Climate change: More than 1000 institutions pledge to withdraw investment from fossil fuels https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/fossil-fuels-divest-climate-change-global-warming-emissions-campaign-a8681931.html ‘This is a moral movement as well as a financial one,’ campaigners say Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent @josh_gabbatiss 14 Dec 18, Governments, universities and banks have quit fossil fuels in their hundreds after a global campaign to convince institutions to pull their investments.
A milestone achievement has been announced at key climate talks taking place in Poland as the initiative persuaded 1,000 institutions opting to divest from coal, oil, and gas companies.
The total sum of money being withdrawn since the campaign began in 2012 is now approaching $8 trillion (£6.3 trillion).
Pressure is mounting for nations and businesses to eradicate fossil fuels altogether after scientists warned it was the only way to avoid disastrous global warming within decades.
However, efforts to arrive at international agreements have stalled at the COP24 summit as negotiators failed to reach a compromise on issues like green finance.
“While diplomats at the UN climate talks are having a hard time making progress, our movement has changed how society perceives the role of fossil fuel corporations and is actively keeping fossil fuels in the ground,” said May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, the group running the campaign.
Pledges to divest from fossil fuels now span 37 countries, and include major capital cities such as New York, as well as mainstream banks and insurance companies.
In July Ireland became the world’s first country to make a pledge to sell off the fossil fuel components in its €8bn (£7.2bn) national investment fund.
Meanwhile hundreds of MPs from across the political spectrum in the UK have called for fossil fuel investments to be dropped from their pension funds
Faith organisations such as the Quakers and the Church of England have led the charge, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the divesters.
“This is a moral movement as well as a financial one,” said 350.orgorganiser Nico Haeringer, who supports divesting groups around the world.
“Just five years ago we had 181 divestment commitments and $50bn shifted away from polluting industries and today we’re over 1000 and approaching $8tn.”\Miriam Frank, a community organiser of a local campaign, attended the announcement at COP24.
“Divesting the Hebrew University’s investments from fossil fuels contributes to weakening the legitimacy of the fossil fuel industry, by calling them out for the harm they cause to our planet and the exploitation of people,” she said.
The campaigners said their goals were to get millions of people directly involved in fighting against climate change, and reduce the power of the fossil fuel industry over politicians and climate policy.
They say that early reports suggest divestment is already having an impact on fossil fuel share prices, and may have helped accelerate a decline in coal.
Nations are expected to set firm targets to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 at the latest, and by this date 350.org wants to achieve $12tn in divested assets.
December 15, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, UK |
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Scotland’s oldest nuclear reactor to go as demolition contract awarded, The decommissioning of Dounreay’s oldest nuclear reactor has taken a major step forward with the award of a multi-million pound contract Gov. UK 14 December 2018
December 15, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
decommission reactor, UK |
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Burnham-on-Sea 13th Dec 2018 . Concern that Hinkley Point C will have ‘devastating’ impact on sea fish
numbers in Burnham. Proposals to scrap plans for an acoustic fish deterrent
system in the sea next to Hinkley Point C will have a ‘devastating’ impact
on fish stocks in the sea around Burnham-On-Sea and the Bristol Channel, it
has been predicted this week. Sea anglers in Burnham claim EDF’s plans
not to install a fish deterrent system around the cooling water intakes in
the channel will lead to “significant” numbers of fish being killed.
https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/concern-over-hinkley-point-c/
December 15, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
environment, UK |
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London mayor unveils plan to tackle ‘climate emergency’https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/11/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-city-climate-emergency, – Matthew Taylor, Sadiq Khan accuses government of dragging its feet and calls for investment to avert catastrophe London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has declared a climate emergency and urged the UK government to do more to avert an ecological breakdown that he says poses an existential threat to future generations.
Speaking as City Hall outlined its new climate change plan, Khan said he was implementing measures to protect people from floods, fires and the political upheaval caused by climate change. He accused central government of “dragging its feet” on dealing with these issues.
“We are in the midst of a climate emergency which poses a threat to our health, our planet and our children and grandchildren’s future,” Khan told the Guardian. “City Hall is doing everything in our power to mitigate the risk in London but the stark reality is that we need urgent government action and funding.”
The acknowledgement of the scale and nature of the ecological crisis by the leader of one of the world’s major cities comes amid growing concern about the impact of climate change. A succession of scientific reports have laid bare the scale of the unfolding disaster, including one from the UN that said there were only 12 years left to avert the most extreme consequences of climate breakdown.
On Sunday 100 academics, philosophers and authors wrote to the Guardian to back a new civil disobedience group – Extinction Rebellion – and called for people around the world to rise up and organise against the “paralysis” of political leaders.
Khan’s intervention follows that of civic leaders in the UK and around the world. Last month Bristol declared a climate emergency and set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, while Manchester said it would become “carbon zero” by 2038. Both are more ambitious than the UK’s national target of an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050. It follows similar moves by several US cities.
London’s existing plan, unveiled by Khan in May, was for the city to be carbon neutral by 2050. But last week the London Assembly passed a motionsaying that target should be brought forward to 2030 and called on Khan to draw up “a specific emergency plan”.
Caroline Russell from the Green party, who proposed the motion, said it was crucial Khan backed a more radical target and called on the government to give him the appropriate powers and funding.
“Catastrophic climate breakdown might be as little as 12 years away,” she said. “This would have profound impacts on every aspect of our lives in London from flooding and overheating in summers, disruption in our food supply chains as well as in the wider natural world.
“The mayor needs to be at the forefront of this challenge, declaring a climate emergency and an urgent updating of his carbon reduction targets to make London carbon neutral by 2030, decades ahead of his current plans, setting a precedent for other major and world cities.”
Khan said he had already introduced a series of measures to tackle climate breakdown – from investing £500m in low carbon technologies to divesting pension funds from fossil fuels.
But he said a City Hall analysis due to be published on Wednesday showed London would need a huge programme of investment as well as new powers to bring forward its zero-carbon target to 2030. The cash would be used to:
• Retrofit hundreds of thousands of homes and offices to make them more energy efficient.
• Decarbonise the national grid.
• Install low-carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps.
• Move private and public transport away from diesel and petrol, and towards electric.
Khan said: “My message to ministers is clear – stop dragging your feet and gambling with our future and give London and cities across the UK the real powers and funding needed to protect our future generations.”
The Green party welcomed Khan’s move and backed his call for more help from central government. But Russell said there was more that could be done now. “Sadiq should start this mission by cancelling the Silvertown road tunnel and fighting harder against things that will make the climate crisis worse.
“He should call right now for a halt to climate-wrecking aviation expansion, including at Gatwick, and ask his C40 [global green city network] counterparts to join him.”
December 13, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, UK |
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Times 11th Dec 2018 , Doubts over Britain’s planned nuclear revival increased yesterday amid
fears that the Japanese company developing a new plant on Anglesey may be
preparing to scrap the project. Shares in Hitachi rose by as much as 2.9
per cent at one point after Japanese media reported that it was considering
abandoning work on the proposed Wylfa plant because of rising costs.
Hitachi’s board is understood to be holding a quarterly board meeting today
at which the fate of Horizon, the subsidiary developing the £15
billion-plus project, will be discussed.
The company has been in talks with
the British government over financial support for Wylfa and is understood
to want a deal by the middle of next year or else could walk away. TV
Asahi, the Japanese broadcaster, reported that a decision was likely to be
taken by the end of the business year in March.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b6c04dec-fcbc-11e8-9a88-fa81ced0c139
December 13, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, politics, UK |
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BBC 11th Dec 2018 , Representatives from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant have
appeared in court after a worker was allegedly exposed to plutonium.
Sellafield Ltd was charged with a health and safety offence after an
incident at the West Cumbria site in February last year. The company
entered no plea at Carlisle Crown Court.
The prosecution relates to “risks arising from hand working within glove boxes”. The glove boxes are sealed
containers, with integral gloves, which allow someone to work on objects or
materials that need to be kept in a separate atmosphere. The company faces
one charge brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) under the
Health and Safety at Work Act. A trial has been provisionally earmarked for
April next year with another hearing listed for February.
This is the first
prosecution brought by the ONR since it was established in 2014.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-46528539
December 13, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Legal, UK |
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The Japanese conglomerate’s mooted 2.9GW nuclear power station on Anglesey is next in line in the UK’s nuclear plans after EDF Energy’s 3.2GW Hinkley Point C scheme in Somerset.
However, Japan’s TV network Asahi reported that the Wylfa Newydd scheme may be scrapped, sending Hitachi’s shares up by almost 3%, before ending up by 1%.
The project is expected to be discussed at the Japanese multinational’s board meeting on Tuesday.
The Guardian understands that cancelling the power station would result in Hitachi having to write off its near-£2bn investment in the project.
Hiroaki Nakanishi, the board’s chairman, last week admitted the company was struggling to find investors willing to finance the plant. Hitachi faced “an extremely severe situation”, he said.
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If the Wylfa project was to fail it would be a major blow to the UK’s hopes for a fleet of new nuclear plants to meet its carbon targets and fill the energy gap created by old coal and nuclear plants being taken offline.
Ministers have already been hit by the recent collapse of plans for a significant new nuclear plant in Cumbria after Toshiba failed to find a buyer for the Moorside project.
However, it would be surprising if Hitachi pulled the plug on Wylfa at this stage. Tripartite talks are still ongoing between the firm and the UK and Japanese governments.
The business secretary, Greg Clark, said in June that the UK was considering taking a “direct investment” in the power station, overturning decades of policy of not taking a stake in civil nuclear power. But such projects should be financed by the private sector “in the longer term”, he said.
The UK is understood to have offered to take at least a £5bn-plus public stake to make the financing of the £16bn power station work.
The company and government are still continuing with talks, which insiders described as “fairly intense”.
Hitachi’s British subsidiary Horizon will need to reach an agreement with the UK by the middle of 2019, if it is to clear EU state aid approval and hit its timetable of making a final investment decision in mid-to-late 2020.
Wylfa is one of two sites that Hitachi is considering, with an identical 2.9GW plant planned for Oldbury in Gloucestershire.
A Horizon spokesperson said: “Since the secretary of state’s statement to the House in June this year we’ve been in formal negotiations with the UK government regarding financing of the Wylfa Newydd project in a way that works both for investors and the UK electricity customer.”
The company said the negotiations were commercially confidential and it would not comment on rumours or speculation.
Greenpeace UK said investors could see the economics of new nuclear did not add up. “As Hitachi contemplates whether to pull out of Wylfa, UK government might contemplate whether they’ve been backing the wrong horse for many years,” said Doug Parr, the group’s chief scientist.
December 11, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, UK |
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WIND output in Scotland has broken through the 100% threshold for the first
time with 109% of total electricity demand being met from renewables, according to new data. Figures from Weather Energy, part of a wider European project, show electricity generated by wind in November was enough to power nearly 6 million homes – a new record for Scotland.
In another milestone, wind production outstripped total electricity demand on 20 out of 30 days. Gina Hanrahan, head of policy at environmental group WWF Scotland, welcomed the contribution made by wind: “Wind power breaking through the magic 100% threshold is truly momentous. For months output has flirted around the 97% mark, so it’s fantastic to reach this milestone. “It’s also worth noting that 20 out of 30 days wind production outstripped demand.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17286749.scottish-wind-power-output-breaks-100-output-milestone/
December 11, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
renewable, UK |
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GDF Watch 7th Dec 2018 , It has been over 10 years, 4 Prime Ministers, and 5 Administrations since
the original Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) recommended
geological disposal. In that period successive Governments of all Parties
have recommitted to geological disposal.
With the recent publication of
position papers updating their advice on a range of key issues, the latest
CoRWM have also reaffirmed their expert opinion that geological disposal
remains the best available way to dispose of higher-activity radioactive
waste. Four new papers have been issued in response to specific concerns
raised in stakeholder submissions to the public consultations earlier this
year on the GDF draft National Policy Statement (NPS) and the Working With
Communities siting policy:
http://www.gdfwatch.org.uk/2018/12/07/corwm-respond-to-public-concerns-reaffirm-geological-disposal/
December 11, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
UK, wastes |
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David Lowry’s Blog 4th Dec 2018 , As Parliament grapples with ministers in a power struggle over disclosure
of legal advice on the Brexit ‘divorce’ agreement and the sovereignty of Parliament, other Brexit–related details have been pushed into the background: but they should not be.
One such issue arose last week in a written answer by the energy minister Richard Harrington to Green Party MP
Caroline Lucas (who represents the Brighton, Pavilion constituency). Dr Lucas asked the business and energy department on 20 November, with reference to Article 83, paragraphs (1) and (2) of the Draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU and the European Atomic Energy Agency (dated 14 November 2018), who will own fissile materials stored at UK nuclear facilities after the UK withdraws from that agency. (‘Radioactive Materials,’ 193428)
In his answer on 28 November, the energy minister stated: “Under the current European Atomic Energy Community
(“Euratom”) Treaty arrangements, special fissile material is collectively owned by the Euratom Community, but the operator with the legal title to the material has an “unlimited right of use and consumption” over it, subject to their complying with the obligations imposed on them by the Treaty. This form of supranational, or sovereign, ownership underpins the regulation of special fissile materials by the Euratom Community in accordance with the Euratom Treaty.
http://drdavidlowry.blogspot.com/2018/12/plutonium-title-swaps-and-brexit.html
December 10, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, UK |
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Theberton & Eastbridge Action Group on Sizewell 16th Nov 2018 Did you know that EDF wants to build two new reactors on the Suffolk coast, next to the internationally-famous RSPB Minsmere wildlife reserve and AONB?
It is to be a twin of EDF’s new Hinkley Point plant – so what is actually coming for Sizewell? Watch, share and sign up to receive our updates, and get ready to help us hold EDF to account in caring for this special place when they share their new proposals in January.
Grateful thanks to Lush Charity Pot for their support which made this video possible, and a huge shout out to UK Aerial Photography for all the Suffolk drone photography and editing the video.
https://www.facebook.com/teags.org/videos/194650268134653/
December 10, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
opposition to nuclear, UK |
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David Lowry’s Blog 7th Dec 2018 , Letter to Guardian: Your energy editor’s report on the new UK-Belgium
energy interconnector (“Funding Nemo: £600m power cable now links UK to Belgium,” overlooks one crucial matter: how will any disputes arising from the joint facility be resolved once the UK has left the EU and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice?
This complexity was foreseen in a research paper issued by London-based think tank Chatham House 18
months ago ( “Staying Connected: Key Elements for UK–EU27 Energy Cooperation After Brexit”, 10 May 2017
https://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/staying-connected-key-elements-uk-eu27-energy-cooperation-after-brexit,
authored by Antony Froggatt, Senior Research Fellow on Energy, Environment and Resources at CH, (and his colleagues from CH Europe Programme plus the Energy Policy Group at University of Exeter). Their research paper proposed that energy – particularly electricity – should be treated as a special case in the UK’s future relationship with the EU27. They argue that “strong UK–EU27 energy cooperation could help ensure that existing and future interconnectors – physical pipes and cables that transfer energy across borders – between the UK, Ireland and the continent are used as efficiently as possible.”
http://drdavidlowry.blogspot.com/2018/12/future-regulation-of-uk-eu-energy.html
December 10, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics international, UK |
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How Radioactive Poison Became the Assassin’s Weapon of Choice, Matter, 26 Nov 2013, The mysterious life and brutal death of a Russian dissident.
TUCKED INTO THE Millennium Hotel on London’s Grosvenor Square, the Pine Bar is a place of hush and shadows. Dark wood panelling, leather seats, and black shaded chandeliers cosset those who seek discretion in style. Head barman Norberto Andrade has hidden many celebrities in its recesses during his 27 years of service, including James Bond stars Sean Connery and George Lazenby.
The three Russians who ordered drinks on the chilly afternoon of November 1, 2006 had little of the lethal glamour one might expect of spies. ………
The men eventually left, and Andrade cleared the table. As he poured the remaining tea away, he noticed that the consistency of the liquid that tipped into the sink was strange. Gooey. He couldn’t have known it as he puzzled over its weird yellow tinge, but the man who’d been sipping the tea was a 43-year-old Russian dissident called Alexander Litvinenko, and the tea itself, draining away into the London sewers, was lethally radioactive. …….
During the night, his temperature plummeted, yet he begged for the windows to be opened so he could gulp down more of the freezing November air.
“It looks like they’ve poisoned me,” he said to his wife.
The next night she called an ambulance: doctors took a cursory look, diagnosed a stomach infection, and sent him home. But two days later he was sicker yet. His doctor immediately sent him to Barnet General, a bright local hospital not far from his home. When Litvinenko told the medics his theory — that he’d been poisoned by the Russian security services — they suggested he call a psychiatrist. The probability, they thought, was that his sickness had a far more routine cause: food poisoning from an unfortunate lunchtime dose of sushi.
The doctors treated Litvinenko with a heavy dose of antibiotics. And yet his body continued to break down. ………….
Polonium-210 spits out alpha particles. Normally, alphas aren’t a problem. Their huge size means that even a barrier as thin as a few inches of air — or a layer of human skin — stops them before they can do any harm. But if a high dose finds its way inside a human body, the damage can be immense. “An alpha particle leaves the equivalent of a motorway as it goes through tissue,” says Wakeford. “Sufficient cells in your body would commit suicide that you’d die.”
Polonium-210 is unusual in another way, too: it leaves the body relatively quickly. It sheds radiation so fast that the amount of poison in the body decreases by half in less than two months. “It’s sufficiently long lived that it’ll be around for a bit, but after that will leave no trace,” says Wakeford.
Polonium-210 is very rare in that it is almost a pure alpha emitter. When it gives out alpha particles there’s hardly any chance of there being a gamma particle emitted as well. You need a special instrument to look for alpha particles, because they’re so easy to block. ”
In short, it’s deadly, hard to find and doesn’t hang around. “And that,” says Wakeford, “is why it makes such a good poison.”……….
Polonium is hugely radioactive, firing off a massive bombardment of alpha particles — and without any screening, the delicate mechanisms of the body’s internal organs get the full dose. As the atoms try to stabilize, alpha particles crash into nearby body tissue, knocking electrons from the molecules they encounter. Each time they do, the trail of wrecked cells expands; the poison turns them cancerous, or kills them off entirely.
And that is just the beginning………..
THE IDEA OF POISONING — radioactive or otherwise — is not new to Russian intelligence. According to former Russian intelligence officer Boris Volodarsky, now a historian and one-time associate of Litvinenko, the Russians have a history of substance assassination going back nearly a century. It was Lenin who ordered the establishment of their first laboratory, known simply as the ‘Special Room’, for developing new lethal toxins.
“There is also a long succession of poisonings by Russian intelligence services in different countries, starting in the early 1920s,” he says.
At its height, says Volodarsky, the Soviet Union had the largest biological warfare program in the world. Sources have claimed there were 40,000 individuals, including 9,000 scientists, working at 47 different facilities. More than 1,000 of these experts specialized in the development and application of deadly compounds. They used lethal gasses, skin contact poisons that were smeared on door handles and nerve toxins said to be untraceable. The idea, at all times, was to make death seem natural — or, at the very least, to confuse doctors and investigators. “It’s never designed to demonstrate anything, only to kill the victim, quietly and unobtrusively,” Volodarsky writes in The KGB’s Poison Factory. “This was an unbreakable principle.”
Murderous poisons come in three varieties: chemical, biological, and radiological. It’s believed that the first Soviet attempt at a radiological assassination took place in 1957. The target was Nikolai Khokhlov, a defector who had left for the United States a few years earlier. He became drastically ill after drinking coffee at an anti-communist conference he was speaking at in West Germany. After his collapse, he was successfully treated at a US army hospital in Frankfurt for what was believed to be poisoning by radioactive thallium.
In the years before Litvinenko’s murder, a series of other killings bore similar hallmarks. In 2004, Roman Tsepov, a prominent and controversial political operative from St Petersburg, died after being poisoned with an unidentified radioactive substance on a visit to Moscow. The year before, Yuri Shchekochikhin had died in similarly mysterious circumstances. An investigative journalist and member of parliament, he had exposed a series of scandals, including an FSB racket that laundered money through the Bank of New York. His death came after a brief, undiagnosed illness with familiar symptoms: hair loss, vomiting, red blotches, fatigue. He was due to fly to the United States to meet FBI agents just days later.
The Russians may not be the only ones to have used nuclear technology for targeted execution, however. East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, are alleged to have used radioactive poisons and even deployed modified x-ray machines to irradiate and injure political prisoners. They also used radiation as a tool, surreptitiously tagging dissidents with chemicals so they could trace and track them with Geiger counters.
And in November 2013, scientists in Switzerland announced that they had found heightened levels of polonium in the remains of the former Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. Investigations began two years previously, when researchers discovered the strange news that some of the personal items that Arafat had been wearing shortly before his death appeared to be contaminated with high levels of polonium-210 and were emitting alpha radiation. It was a finding that raised difficult questions for those who may have wanted to get rid of him.
But still, Russia’s ability to source and use radioactive poisons seems to be pre-eminent. Only about 100 grams of polonium are manufactured each year, and just three countries are known to produce it reliably: Israel, the United States, and Russia. And 97 percent of that supply is manufactured in one place — a converted nuclear weapons facility that operates under high security, on the banks of the Volga, 450 miles south east of the Kremlin.
The case for official Russian involvement in Litvinenko’s death was growing. And there was more evidence to come: unbeknown to them, the assassins had left a trail — and it seemed to lead east…………
This story was written by Will Storr, edited by Deborah Blum, fact-checked byFangfei Shen, and copy-edited by Rupert Goodwins. The illustrations were by Ed Tucker, and the audiobook was narrated by Ian Parkinson. https://medium.com/matter/how-radioactive-poison-became-the-assassins-weapon-of-choice-6cfeae2f4b53
December 10, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK |
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Times 9th Dec 2018 Something that would once have been unthinkable took another step towards
becoming reality last month just 40 miles east of London on the Essex
coast.
Britain’s nuclear watchdog nudged a Chinese reactor a step closer
to being allowed to operate in the UK, sending it through the “initial
high-level scrutiny” phase. It will eventually be built at
Bradwell-on-Sea. Much tougher hurdles lie ahead, but regulators have so far
been able to find no reason to block China General Nuclear’s HPR1000.
This is the dilemma facing Britain — one that has been thrown into stark
relief by the events of the past week. The arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the
chief financial officer of telecoms giant Huawei, means all that must be
seen through a different lens. The daughter of Huawei’s founder was
arrested in Canada at the behest of the US authorities and faces charges of
fraud and breaching US sanctions on Iran.
However, the tone on Chinese investment in Britain has now changed and recalls the words of Theresa
May’s former adviser Nick Timothy in 2015, when he said the government was
“selling our national security to China”. A deep-seated suspicion of
Huawei at GCHQ has finally surfaced as open hostility, while,
coincidentally, BT is removing Huawei technology from its 4G mobile
network. Yet all this looks remarkably like shutting the stable door after
the horse has bolted. If there was a time to reject Chinese investment, it
was 20 years ago.
Now, with ministers reliant on Chinese cash to fund a
significant slice of our future power needs, do they dare bite the hand
that feeds? Plus, in a post-Brexit world, a trade deal with China is meant
to top the priority list. For all the braggadocio, I suspect there will be
much soothing talk between London and Beijing in the months ahead. Does the
government really think it can put the Chinese dragon back in the bottle?
And can it afford to?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/6cfdbf12-fafc-11e8-9a07-72ebead02362
December 10, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, politics, politics international, UK |
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Reeves calls for clarity for nuclear in ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario https://utilityweek.co.uk/reeves-calls-clarity-nuclear-no-deal-brexit-scenario/ David Blackman , 7 Dec 18 Rachel Reeves has urged the government to provide greater clarity about its plans for civil nuclear power if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal deal.
The chair of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee has written to Richard Harrington, who has responsibility for the nuclear industry in his portfolio as minister for busiUK
In the letter, Reeves acknowledges indications of progress on the civil nuclear relationship between the EU and the UK regarding issues like safeguards and trading arrangements.
The government passed a bill last year outlining plans to create a new safeguarding regime for nuclear material and labour once the UK has to leave its existing arrangements under the Euratom treaty.
The letter seeks more detail on the plans that the government is making to ensure that the civil nuclear sector can continue to function after next March if parliament has been unable to secure a broader separation agreement and whether a side-deal with Euratom is being pursued.
She also quizzes Harrington on whether the UK has received any signals from Euratom about whether it will be possible to maintain the “close association” that the government has said it wanted with the EU-wide nuclear co-operation arrangement.
Reeves also asks whether the government has made any arrangements to overcome possible hitches in the nuclear new build programme if the upcoming migration white paper inhibits the inflow of the migrant labour which has been “essential” for such projects.
Reeves said: “In the event of no deal and no transition period, the ongoing operation of the UK’s nuclear power stations could be put at risk. The government needs to spell out what it is doing to ensure that nuclear power stations continue to function from 29 March 2019 and whether it will seek a separate deal with Euratom in these circumstances.
“The government also needs to be clearer about its plans to facilitate the building of construction of major facilities such as Hinkley Point C if restrictions on migrant labour are introduced in the future.”
December 8, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, politics, politics international, UK |
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nuclear-news 