Fiscal stimulus and the environment
Greenstanding
Apr 2nd 2009
From The Economist print editionGordon Brown’s New Deal will do little to advance renewable energy
Mr Brown’s green New Deal looks flimsy. On March 31st HSBC, a big bank, published a report ranking countries by how green their economic-stimulus packages were. The bank reckons that Britain is allocating just 7% of its fiscal stimulus to greenery, compared with 12% in America, 34% in China and a whopping 81% in South Korea (see chart). A separate report prepared for Greenpeace, a pressure group, by consultants at the New Economics Foundation (NEF) considers only genuinely new funding and arrives at a figure of just 0.6%, or £120m……………………….
………………….It has moved speedily to revive the nuclear-power industry, by contrast. From a position of cordial dislike in 2003, the government announced itself in favour of new nuclear plants in principle as early as 2006.More recently ministers have been positively prescriptive, suggesting how many plants might be built and where. A takeover of British Energy, which runs most existing nuclear plants, by EDF, keen to build more, took place last year. A new nuclear laboratory has been founded, schemes to train workers set up and the vexed issue of waste disposal re-examined.Nuclear-power stations take many years to build, so new ones will not help Britain meet its 2020 targets for curbing emissions. But the technology is well understood. Politicians may have calculated that a few nuclear-power stations will be easier to sell the public than thousands of wind turbines. And energy does not have to be renewable to be low-carbon.
Fiscal stimulus and the environment | Greenstanding | The Economist
A victory of sorts
A victory of sorts
In August last year, the British government finally conceded, after years of denial and resistance, that servicemen had indeed been exposed to dangerous radiation levels during nuclear tests in Australia and the South Pacific in the 1950s, in which New Zealand sailors also participated or witnessed.
The admission came only after some 800 former servicemen from Britain, New Zealand and Fiji began a multimillion-dollar suit against the Ministry of Defence seeking compensation for being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation during tests at sites including Maralinga, in South Australia and at Christmas Island.
The admission was, however, a narrow one: the ministry agreed that the tests were responsible for the deaths of some British servicemen, but said only 159 were affected out of the 20,000 who were present………………. Just last week, after decades of refusal, France announced that it will compensate victims of past nuclear tests in the Pacific and the Sahara, and for the first time has formally recognised a link between the explosions and illnesses suffered by soldiers and civilians…………………………….
Quite properly, the French Government has decided the burden of proof should be reversed: victims will no longer have to prove that their illness was due to the nuclear tests; it will be up the state to prove otherwise.
Furthermore, compensation will apply to any nationality.
Given past attitudes, however, we may expect that getting it will prove to be extremely difficult.
Anti-nuclear groups fear danger at new reactor
Anti-nuclear groups fear danger at new reactor Mar 28 2009 by Darren Devine, Western Mail ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners have warned a type of uranium that is up to 15% more radioactive and has to be stored on site for 100 years will be used, should a new Welsh plant get the go-ahead.The warning came as the Government’s deadline for nominations for sites to house a new generation of nuclear plants passes on Tuesday.The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which owns Wales’ only nuclear power station at Wylfa, on Anglesey, has already indicated it intends to nominate the site as suitable for a new facility.But the Wales Anti-Nuclear Alliance and Anglesey group Pawb warned that the only two firms left in the bidding process to build and run the new plants intend to use so-called “high burn-up uranium”.The two firms hoping to build the new nuclear sites are US company Westinghouse Electric and Areva of France.
WalesOnline – News – Wales News – Anti-nuclear groups fear danger at new reactor
We must learn to live with wind power
We must learn to live with wind power
The zealous backing given to wind farms this week by Ed Miliband, the Climate Change Secretary, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, has stirred up the usual protests about the beautiful British landscape being papered over with metallic monstrosities. But arguing against wind energy is, well, a waste of energy. Denouncing wind turbines in favour of another technology, such as nuclear, tidal and wave, solar or even “cleaner” coal is missing the point. The argument is over.
………………………….There are two standard objections to wind turbines. The first is that wind farms generate negligible amounts of electricity, and cost more carbon to produce than they save. This is a myth: the typical 3MW turbine powers 1,700 homes annually and “pays back” the energy – and saves the carbon emissions – expended to manufacture, transport, install and commission it in a mere six months.
The next objection is aesthetic: we don’t want turbines in our back yards, or in the picturesque areas we like to visit…………………………The future is not a vast forest of wind turbines obliterating every prized view,………………………..In fact, wind turbines can add sparkle to lacklustre locations.
Green lobby and nuclear groups clash over role of renewable energy
Guardian.co.uk by Terry Macalister 16 March 2009
Greenpeace dismisses EDF for protecting its ‘vested nuclear interests’ by undermining the future of renewable fuels
EDF and E.ON have warned the government they may be forced to drop plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants unless the government scales back its targets for wind power.
The demands – contained in submissions to the government’s renewable energy consultation – reinforces the worries of wind developers that the two sectors cannot thrive simultaneously.
…………………….. “We’ve always said that nuclear power will undermine renewable energy and will damage the UK’s efforts to tackle climate change – now EDF agrees,” said Nathan Argent, head of Greenpeace’s energy solutions unit.
“The National Grid shows that there is capacity to take well over 30% percent of our electricity from renewables. EDF are trying to block efforts to deliver on the most important technology to the UK to tackle climate change and keeps the light on in order to protect their own vested nuclear interests.”
Friends of the Earth agreed. “The UK is the windiest country in Europe with the best wave and tidal resources,” said Andy Atkins, the group’s executive director. “We should be maximising renewables and harnessing as much of that clean, safe energy as we possibly can – not propping up the French nuclear industry.
“Nuclear power is no green alternative – it leaves a legacy of deadly radioactive waste that remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years. And nuclear power plants simply cannot be built in time to deliver the cuts in carbon dioxide emissions that science says are needed.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/16/nuclear-power-renewables-edf
Nuclear waste clean-up drive still lacks leader
From The TimesMarch 6, 2009Nuclear waste clean-up drive still lacks leaderRobin Pagnamenta, Energy and Environment Editor
The Government’s handling of the nuclear power industry’s rebirth was attacked by MPs last night as it emerged that the executive responsible for the £73 billion clean-up operation has still not been replaced eight months after his departure.
Ian Roxburgh quit as chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a key organisation tasked with the clean-up of 19 toxic UK sites, including Sellafield, Harwell and Dounreay, last July.
But The Times has learnt that the NDA is still struggling to find a replacement, leaving a string of pressing issues building up in his successor’s in-tray, including questions over how the UK should handle waste created by new reactors……………………………. This year alone the NDA will spend £2.8 billion on decontamination, including £1.8 billion from taxpayers. It
Nuclear waste clean-up drive still lacks leader – Times Online
Nuclear reactor from HMS Vanguard being dismantled in Plymouth’s Devonport Dockyard
Nuclear reactor being dismantled in Devonport The Herald (UK) March 04 2009
A massive section of the reactor from HMS Vanguard – which was refitted and refuelled at Devonport dockyard between 2002 and 2004 – is being dismantled at the city dockyard.
Royal Navy sources have said it was the first time a submarine reactor had been cut up in the UK.
And campaigners against the storage of nuclear waste at the naval base claimed they knew nothing of the scheme and accused the Ministry of Defence of ignoring public opposition to reactor disposal work in the city.
They fear it is a precursor to the reactors aboard seven redundant submarines stored in the naval yard being cut up at Devonport…………………….an Avent, of the Campaign Against Nuclear Storage and Radiation (Cansar), said: “This is the first phase in Plymouth becoming a nuclear scrapyard.
“The Ministry of Defence are going to use this project to justify doing all the other submarines here. What makes it worse is that they are doing it behind our backs.”………………………Five years ago, the public rejected any plans to manage or store nuclear waste at Devonport after consultation on the Ministry of Defence’s controversial Interim Storage of Laid Up Submarines (ISOLUS) project.
Nuclear reactor from HMS Vanguard being dismantled in Plymouth’s Devonport Dockyard
Nuclear Waste
Nuclear Waste The Herald (UK) “……………………A large nuclear power station will produce up to 30 tonnes of high-level waste per year.After reprocessing and vitrification, using current technology, this reduces to a volume of three cubic metres.advertisementWorldwide, to date, there are just over 120,000 tonnes of high-level waste stored above ground at power stations and other sites.
When all this waste is treated, it will have a volume of 12,000 cubic metres; or it will fit into a cube 23 metres on each side.In other words, all of the high-level nuclear waste produced by all the commercial power reactors in the world would fit into 180 40ft shipping containers.
There are 438 commercial power reactors operating in the world today, producing 12,000 tonnes of high-level waste each year.So, our storage problems are increasing at the rate of 18 shipping containers per year………………………..
these numbers only take account of nuclear reactors used to generate electricity: the nuclear weapons industries produce much more high-level waste than commercial power generation (99 times more in the US).
Also, I don’t think shipping containers are the best place to store vitrified nuclear waste.”
Thomas W Durning,
Future is bright and green in renewables energy sector
From Times OnlineFebruary 25, 2009
Future is bright and green in renewables energy sectorT
here are opportunities in this global business to suit all types The good news is that renewable energy is “no longer an option” and opportunities in the sector will multiply, according to Kristen Herde, the head of human resources at E.ON Climate & Renewables…………….
…….. With the UK bound under EU law to generate 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020, Fruzsina Kemenes, a skills and education policy officer for the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), says that compared to other sectors, wind, wave and tidal industries are holding up well in these straitened times. “To achieve government targets for renewable energy generation, by 2020 the wind industry is set to provide jobs for at least 36,000 people directly.”
Future is bright and green in renewables energy sector – Times Online
| Nuclear claim in ‘bomb plot’ case
Nuclear claim in ‘bomb plot’ case BBC News 18 Feb 09
An alleged terrorist accused of a plot to blow up airliners researched other targets including nuclear power stations, a jury has heard.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that Assad Sarwar had a memory stick with details of nuclear power stations as potential terror targets.
Mr Sarwar and seven other men are accused of conspiracy to murder by blowing up planes with home-made bombs.
UK nuclear policy ‘insane’
UK nuclear policy ‘insane’ politics , Feb 2009
By politics.co.uk staff
The government has been accused of its left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing over its ‘contradictory’ attitudes towards nuclear disarmament.
The foreign secretary has unveiled the steps that need to be taken for the world to move towards a nuclear weapon-free future…………………….Until the government puts plans to replace Trident on hold, anything they say about ridding the world of nuclear weapons is severely undermined,” said the Greenpeace’s executive director John Sauven.
Kate Hudson, chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said Mr Miliband’s speech, which accompanied a policy information paper from the Foreign Office was a “great disappointment”, which treated Trident as the elephant in the room.
And the Liberal Democrats said the government’s leadership on non-proliferation was threatened by the “premature and provocative” decision to renew Trident ahead of the global disarmament conference next year.
Anti-nuclear group urges people to be afraid of Drigg ‘secrets’
Last updated 16:44, Monday, 16 February 2009
An anti-nuclear group has warned west Cumbrians: “Be afraid, very afraid” after bosses at the Drigg waste dump admitted they don’t know what’s buried there.
Management at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR), near Sellafield, have placed newspaper adverts appealing for ex-employees who worked at the site in 1960s, 70s and 80s to come forward.
The aim is to build up a picture of what was stored there and how it was buried………………………….Martin Forwood, spokesman for Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (Core), said the admission should send shockwaves through the local community. He added: “Be afraid, very afraid.
“If they can’t even account for the lower category of radioactive wastes, what hope is there for the volumes of significantly more dangerous intermediate and high level wastes they now so desperately want to dump deep underground somewhere in the UK?
“(The) advert implores workers who tipped nuclear waste into the site’s open trenches over a 25-year period from 1960 to try and remember exactly what it was they dumped……………………….
UK scraps advisory body that warned of nuclear risks
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) disbands nuclear body that warned of risks
The Guardian Rob Edwards and Terry Macalister 17 Feb 09
An expert advisory committee has been quietly scrapped after it warned that the safety of Britain’s ageing nuclear plants was being put at risk by poor performance, delays and budget cuts.
The Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee (NuSAC), which has been offering critical advice to Britain’s health and safety watchdog for nearly 50 years, was disbanded without any public announcement.
Former members of NuSAC are now worried about the lack of independent safety advice at a time when the government is embarking on a big expansion and clean-up of nuclear power.
Some former members privately suspect that NuSAC was shut down in October because it could have hampered government plans for a new programme of nuclear reactors. “This was just the time to get rid of a potential pest and spanner in the works of the brave new world of nuclear regulation and build,” said one.
Some of NuSAC’s recent criticisms, particularly on potential shortfalls in the funding of nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management, were forthright………………………NuSAC consisted of 19 safety experts, including scientists, academics, trade unionists and business executives, none of whom were paid. It reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and was chaired for the past four years by Stephen Vranch, a chemical engineer from Jacobs Engineering……………………………
In an unpublicised report last July, NuSAC warned that programmes to deal with radioactive waste from decommissioning the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria and other old nuclear plants had suffered “substantial slippages”.
The slippages were caused by the “poor performance” of nuclear plants, delays in developing waste processing and budget restrictions, the report concluded. “There remains a lack of confidence that the high hazards are being tackled to a robust programme,” it said.
MPs demand inquiry into ‘hushed-up’ nuclear subs crash
THE SCOTSMAN 17 February 2009
The vessels, the Faslane-based HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant, both believed to be carrying nuclear missiles, collided two weeks ago. Intelligence experts said that the crews might have been playing a game of cat and mouse when the incident happened.
The Ministry of Defence admitted the collision only yesterday, after it was confirmed by French officials, prompting one politician to accuse it of a “hush-hush attitude”. The submarines – each nearly 500ft long – were both damaged in the underwater incident, thought to have happened on the night of 3-4 February…………………….Disarmament campaigners described the incident – in the Atlantic’s 41 million square miles – as a “nuclear nightmare of the highest order”, which could have released “vast amounts of radiation”…………………..”The MoD needs to explain how it is possible for a submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction to collide with another submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction in the middle of the world’s second-largest ocean.”
US using British atomic weapons factory for its nuclear programme
US using British atomic weapons factory for its nuclear programme guardian.co.uk 9 feb 09 Joint warhead research carried out at Aldermaston• Work breaches nuclear treaty, campaigners warn
The US military has been using Britain’s atomic weapons factory to carry out research into its own nuclear warhead programme, according to evidence seen by the Guardian.
US defence officials said that “very valuable” warhead research has taken place at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire as part of an ongoing and secretive deal between the British and American governments.
The Ministry of Defence admitted it is working with the US on the UK’s “existing nuclear warhead stockpile and the range of replacement options that might be available” but declined to give any further information.
Last night, opposition MPs called for a full parliamentary inquiry into the extent of the collaboration at Aldermaston and campaign groups warned any such deal was in breach of international law. They added that it also undermined Britain’s claim to have an independent nuclear weapons programme and meant British taxpayers were effectively subsidising America’s nuclear programme…………………………….
Congress has stopped funding research into RRW but campaigners believe the US military may have used facilities in the UK to get around the restrictions at home.
“Billions of pounds have been poured into the Atomic Weapons Establishment over recent years to build new research facilities,” said Hudson. “If these are being used to support US programmes outside Congress’s controls on spending, it raises even more serious questions about why the British taxpayer is paying for a so-called ‘independent deterrent’.”
US using British atomic weapons factory for its nuclear programme | World news | The Guardian
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive
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