The UK will make the world’s largest shipment of weapons-grade uranium as it steps up attempts to clear nuclear material from Scotland. Under a deal with the Obama administration, Britain will ship 700kg of highly enriched uranium from the Dounreay nuclear facilities in Scotland to the US, where it will be processed for medical use and returned to Europe. The deal comes as Barack Obama gives a final push towards improving the security of nuclear materials, which he signalled in 2009 would be an important strand of his administration. It will be announced at the president’s final nuclear security summit on Thursday in Washington, which will be attended by heads of government including the UK’s David Cameron. “It is an opportunity for us to show some leadership to the rest of the world,” said a British official. The UK has a n undisclosed quantity of highly enriched uranium stored at Sellafield in Cumbria and in Dounreay in the Scottish Highlands. Dounreay is due to be closed by 2030, enabling the wider area to be cleaned up. Under the deal to be announced on Thursday, the US will not charge for processing the waste. It will return uranium in a different form, together with some of its own nuclear waste, to the European Atomic Energy Community’s facilities in France, where it will be available for medical use by EU countries.

FT 31st March 2016 read more »

David Cameron is to announce plans for the largest ever shipment of nuclear waste from the UK to the United States. In return, the US will send highly enriched uranium to Europe where it will be used to help diagnose cancer. The prime minister will make the announcement in Washington at a summit on civil nuclear security. The BBC’s James Landale said the PM’s aim was to show that it is possible to think differently about how to dispose of nuclear waste. One British official, he added, described the agreement as a landmark win-win deal. Mr Cameron will tell world leaders in Washington that Britain will transport 700 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to the US. Officials said this would be the largest ever such movement of nuclear waste, which the US has more capacity to store and process. In return, a different form of used uranium will be transported from America to the European Atomic Energy agency (Euratom) where it will be turned into radio isotopes that are used to detect and diagnose cancer. At the fourth Nuclear Security summit, to be chaired by US President Barack Obama, Mr Cameron will also announce Britain and the US are to hold a joint exercise to test both countries’ ability to prevent cyber attacks on their nuclear stations and waste facilities.

BBC 31st March 2016 read more »

Independent 31st March 2016 read more »

French authorities have charged the husband of French nuclear giant Areva’s former boss Anne Lauvergeon with insider trading as part of a probe into its 2007 purchase of a Canadian uranium mining firm, a legal source said Wednesday. The charges against Fric are part of a wider probe into the $2.5 billion (1.8 billion euros at the time) purchase by Areva of Uramin at a height of demand for enriched uranium. Areva was later forced to revalue its Uramin uranium mines to only 410 million euros.

Times of India 30th March 2016 read more »

WORLD leaders will gather in Washington to discuss how to prevent terrorists getting hold of radioactive material, with the UK set to play a leading role in protecting nuclear facilities from cyber attack. The UK and United States will take part in a joint exercise next year to prepare for any online attack against nuclear power plants and waste storage facilities, such as those at Hinkley, Somerset.

Bridgwater Mercury 31st March 2016 read more »

Top secret security arrangements for nuclear plants like Sizewell B will be examined by world leaders as they discuss how to prevent terrorists getting hold of radioactive material.

Ipswich Star 31st March 2016 read more »

Might terrorists soon build a dirty bomb? The terrorist attacks in Brussels last week, in which 32 people died, reminded states of the importance of tackling the threat of nuclear and radiological terrorism. Investigations into the bombings revealed that Islamic State, who claimed responsibility for the attacks, were actively monitoring workers at Belgian nuclear facilities. In response to this discovery, at two Belgian nuclear plants all non-essential staff were sent home within hours of the attacks, as a precautionary measure. Though IS didn’t manage to access nuclear material in the end, this indicates they may have been interested in acquiring material usable in a radiological weapon, or “dirty bomb.”

Prospect 31st March 2016 read more »

Britain braced for ISIS cyber attacks on nuclear power plants as Cameron flies for talks with Obama on how to stop jihadis seizing radioactive material.

Daily Mail 31st March 2016 read more »

UK preparing for ISIS Dirty Bomb amid fears hackers could target UK nuclear plant.

Express 31st March 2016 read more »

When some of the world’s major nuclear powers meet in Washington DC next Friday, they will be shadowed by the rising terrorist attacks– largely in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, which will take place 31 March-April 1, will the fourth and final conference in a series initiated by US President Barack Obama in 2009 to address one key issue: nuclear terrorism as an extreme threat to global security. According to the US State Department, the overarching theme of the summit meeting, to be attended by the world’s nuclear leaders, is “the risk of nuclear or radiological terrorism and how nations can mitigate this threat.” Dr Rebecca Johnson, a London-based expert on non-proliferation and multilateral security agreements, told IPS the terrorist attacks that ripped through Brussels “tragically remind us that President Obama’s key objective in setting up the Nuclear Security Summits was to prevent nuclear materials getting into the hands of anyone wishing to use them for nuclear or radiological weapons.” “As well as strengthening intelligence and transnational cooperation, I hope they won’t forget that the risks start with the nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the nine nuclear-armed states”.

IPS 25th March 2016 read more »

Britain and the US will stage a war-game later this year, simulating a cyber attack on a nuclear power plant, to test the readiness of the government and utility firms. As David Cameron prepares to fly to Washington to attend a nuclear security summit, convened by Barack Obama, government sources said the two countries plan to cooperate on exploring the resilience of nuclear infrastructure to a terrorist attack. Government sources said the exercise was not triggered by any credible intelligence about the threat of such an attack, but that it was “prudent planning,” adding: “It gives us the ability to test these systems, and make sure that we learn any lessons.”

Guardian 31st March 2016 read more »

World leaders can make progress in preventing nuclear terrorism and simultaneously support the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement if they can connect the dots between the carbon-free world that we need and the strengthened nuclear security regime that is required to support it. These interconnected issues need to be the focus at the upcoming and final Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 1. There is little doubt that if terrorists acquire nuclear material they will use it. Al Qaeda long ago pledged to obtain a nuclear device. ISIS recently shadowed a nuclear official in Belgium, a country with fissionable nuclear material. High intensity radioactive sources used for medical and industrial purposes – and the key component of a dirty bomb – go missing with regularity. There are no binding international standards for countries with regard to securing dangerous nuclear and other radioactive material. There is no mandatory process of assessing whether a country has secured its nuclear material. There is no mechanism for the timely review and updating of nuclear security requirements as technologies and threats evolve.

Huffington Post 29th March 2016 read more »

As President Obama gathers world leaders in Washington this week for his last Nuclear Security Summit, tons of materials that terrorists could use to make small nuclear devices or dirty bombs remain deeply vulnerable to theft. Still, Mr. Obama’s six-year effort to rid the world of loose nuclear material has succeeded in pulling bomb-grade fuel out of countries from Ukraine to Chile, and has firmly put nuclear security on the global agenda. But despite the progress, several countries are balking at safeguards promoted by the United States or are building new stockpiles. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, where some of the largest stockpiles of civilian nuclear material remain, has decided to boycott the summit meeting, which begins Thursday night. Mr. Putin has made it clear he will not engage in nuclear cleanup efforts dominated by the United States.

New York Times 30th March 2016 read more »

The former boss of one of Britain’s biggest energy suppliers has warned that the safety buffer separating Britain from power cuts will be uncomfortably slim for up to four years. Experts had already warned this winter that Britain was at its highest risk of blackouts in more than a decade before the announcement of a succession of closures of coal-fired power stations. Paul Massara, a former chief executive of npower, warned yesterday that the tight supply would last for up to four winters, in contrast with rosier forecasts from the regulator that the safety buffer between capacity and peak electricity demand would begin to improve from 2017 onwards. The Longannet coal plant in Scotland and Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire ceased operations last week. Low electricity prices and the shift to cleaner sources of power have challenged the economics of coal generation, which last year represented a quarter of electricity generated in Britain.

Times 31st March 2016 read more »

The government will be forced to come up with another mechanism to get new gas power stations built as the capacity market “isn’t working,” the former chief executive of RWE Npower has said.

Utility Week 30th March 2016 read more »

A £2.8bn government scheme funded by energy bill payers which aims to keep the lights on in Britain has been condemned as wasteful, expensive and “unfit for purpose” in a damning report. The claims from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) comes on the day that one of the UK’s biggest coal-fired power stations, Ferrybridge, formally closes, with several others threatening to follow. There was also a new warning from a leading academic and adviser to energy regulator Ofgem that Britain’s electricity supply is facing “crunch time” this coming winter. Under the Capacity Market scheme, more than £370m alone has been paid to coal plants that are simultaneously being hit by a higher carbon price floor, ensuring “consumers are hit by a double whammy, paying for two subsidies,” warns the IPPR. “The government rightly wants to secure the country’s power supply. But its primary mechanism for doing so is failing to meet any of the government’s own objectives. It is absurd that consumers are paying for subsidies to the most polluting forms of generation such as diesel and coal while in a separate policy also paying to discourage them,” said Byron Orme, IPPR research fellow and author of the report. Doug Parr, chief scientist for Greenpeace UK, said the ministers needed a rethink. “The UK government has taken the right approach by announcing a coal phase-out, but they forgot about the other half of the job. What Britain badly needs are clear, robust policies to drive more investment in clean energy and power-saving technologies. “What we have instead is a random collection of pet projects, like the Hinkley nuclear reactor and fracking, that are going nowhere, with highly polluting diesel farms thrown in to plug the gap.”

Guardian 31st March 2016 read more »

Fiddler’s Ferry coal plant, which was earmarked for closure, has had an unexpected reprieve after securing a new contract to provide “ancillary services” to the National Grid. The plant in Widnes, Cheshire, which is owned by energy firm SSE, will now remain open until March 2017, safeguarding 213 jobs. The one-year contract will use just one of the four available units at the power station but two further units will now be entered into market auctions, SSE said.

Telegraph 30th March 2016 read more »

UK prepares to lose 8GW of generating capacity by end of the month as coal plants shut down, prompting experts to bemoan a ‘lack of long-term strategy’ and tight margins ahead. Tomorrow two more of the country’s remaining coal-fired power stations, Eggborough in Yorkshire and Fiddlers Ferry plant in Cheshire, will close their doors.

Business Green 30th March 2016 read more »

An unprecedented refrigeration structure resembling giant ice lollies has been approved by Japanese regulators to help create a frozen underground barrier around the Fukushima nuclear reactor buildings and contain contaminated water. The Japanese nuclear regulation authority said the structure, which was completed last month, can now be activated. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, plans to turn on the ice wall on Thursday in an attempt to minimise the risk of contaminated water escaping. Nearly 800,000 tonnes of water already stored in 1,000 huge industrial tanks at the plant has been hampering the decontamination of the nuclear facility since the 2011 quake and tsunami.

Energy Voice 30th March 2016 read more »

The European Investment Bank is to provide a £500m loan to support the construction of a major new power link for the north of Scotland. The project includes a 100 mile-long subsea cable between Spittal in Caithness and Blackhillock in Moray. The new transmission link could add up to 1.2 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity to the grid. It is being built by SSE subsidiary Scottish Hydro Electricity (SHE) Transmission. The company is investing more than £1.1bn in the project, which is due for completion in 2018.

BBC 30th March 2016 read more »

Herald 31st March 2016 read more »

Stillwater power plant, the first triple hybrid facility in the world, combining geothermal, photovoltaic and solar thermal power generation, was inaugurated in Nevada. The ribbon-cutting ceremony of the world’s first triple hybrid power plant featuring Nevada’s governor and Italy’s Prime Minister took place yesterday in Fallon, Nevada.

Renew Economy 31st March 2016 read more »

A community energy project near Stratford-upon-Avon is seeking a £5 million investment from members of the public for a 5 per cent annual return. Stratford Community Energy is coordinating the project which consists of a large solar farm installed on former DEFRA land. It will generate 4,696 MW hours of electricity annually and reduce the region’s carbon emissions by up to 1,800 tonnes per year. The community solar farm is only the second project in the country to benefit from a battery storage unit with a 1000 kW energy storage system to be installed on the site.

Utility Week 30th March 2016 read more »

Strathclyde Pension Fund – one of the biggest of its sort in Britain – has invested another €50 million in a Dublin-based renewable energy fund.

Scottish Energy News 31st March 2016 read more »