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News September 2021

Radwaste

Copeland GDF Working Group has been working towards identifying Search Area(s) for further consideration in the search for suitable sites to host a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). A GDF is an underground facility designed to safely and securely dispose of higher activity radioactive waste. A Search Area is the geographical area on land within which Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) would seek to identify potentially suitable sites. The Working Group is proposing two Search Areas, each with its own Community Partnership. Search Areas have to be based on district electoral ward boundaries. The area within the Lake District National Park (LDNP) and proposed extension will continue to be excluded from consideration, even where these electoral ward boundaries may overlap with the park boundary. Deep geology beyond the coast is also being considered for the siting of the underground elements of a GDF and the Working Group has recommended that RWM’s initial focus is in this area. This means a surface facility on the coast could provide access to a disposal area deep in the rock beyond the coast, where – based on existing data – the Working Group and RWM understands there may be geology worthy of further detailed investigation.

Copeland GDF Working Group 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Cumbria Crack 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Copeland GDF Working Group has provided a handy Q&A helping to explain how it has decided on two search areas it proposes to explore in the hunt for a nuclear waste disposal site in the borough. One Search Area includes the electoral wards of Gosforth and Seascale and Beckermet. The second Search Area includes the electoral wards of Millom and Black Combe and Scafell.

Cumbria Crack 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Nuclear Finance

Britain plans to legislate as soon as next month for a funding mechanism to spur the construction of new nuclear power plants to replace its aging fleet of reactors. The U.K. is likely to need low-carbon power from nuclear to meet its net-zero targets as well as help avert the kind of energy crisis that’s currently crippling the country. The nation’s existing reactors are scheduled to close by the end of the decade and building replacements has been a struggle, with two major projects shelved because of financing issues. The so-called regulated asset base, or RAB, model is a government-funded mechanism designed to encourage private-sector investment in a project, which is meant to dilute the construction costs shouldered by the taxpayer and developer. It’s the same plan that’s been used to fund airports and water companies.

Bloomberg 28th Sept 2021 read more »

Red-hot investment opportunities don’t come along every day. So how could anyone resist this one: owning a 20 per cent stake in Sizewell C, the nuclear reactor earmarked for a Suffolk flood plain? Apparently, the minority stake in a project 80 per cent-owned by France’s EDF is going to be sold to institutional investors or floated on the stock market — at least once China’s CGN has been booted off the scheme. Or that, anyway, is the latest ministerial fantasy peddled to the Financial Times after an exhausting few days of half-baked, pro-nuclear briefings. Forget for a second the political niceties of ousting China from the project. Yes, it’s hard not to object to the Hong Kong crackdown artists from Beijing being involved in Britain’s nuclear industry, not least potentially with their own Hualong One HPR1000 technology at Bradwell in Essex. But CGN is EDF’s one-third partner on the sole nuclear plant being built in the UK, the £23 billion Hinkley Point C. Do ministers really think they can kick CGN off Sizewell without any impact on that project? Or other forms of Chinese retaliation? That, though, can wait for another day. For now, it’s two other things that grate. First, the knee-jerk nature of it all — that the government’s response to a temporary spike in gas prices is a sudden conversion to big nuclear power. How does that work in a world of post-Fukushima safety standards? As the nukes keep proving, they take over a decade to build and are mainly famous for endless delays and exploding costs. All the time, too, new renewable technology is getting cheaper. The second issue? The myth that private investors are gagging to put their money in. If they were that keen on a minority stake in nuclear, they could have bought Centrica’s one-fifth holding in eight plants that it put on the block in February 2018, which it may now keep after failing to find a buyer. And, unlike Sizewell C, those ones are already built.

Times 30th Sept 2021 read more »

It seems China will have no part in the construction of new nuclear power stations in Britain. Several seemingly well-briefed stories in the Sunday newspapers last weekend indicated that China General Nuclear (CGN), which currently has a 20% stake in the new Sizewell C plant to be built in Suffolk, is to be removed from the project. This was followed today by an authoritative report in the Financial Times which suggested CGN’s stake in the new £20bn plant would be sold to institutional investors or even floated on the stock market. The FT said that, under the plans, the government would hold the stake until it could be sold on to institutional investors – but that an initial public offering was also being examined.

Sky News 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Institutional investors could be asked to buy a minority stake in a new £20bn nuclear power station under UK government plans to oust China’s CGN from the project, it was claimed today. According to the Financial Times, the government is closing in on a deal to force state-owned CGN to give up its 20% stake in the proposed Sizewell C plant in Suffolk. The report said talks were already under way with EDF, the French energy group that holds the remaining 80% stake in Sizewell.

Capital.com 29th sept 2021 read more »

Sizewell

Can anything stop Sizewell C as politicians back project? The energy crisis we have seen in the last month or so has confirmed in my mind that Sizewell C is now more likely to be built than not. The fuel crisis is not such a decisive factor in that – but the rise in gas prices and the subsequent collapse of energy firms will have confirmed the Prime Minister in his view that a new generation of nuclear power plants is necessary – continuing with Sizewell C. If you believe the leaks from the government to Sunday newspapers, it seems they are also considering a number of “mini-reactors” to be built by Rolls-Royce and installed in or near large population centres to provide reliable power. So it looks as if the government is looking for reasons to approve power stations like Sizewell C rather than reasons for rejecting them. That’s not to say EDF’s proposals are a done deal but those of us who are worried about the future of the Suffolk coast do need to understand the pressures that are pushing them forward. There is clearly mainstream political consensus at Westminster that Sizewell C should be built. Local Tory MPs have made it clear that they are in principle in favour of a new power plant – although they have major concerns about its impact on the local environment and the tourist economy.

East Anglian Daily Times 30th Sept 2021 read more »

CGN/Sizewell C: enforced sale could leave Chinese group with a warm glow. British hostility to China looks set to provide CGN with its own exit, leaving taxpayers holding the baby. For sale: Minority interest in a core plan of £ 20 billion that is not planned. The risks include large overruns in cost and budget, political intervention and a prudent customer base. One current owner, China’s CGN; a legacy of the country’s short-lived existence golden decade of cooperation with the UK.

FT 29th Sept 2021 read more »

UK plans to force sale of Chinese-owned nuclear stake to investors. A minority stake in the nuclear power station on England’s East Coast will be sold to institutional investors or floated on the stock market under UK Government plans to oust CGN from the project.

FT 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Washington is celebrating the UK’s effort to push a Chinese company out of a sensitive nuclear power project, according to people familiar with US engagement on the issue. The US, long an opponent of the UK’s energy ties with China, considers London’s plans to require Chinese energy giant, CGN to give up its 20 per cent stake in the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk a long-fought-for diplomatic win. The British government’s discomfort with China’s grip on its energy sector has grown in recent months. Meanwhile, the Biden administration launched a fresh drive to protect energy infrastructure from attacks, including cyberattacks, earlier this year.

Independent 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Wylfa

Plans for a Cardiff Crossrail, Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station and a third Menai Crossing are among projects that could be affected by new rules requiring future developments and infrastructure projects in Wales to pass a climate change test. Under new rules – which come into play in December – it will be necessary for developers in Wales to show that they have considered the impact that their proposals could have in relation to global warming. Developers will have to demonstrate how they have considered potential future flood risk and coastal erosion due to global warming, with latest projections showing that 11.3% of land in Wales will be at risk from flooding from rivers or the sea in the future.

New Civil Engineer 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Hinkley

Five years after getting the go-ahead, the number of people across Britain – including Gloucestershire – working on the Hinkley Point C power station has reached 22,000.

The project is on track to finish at the end of 2026. Initially costed at £18 billion, that figure has risen to £23 billion. The work’s being carried out by the French-owned EDF Energy with a headquarters in Gloucester and the Chinese state-owned China General Nuclear Power Group. The growing number of people working on the project includes 6,300 on site, compared to just 1,500 at the height of Covid last year. Final contracts for Hinkley Point C were signed on September 29, 2016. Since then, 3,600 British companies have won contracts on the project.

Punchline 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Burnham & Highbridge News 29th Sept 2021 read more »

EDF Energy 29th Sept 2021 read more »

FIVE years since it was first given the green light, new nuclear power station Hinkley Point C is being supplied by 200 Welsh companies.

South Wales Argus 29th Sept 2021 read more »

SMRs – Wylfa, Olbury and Bradwell

Clean energy developer Shearwater Energy has identified “about 18 sites around the UK” that could be used as small modular reactor (SMR) power plants. Shearwater Energy director Simon Forster told NCE it is a “dynamic situation”, adding that the existing Wylfa Newydd site on Anglesey is the current front-runner. “We’ve been looking first and foremost at the existing nuclear sites and where they can be developed – can we develop on the footprint of the existing Magnox and AGR sites, for example?” he said. “We rank the sites in order of likelihood of happening. It’s no secret that Wylfa is at the top. We think that’s a great site.” Horizon Nuclear Power officially withdrew its planning application for a £20bn power station at Wylfa in January after funding challenges, and during a Welsh Affairs Committee evidence session last week Forster outlined his firm’s proposals to use both the existing Wylfa Magnox site – which is being decommissioned – and the Wylfa Newydd site. Shearwater proposes trialling 12 77Mw reactors on the Magnox site and has nearly completed a feasibility study. The company hopes to have definite costs and a construction schedule “this year” but Forster said the plant could generate 1Gw of power. On the Wylfa Newydd site, the firm proposes 10 BWRX-300 SMR reactors. It has submitted a proposal for this to GE Hitachi and a cost estimate to BEIS. Construction could start in 2025, and the project could generate power by 2028. Forster told NCE that other potential sites include Bradwell B in Essex, currently being progressed by CGN and EDF Energy and the decommissioned Oldbury site.

New Civil Engineer 30th Sept 2021 read more »

There are some innovations and advances taking place in the nuclear energy sector that may be able to bring the industry into the 21st century and make increased adoption more appealing for nations that are on the fence about nuclear power. One of the key advances in nuclear technology that is close to becoming a reality is the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs), a smaller-scale version of nuclear reactors which would be mass-produced and assembled on-site, improving efficiency and making building new reactors far more cost-effective. The nuclear industry has also been hard at work finding ways to make the sector even safer. Some of the solutions are quite futuristic, from employing drones with radiation sensors to keep nuclear plant employees safe, to getting rid of humans entirely and replacing workers with robots equipped with machine-learning capabilities.

Oil Price 29th Sept 2021 read more »

As we head towards COP26, CND’s scientific adviser, Dr Ian Fairlie, addresses the claims that new forms of nuclear power production can be part of the solution to the climate emergency: “In recent months, the outpouring of pro-nuclear media stories and newspaper articles has been incessant and increasing in the UK. Not anywhere else in Europe, just the UK. This is partly due to leaks and promptings from UK government officials that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is considering direct government support for nuclear projects. It’s a bit of a feeding frenzy for the nuclear industry, so we should not take these stories too seriously, and should see what action, if any, actually transpires. It is also partly due to current concerns about the rising price of gas: people are looking to see if there are other cheaper sources of energy. However any new nuclear developments, if they ever occurred, would be decades away, and much more expensive than gas. Another issue is the concern over accelerating climate change, shortly to be addressed at COP26 in Glasgow in November. This is a serious matter and must be tackled but anyone who unwisely thinks that nuclear is a solution should google “uranium mining” and “nuclear wastes”. That said, I have received several queries as to whether small modular reactors (SMRs) and/or advanced nuclear reactors (ANRs) could help address climate change and global warming. The short answer is no, they are highly unlikely to help, partly because the nuclear industry has a relatively large carbon footprint compared to the renewables, and partly because of the inherent problems with SMRs and Advanced Nuclear Technologies (ANTs). For those readers who wish to learn more, Pete Roche and I have written a six page report debunking the many myths of SMRs and ANTs – available here.”

CND 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Nuclear Futures

China’s CGN out of favour in plans about new Sizewell C large nuclear plant; possible UK Government funding back in the mix? Will the Wylfa nuclear project come back to life as an AP1000 site, multiple SMRs or will it stay asleep? It is clear that the buck will stop with the UK Government if the nuclear industry is to be revived, yet the UK Government is still aggressively backing offshore wind. Current nuclear plants have a hint of urgency due to short-term crisis; UK Government involvement needs better finance plans than Hinkley Point C where long term expensive power prices are locked in. Investors interested in nuclear power need to wait to see how this plays out, but SMR reactors could get a life.

Seeking Alpha 28th Sept 2021 read more »

Climate Policy

UK green energy surcharges set to switch from electric to gas bills. Ministers will outline plans to shift green surcharges from household electricity tariffs to gas tariffs to move consumers towards low-carbon alternatives. The plan, announced next month, is a manifestation of the government’s desire not to overcome the current crisis. It upsets the long-term goal of eliminating all net carbon emissions by 2050. Citizens who warm their homes with electricity or drive electric cars will pay less, but those who continue to use gas boilers will pay more, under the suggestions that will be considered in future reviews.

FT 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Households with gas to pay more under proposal to switch green energy surcharge to electricity bills. Reports say ministers will insist combined energy bills do not increase in phased policy as Government pushes for net zero. A green energy surcharge which is applied to household electricity bills will instead be slapped on gas bills as part of the government’s net zero drive, according to reports. Ministers will insist that the policy will be phased in over a period of up to 10 years and maintain that combined energy bills will not increase in price. The proposals, which will be considered at an upcoming review, are likely to be controversial at a time when household energy bills are increasing sharply as a global gas shortage raises prices for energy providers. Ministers are set to announce the proposals which would see customers with gas boilers pay more than those who use electricity to heat their homes or drive electric cars, according to the Financial Times. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said they wanted to encourage people to take up technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles, while insisting that “affordability” for consumers and taxpayers would be at the heart of their approach. The sale of new gas boilers is set to be banned by 2035. Heat pumps, an eco-friendly electric alternative to gas boilers which work like a refrigerator in reverse, currently have much higher upfront installation costs than gas boilers. Air-source heat pumps currently cost around £10,000, though suppliers are expected to cut these costs over the coming years. A survey by RSK Group found that almost 80 per cent of homeowners would only install a heat pump system if they received adequate financial support from the Government to meet the costs of putting in the technology.

Telegraph 30th Sept 2021 read more »

Labour leader pledges major green home upgrades drive and public funding for clean tech innovation in party conference speech. Sir Keir Starmer has demanded urgent action against the “existential threat” of climate change during his Labour Party conference speech in Brighton, as he sought to position the UK’s burgeoning green economy at the centre of his economic vision for the country in the wake of the pandemic. The Labour leader reiterated his Party’s commitment to a ‘Green New Deal’ aimed at boosting growth and jobs across the country, and touted the huge potential of green aviation technologies such as hydrogen, and the success of the domestic wind energy sector. He warned that the climate crisis threatened to turn terrain into desert land, that conflicts would break out around the world over scarce resources such as water, and that “millions will be displaced by flooding, forest fires, and violent storms” – but that transitioning to a green economy offered a solution. “Time is short, and we have a duty to act,” He said. “But that obligation shouldn’t daunt us, it should embolden us. Shifting the economy onto a sustainable path is full of promise for Britain.”

Business Green 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Utilities

Ofgem warns energy suppliers of strong enforcement action as crisis deepens. It warned electricity and gas providers they will work with police and UK fraud authorities if they suspect a company is responsible for causing a “significant deterioration” in a supplier’s financial position. doing. Ofgem’s head of retail, Neil Lawrence, sent a powerful letter to all retail energy suppliers this week, “minimizing costs” that could be spread across all consumer energy prices when the suppliers are folded. It reminded me of the responsibility of “restricting”. The letter, which the Financial Times saw a copy of, was sent Wednesday the day before three more suppliers went bankrupt in the face of record wholesale gas prices. The list of casualties in the UK’s crisis-stricken retail energy industry has grown to 10 since early August.

FT 29th Sept 2021 read more »

Energy Costs

Households are facing “desperate choices” this winter, with energy bills rising by £30 a month for those who have had to switch supplier owing to a wave of energy company failures, as three more collapsed on Wednesday. Rising gas prices have driven 12 energy companies under this year, forcing the regulator, Ofgem, to transfer 2m customer accounts to surviving suppliers. The collapse of a further three will force the regulator to move 233,000 more customer accounts, with bills expected to increase as a result. Ofgem said Igloo Energy, Symbio Energy and Enstroga had become the latest companies to succumb to a gathering crisis that shows no sign of abating, with gas prices remaining stubbornly high amid international shortages as winter approaches. A report by Citizens Advice, published today, has found that consumers who are moved to a new supplier typically pay £30 a month more than before. Advisers at the charity fear many will face fuel poverty this winter and could end up turning off their fridges and freezers, relying on hot-water bottles for warmth and requesting support to buy extra duvets and blankets. Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Overnight price hikes will be a shock for more than a million households whose energy companies have gone bust. We’re particularly worried about those who’ll face desperate choices this winter because of the cumulative impact of soaring bills, the planned cut to universal credit and inflation.

Guardian 30th Sept 2021 read more »

Three energy suppliers collapsed yesterday leaving 233,000 households facing an imminent rise in their bills of about £350 a year as wholesale gas prices reached record highs. The failures of Igloo Energy, Symbio Energy and Enstroga mean that nine suppliers serving more than 1.7 million households have gone bust this month. Customers will be moved to other companies that are generally expected to charge them the maximum allowed under the energy price cap, which rises to £1,277 a year from tomorrow. It will represent an increase of hundreds of pounds a year for many customers who had taken out cheap fixed-price deals with the defunct companies.

Times 30th Sept 2021 read more »

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