China will control UK’s new nuclear power plants
Chinese companies will be allowed to own a majority stake in UK nuclear powerplants, George Osborne says Announcement is expected to hail start of ‘massive wave’ of Asian investment in British nuclear energy sector, ADAM WITHNALL The Independent, 17 OCTOBER 2013 George Osborne has announced that Chinese companies will be permitted to own a majority stake in future projects to build nuclear power stations in Britain.
The ground-breaking decision could see the first deal struck as early as next week, with Chinese investment now considered for a new £14 billion plant at the Hinckley C site….. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/chinese-companies-will-be-allowed-to-own-a-majority-stake-in-uk-nuclear-power-plants-george-osborne-says-8885829.html
AREVA joins the pack marketing nukes to Britain
Areva Said Ready to Join Group Building U.K. Nuclear Power Plant, Bloomberg News By Tara Patel and Francois de Beaupuy October 16, 2013 Areva will take a stake in the Hinkley Point project from Electricite de France SA, the people said, asking not to be identified before an announcement is made. China General Nuclear Power Corp. will also become a shareholder, the people said. Areva and EDF’s boards will meet in the next week to approve the deal, they said.
Bringing in Areva and China General as partners will allow EDF to share the expense of a project likely to cost about 14 billion pounds ($22 billion). The EDF-led group, expected to sign an agreement with the U.K. government next week, will build two Areva-designed EPR reactors able to supply about 3,600 megawatts, more than 4 percent of U.K. generation capacity. Officials at EDF and Areva declined to comment. Nobody at China General was available to comment outside office hours……http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-16/areva-said-ready-to-join-group-building-u-dot-k-dot-nuclear-power-plant
Setback for UK and others’ nuclear projects, as EU rules against subsidies
Blow to nuclear projects as Brussels drops plan for subsidy rules Ft.com By Alex Barker and Joshua Chaffin in Brussels, 9 Oct 13 Nuclear power projects in Europe face a legally uncertain future after Brussels heeded German concerns and ditched plans to issue specific guidelines on permitted state subsidies.
In a blow to the UK, France and countries in central and eastern Europe eyeing 
new nuclear programmes, the European Commission decided informally on Tuesday to carry on investigating programmes on a case-by-case basis. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4bf0e37e-3033-11e3-9eec-00144feab7de.html#ixzz2hHtwoX29
This puts Britain in the uneasy position of acting as a test case for EU public subsidy rules on the next generation of nuclear plants when it seeks clearance from Brussels in the coming months.
The UK is offering various support mechanisms, including a guaranteed price for nuclear power and a financing “guarantee”, to entice the private sector into building a series of nuclear reactors.
The UK Treasury is locked in talks with EDF, the French energy group, over a price mechanism for energy from its proposed reactor at Hinkley Point in southwest England.
Brussels issued separate state-aid guidelines governing renewable forms of energy, as well as energy efficiency projects, in 2008. Joaquín Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, considered extending these to the nuclear sector under a broader review of the regime for policing state subsidies.
Edward Snowden revealed enormous surveillance powers of US UK governments
The totalitarian state in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four would need no broader legal justification than that: it really does allow a government to do anything it likes. It was at this point that I became convinced that Snowden’s revelations are not just interesting or important but vital, because the state is about to get powers that no state has ever had, and we need to have a public debate about those powers and what their limits are to be..
The Snowden files: why the British public should be worried about GCHQ John Lanchester The Guardian, Friday 4 October 2013
When the Guardian offered John Lanchester access to the GCHQ files, the journalist and novelist was initially unconvinced. But what the papers told him was alarming: that Britain is sliding towards an entirely new kind of surveillance society………
Problems and risks
The problems with GCHQ are to be found in the margins of the material – though they are at the centre of the revelations that have been extracted from the Snowden disclosures, and with good reason. The problem and the risk comes in the area of mass capture of data, or strategic surveillance. This is the kind of intelligence gathering that sucks in data from everyone, everywhere: from phones, internet use from email to website visits, social networking, instant messaging and video calls, and even areas such as video gaming; in short, everything digital. Continue reading
Fraudulent idea of media ‘balance’ promotes anti science
Complaints focused on the World at One programme on Radio 4 on Friday, which featured the Australian sceptic Bob Carter. A retired geologist, he leads a group called the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, and is funded by US libertarians. His words also dominated several subsequent news bulletins.
Earlier in the day, the Today programme had said it could not find any British climate scientists who disagreed with the IPCC’s core findings.
The biologist Steve Jones, who reviewed the BBC’s science output in 2011, told the Guardian he was concerned that the BBC was still wedded to an idea of “false balance” in presenting climate sceptics alongside reputable scientists.
“Science turns on evidence. Balance in science is not the same as balance in politics where politicians can have a voice however barmy their ideas are.
a stunning display of false balance when it devoted less airtime to IPCC scientists than it did to Bob Carter, a sceptic who is funded by a free-market lobby group in the US, the Heartland Institute. Carter was allowed to make a number of inaccurate and misleading statements unchallenged.”
BBC coverage of IPCC climate report criticised for sceptics’ airtime http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/oct/01/bbc-coverage-climate-report-ipcc-sceptics Steve Jones among experts querying BBC ‘false balance’ in giving climate sceptics ‘undue’ voice on global warming study Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent The Guardian, Wednesday 2 October 2013 Steve Jones said he previously advised the BBC not to present climate-change sceptics as having equal scientific weight with mainstream researchers. The BBC has been criticised for its coverage of the most comprehensive scientific study on global warming yet published. Prominent climate experts have accused the corporation of bias towards “climate sceptics” at the expense of mainstream scientists. Continue reading
Renewable energy generation in UK breaking records
Record high for UK renewables Renewable Energy Focus 01 October 2013 Statistics published today by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed that the amount of electricity generated from renewable energy sources in the UK reached a new record high of 15.5% of total electricity generation in the second quarter of this year.
“The fact that we have seen the record for renewables generation broken twice in the space of a few months shows for itself the progress being made in the race to decarbonise our economy and secure our future electricity supply.” http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/34797/record-high-for-uk-renewables/
Possibility of Scottish independence raises nuclear arms worry
UK nuclear arms backup plan urgent ahead of Scottish vote – lawmakers 7 News, September 27, 2013 By William James LONDON (Reuters) – The British government must urgently draw up a contingency plan for where it can put its nuclear arsenal in case Scotland, where the submarine-based nuclear missile system is now located, votes for independence, a parliamentary study said on Friday………With less than a year to go to the September 18, 2014, referendum, the issue of what to do with Britain’s nuclear deterrent is urgent, lawmakers said.
“The possibility of Scottish independence represents a serious threat to the future operational viability of the UK’s nuclear deterrent,” said one of the conclusions of the year-long Defence Committee investigation into the impact of independence.
“The UK Government must now give urgent consideration to contingency options in the event of a ‘Yes’ vote,” it said.
Britain is one of only five officially recognised nuclear-armed countries. Four submarines equipped to carry nuclear missiles – the Vanguard, Victorious, Vigilant and Vengeance – are based in deep-water lochs along the west coast of Scotland, and concrete missile storage bunkers are built into the Scottish hillside. At least one of the four is always at sea……. If Scotland votes to break away, Britain would face a huge, expensive and time-consuming task to relocate the system.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed on Thursday it currently has no contingency plan…….Keith Brown, a minister in the devolved Scottish government, called the current nuclear programme a “huge waste of money” and said an independent Scotland would focus its military efforts differently.
“An independent Scotland can halt the disproportionate cuts to our defence footprint and deliver the defence jobs, the equipment and the security that Scotland needs,” he said…..http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/19133473/uk-nuclear-arms-backup-plan-urgent-ahead-of-scottish-vote-lawmakers/
The politicians are wrong – 100% renewable energy is possible Guardian UK Dr Nafeez Ahmed 25 Sept 13, If Miliband wants to beat the Big Six and deliver energy price freeze promise, he must fix his party’s broken policies first “…….In May this year, a report by the Committee found that investing in renewable energy, as opposed to a new ‘dash for gas’, would be the cheapest option for keeping the lights on while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Investing in renewable energy was the best option even if shale gas prices were relatively low. The report identified “a clear benefit in committing to invest in low-carbon generation over the next two decades”, rather than “an alternative strategy of investing in gas-fired generation through the 2020s and delaying investment in low-carbon technologies.”
In other words, we don’t need shale gas to keep the lights on. Renewables can not just keep the lights on, they can keep them cheap, and perhaps therefore back-up a proposed price freeze. But it seems, politicians and ministers are not interested in listening to the independent scientific advice that they themselves are commissioning with taxpayer’s money. Continue reading
Scotland’s Sustainable Renewable Technologies (SRT) comes up with the SOLAR PYRAMID
The Solar Powered Pyramid http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3947 18 Sept 13 The sight of solar panels on a rooftop mightn’t generally capture as much attention as it once did, but this installation certainly does.
Designed and installed by Scotland’s Sustainable Renewable Technologies (SRT), the 48.25 kW installation provides 85% of the power used by the pyramid-shaped headquarters of Survey Solutions at Bilston Glen, Loanhead, Edinburgh.
According to SRT, other solar companies approached to execute the installation shied away from the project; stating that it could not be done.
Design of the scaffolding system that would allow the panels to be positioned in place was quite a challenge, but even more so was the clients’ requirement that each face of the pyramid to be covered in solar panels must be a perfect triangle. There could be none of the stepping that would otherwise be seen with square solar cells of the cut-down panels along edges.
To achieve the “perfect triangle” effect wasn’t so much a case of high-tech wizardry, but more design ingenuity – the panels along the edge are dummies and do not generate power. The 193 panel array will provide a benefit to the building’s owners of around AUD$17,000 annually and avoid the creation of around 36 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
The system was installed in July 2012 and has been nominated for this year’s Solar Power Portal Awards, which recognises good practice, professionalism, quality, safety and innovation in the UK’s solar industry.
The SRT installation is unsurprisingly in the “Most Innovative System Design,” category. Also not surprising is the comment from Tom King, SRT’s managing director, who said the installation was the most challenging project he has planned so far.
We imagine the project has resulted in all sorts of weird and wonderful design requests for Mr. King and his team.
UK: Liberal Democrats sold out their principles on nuclear power
Nuclear fuel on the bonfire of Liberal Democrat principles http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/16/nuclear-bonfire-liberal-democrat-principles The Guardian, Caroline Lucas MP, Tuesday 17 September 2013 As Liberal Democrat opposition to nuclear power joins opposition to secret courts and tuition fees on the bonfire of Lib Dem commitments, voters could be forgiven for wondering whether the party has any “red lines” of policy or principle left (Climate fears bring U-turn on nuclear power generation, 16 September).
The weasel-worded capitulation on nuclear power suggests it has a role to play “providing concerns about safety, disposal of radioactive waste and cost are adequately addressed and … without allowing any public subsidy for new build”.
As the Lib Dem leadership well knows, the new energy bill has been crafted precisely to give generous subsidies to nuclear through so-called contracts for difference. It is thought likely that, for Hinkley C alone, a transfer of £30bn-£50bn from British householders and businesses to the French company EDF will be required. Moreover, it is proposed that nuclear operators’ liability be capped at just £1bn per plant, when the total costs of the Fukushima disaster, for example, may well exceed £300bn.
There are far cheaper, safer, quicker, more efficient ways of addressing the climate challenge than pursuing nuclear power. Accelerating the deployment of energy-efficiency measures, demand-response, demand-reduction and distributed-generation policies, and renewable technologies, would help drive wholesale electricity costs down and deliver more value for money as a pathway to decarbonising electricity generation.
The Green New Deal Group, of which I am part, outlined just such an approach in a report last week. Investment in renewables, alongside a nationwide project to make every building in the country energy-efficient, would create hundreds of thousands of high-quality jobs across the country, as well as reducing both fuel bills and emissions.
Nuclear train derailed in Cumbria, UK
INVESTIGATION INTO NUCLEAR TRAIN DERAILMENT IN CUMBRIA News and Star,, Monday, 16 September 2013 Emergency services have declared the incident closed after a nuclear train derailed in Barrow today. The incident happened at Salthouse Junction, near Barrow train station, shortly after 2pm.
A spokesman for International Nuclear Services Ltd (INS), a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority responsible for the management and transport of nuclear material, said the train had been on its way to Sellafield carrying empty nuclear flasks.
He said: “The flasks were being transported from Barrow and had been shipped to the UK from Japan.”
A statement from operator Direct Rail Services said: “Work will now focus on recovering the derailed rolling stock. An investigation will be carried out into the cause of derailment in accordance with Rail and Nuclear Transport Regulations.”……http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/nuclear-train-derailed-emergency-services-at-scene-1.1084679
Britain’s Liberal Democrats join pro nuclear cause
“If it looks like a subsidy and smells like a subsidy, it is a subsidy,”
(at left – Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat who led the party over to the pro nuclear side)
Lib Dems’ green boast under threat as party votes for nuclear Members accept limited role for atomic power at Glasgow conference in historic reversal of policy Rowena Mason, political correspondent The Guardian, Monday 16 September 2013 The Liberal Democrats have embraced nuclear power for the first time in their 25-year history on the grounds that it will help Britain tackle climate change.In a historic reversal of policy, hundreds of members on Sunday voted in favour of accepting a “limited” role for atomic power plants in a safe and affordable way……..
On shale gas, the party agreed to accept fracking in “controlled” circumstances, with an amendment that would ensure it takes place under stricter regulation.
The acceptance of nuclear power, however, was the most significant U-turn. The party backed atomic plants following an impassioned speech by Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat energy secretary, and several hours of tense debate about the role of nuclear power in green politics.
Davey argued it would be reckless to reject such a large low-carbon source of energy, which would help wean Britain off fossil fuels. Green groups reacted with fury to the change, arguing the party had moved further towards Tory positions……..
An anti-nuclear stance has helped the Liberal Democrats develop an image as the most environmentally aware of the main parties, with the 2010 manifesto rejecting a new generation of plants, mostly because of the cost.
However, Chris Huhne, the first Lib Dem energy secretary, began the process of accepting nuclear by saying the party could accept it as long as there would be no taxpayer subsidy. Since Davey took over the reins, he has been negotiating with EDF, the French nuclear giant, over the extra amount it can charge people for electricity to cover the cost of building the first plants……..
Fiona Hall, a Liberal Democrat MEP, also argued the motion is based on a false premise because the coalition’s plans to make voters pay for nuclear power through their energy bills is tantamount to a subsidy.
“If it looks like a subsidy and smells like a subsidy, it is a subsidy,” she said.
Others argued that abandoning the party’s long-held opposition to nuclear power would risk alienating core voters, who were first attracted to the party because of that environmental issue…….
Craig Bennett, policy director at Friends of the Earth, said: “The change punches a huge hole in the Liberal Democrats’ fast-sinking green credibility.”
“Nuclear power comes with massive costs attached,” he said. “Ed Davey is deluded if he thinks new reactors can go ahead without public subsidy – building them will result in the Liberal Democrats, yet again, breaking their promises.”
Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, added: “The vote shows how far the Liberal Democrats have slid from their previously principled position on energy and climate.” He added: “The party now seems prepared to thrust the issues of nuclear waste and funding on to future generations, rather than take on vested interests and put us on the road to dealing with the climate crisis in a clean, safe way.”….. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/15/lib-dems-vote-nuclear-conference
UK government by-passing County Councils on nuclear waste dump decisions
County councils sidelined from nuclear waste dump site decisions http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/12/county-councils-nuclear-waste-dump-sites Energy department policy makes district councils lead authority on locating waste dumps, which Cumbria county council says abandons big society Terry Macalister theguardian.com, Friday 13 September 2013 The government has been accused of “astonishingly undemocratic” behaviour after it moved to cut out county councils from deciding the site of a national nuclear waste dump.
The stinging criticism came from the leaders of Cumbria county council, who have been sidelined months after scuppering ministers’ plans by voting against a £12bn high-level waste repository near the Sellafield nuclear complex. Continue reading
UK nuclear decommissioning executives rorted the system
Nuclear plant bosses forced to pay back inappropriate expense claims including a £714 taxi bill for a CAT, Mail Online 9 Sept 13
- Executives at Nuclear Management Partners consortium widely criticised
- They were brought in to help decommission part of the Sellafield plant
- Claims also included trip to US Masters and £719 on good from Amazon
- One boss demanded £714 cab fare for themselves ‘and the cat’
- Audit of claims from 2008 to 2012 leads to thousands being handed back Taxpayer-paid executives running the Sellafield nuclear power plant billed £714 to chauffeur-drive a cat, expense claims revealed today.
- Bosses at consortium Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) also used the perk to pay for flights to the US Masters golf tournament and Amazon purchases submitted without receipts.NMP were brought in to decommission a nuclear plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, but senior staff have now been forced to hand back thousands of pounds after an audit of their claims between 2008 and 2012.
- From more than 606 expense documents it emerged £236,781 of claims were requested without a proper description, £30,557 worth were purely for personal expenditure and £42,711 should not have been claimed at all.
Jamie Reed, Labour MP for Copeland in Cumbria, which contains Sellafield told City AM: ‘A workforce that is being asked to accept many changes – including pay restraint – will have many questions.
‘Taxis for cats and flights to the US Masters simply beggars belief.’ Continue reading
Britain’s Olympic chairman shows a sly way to subsidise nuclear power
Olympian effort for nuclear build World Nuclear News 09 September 2013 The chairman of Britain’s Olympic Delivery Authority has suggested that a similar body could be set up to construct nuclear power plants before selling them to the private sector. The proposal for a new way to finance nuclear power plants as well as other kinds of key national infrastructure came from Sir John Armitt in an interview with Construction News. His ideas relate to his UK infrastructure experience, but would be equally applicable in other markets…….
an alternative approach would be to create a body rather like the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), which would be responsible for getting the first, maybe second, maybe third nuclear power plants built.”
The ODA is a government body not affiliated to any department. It coordinated with several other large public bodies to manage the construction of the facilities for the London 2012 Olympic Games. This was seen as a success, and the ODA continues to manage the conversion and development of the Olympic sites for the long term. In the power sector a similar organisation could use a mix of public funds and business taxes to build a power plant, bring it to operation and then sell to a private company for profit………
The suggestion follows a trend across the global nuclear sector to find new ways to raise the funds for construction and share construction risk. Russia’s state corporation Rosatom is constructing a nuclear power plant at Akkuyu in Turkey on a build-own-operate basis and plans to do the same in Vietnam. More usual is government support in the form of a loan guarantee for part of the construction cost …http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C_Olympian_effort_for_nuclear_build_0909131.html
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of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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