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UK govt should promote renewable energy, says Committee on Climate Change

More renewables needed to power low carbon Britain , Imperial College London Reporter 18 May 11, The UK needs a portfolio of renewable energy and low-carbon alternative energy sources, according to a new energy review by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which was launched at Imperial in the second week of May.

The scientific experts on the committee, including Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, and Professor Jim Skea (CEP), said that renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal heat, should be able to contribute at least 30 per cent of all power generated in the UK by the year 2030. This would make a major contribution to reducing the UK economy’s carbon footprint over the next few decades.

The committee also suggested that a higher share of up to 45 per cent would be feasible, if the cost of renewable technologies were to fall and if the government pursued policies that would allow low-carbon technologies to be implemented. Current plans, they say, could lead to unnecessary costs that would be passed on to the average household energy user.

Professor Hoskins said: “In order to limit the risks of climate change, it is necessary to significantly reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide by 2050. We know this can be done but only by starting now on a major programme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop new low-carbon technologies, which themselves could also bring significant economic opportunities.” http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/blog/reporter/2011/05/18/more-renewables-needed-to-power-low-carbon-britain/

May 20, 2011 Posted by | climate change, UK | Leave a comment

UK govt forging ahead with nuclear program, despite UK’s claim to be “green”

 U.K.’s “Greenest Government Ever” Charges Ahead With Nuclear Power HUFFINGTON POST Mason Inman  05/19/11   Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, has repeatedly pledged to create the “greenest government ever,” and now the country has adopted a new, ambitious goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, aiming by 2025 to slash them by half, compared with 1990. Continue reading →

May 20, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Labour MP in Wales scornful of UK nuclear policy

Welsh MP attacks Government’s nuclear policy, by David Williamson, Western Mail, 19 May 11,  LABOUR MP Paul Flynn yesterday urged Prime Minister David Cameron to abandon the “national virility symbol” of nuclear missiles and challenged Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne to reject a new generation of nuclear power stations.  Continue reading →

May 20, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

UK govt letting EDF, Centrica, AREVA plan nuclear safety?

it’s very much in the hands of EDF, Centrica, RWE, E.ON, Areva, Westinghouse and the rest to propose the form of modifications….I can’t see any of those parties putting forward suggestions that will significantly increase the cost of their reactor designs and plant lay-outs for the first new nuclear power stations.

Why are we trusting the nuclear giants to suggest safety improvements? Rowena Mason, Telegraph UK,  May 18th, 2011 “…….Today Mike Weightman Britain’s solemn chief inspector of nuclear concluded that nuclear power in Britain is largely safe. Or “has no need to be curtailed”, as he put it…….. he’s willing to let the industry make some suggestions about how their systems could be better, rather than dictate specific modifications. Continue reading →

May 19, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

UK government’s secret subsidies to nuclear industry

Nuclear companies are also likely to receive government assurances that the taxpayer could foot any increases to the estimated bill for storing radioactive waste from new reactors…….

MPs attack government’s covert subsidies for nuclear industry Select committee criticises attempts to hide hundreds of millions of pounds of funding as ‘deeply irresponsible’ Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent, The Guardian, 16 May 2011 The government is planning to award covert subsidies of hundreds of millions of pounds to nuclear power, betraying the coalition promise that the taxpayer would not foot the bill for a new generation of reactors, according to an influential committee of MPs. Continue reading →

May 16, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

More dangers for UK’s nuclear submarine “Astute”

Jinxed nuclear submarine’s malfunction could have killed its entire crew Herald Scotland |  By Rob Edwards 8 May 2011 The Royal Navy’s latest £1.2 billion nuclear submarine, HMS Astute, has been towed back to base after a malfunction which could have killed the entire crew, the Sunday Herald can reveal. Continue reading →

May 9, 2011 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Rising sea levels threaten Britain’s nuclear power plants

‘Shrinking Britain’ will force land to be abandoned to the sea, Guardian UK, by Damain Carrington, 6 May 11, Coastal erosion and UK tsunamis are a cause of concern for vulnerable nuclear power stations, says leading geologist……..

The fact that tsunamis can happen in the UK, and the idea that Britain’s coast is shrinking, is certainly relevant to the debate over nuclear power and the disposal of long-lasting nuclear waste, in my opinion. Take a look at the map of British nuclear power sites: they are all on the coast.

“It is a cause for concern, some nuclear power stations are in vulnerable positions,” said Prof Rob Duck, at Dundee University, whose new book is called This Shrinking Land: Climate Change and Britain’s Coasts…
Shrinking Britain will force land to be abandoned to the sea | Damian Carrington | Environment | guardian.co.uk

May 6, 2011 Posted by | climate change, UK | 2 Comments

Suspected terrorists arrested at Sellafield nuclear plant

TERROR ALERT: FIVE ARRESTED AT SELLAFIELD NUCLEAR PLANT Express co, UK  May 4 2011 by Paul Jeeves and John Twomey, ANTI-TERROR police were questioning five men last night amid fears of an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to attack the Sellafield nuclear plant.

The suspects, in their 20s and believed to be of Bangladeshi origin, were caught filming at the highly sensitive site in Cumbria – 250 miles from their homes in London.Armed police arrested the men on bank holiday Monday only hours after Osama Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan.

The nuclear plant has been placed on high alert following Al Qaeda threats to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” in revenge for the terror chief’s death. Last night police seized a small container of “suspicious material” at one of the suspects homes……http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/244616/Terror-Alert-Five-arrested-at-Sellafield-nuclear-plantTerror-Alert-Five-arrested-at-Sellafield-nuclear-plant#ixzz1LRTP0QrS

May 4, 2011 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Scotland’s Greens demand end to nuclear power

Greens demand end to nuclear power at energy plan launch, STV, 25 April 11, The Scottish Greens claim that the country could generate over 100% of its power from renewable sources within nine years. Scotland could generate more than 100% of its power from renewable sources such as wave and tidal generators by 2020, the Scottish Greens have said. Continue reading →

April 26, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Internet leak of nuclear submarine secrets

Nuclear secrets leaked in redaction gaffe, Information Age, 18 April 11,  Ministry of Defence redacted secret parts of nuclear documents just by changing the background colourThe UK’s Ministry of Defence accidentally published nuclear secrets online after staff used an easily reversible technique to redact sensitive parts publically available documents.The documents were published online following a Freedom of Information request from anti-nuclear campaigners. Certain sensitive parts of documents were supposed to be redacted, but staff simply changed the background colour of the text to black – a procedure that is easily reversed by copying and pasting the text into another document.The gaffe revealed top secret emergency response procedures for UK nuclear submarines, and details of US nuclear subs too…… Nuclear secrets leaked in redaction gaffe

April 18, 2011 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

UK nuclear companies protected from financial risks

Nuclear risks , The Guardian, Donald Power  15 April 2011 An estimate of the cost of compensation to Fukushima victims of $133bn has been reported by Reuters (Japan raises nuclear alert, 12 April). The UK has nuclear sites closer to major cities than Fukushima is to Tokyo, so costs could be even greater here. So it’s scandalous that nuclear operators are being allowed to cap their liability at €0.7bn or at most €1.3bn – barely 1% of the possible Fukushima compensation. No other industry is allowed to do this: BP has a $20bn fund for compensation to victims of last year’s oil spill. Why should nuclear be let off?

  • The industry says the public have a poor perception of risk. That although a nuclear accident could be catastrophic and cause us to lose our homes and towns, the chances of it happening are so small that we should not worry about it. How strange then that their shareholders are not willing to accept the same small risk that they might lose their money.A more suitable measure would be to remove the protection of limited liability from the owners and directors of these companies in the event of a major accident. If we are to lose our homes, they should too, not walk away with bonuses and pensions intact as the bankers did. Readers may like to make their own views known to the Department of Energy and Climate Change nuclear third party liability consultation, which ends on 28 April. ..Letters: Nuclear risks | Environment | The Guardian

April 15, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Nuclear barons queasy, as UK turning anti-nuclear?

The bosses at EDF, Centrica, RWE npower, E.ON and all must be feeling distinctly queasy, after all the time and money they’ve spent on pushing for nuclear power in Britain. They’ve been pretty successful at gaining subsidies for it too – with UK billpayers expected to pay at least £17 more per year by the middle of the decade to encourage the construction programme. Could the years of lobbying fail to pay off?

Is Chris Huhne preparing for his second U-turn on nuclear? – Telegraph, By Rowena Mason 12 April 11, The previously anti-nuclear Lib Dem, who famously became pro-nuclear on appointment to Energy Secretary, is yet to pronounce definitively on what the Japan atomic disaster may mean for UK plans for 10 new stations. But he has ordered an inquiry into safety concerns and several ministers seem to be smoothing the way for a new official line – that we don’t need nuclear power after all. Continue reading →

April 12, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | 1 Comment

Facts on plutonium and Mox nuclear fuel

some reactors do use Mox, but only as a small percentage (less than 30 per cent) of the total fuel. The rest of the fuel is conventional uranium oxide…Mox, which in any case remains far more expensive than conventional uranium fuel…

(UK) Government’s doomed  £6bn plan to dispose of nuclear waste,  The Independent, 11 April 11“……Q & A: Why has it come to this?

Q: What is Britain’s “plutonium mountain”?

A: It is the nation’s stockpile of radioactive plutonium, kept as plutonium dioxide powder, packed into special drums stored at Sellafield in Cumbria. A further, smaller amount is stored at the Dounreay nuclear facility in Scotland, the site of the doomed nuclear fast-breeder reactor programme. Continue reading →

April 11, 2011 Posted by | - plutonium, reprocessing, UK | Leave a comment

Britain has world’s biggest pile of plutonium and now Japan won’t buy it

Chubu Electric and nine other Japanese power companies have also indicated that because of long-term production problems that have dogged the SMP, they will not now be taking any reprocessed fuel from Britain until at least the end of the decade – nearly 20 years after the plant was opened to serve the Japanese market.

Government’s doomed £6bn plan to dispose of nuclear waste, The Independent, 11 April 11, One month after the Japanese tsunami, the world’s biggest reserve of plutonium waste is reaching crisis point. It was meant to be reprocessed and sold – but now no nation will take it. So where is this vast stockpile? Not Fukushima, but Sellafield, CumbriaBy Steve Connor, Science Editor The nuclear crisis in Japan threatens a carefully choreographed UK Government plan to tackle the world’s biggest mountain of plutonium waste stored at the Sellafield site in Cumbria. Continue reading →

April 11, 2011 Posted by | - plutonium, politics international, UK | Leave a comment

UK govt wants to sell off their problem “Mox” plutonium

[UK] ministers have now agreed they should press on with preparing the public for an even bigger Mox plant to deal with the growing stockpile of British-owned plutonium, expected to reach 109 tons within a few years.

Government’s doomed £6bn plan to dispose of nuclear waste, The Independent, 11 April 11“.…..Government ministers, their officials and advisers are all privately convinced that “recycling” plutonium waste into nuclear fuel that could be “burned” in nuclear reactors represents the safest and least expensive option in dealing with the stockpile. Continue reading →

April 11, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

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