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Nuclear vs Climate

We’ve known for a long time that nuclear energy is a false solution to climate change. Not only are the health and environmental impacts of nuclear power intolerable, but it also gobbles up investments we should be making in clean and safe renewable energy. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK brings us the latest and most robust evidence of these facts. The study, published last week in Nature Energy, considers three hypotheses: Firstly, that emissions decline the more a country adopts nuclear power; secondly, that emissions decline the more a country adopts renewables; and thirdly, that nuclear and renewables are ‘mutually exclusive’ options that tend to crowd each other out at an energy system level. The hypotheses were tested against 25 years’ worth of electricity-production and emissions data from 123 countries. The result? Investment in nuclear is mostly negatively correlated with decreases in carbon emissions, while investment in renewables was positively correlated with such decreases across the board. In other words, countries that invested in nuclear didn’t see emission reductions but countries that invested in renewables did.

Beyond Nuclear 25th Oct 2020 read more »

Nuclear Policy

The government must rebalance nuclear’s place in the energy portfolio and bring the public onside while there is still time, argues Bright Blue’s Andrew Leming. Hitachi’s withdrawal from proposed nuclear power sites in Anglesey and Oldbury last month dealt a sharp blow to the government’s net zero emissions strategy.

Business Green 26th Oct 2020 read more »

Nuclear Decommissioning

Last week the Nuclear Decommissioning Collaborative released their report investigating the socioeconomic impacts of nuclear power plant closures on surrounding host communities across the nation. Socioeconomic Impacts from Nuclear Power Plant Closure and Decommissioning takes a unique look at these impacts, particularly the barriers to planning and mitigation, and offers recommendations to nuclear closure communities. The investigation was funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, an agency of the Department of Commerce.

Forbes 25th Oct 2020 read more »

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity officials watched with growing alarm in September as Russian state hackers started prowling around dozens of American state and local government computer systems just two months before the election. The act itself did not worry them so much — officials anticipated that the Russians who interfered in the 2016 election would be back — but the actor did. The group, known to researchers as “Dragonfly” or “Energetic Bear” for its hackings of the energy sector, was not involved in 2016 election hacking. But it has in the past five years breached the power grid, water treatment facilities and even nuclear power plants, including one in Kansas.

New York Times 23rd Oct 2020 read more »

Nuclear Weapons

Statement by (Irish) Minister on the 50th Ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. I am pleased that the 50th instrument of ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was deposited yesterday, meaning the Treaty will enter into force on 22 January 2021.

Irish Dept of Foreign Affairs 25th Oct 2020 read more »

Campaigners have hailed a “new chapter” after a key step by the United Nations towards banning nuclear arms. Honduras has become the 50th country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons so it will now come into force in 90 days time. But what it will actually achieve remains in doubt because the five recognised nuclear powers have not signed the accord. Supporters hope it will nevertheless have a deterrent effect.

BBC 25th Oct 2020 read more »

US – Small Reactors

Trump Gives Tiny Nuclear Reactors a Billion-Dollar Boost. Small modular reactor startup NuScale Power has a new, unlikely ally after a tough couple of weeks in the press: President Donald Trump’s Department of Energy. After the small-scale western utility Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems had several small cities pull out of its planned pilot program with NuScale, the entire utility group started to grumble about the future. But on October 16, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) approved a $1.4 billion grant to help offset the costs of test driving the new technology.

Popular Mechanics 21st Oct 2020 read more »

US – Climate Policy

Among the myriad reasons world leaders will closely watch the outcome of a fraught US presidential election, the climate crisis looms perhaps largest of all. The international effort to constrain dangerous global heating will hinge, in large part, on which of the dichotomous approaches of Donald Trump or Joe Biden prevails. On 4 November, the day after the election, the US will exit the Paris climate agreement, a global pact that has wobbled but not collapsed from nearly four years of disparagement and disengagement under Trump. Biden has vowed to immediately rejoin the Paris deal. The potential of a second Trump term, however, is foreboding for those whose anxiety has only escalated during the hottest summer ever recorded in the northern hemisphere, with huge wildfires scorching California and swaths of central South America, and extraordinary temperatures baking the Arctic.

Guardian 26th Oct 2020 read more »

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has tried to keep the focus on Democrat Joe Biden’s comments in the final presidential debate about supporting a “transition” away from oil in favour of renewable energy. At a campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida, Trump revelled in Biden’s remarks, saying voters in Texas, Pennsylvania and other states would not like them.

The National 24th Oct 2020 read more »

Australia

South Australia’s renewable energy boom has achieved a global milestone. The state once known for not having enough power has become the first major jurisdiction in the world to be powered entirely by solar energy. For just over an hour on Sunday, October 11, 100 per cent of energy demand was met by solar panels alone. “This is truly a phenomenon in the global energy landscape,” Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) chief executive Audrey Zibelman said.

ABC 25th Oct 2020 read more »

Future historians will no doubt remember 2020 as the year of Covid-19. But according to veteran climate campaigner Bill McKibben, they may also view it as a turning point, the year the world moved decisively towards “the transition everyone knew we needed to make”. McKibben told the recent Global Smart Energy Summit 2020 has been a year of “extraordinary convergence”, from the images of Australia’s bushfires, seen around the world on New Year’s Day – “like something out of Hieronymus Bosch” – to unprecedented developments such as China’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2060, the EU’s pledge to make its Green Deal and Є100bn Just Transition Fund the centrepiece of post-Covid recovery, and the US $15tn divested from fossil fuels. Closer to home, there’s extraordinary convergence between business and state governments on the need to speed up Australia’s energy transition. Tim Reed, president of the Business Council of Australia, wants a “national, bipartisan commitment to net zero emissions by 2050”. Most states have already made this commitment, and South Australia is leading the pack. The state’s energy and mining minister, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, says SA will aim for 100% net renewable generation by 2030. Rapidly expanding wind, solar and battery storage capacity in SA’s Upper Spencer Gulf region will play a key role in achieving that aim. But energy transitions are not just about panels, turbines and targets. They’re processes of social as well as technological change. Unless local people see jobs and other benefits for their communities, there’s a danger support will falter, and the legitimacy of Australia’s energy transition will be undermined.

Guardian 26th Oct 2020 read more »

Japan – Climate Policy

Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has said the country will become carbon neutral by 2050, heralding a bolder approach to tackling the climate emergency by the world’s third-biggest economy. “Responding to climate change is no longer a constraint on economic growth,” Suga said on Monday in his first policy address to parliament since taking office. “We need to change our thinking to the view that taking assertive measures against climate change will lead to changes in industrial structure and the economy that will bring about growth.” To applause from MPs, he added: “I declare we will aim to realise a decarbonised society.”

Guardian 26th Oct 2020 read more »

Offshore Wind Jobs

George Kerevan: Forget the virtue signalling and say to hell with bogus state aid rules. The Scottish Government’s powers may be limited but they go far enough not only to save BiFab but also to create a public stake in the offshore wind industry. BATHGATE no more. Linwood no more. Methil no more. Irvine no more. The elegy the Proclaimers sang to a lost industrial Scotland remains as haunting and evocative as ever. It conjures up the anguish and anger we all felt as a heartless, foreign Thatcherism destroyed the Scottish economy. It served as the anthem for those of us who decided to resist, to take back ownership and control of our country and our lives from foreign multinationals. And from governments in London that refused to lift a finger to save jobs, giving the excuse that “free markets” left to themselves were a better way of running the economy than conscious, planned human intervention. BiFab is in the news not because it has won orders but because it hasn’t. BiFab is going the way of the BMC lorry plant at Bathgate, of the Chrysler car plant at Linwood, and of all the other ghosts of Scotland’s industrial past. For despite there being a bonanza of demand on Scotland’s doorstep for the infrastructure to enable this vast new renewables industry, actual manufacturing is being done elsewhere – mostly in China and the Gulf. Soon it will be BiFab no more.

The National 26th Oct 2020 read more »

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