt on the ability of the European signatories to guarantee Tehran’s interests, adding: “I do not trust these countries either.”
Khamenei has the final say on all state matters and commands the loyalty of the IRGC, which has huge political and economic influence domestically.
Salami said Iran’s enemies were not seeking military confrontation. “They want to pressure our country by economic isolation … Resistance is the only way to confront these enemies, not diplomacy,” Fars quoted him as saying.
Trump also said Tuesday he would revive US economic sanctions against Iran, penalizing foreign firms doing business with Tehran and further undermining what he called “a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.”
Europeans fear a collapse of the deal could raise the risk of deepening conflicts in the Middle East.
Early on Thursday, Iranian forces launched their first attack on Israel from inside Syria, firing rockets at army bases in the Golan Heights, Israel said.
That prompted one of the heaviest Israeli barrages against Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.
The pact, the signature foreign policy achievement of Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, was designed to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb in exchange for lifting most sanctions that had crippled its economy. Sanctions were removed in 2016.
Trump complained that the agreement failed to address Iran’s ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 or its role in conflicts in the Middle East, where Tehran has been involved in a proxy war from Lebanon to Yemen for decades.
In defiance of Western pressure to curb the missile program, Tehran says it is an essential precautionary defense against the United States and other adversaries, primarily Gulf Arab states and Israel.
“Exiting the deal and their concerns over Iran’s missile work are excuses to bring our nation to its knees,” Salami said.
The IRGC’s overseas arm, the Quds force, operates in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, among other places.
May 11, 2018
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EUROPE, Iran, politics international |
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Britain plays down media report of Hitachi nuclear deal, Susanna Twidale -10 May 
LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) – Britain’s government on Wednesday played down a media report that it will guarantee Hitachi Ltd’s Horizon Nuclear Power loans for the construction of two reactors in Wales.
British Prime Minister Theresa May met Hitachi Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi last week in London and asked him to go ahead with the project, conveying the government’s intention to fully guarantee the loans, Japan’s Mainichi newspaper paper said, without citing a source.
“We don’t recognise these reports,” a spokesman for Britain’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said in an emailed statement.
“Nuclear power remains a crucial part of the UK’s energy future but we have always been clear that this must be delivered at the right price for consumers and taxpayers,” he said.
Britain is seeking new ways to fund nuclear projects after criticism over a deal awarded to France’s EDF to build the first nuclear plant in Britain for 20 years, which could cost consumers 30 billion pounds.
“These discussions are commercially sensitive and we have no further details at this time,” the BEIS spokesman said.
Hitachi’s Horizon plans to construct at least 5.4 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity at two sites in Britain – the first at Wylfa Newydd in Wales, and a second at Oldbury-on-Severn in England.
…….. The Mainichi report said Hitachi is still pushing for the British government to take a stake in the project and guarantee electricity prices to ensure it is profitable.
The cost of the Hitachi project in Wales has ballooned to 3 trillion yen (20.2 billion pounds) due to tougher safety measures, the newspaper said. Hitachi declined to comment, when contacted by Reuters.
Reporting by Susanna Twidale, Yoshiyasu Shida and Osamu Tsukimori; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Alexandra Hudson
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-nuclear-hitachi/hitachis-u-k-nuclear-project-to-get-guarantees-from-government-media-idUKKBN1IA0IV?rpc=401&
May 11, 2018
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Mainichi 9th May 2018 [Machine Translation] The UK government presented to Hitachi about a debt
guarantee for the full amount of borrowing necessary for the project, surrounding Hitachi’s nuclear power plant project to be planned in central UK.
Until now, the Japanese government had a policy of guaranteeing debt from borrowing from Japanese banks. The British government, which had been asked to strengthen support from Hitachi, said it showed stronger involvement in finance.
Based on this, Hitachi is expected to judge continuation of investment within the month. As a loan, 3 megabanks such as
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and other government-affiliated international cooperation banks are planning to participate from Japan, and it was planned that the Japan Trade Insurance, wholly owned by the government, will guarantee the loans of three lines.
However, in late April, the British government showed Hitachi’s intention to guarantee full debt of both Japanese and English bank loans. Prior to this, Hitachi reported that there is a possibility of withdrawing from business unless UK government’s adequate support is obtained, the UK side seems to have presented as part of the support measures.
If the loan is burned down due to an accident or the like due to the guarantee of debt, there is a possibility that the
British people will eventually bear a burden. Although the burden of Hitachi is not immediately reduced compared with the case where the Japanese government guarantees the debt, the British government owes the risk of the failure of the project, so that the meaning that the British government can continue to support in the future can be expected is there.
https://mainichi.jp/articles/20180509/k00/00m/020/171000c?fm=mnm
May 11, 2018
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politics, UK |
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