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Every home and community could be a power station’: the Nuclear Free Local Authorities’s future renewable energy vision for Wales

Every Welsh home and community a renewable power station” was the vision outlined by the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities Secretary for a sustainable nuclear-free Wales at a meeting held in the Senedd Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay yesterday (6 December).

The event was sponsored and opened by Senedd Member Mike Hedges and hosted by CND Cymru to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clwyd Declaration when in 1982 all eight of the original Welsh County Councils declared themselves nuclear-free. Throughout 2022, an exhibition to mark the anniversary has been touring the nation, and yesterday, the exhibition was on display at the Pierhead Building…………………………………….

NFLA Secretary Richard Outram described a vision where Wales could instead be powered by renewables alone.

Richard said: “The Nuclear Free Local Authorities remain implacably opposed to any new nuclear power stations in Wales. Wales is blessed with many natural resources from which to draw power – her rivers, tides, sun and wind, even the untapped geothermal power that can be derived from the earth and the many abandoned coal mines that lie beneath the feet of her citizens!

“If we fitted new and existing homes and public buildings with insulation and energy efficiency measures, each would use less heat and power, reducing customers’ bills and their carbon footprint. And if we fitted them with solar panels, heat pumps, and battery storage they could generate and store their own heat and power, making them energy sufficient and independent of the National Grid. In effect every Welsh home and public building could become an energy efficient, energy generating power station.

“And if this is combined with larger community, Council or business led renewable projects, such as hydro, onshore or offshore wind, tidal, wind, solar, or geothermal schemes, we can create a visionary and sustainable energy future for Wales more cost-effectively, more quickly, more safely and with many more jobs than nuclear. Wales already derives much of its energy from renewables, but we could do much more.”

The event ended with participants being asked to sign the Cardiff Declaration. Signatories included Councillors from Newport City Council and Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council, as well as members of the following organisations: CND Cymru; ICAN, We can, Cymru can; Cor Cochion Caerdydd; Wales One World Film Festival; Labrats International; XR Peace; Trident Ploughshares and United Nations Association.  https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/every-home-and-community-could-be-a-power-station-the-nflas-future-renewable-energy-vision-for-wales/

December 9, 2022 Posted by | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

USA and UK welded together firmly in the grip of the nuclear lobby, with their Small Nuclear Reactor folly.

UK and US ‘like-minded’ on nuclear power as key to energy security,

SMR, Rob Harris, December 7, 2022 British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his counterpart, US President Joe Biden, have announced a new venture to secure supply and reduce price volatility, with the US promising to more than double the amount of gas it exported to the UK last year.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his counterpart, US President Joe Biden, have announced a new venture to secure supply and reduce price volatility, with the US promising to more than double the amount of gas it exported to the UK last year.

The new “UK-US Energy Security and Affordability Partnership” will aim to reduce global dependence on Russian energy exports, stabilise energy markets and step up collaboration on energy efficiency, nuclear and renewables.

But the focus on nuclear sharpens the divide between Australia’s attitudes towards a civil nuclear power industry and those of its two closest allies – governments of all persuasions in Canberra have outlawed a domestic industry and resisted calls to overturn the ban for decades……………..

In a joint statement, Sunak and Biden said their new agreement would promote nuclear energy as “a safe and reliable part of the clean energy transition”.

“This includes deepening global collaboration on nuclear fuels and advanced nuclear technologies.”

They said both nations would work to deepen global collaboration between “like-minded countries” on small modular reactors (SMRs) and support a resilient and diversified nuclear fuel supply chain………………………………….

Nuclear power is now firmly back on the agenda, particularly in Britain and France, amid new fears for energy security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ever-greater need to reduce global carbon emissions.

The US, with 92 commercial reactors, is the world’s largest producer, accounting for more than 30 per cent of the nuclear-generated electricity worldwide.

Large reactor projects are still facing financial and construction problems, with the UK’s 3.2 gigawatt Hinkley Point C plant hit by delays and cost overruns. But analysts believe [for “analysts” read “nuclear salesmen”]the time may be right for SMRs – which could also prove affordable to nations unable to fund large nuclear plants…………

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week rebuffed a push by South Australian Premier, Peter Malinauskas, to restart the nuclear debate in Australia, citing waste and safety concerns as key reasons nuclear should not be considered as an energy option………

“I haven’t changed my view that it’s a huge distraction from what we need to do. It just doesn’t add up,” he said on Adelaide radio 5AA. “That’s essentially the problem. Every five years or so we have this economic analysis of whether nuclear power stacks up and every time it’s rejected.”……….. https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/uk-and-us-like-minded-on-nuclear-power-as-key-to-energy-security-20221207-p5c49q.html

December 7, 2022 Posted by | politics international, UK, USA | Leave a comment

UK Tories getting nervous about nuclear power plans?

Conservative Home Sanjay Sen 7 Dec 22

Fears that Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement would see Sizewell C cancelled proved unfounded. The 3.3 giga-watt nuclear mega-project is now set to get under way on the Suffolk coast with a price tag of £20 billion.

Or maybe £30 billion. If the track record of its French design is anything to go by, things might not go exactly to plan.


Nick Clegg famously dismissed nuclear power because it takes a decade to come on-line. That was a decade ago, and we could really do with some extra power right now.

today’s Government has big ambitions: eight sign-offs by 2030 with nuclear supplying 25 per cent of our power by 2050. As long as no-one gets cold feet and cancels all that.

Net Zero enthusiasts and climate sceptics alike see a major role for nuclear. But is Sizewell C best way to deliver it? How did we get where we are now? And what can we learn from our French neighbours, the world’s biggest nuclear enthusiasts?

………… Meanwhile, our current nuclear fleet is fast depleting. Despite generous life extensions, all but one of the UK’s nine remaining reactors will be retired by 2030. That means Sizewell C will mostly be plugging the gap left behind, not creating extra capacity. To compound matters, our ability to import electricity could be impacted by the challenges facing the French nuclear industry.


Is Sizewell C our best option – or was it our only option?

Sizewell C is a tweaked version of Hinkley Point C which is (still) under construction. Whilst its third-generation EPR technology is intended to deliver improved efficiency and safety, it hasn’t exactly performed flawlessly to date. Operational plants at Olkiluoto (Finland) and Taishan 1 and 2 (China) have proven problematic so far. Those under construction, Flamanville 3 (France) and our very own Hinkley, continue to incur delays and cost over-runs.

Whilst engineers will recognise the technology, much differs below the surface. Hinkley is 80 per cent French (EDF) and 20 per cent Chinese (CGN). But with EDF financially constrained and relations now strained with Beijing, Sizewell ownership will be 20 per cent EDF, 20 per cent UK Government, with the remainder from infrastructure investors and pension funds.


Contracts for Difference have also been ditched. Not only blamed for Hinkley’s giant cost, they are also held responsible for scaring off other would-be nuclear investors: Hitachi Wylfa (North Wales) and Toshiba Moorside (Cumbria). Instead, Sizewell will use the Regulated Asset Base model which shares costs (and risks) with consumers from day one…………………………. https://conservativehome.com/2022/12/07/sanjoy-sen-nuclear-is-the-best-path-to-a-greener-cheaper-and-more-secure-energy-supply/

December 7, 2022 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Ineos Grangemouth refinery: Anti-nuclear campaigners will put up a huge fight against any attempt to build small nuclear reactors – Dr Richard Dixon

The talks between Ineos and Rolls Royce about siting a nuclear reactor at the Grangemouth refinery are a huge gift to campaigners opposed to a new generation of nuclear.

 https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/ineos-grangemouth-refinery-anti-nuclear-campaigners-will-put-up-a-huge-fight-against-any-attempt-to-build-reactor-dr-richard-dixon-3944799 By Richard Dixon, 8 Dec 22,

The idea contains the perfect combination of elements needed to ensure its own defeat. This is a plan to build an untested type of nuclear reactor on a site with significant explosion risks all around, in the middle of the most densely populated part of Scotland, with a government that is opposed to nuclear, and, best of all, for a man trade unionists and the public love to hate.

Up to now, nuclear reactors have been placed in out-of-the way places in case the worst happens – from leaks and explosions to terrorist attacks. Or even direct military attacks as in Ukraine. This reactor would be in the middle of the Central Belt, with maximum consequences guaranteed if something goes wrong.

The nuclear industry’s latest wheeze is the small modular reactor (SMR). They make it in a factory, bring it in on trucks and bolt it together on site. There are a number of problems. Firstly they aren’t small, needing an area the size of two football pitches and with the latest proposal having a capacity half as big as the full-scale reactors used by the French nuclear fleet.

They will cost an eye-watering sum: the current estimate is £2 billion but the one certainty about the nuclear industry is that the final cost is always several times what they originally told you. And they would produce proportionally more radioactive waste than the bigger versions. And, of course, there is still no permanent solution for nuclear waste, 70 years on from the start of the civil nuclear programme. Oh yes, and it will be well into the 2030s before an SMR could be built.

The UK Government is keen on the idea, having allocated more than £200 million to their development. But the Scottish Government has been implacably opposed to new nuclear, concentrating instead on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Renewable energy is much cheaper, much faster to install and much, much safer. The scenarios drawn up ahead of the imminent Energy Strategy did not contain any new nuclear power, small, large or otherwise, and the Scottish Government has already been quoted in the press as saying it would block any attempt to build a reactor at Grangemouth.

The Grangemouth site is home to a range of hazardous industries, so much so that Falkirk’s football stadium only has stands on three sides because the fourth would have been inside the Grangemouth ‘blast zone’. Aside from an active war zone, there can’t be a more dangerous place to put a pile of super-hot radioactive material.

Then there is Sir Jim Ratcliffe, twice thwarted in his ambition to become the UK’s Fracker in Chief and a hate figure among the unions for the way he treated workers at Grangemouth. The ideal site-based environmental campaign would be based on this being a dangerous proposal in the wrong place, with hostile politics and a really clear bad guy. This proposal has it all and, if it starts to become real, you can expect an almighty fight.

December 7, 2022 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, UK | Leave a comment

Workers at hazardous nuclear waste site test positive for drugs

Random testing has been carried out on 741 workers over the past year. Seven
workers at the hazardous Sellafield nuclear waste site have tested positive
for drugs over the past twelve months. Three have tested positive for
alcohol, raising questions over safety at the site Cumbria which manages
spent fuel from Britain’s nuclear reactors.

Four of the positive drugs tests and one of the positive alcohol tests followed random testing,
carried out on 741 workers between November 2021 and November 2022. The
others followed “for cause” testing, where a worker is suspected of
being impaired by drugs or alcohol, carried out on 36 people over the same
period.

The figures were released to The Telegraph following a Freedom of
Information request. It did not reveal what action had been taken against
those who tested positive. Sellafield is considered one of the most
hazardous nuclear sites in the world, according to the Office for Nuclear
Regulation, handling more radioactive material per square meter than any
site in Europe.

Telegraph 4th Dec 2022

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/12/04/workers-hazardous-nuclear-waste-site-test-positive-drugs/

December 5, 2022 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Sizewell C nuclear – a huge black hole for taxpayers’ money

“If the Chancellor is looking for cheap, reliable, energy independence,
he is backing the wrong project, as Sizewell C’s ultimate cost and
technical reliability are so uncertain and building it is reliant on French
state-owned EDF.

Green-lighting Sizewell C also loads more tax onto
struggling households, who would be forced to pay a nuclear levy on bills
for a decade before they could light a single lightbulb. Despite the
Chancellor’s statement, Sizewell C still needs financing, and with at least
a year before it’s decided whether it will finally go ahead, we’ll keep
fighting this huge black hole for taxpayers’ money, when there are cheaper,
quicker ways to get to net zero.”

Stop Sizewell C 3rd Dec 2022

December 5, 2022 Posted by | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Climate change brings risk of flooding to the multi billion pound nuclear project Sizewell C.

UK sent nuclear warning as new £20bn site facing risk from increased flooding: ‘Alarming!’

Earlier this week, the UK Government confirmed that £700million of public money will be invested in the Sizewell C nuclear power plant.

 https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1703570/energy-crisis-nuclear-edf-sizewell-c-increased-flooding-climate-change-suffolk By ANTONY ASHKENAZ Nov 30, 2022

Experts have issued a dire warning about the proposed Sizewell C nuclear power plant, as climate change induced flooding could mean that in future, the coastal nuclear site could turn into an island. Earlier this week, the Government confirmed that £700million of public money will be invested power plant, which once built will provide power to the equivalent of six million homes for more than 50 years. However, experts fear that the reactor, which will be built in Suffolk, could be at risk of climate change, as rising sea levels threaten to erode and swallow up the East coast of the UK, Express.co.uk was told. 

Earlier this week, the UK’s former Chief Scientific Advisor Sir David King warned that the new £20billion power plant would be “very difficult to protect from flooding” due to rising sea levels on the Suffolk Coast.

Speaking to LBC, he said: “Part of the British coast that’s most at risk of rising sea level is the east coast and clearly this is very close to the oceans as is Sizewell B, and frankly that is the biggest risk. 

“It would be very very useful if we could see published an analysis of sea level to the end of the lifespan of Sizewell C. It would take us to 2070 and beyond, possibly 2080. 

“I do fear that it’s quite possible that we will have had a one-metre sea level rise by that time, by which time this would be very difficult to protect from flooding. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I would love to see the safety analysis on the basis of rising sea levels.”

Dr Paul Dorfman, an associate fellow from the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex told Express.co.uk: “In 2008, the pro-nuclear group of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers published a report, which says that UK nuclear coastal installations, which specify Sizewell, will be subject to storm surge, climate-induced sea level rise, flooding and potential nuclear islanding.

“Perhaps alarmingly, IME point out that these UK coastal nuclear sites will need considerable investment to protect them against rising sea levels, and even relocation or abandonment.

“Our knowledge about climate now is that rare events then, become the norm today, so basically there are questions of Sizewell being at significant risk. So quite literally, Sizewell is at the frontline of climate change, and not in a good way.”

He also noted that very “reasonable models” of climate change showed that Sizewell within two decades, would be surrounded by flood water once a year.

He said: “If construction goes ahead, clearly they will build in defences. But the idea of a nuclear power plant within a couple of decades being almost entirely cut off by water, and what does that mean for the future.

“Because it’s not just the reactors, it’s also the high-level spent fuel points, and the hot intermediate-level waste stores that are also at risk.”

As part of its energy strategy unveiled in April, which heavily focused on a number of policies that could help weaken Russia’s grip on UK energy prices, the Government set a target of significantly scaling up nuclear so that it will account for 25 percent of the country’s projected electricity demand by 2040.

The strategy noted that Sizewell C is critically important for helping the UK reach its nuclear targets, and it has been engaging in negotiations regarding the project’s construction since January 2021. 

However, Dr Dorfman added: “The other thing is, BEIS, in a statement to Parliament, state that nuclear construction can take 13-17 years. If Sizewell C gets the go-ahead next year at the earliest, we’re looking at first generation by 2040. 

“Firstly, that’s much too late to help with our climate and energy problems. But by the time it’s constructed, it’s likely to be a climate risk.” 

Meanwhile, Alison Downes, from the campaign group Stop Sizewell C told Express.co.uk: ““Future flood risk maps show the Sizewell site as an island, and we’re deeply concerned that planning assessments were not conservative enough in considering the potential for coastal erosion in Sizewell Bay.

“EDF is being forced to plan sea defences the height of 3 double-decker buses, but since this site will carry radioactive material for well over a century, is it a safe and sustainable approach to protecting our children’s future to locate a nuclear power station here? We say no.

December 5, 2022 Posted by | climate change, UK | Leave a comment

Talking football pitches but not in Qatar

thttps://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/talking-football-pitches-but-not-in-qatar/ 5 Dec 22, Whilst the World Cup action on the pitch in Qatar is the current focus of many millions of fans of ‘the beautiful game’, the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities are seeking out the answer to a football-related question much nearer to home. 

Rolls-Royce has been talking big about the prospects for its so-called Small Modular Reactors in recent days, but everyone remains confused as to how big the reactor is. Although the intended power output is clear, at 470 MW being roughly compatible with a first-phase Magnox nuclear reactor, various media articles have reported the SMR as occupying a surface area amounting to between ‘one and a half and ten football pitches’.

Football’s world governing body, FIFA, sets international standards for the dimensions of playing pitches based on metres, but even these are at variance. The length of a pitch can be between 90 metres and 120 metres from goal line to goal line and the width between 45 metres and 90 metres.

Quite a difference, so the NFLA decided they want to use Wembley Stadium with a playing pitch of 105 metres by 68 metres as a reference football pitch most people can relate to.

The Chair of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities Councillor David Blackburn has just written to Tom Samson, Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce SMR, seeking out the answer.

Councillor Blackburn said “If we do not know how big it is we do not know what we are dealing with, and it is way overdue for Rolls-Royce to provide clarity. With the FIFA standard size of a football pitch being variable, we have gone for Wembley Stadium as a reference most people, whether football fans or otherwise, can relate to. We have asked how many ‘Wembley’s’ will the SMR fill? It is now over to Mr Samson to respond. We shall of course bring you the final score when we have it.”

December 5, 2022 Posted by | Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, UK | Leave a comment

UK government may be covering up the extent of its involvement in the arrest and incarceration of Julian Assange

MINISTER ‘MISLED PARLIAMENT’ ON FOREIGN OFFICE ROLE IN SECRET ASSANGE OPERATION New information suggests the UK government may be covering up the extent of its involvement in the arrest and incarceration of the WikiLeaks founder.

 https://declassifieduk.org/minister-misled-parliament-on-foreign-office-role-in-secret-assange-operation/ MATT KENNARD AND JOHN MCEVOY 2 DECEMBER 2022

A British MP has accused a Foreign Office minister of “misleading parliament” over his department’s involvement in the secret operation to arrest Julian Assange.

Kenny MacAskill MP, a former Scottish justice secretary, asked the Foreign Office “whether any people working on Operation Pelican were based within [its] Department’s premises.” 

Pelican was the secret Metropolitan Police-led operation to seize Assange from his asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which was mounted in April 2019. 

Junior foreign minister David Rutley told parliament last week in answer: “No Foreign and Commonwealth Office [FDCO] officials were directly assigned to work on Operation Pelican.”

However, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request in July last year, the Foreign Office had already admitted: “Three FCDO officials did some work on Operation Pelican, the most senior of which was Head of Latin America Department.”

Declassified on Tuesday revealed the UK government had assigned 15 staff to Pelican, but this number did not include any Foreign Office personnel. 

‘Misled parliament’

Under the Ministerial Code, ministers have a duty to “be as open as possible with parliament” and to “give accurate and truthful information”. A House of Commons guide states that “this requirement governs the answers ministers provide to parliamentary questions”.

The misleading of parliament is a serious charge that can lead to a minister’s resignation or sacking. 

David Rutley, the Conservative MP for Macclesfield, has been foreign minister for the Americas and Caribbean since October 2022, and serves under foreign secretary James Cleverly. 

A supporter of Rishi Sunak, Rutley has met the US ambassador to Britain and travelled to Colombia and Panama since taking up office.

Kenny MacAskill, MP for East Lothian, told Declassified: “This new information shows that foreign minister David Rutley misled parliament in answering my recent question. It demonstrates not just the standard obfuscation I have become used to, but actual distortion of the facts about the UK government’s effort to ‘get’ Julian Assange.”

He added: “The actions of the British government have not simply been to assist the US. They have been active and willing participants in the state-sponsored cruelty meted out to Assange. And then tried to hide it all.”

18 officials

Operation Pelican’s existence was only revealed in the memoirs of former foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan which were published last year. The UK government routinely blocks, or obfuscates its answers to, information requests about the Assange case.

For instance, the Home Office and the Cabinet Office have refused FOI requests regarding communication between departments about Pelican. The Foreign Office claimed it holds no information on the matter.


In March, Home Office minister Kit Malthouse even told parliament that his department, despite having eight staff assigned to Pelican, holds no information about which other ministries were involved. 

Then, in a later response to a FOI request, the Home Office refused to confirm or deny whether it holds information on inter-departmental communication about Pelican. This refusal to rule out whether the Home Office does hold information on the matter raises concerns that Malthouse may also have earlier misled parliament.

The new information takes up to 18 the number of officials the UK government has admitted to deploying on Operation Pelican. 

These included senior officials such as the Deputy National Security Advisor at the Cabinet Office and the International Director at the Home Office, according to documents obtained by Declassified through a FOI request. 

Declassified has revealed that four of Britain’s most powerful government ministries, including the Foreign Office, are refusing to say if their officials have met with US authorities to discuss Julian Assange. 

December 5, 2022 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

Small modular reactor plans to be blocked by the Scottish government

Plans to power a refinery in Scotland with a Rolls-Royce small modular
reactor (SMR) are likely to stall due to opposition from the Scottish
government. Government officials have said they will block any moves to
power the Grangemouth refinery on the Firth of Forth with a nuclear
reactor. According to the Sunday Telegraph, talks have taken place between
chemicals group Ineos and Rolls-Royce, and the two companies are understood
to have considered whether the plant could be powered by an SMR.

New Civil Engineer 30th Nov 2022 https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/scottish-small-modular-reactor-plans-to-be-blocked-by-government-30-11-2022/

Scottish small modular reactor plans to be blocked by government

December 2, 2022 Posted by | politics, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, UK | Leave a comment

Nuclear Free Local Authorities call for Community Partnerships to include critics of the undersea Geological Disposal Facility plan

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have sent a second letter to each of the
four Community Partnerships responsible for taking forward proposals for a
nuclear waste dump to seek assurances that opponents of the plan should
have a chance to take up membership.

The Community Partnerships in
Allerdale, Mid-Copeland, South-Copeland, all in West Cumbria, and in
Theddlethorpe, in East Lincolnshire, are each pursuing the possibility of
hosting Britain’s many tons of high-level radioactive waste, produced from
Britain’s civil nuclear and military nuclear programmes, in an undersea
Geological Disposal Facility.

NFLA 1st Dec 2022

Community Partnerships should include those opposed to nuclear dumps, say NFLA

December 2, 2022 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Britain’s bunkers offer little chance of survival after a nuclear attack

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/02/britains-bunkers-offer-little-chance-of-survival-after-a-nuclear-attack 2 Dec 22 David Saunders and Mark Newbury write that, with no bunker provision for civilians, most of us won’t have access – and those who do should not expect to live long.

The owner of the Kelvedon Hatch bunker suggests that those selected for his shelter might survive for 10 to 20 years in it while avoiding nuclear fallout (‘When you hear the four-minute warning’ … Whatever happened to Britain’s nuclear bunkers?, 24 November). This is, sadly, an unrealistic expectation if one simply looks at the likely impact on infrastructure of even a limited nuclear attack on the UK, based on exercises and analysis conducted during the cold war.

It was accepted 50 years ago that nobody above ground is likely to be left fit or alive to generate power or supply clean water. Food cannot be grown in a radioactive environment and, in the period preceding any outbreak of war, there will be diminished food stocks due to panic buying or rationing.

The scenarios modelled by civil defence analysts even during the 1980s Pershing and cruise missile deployment suggested that survival in Britain’s local government bunkers would be short lived. There was never any provision in the UK for sheltering the civilian population in the event of a nuclear conflict and Britain’s civil defence posture was abandoned as a posture after the 1960s.

While in neutral Sweden and Switzerland housebuilding rules made provision to protect the civil population, in Britain the idea of being able to survive to the same extent as in, say, the blitz in the second world war is merely a pious hope.

Nice to know that, according to the civil defence historian Nathan Hazlehurst, “Key members of central government, the military and royal family will have access to bunkers, along with those staff needed to run the country post-attack.” The rest of us will (I assume) have to make do with an updated version of the much-derided Protect and Survive booklet.

December 2, 2022 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

TODAY. The GREAT BRITISH NUCLEAR financial mess

In a gloomy financial statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the Office for Budget Responsibility had judged that the UK’s economy was shrinking. J.P.Morgan said on Tuesday it expects a contraction in the UK’s economy next year as it enters a lengthy period of stagnation in the face of soaring gas prices, slowing global growth and tighter economic conditions. It predicts “Tighter monetary and fiscal policy amid scarring from both the pandemic and Brexit”

In the midst of all this financial gloom, both the Tory government and the Labour opposition delight in predicting a boom in electricity production from a fleet of nuclear reactors both Big and Small – a fleet that is magically going to appear like some sort of miasma – as taxpayer funds pour into nuclear projects like Sizewell C (Big) and Rolls Royce’s 470 MWe SMR (Not Really Small At All)

Seven months ago the UK government dreamed up “Great British Nuclear” – a “flagship” to “enable nuclear projects”. Now it is clear that “Great British Nuclear” is nothing more than a public relations exercise.

Wylfa and Cumbria nuclear projects failed. because, although the
government offered to take a 30 per cent stake, no other investors came
forward. Now the government is to take a 50% stake in the up to £43 billion Sizewell C , – again desperately touting for investors.

And now – the government unveils plans to establish “Great British Energy”, a new arms-length public body to oversee UK nuclear power pipeline

The Tories pinched the name from the opposition Labour Party, which touted its plan as “all about renewables”. But Labour didn’t mind a bit, when the government co-opted it and turned it into some sort of nuclear justification body. Indeed, Labour’s just as ecstatic as the Tories, about Britain’s wonderful nuclear future – and to hell with the expense!

December 1, 2022 Posted by | politics, UK | 5 Comments

UK’s £26bn Hinkley Point C nuclear station now faces 11 year delay

Britain’s flagship Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is facing the risk of an 11-year delay, piling further pressure on efforts to keep the lights on. According to a new contract between the Government and French company
EDF, Hinkley will still be funded even if it does not start operating until 2036 – more than a decade after its initial deadline in 2025.

It raises the prospect of significant further hold-ups at Hinkley, which has already been delayed until mid-2027. The change to the subsidy contract terms comes as the Government is paying China a reported £100m to exit its involvement in a second planned new nuclear project, Sizewell C in Suffolk, which is also being developed with EDF. The Government confirmed on Tuesday that CGN will exit Sizewell C, with the state paying an unconfirmed sum to cover its 20pc shareholding and a commercial return. The Times reported this to be £100m. CGN’s involvement with Hinkley Point C is believed to be unaffected.


However, as part of the negotiations, Hinkley Point C now has more leeway than previously to get up and running. The project has a deal with the Government under which it gets a guaranteed £92.50 per megawatt hour for its electricity for the first 35 years of its life, backed by a levy on consumer bills.

When the project was first agreed in 2016, it was due to start generating at the end of 2025. In January 2021, that was pushed back
to June 2026, and in May 2022 it was pushed back again to 2027, with EDF blaming the pandemic and supply chain issues. Costs are now expected to be as high as £26bn. The plant is using a new type of generating technology, EPR, which is so far only in commercial operation in Taishan, China, where one reactor has been shut down due to problems.

Telegraph 29th Nov 2022

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/29/hinkley-point-nuclear-plant-faces-risk-11-year-delay/

November 30, 2022 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

UK government to take 50% stake in the French development of Sizewell C nuclear station

Ed note: This is the Tory government plan. But didn’t they pinch the Great British Energy idea from Labour?

Sizewell C project takes major step forward as government unveils plans to establish Great British Energy, a new arms-length public body to oversee UK nuclear power pipeline. The government has approved plans to build the UK’s
first new nuclear power plant in a quarter of a century, today confirming it has agreed to invest £679m to take a 50 per cent stake in the Sizewell C project being developed in Suffolk by French energy giant EDF.

Then”historic” investment will see the UK government become joint shareholder in Sizewell C alongside developer EDF, which will also provide additionalminvestment to match the UK government’s stake, muscling out previousmshareholder China’s CGN in the process.

EDF and the government now plan to work together to attract further third-party investment in the 3.2GW low carbon power project, which once completed would be expected to provide enough power to meet the needs of six million homes for more than 50 years.

In addition, the government today also announced plans to establish Great British Nuclear, a new arms-length public body to help develop a pipeline of new nuclear projects. More details are expected early in the new year, including on the government’s funding commitment to the new body.

Business Green 29th Nov 2022

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4060883/sizewell-government-confirms-plan-gbp670m-stake-nuclear-power-project

November 30, 2022 Posted by | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

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