French firm EDF pressurises UK government to subsidise nuclear power
EDF boss piles pressure on government over nuclear plans 5 April 2012 | By Vern Pitt Head of French energy firm wants guaranteed price for nuclear power which greens oppose as a subsidy
The head of French energy firm EDF Energy has piled pressure on the government to speed up its energy market reform plans, so the firm can build new nuclear power plants in the UK.
Although deputy prime minister Nick Clegg pledged earlier this month to push on with the reforms in the next session of Parliament the government is not due to have its electricity market reforms on the statute book until spring 2013.
Speaking at an infrastructure conference today in London, Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, said: We are getting on with the job [of building new nuclear power plants] and we are gathering pace. Our determination needs to be matched with visible momentum from government.
It s critical the government continues to make progress with electricity market reform.
Although EDF has already spent millions on developing its first nuclear project at Hinkley Point in Somerset, it will not make a decision on whether to commit to the scheme until later this year.
He said that certainty on how contracts for difference , the part of the reforms that will allow the government to set a higher energy price for low carbon technologies, would work was crucial to the firm s investment decision.
But green campaigners have described such a system as a subsidy for nuclear power.
Nick Molho, head of energy policy at WWF, said the contracts amounted to a subsidy for a 60-year old technology .
He added: This is a recognition that nuclear power plants cannot be built in a liberalised electricity market and still need government support.
De Rivaz s comments follow calls from the construction industry to speed up the reforms so that a buyer can be found for Horizon Nuclear Power, which was put up for sale by joint investors RWE N-power and E.ON last month.
Horizon Nuclear Power has licences for two sites where it expects to build nuclear power plants.
This week MPs on the energy select committee said they would investigate the future of the nuclear industry in the wake of the Horizon sale.
Sneaking a nuclear waste dump in, under another name
Opponents believe that attempts to ‘spin’ a potential Lakeland nuclear waste dump as ‘West Cumbrian’ is an irresponsible strategy of deception that glibly condemns both Cumbria and the Lake District as a whole to inevitable environmental catastrophe…
Nuclear waste – tarnishing the Lake District ‘brand’? Virtual Lancaster, 26 APRIL 2012 The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) has issued a consultation response that indicates that its sole concern about having a dump for high-level nuclear waste built under the Lake District is bad publicity to the Lakeland ‘brand’.
Continue reading
Squabble in UK over who gets the lucrative nuclear decommissioning job
Union fury as US firms eye nuclear work The Independent MARK LEFTLY 23 APRIL 2012 A swath of US firms are preparing to bid to oversee the multibillion-pound decommissioning of 10 obsolete Magnox reactor-powered nuclear stations, angering unionsthat want the work to go to British outfits. Continue reading
UK poll shows overwhelming support for renewable energy
Poll: Nine out of 10 people want more renewables Friends of the Earth survey latest to show public support for renewables as green group launches new Clean British Energy campaign BusinessGreen 23 Apr 2012
Almost nine in 10 people want to see the government ramp up the UK’s use of clean domestic energy and reduce the country’s reliance on imported gas, a new YouGov poll reveals.
Just under two-thirds of the 2,884 people questioned on behalf of campaign group Friends of the Earth listed wind, wave, solar, or tidal as power sources they wanted to see playing a greater role in the UK’s electricity mix over the next decade, while just two per cent backed an increase in gas capacity. The survey is the latest to signal strong public backing for renewable energy, following Sunday’s YouGov poll for Scottish Renewables that found 71 per cent of Scots supported wind power, and a separate Ipsos MORI survey last week that reported 67 per cent of respondents were in favour of using more wind power….. http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2169394/poll-people-renewables
“Contracts For Difference” – UK’s deceitful plan to subsidise the nuclear industry
“Industry on all sides believe this is a subsidy.”
Green campaigners believe the Lib Dems have been persuaded into allowing higher energy bills to flow into increased profits for nuclear companies by a sleight of hand that lets ministers disguise nuclear subsidies as support for “low-carbon power”.
“even the nuclear industry accepts this is a covert subsidy.”
Ministers planning ‘hidden subsidies’ for nuclear power Lib Dem worries over leaked document revealing plans to subsidise nuclear through electricity bills Fiona Harvey and Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, 20 April 2012 Ministers are planning to subsidise nuclear power through electricity bills – despite their promises not to, a secret document seen by the Guardian reveals. Continue reading
Another sort of “feed-in tariff” – UK’s sly subsidy for nuclear power
The “feed-in tariffs” referred to in the leaked submission are not the same as the feed-in tariffs by which households can gain extra income by installing solar panels.
Ministers planning ‘hidden subsidies’ for nuclear power Lib Dem worries over leaked document revealing plans to subsidise nuclear through electricity bills Fiona Harvey and Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, 20 April 2012 “……The leaked document, a submission to the European commission, which the government has confirmed as genuine, says: “Our reforms will put in place a regulatory framework based on feed-in tariffs for all low-carbon technologies, which will allow younger technologies to mature so that in the near- to mid-term future they will be able to compete in the open market … in time, we expect that this regulatory framework will enable different low-carbon technologies to compete against each other on a level playing field for their appropriate role in the energy mix.” Continue reading
Britain’s nuclear pickle, as French firms demand more subsidies for building reactors
The comments will send a shockwave through Whitehall because they come just weeks after the German utilities RWE and E.ON said they would not proceed with plans to build new nuclear plants at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire.
“UK energy policy is being manipulated and subverted to make it possible for French nuclear power companies (EDF and Areva) to start building four new reactors in the UK – two at Hinkley Point in Somerset and two at Sizewell in Suffolk.”
GDF Suez’s nuclear reservations hit government energy policy French firm needs more financial incentives if it is to proceed with new nuclear plant in Cumbria, says CEO Gérard Mestrallet, Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, 16 April 2012 The government’s energy policy has suffered a fresh blow when GDF Suez, the French firm behind plans to build a new nuclear plant in Cumbria, said it needed more financial incentives if it was to proceed. Continue reading
Developing nuclear weapons together – Japan and UK
UK and Japan agree to act in unison on nuclear interests Enformable, 13 April 12, For the first time in history, Japan has agreed to develop weapons with a country other than the United States, proclaiming the agreement will strengthen bilateral defense cooperation, including joint weapons development. Continue reading
UK’s messy situation – the economics of new nuclear reactors
Japan, the nation who cannot even restart its own reactors or bring the Fukushima disaster to a close, will be allowed, no encouraged, to sell the UK its own technology right back, and presumably for a profit.
The Nuclear Powers of Japan and United Kingdom Enformable, 13 April 12, “……The history of nuclear energy economics in the UK is equally complex. The once-mighty UK nuclear fleet, which at the beginning of the 1990s generated over 25% of the nations power, has fallen hard in more recent years. Continue reading
Renewable energy investment climbing in UK
Renewable energy investment bounces back after 2010 slump UK came 7th in global ranking for investment in clean energy last year, spending $9.4bn – up from $3.3bn in 2010, Madeleine Cuff guardian.co.uk, 11 April 2012 Investment in clean energy in the UK bounced back last year after its 2010 slump, the respected US-based Pew charitable trust has said in a comparison of investment across G20 countries. A total of $9.4bn was invested in wind, wave, solar and other renewable sources of power compared to $3.3bn in 2010 – a leap of 185%.
The UK came seventh in the global ranking for total investment in the Clean Energy Race 2011 report, below the United States, China, Italy and Germany. In 2010 the UK fell from 3rd to 13th in the world ranking, as investment plummeted from a high of over $11bn in 2009. The reduction was attributed to “uncertainty surrounding the policy perspective of a new government,” according to the 2010 report from Pew…..
Global investment in clean energy rose in 2011 by 6.5% to $263bn, fuelled by rising demand for solar panels, which are becoming ever cheaper to make and install. America is currently top of the clean energy table, but Italy and India saw large increases on their 2010 investment levels. The figures, based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance data released in a less granular form in January, also include finance for improving energy efficiency and research into low carbon technology.
Over half of Britain’s renewable energy comes from wind, and there is growing interest in the development of offshore windfarms. An extra $2.3bn of investment was ploughed into the UK wind sector this year….. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/11/renewable-energy-investment-bounces-back
There’s gold in them thar dead nuclear reactors
Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs
And some of us thought that the nuclear industry wasn’t profitable any more!
Well, after ripping off the taxpayer all these years they will now be back in business with a vengeance. The almost eternal task of buryng dead nuclear reactors could turn out to be even more profitable than ever
UK in nuclear decommissioning deal with Japan http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/10/japan-britain-nuclear-idUSL6E8FA3JP20120410 by Oleg
Vukmanovic; Edited by David Holmes LONDON, April 10 Apr 10, 2012 (Reuters) – Britain and Japan signed a framework civil nuclear co-operation pact opening up Japan’s multi-billion pound decommissioning sector to UK companies, the UK energy ministry said.
The announcement on Tuesday came as UK Prime Minister David Cameron kicked off his tour of Asia in Japan. The tour is aimed at boosting trade and investment ties, while the nuclear pact follows the devastating Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown in March last year. Continue reading
Cost of building nuclear plants, and the risk of time and cost overruns
the issue of shifting the risk from the banks back to convincing consumers that they must bear the risk….
the Vogtle project for two AP1000 reactors supplied by Toshiba/Westinghouse, is in a state (Georgia) where the regulator is already allowing cost recovery, even before the start of serious construction…. It is unlikely there will be many more states with regulators willing and able to commit consumers to repay all the costs, especially if things go wrong at these sites
Prospects for Nuclear Power in 2012, The Energy Report, 5 April 12 “…..Gen III+ Claims The nuclear industry would probably like to forget the claims it made for Generation III+ designs. In short, Gen III+ reactors would achieve the dream combination of being both safer and simpler, making them cheaper and easier to build. The expected overnight (excluding finance charges) construction cost was forecast to be no more than $1,000/kilowatt hour (KWh), so that a typical 1,500-megawatt (MW) nuclear power plant would cost $1.5 billion (B). This was much less than the few plants completed in the 1990s and, not by coincidence, a figure that meant power from new nuclear reactors would be competitive with power from gas-fired plants.
However, the $1,000/KWh promise quickly began to unravel, when the first order for a Gen III+ design, Olkiluoto in Finland, was priced in 2004 at more than double that level. Construction of the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) supplied by French company Areva, and its only successor so far in the West, Flamanville in France, has descended into farce. Both plants are now five years over their expected construction time and the latest cost estimates are about double the level forecast at construction start. Most recent serious cost estimates and bids in the past few years for Gen III+ designs have been of the order of $6,000/KWh. Continue reading
UK and USA cannot ignore the economic effects of Fukushima
Prospects for Nuclear Power in 2012, The Energy Report, 5 April 12 “Banks have signaled that they are unwilling to bear the risk of financing new nuclear projects, leaving three sets of interests that might be able to take it on: the utilities, the vendor or the consumer, in some form, via the state.”
Even before the Fukushima disaster, the long-awaited nuclear renaissance in the West seemed to be running out of steam. There were two main factors behind this failure; the new Generation III+ reactors produced to take account of the lessons of Chernobyl that would spearhead the revival were not living up to their promises, and, more importantly, banks were proving unwilling to provide finance.
The key markets for the renaissance were the U.S. and the UK. Continue reading
Britain’s nuclear test veterans continuing their case in the courts
our case is still live and on going .We have one case still proceeding to High Court another 1002 not yet statute barred and hearing before a Judge of almost 20 pension appeal cases
A Message from the Nuclear Veterans, Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, Dennis Hayden, 5 April 12, THE DUST HAS SETTLED FOLLOWING THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. THE UK CASE IS STILL ON GOING & UK MINISTERS’ JOY WILL BE SHORT LIVED ”…… the Government and nuclear industry will do everything in their power to keep the UK Atomic Veterans Claimants case from a full court hearing on causation . Continue reading
Cost, not just safety issues, send a toxic cloud over the nuclear industry’s future
Nowadays, a typical scheme involving multiple reactors on one site, puts you back $25bn! The money was not to be produced up-front, of course, but created by complex financial packages based on debt, not equity. The sums involved, the “paper” floating on the underlying asset – the nuclear complex – run into the trillions.
Nuclear industry dreams dashed by current economic reality http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2012/apr/02/nuclear-dreams-economic-reality-blog?newsfeed=true It was the financing model and rates of return that prompted German nuclear giants RWC and E.ON to pull out of UK energy plans Martin Cohen guardian.co.uk 2 April 2012 The news that nuclear giants RWE and E.ON are dropping plans to build any new UK reactors has sent a toxic cloud not only over Wales, but over the nuclear industry itself. Continue reading
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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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