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Together Against Sizewell C

20 hours ago

Red faces become the norm at nuclear power groups

It sometimes seems like US and European nuclear companies are in competition to see which can heap greater embarrassment on their industry. Last week was the turn of the US side to generate ugly headlines when work was suspended on the VC Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina to stem spiralling costs. The decision by utilities Santee Cooper and Scana Corporation dealt another blow to Westinghouse, the US nuclear subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba, five months after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The US plants risk becoming an even bigger fiasco than those involving the European Pressurized Reactor at Flamanville in France and Olkiluoto, Finland, which, although years late and billions of euros over budget, at least look likely to be completed in the next couple of years. Lower than expected growth in US electricity demand — because of increasing energy efficiency and sluggish economic growth — has further undermined the economic case for nuclear power since the Westinghouse projects were approved. But could this change if electric vehicles increase strain on the power grid? Elon Musk said Tesla’s new Model 3, billed as the company’s first mass market EV, was off to a strong start with 455,000 orders. For all its growth in renewable power, Europe remains heavily reliant on Russian gas. Gazprom’s proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany would reinforce this mutual dependency, but the project looks vulnerable to new US sanctions against Russia signed last week by President Donald Trump. Rising US LNG exports could pose another challenge to Russian dominance of European gas markets. Renewable power is growing rapidly in the UK. But as Carbon Brief shows, the main beneficiary of declining coal power generation since the 1970s has been gas, and fossil fuels still dominate overall energy use.

FT 7th Aug 2017

Fiascos don’t help in the competition against natural gas and renewable energy

Together Against Sizewell C

4 days ago

Shut Down Sizewell Campaign | Tel/Fax: 01728 648300 Email: info@shutdown-sizewell.org.uk

Latest Shutdown Sizewell newsletter now online: http://www.shutdown-sizewell.org.uk/

How The Failures At Hinkley C May Impact On The Plans For Sizewell C It might seem strange for us to focus on Hinkley Point in Somerset for our front page story, but what happens at Hinkley will almost certainly have a direct impact on what happens at the nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk...

Together Against Sizewell C

3 weeks ago

EDF Energy urged to rethink Sizewell C workers’ accommodation plans after report highlights environmental concerns

Proposals for an accommodation complex housing 2,400 power station construction workers in Suffolk have been criticised in an independent report – with energy bosses urged to rethink the plans.

Together Against Sizewell C

1 month ago

TASC goes to Latitude - Find us at the Greenpeace Café in the Kid’s Area & sign the Petition Against Sizewell C.

TASC has launched a petition strongly opposing the construction of Sizewell C. Festival goers can come and sign the petition and discuss the plans for Sizewell C with us . We hope it will run until the next consultation is announced, and then if we have over 1200 signature the Full Council are obliged to debate it. The petition will also be available for people to sign in the local area over the next few months. The wording is as follows:

"We, the undersigned, strongly oppose the plan by EDFE to construct 2 new Nuclear reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk. The destruction of AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), SSSI sites (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and the proximity to Minsmere bird reserve, all on our crumbling Suffolk coastline, is totally unacceptable. A government-backed programme of energy saving and clean renewable energy would combat climate change and avoid the risks of a catastrophic accident, dangers to health and the storage of highly radioactive waste at Sizewell for many years to come. SAY NO TO SIZEWELL C"

Together Against Sizewell C

1 month ago

Critics claim evacuation measures for Sizewell B meltdown are ‘ridiculous’

New research suggesting that the area around Sizewell could be successfully evacuated in two-and-a-half hours if there was a meltdown at the nuclear power station has been labelled “ridiculous” by critics.

Together Against Sizewell C

1 month ago

Hinkley Point C: UK censured for failing to consult German public

It would have been nice if they had taken notice of the British public as well.

British government failed to abide by Aarhus convention which says major projects must consult neighbouring citizens on environmental impacts

Together Against Sizewell C

1 month ago

U.S. warns businesses of hacking campaign against nuclear, energy firms

The U.S government warned industrial firms this week about a hacking campaign targeting the nuclear and energy sectors, the latest event to highlight the power industry's vulnerability to cyber attacks.

Together Against Sizewell C

1 month ago

Nuclear Options

The lesson of the Hinkley Point C saga is not to repeat it. Contractors started pouring concrete for the Hinkley Point C power station three months ago and could be still at it in ten years' time. By then, there is a chance that the economics of energy will have suffered a surprise upheaval making nuclear power genuinely affordable, but that chance is slim to vanishing. It is more likely that current trends driving down the cost of renewable and gas-fired power stations will continue. Hinkley Point C will meanwhile be vulnerable to the sort of delays and cost-overruns that have plagued every other reactor so far built to the same design, none of which is yet producing power. If experience is any guide, electricity from Hinkley Point will command more than twice the price of power from other sources, including low-carbon renewables. The value of subsidies to honour that "strike price", which is meant to compensate the contractors for taking on the risk of the project, will have more than quintupled since being agreed. Hinkley Point C will create jobs but in a white elephant that will be technologically out of date before being connected to the grid. It is being built in part to keep the lights on without relying on highly polluting coal, but mainly because technology moves faster than bureaucracy. In complex matters politicians tend to rely on bureaucrats' advice, and many backed the plan before Theresa May gave her final approval last year. Not one had the courage to cancel it when it was still possible to do so without exposing taxpayers to the risk of multibillion-pound compensation claims. Sources close to an internal review of the project under way at EDF, the lead contractor, say that its budget is already edging up towards £20 billion from last year's £18 billion estimate. Its completion date is now expected to be 2027 rather than 2025. The value to EDF and its Chinese partner of the "contract for difference" agreed in the deal has risen from £6 billion to £30 billion as the price of gas and renewables, especially solar, has fallen. The most alarming figure in the NAO report is an estimate of £22 billion that investors in Hinkley Point C could claim in compensation were it to be scrapped.
Times 27th June 2017

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/nuclear-options-n9b7sc5bq

Contractors started pouring concrete for the Hinkley Point C power station three months ago and could be still at it in ten years’ time. By then, there is a chance that the economics of energy will...

Together Against Sizewell C

1 month ago

EDF may need to replace Flamanville reactor lid in few years-ASN report

http://uk.reuters.com/article/edf-flamanville-nuclear-idUKL8N1JN2OC< br /> The cover of the reactor vessel EDF is building in Flamanville, France, may not be able to function more than a few years unless the utility can do additional tests which so far it has not be able to, nuclear regulator ASN said in a report. While the long-awaited report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, concludes the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) is fit for service, EDF may have to replace its vessel cover soon after its scheduled start-up in 2018. The requirement is a major blow for EDF, which will have to start planning for a costly replacement of a key part before the reactor even starts up. The reputational damage could also add to concerns in Britain about its 18 billion pound ($23 billion) project to build two similar EPR reactors in southwest England. The French regulator had ordered a deep review of the Flamanville vessel following the discovery in 2015 of carbon concentrations in the base and cover of the containment vessel, which make its steel more brittle. The report - led by the IRSN, the ASN's technical arm - is being reviewed by a group of independent experts on Monday and Tuesday. This autumn, ASN will partly base its final ruling on Flamanville on the experts' recommendations. The ASN report states that while the base of the vessel is fit for service despite the need for increased monitoring over its lifetime, manufacturer Areva NP has not been able to conduct sufficient tests on the cover as it is no longer accessible. These controls are indispensable in order to ensure the reactor's safety over its 60-year lifetime, the report says.

* Testing of Flamanville reactor cover insufficient - ASN* Reactor cover currently not fit for permanent service* Reactor cover may only be a

Together Against Sizewell C

1 month ago

Hinkley Point ‘will be years late and hugely over budget’

Times 27th June 2017
www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/hinkley-point-will-be-years-late-and-hugely-over-budget-ddbwztn35
The cost and timetable for the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant are subject to a "full review", its developer EDF has admitted, after reports that the company expects the project to be years late and billions of pounds over budget. The French energy company has promised to deliver power from the £18 billion project in Somerset by the end of 2025 but Le Monde said that this was no longer seen as realistic by insiders, who said it would start up in 2027. The delays are expected to result in the cost of the project, funded jointly by EDF and CGN, China's state nuclear company, increasing by up to 3 billion euros, it said. Yesterday EDF said that "a full review of the costs and schedule of the Hinkley Point C project is in progress" and the results would be disclosed "soon". Further delays to Hinkley, which was once envisaged to be up and running this year, will raise more questions about the subsidy for the project, as well as Britain's strategy to keep the lights on as old coal and nuclear plants shut. Yesterday EDF highlighted its annual report, published in March, which referred to the Hinkley review in the small print. At that stage the report said that "no material adverse impact has been identified on the project total cost or completion date". It also confirmed that EDF and CGN were committed to fund a "contingency margin" of up to £2.7 billion, on top of the £18 billion budget. EDF is bracing itself for a decision by French safety regulators over whether it must replace part or all of a component in the European pressurised reactor it is building at Flamanville in France. It is expected to be told that it must replace the cover of the steel reactor vessel within a few years of the reactor starting up after it was found to contain too much carbon, making it weaker than planned. Flamanville is running six years late and is set to cost three times more than the original estimate. EDF set the 2025 start-up date for Hinkley Point in October 2015. It then suffered almost a year of delays after struggling to arrange its own financing for the project and then faced a review by Theresa May, but insisted the 2025 date still stood. EDF has however warned that Brexit could delay delivery of major energy projects in the UK.

The cost and timetable for the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant are subject to a “full review”, its developer EDF has admitted, after reports that the company expects the project to be years late and...