Australian-managed private equity fund helped Chinese involvement in coal mine plan for Cumbria
Scisco Media 27th Oct 2017, Back in 2015 the Champagne glasses were clinking in The Four Seasons, a Chinese restaurant in Whitehaven, Cumbria. West Cumbria Mining was
“happily toasting the recent visit to the UK of Chinese premier Xi
Jinping.” As well they might. Over £14m of funding for the development
has come from EMR Capital Resources Fund, an Australian-managed private
equity fund. Managed by Owen Hegarty and Jason Chang, pride of place in the
head office is a photo of “an Australian politician at the signing of an
agreement between EMR and a bank in China”.
https://sciscomedia.co.uk/cumbrian-coal-mine-china-connection/
Complicated world of nuclear nations: Pakistan and India especially concerning
Nuclear club’s rival weapons and agendas pushing us into uncertain new world, SMH, David Wroe , 28 Oct 17 For all the heartburn about North Korea, many experts feel the greatest danger of nuclear war remains one between India and Pakistan.
Why? Their nuclear doctrines are downright hot-headed. Pakistan, intimidated by the much larger conventional forces of its neighbour and arch-rival, states that if Indian forces charge over the border, it would launch a nuclear strike on its own soil against the invaders.
Pakistan argues this would be self-defence, not a nuclear attack on India.
India of course sees it differently and vows it would retaliate with nuclear counter-strikes.
India moreover says it might retaliate with nuclear weapons if Pakistani terrorists – regarded as proxies for their country’s intelligence agencies – ever carried out another Mumbai-style massacre. That is more than a remote possibility.
“It’s scary. The last time there was a conflict, Pakistan devolved launch authority down to the field commander,” said John Carlson, an Australian former nuclear negotiator now serving as a counsellor to the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, a group that works to reduce the risks posed by weapons of mass destruction.
India moreover says it might retaliate with nuclear weapons if Pakistani terrorists – regarded as proxies for their country’s intelligence agencies – ever carried out another Mumbai-style massacre. That is more than a remote possibility.
“It’s scary. The last time there was a conflict, Pakistan devolved launch authority down to the field commander,” said John Carlson, an Australian former nuclear negotiator now serving as a counsellor to the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, a group that works to reduce the risks posed by weapons of mass destruction. “They say they’ve got better command and control now but I don’t know how much confidence you can have in that.”
If that’s not enough, India’s real nuclear rivalry is not even with Pakistan. It is with fellow rising power China. China in turn has nuclear deterrence strategies against the two established Cold War giants, the US and Russia.
The world, in short, is getting more complicated.
Nuclear weapons have been part of the strategic landscape for more than 70 years. But for most of this time, the standoff was between two superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union. Then for a while there was one, the US.
That’s now changing to a world strategic boffins call “multipolar”, where power is fragmenting and redistributing. And some experts are wondering why this isn’t prompting a more urgent conversation about what it means for nuclear weapons and their proliferation.
David Cooper, a long-serving former Pentagon official who is now a professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, calls it “trans-regional nuclear arms racing”, something he says “we have never seen before in the relatively brief history of the nuclear age”.
“And we don’t know what deterrence or arms control would look like in this new context of potential nuclear multipolarity, which could involve simultaneous, and interconnecting, nuclear arms races within and across regions, because we have never been in a multipolar world since the dawn of the nuclear age,” Cooper said.
“This would be completely new if it comes to pass. That’s something we need to start thinking about.”
The world’s estimated 15,000 fusion and fission bombs remain the only weapons stockpile that poses a truly existential threat to humanity. The most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested, the Soviet “Tsar” bomb detonated in 1961, had nearly 5 million times the yield of the most powerful conventional bomb, the US-made MOAB.
The current crisis of Kim Jong-un’s nuclear program, and the postponed problem of Iran, are symptoms more than drivers of the fears of a more nuclear-armed world……http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/nuclear-clubs-rival-weapons-and-agendas-pushing-us-into-uncertain-new-world-20171027-gz9jkq.html
UK government obfuscated on costs of energy, and uncertainties about Hinkley Nuclear power
Sky News 25th Oct 2017, The Government has been accused of getting its sums “spectacularly” wrong
on the energy market and locking customers into excessive prices for years
to come, in an independent review commissioned by ministers. Professor
Dieter Helm, who was asked in the summer to carry out the review, said
prices had gone up for many households and businesses despite lower
wholesale costs and greater efficiencies. He also warned of a “cliff edge”
for electricity capacity leading up to 2025 amid uncertainty about when the
much-delayed new nuclear reactor at Hinkley comes online. The report said
that Government models of energy costs in the first half of the current
decade had at times been “spectacularly bad”, as they predicted surging
fossil fuel prices.
http://news.sky.com/story/government-made-spectacularly-bad-call-on-energy-prices-report-11098293
President Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) should focus on safety and security, not deterrence
The Hill 20th Oct 2017, President Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is likely to be released
in January 2018. Given the President’s reported remarks about increasing
the U.S. nuclear arsenal tenfold, the focal point of the review will
undoubtedly be on deterrence, not nuclear security.
Regardless of decisionsrelated to the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, preventing nuclear
terrorism — an integral part of nuclear security — should still be a
top priority. After all, terrorists, by their very nature, cannot be
deterred in the same way that states can. Nuclear, fissile and radioactive
materials — ingredients for a nuclear weapon, crude weapon or dirty bomb
— are quite literally all around us.
They are stored in thousands of universities, hospitals and laboratories across the world because of their
applications in medicine and research. Preventing these materials from
ending up in the wrong hands keeps the world safe from a nuclear attack.
The dangers are not as distant as you might think. Security breaches have
already happened. In 2012, an unarmed 82-year-old nun broke into the Y-12
maximum security nuclear facility in Tennessee, the “Fort Knox of
uranium,” to protest.
It is not hard to imagine that criminals bent onacquiring nuclear material could have similar success.
The consequences of a nuclear terrorist event in any U.S. city are terrifying. Even a small
nuclear detonation could cause immediate casualties from the blast, as well
as panic, economic disruption, long-term evacuations, exorbitant
decontamination costs, casualties from cancer and overwhelming
psychological damage. Regardless of views on broader nuclear policy
choices, the reason to maintain focus on nuclear security is clear.
http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/356439-preventing-nuclear-terrorism-should-remain-a-top-us-priority
South Korea will continue phasing out nuclear power
“We will completely stop all plans for the construction of new nuclear reactors like the government previously stated,” Moon said in a statement distributed to reporters by his office.
Moon’s statement came after a public opinion survey on Friday found a majority of almost 60 percent in favor of resuming the stalled construction of two reactors.
The president asked his supporters on Sunday to respect the outcome of the survey, which he called a “wise and intelligent” response….
With the two reactors set to be completed in October 2021 and October 2022, according to state-run nuclear operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, Moon said safety standards for nuclear plants would be ramped up.
Moon also reiterated his plan to shut down the Wolsong No. 1 nuclear reactor, the nation’s second-oldest, once the government confirms stability in energy supplies……https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-nuclear-moon/south-koreas-president-says-will-continue-phasing-out-nuclear-power-idUSKBN1CR04U
UK ‘should fund green heat over nuclear’
http://www.energylivenews.com/2017/10/20/uk-should-fund-green-heat-over-nuclear/
That’s according to former Energy Secretary Sir Ed Davey MP, who told ELN although nuclear power should be “kept on the table because it’s low carbon and may be needed in the future”, the energy source is still expensive and inflexible.
He added spending money on renewable heat would be much better for people’s bills.
Sir Davey said: “If we can get cheap green heat, as we’ve managed to achieve cheap green power, that’s going to make everyone happy because they’ll be paying a lot less for their energy”.
He also suggested Brexit could result in UK energy prices rising as fewer interconnectors to trade gas and electricity will reduce supply.
Ontario PG trying to disguise true costs of Darlington project
OPG trying to disguise true costs of Darlington project ,
|
Global News has unearthed some stunning evidence of just how far Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is going to play down the costs of its Darlington Re-build Project.
Global obtained an auditor’s report that called into question a “deliberate management strategy” to attract lowball bids from contractors. Specifically, the auditors questioned how a bid to build a new Heavy Water Storage and Drum Handling Facility was suddenly cut by almost 50% after OPG encouraged contractors to ignore the high likelihood that there might be contaminated soil on the building site (there was).
Of course, attracting lowball quotes has done nothing to keep the actual costs for the storage facility under control. In fact, it is now projected that the final cost may be five times what was originally estimated — $500 million versus a just over $100 million original price tag.
The storage facility for radioactive water is a key part of OPG’s plan to rebuild Darlington, but it is two-and-a-half years behind schedule and already massively over budget.
But what’s a few hundred million in a $12.8 billion budget? That’s the response OPG CEO Jeff Lyash offered in response to the revelations. For OPG, running a few hundred million dollars over budget is just par for the course, it seems, given that every nuclear rebuild project it has ever managed has run massively over budget and behind schedule.
But despite Lyash’s “what, me worry?” response, Global’s digging raises some serious concerns aboutmismanagement and delays on the massive project. Of course, it is Ontario ratepayers (and possibly taxpayers) who will once again pick up the tab for Darlington’s overpriced electricity.
Meanwhile, Quebec’s offer to provide power at one-third the cost of power from the Darlington Re-Buildgathers dust at Queen’s Park. It’s a strange world.
Please contact Premier Wynne and ask her to negotiate a long-term electricity supply contract with Hydro Quebec which will allow us to cancel the Darlington Re-Build Project and lower our electricity bills. Click here to email the Premier (premier@ontario.ca) and PC Leader Patrick Brown (patrick.brown@pc.ola.org)
Limited options to dispose of San Onofre’s nuclear waste
Travis Rice, Oct 11, 2017 SAN ONOFRE, CA (KGTV) – Millions of pounds of nuclear waste may have to be buried in San Onofre despite public outcry.
Football in a Russian town, in the shadow of a huge and dangerous nuclear complex
Guardian 7th Oct 2017, If England are looking for self-reflection and meditation, this sleepy
Russian town where they will train during the World Cup next summer could
fit the bill. The 10-minute drive north from their modest accommodation in
the village of Repino, 19 miles from St Petersburg, cuts through birch and
pine forest, the view occasionally punctuated by a large steak restaurant
or a glimpse of the Baltic Sea.
An invisible nuclear threat could be
lurking among the tranquillity, warn scientists and researchers. Across the
Gulf of Finland lies the town of Sosnovy Bor, home to the largest nuclear
cluster in the Baltic Sea region.
Next year, upgrades to the Leningrad
nuclear power plant, as well as the completion of a new nuclear facility,
are expected to go on stream. While they pose no immediate threat to
residents, neither have undergone environmental impact checks, says
physicist Oleg Bodrov, who sits on the board at the Public Council of the
South Coast of the Gulf of Finland, a non-profit organisation concerned
with the local environment.
“If an accident happens, it will take one and
a half hours to reach Repino,” said Bodrov, adding that Russia’s
state-run atomic industry has forfeited safety for economic gain. “Fifa
should take this into account.” https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/07/russia-2018-world-cup-england-base-gareth-southgate
Financial facts are killing nuclear power
Rising Costs Slow The Growth Of Nuclear Power, Oil Price
But the story is an illustration of the blind alley in which nuclear power finds itself. The debate is one that is being (or will be) enacted in many other countries that rely on nuclear power as part of their energy mix.
In the meantime, repeated delays have added to the costs.
A Rising Price Tag
Now estimated at £19.6 billion ($26 billion), it would be one of the most expensive structures ever built in the U.K. Last year, the British government pushed the financial risk onto French power generator and owner-to-be of the plant EDF Energy as part of a dealthat has already settled on an eyewatering £92.50/MWhr fee for power produced, index linked for 35 years, the Financial Times reported.
Since that part of the agreement was made in 2013, inflation has pushed that figure to over £100/MWhr, the Financial Times reported, compared to offshore wind at £60/MWhr and unsubsidized new natural gas generation at even less.
Never mind the rights and wrongs on how an inept series of U.K. government politicians and civil servants got lobbied into agreeing to such a position. The fact remains no one, probably not even EDF themselves — and certainly not their shareholders — really wants the project to go ahead….
Climate change action: electric cars make sense only if powered by renewable energy
Guardian 7th Oct 2017, As one of the UK’s renewable energy chiefs has pointed out, electric cars
won’t tackle climate change if they run off fossil fuels.
Matthew Wright, managing director of Dong Energy UK, said that although plug-in cars could
cut local air pollution, it would be a “pyrrhic victory” if they
increased greenhouse gases from coal and gas power stations.
“The fit between renewable energy and electric is a natural [one],” he argued.
E.ON, one of the big-six energy suppliers, agrees: its dedicated new
electric car tariff is supplied with 100% renewable power.
Put simply, the greener the electricity mix, the greener your electric car.
Japanese nuclear stocks not rising much, even though Tokyo governor denies parliament run
Japan nuclear stocks lukewarm after Tokyo governor denies parliament run
Hudson Lockett, Ft.com 3 Oct 17 Japanese nuclear power companies were making only minor gains on Tuesday after the Tokyo governor who has called for phasing out nuclear energy by 2030 said she was “100 per cent” not running in the upcoming election. Kansai Electric and Kyushu Electric were up just 0.6 per cent, while Tokyo Electric was up just 0.2 per cent and Chugoku Electric Power was off 0.1 per cent Those same stocks had fallen around 5 per cent in response to Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, whose Party of Hope will challenge prime minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party in the upcoming snap election, declaring her support for phasing out nuclear energy by 2030……..https://www.ft.com/content/ca0433fb-f2ab-36bd-949d-f039d7c9da1b
Do the UK government’s sums on Hinkley nuclear add up any more ?
Unearthed 29th Sept 2017, Doug Parr: Nuclear power is failing worldwide, it’s time for Hammond to
back away. Across the world investors are turning their backs on the
floundering nuclear industry – with good reason.
Do the UK government’s sums on Hinkley and climate change add up any more? It must be hard being a
civil servant. Think about the gyrations they must perform trying to
justify the UK nuclear power programme.
They cannot allow the mask ofcredibility to slip, otherwise government reasoning would be questioned,
ministerial reputations would be damaged, and uncomfortable discussions
about competence would need to be had. Like acrobats performing without a
safety net, civil servants have to hold tight and maintain a look of calm
poise, even with disaster looming.
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2017/09/29/hinkley-nuclear-george-osborne-china-offshore-wind/
WIPP officials expect rock fall within a month
LA Monitor By , October 2, 2017 Waste Isolation Pilot Plant officials assured the public Thursday that they’ve planned accordingly for a rock fall event in one of the facility’s underground storage rooms. The fall is expected in Room 6 in Panel 7.
According to equipment monitoring the situation, the rock fall should come from the ceiling, and could happen within four to six weeks. The room has been off limits for a year, and it only has radiologically contaminated equipment in it……http://www.lamonitor.com/content/wipp-officials-expect-rock-fall-within-month
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