Jonathon Porritt: In March 2012, four former directors of Friends of the Earth (myself, Tom Burke, Charles Secrett and Tony Juniper) wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron to warn him that the pro-nuclear bias of his advisers across government posed a significant risk to the government’s ability to fashion a coherent energy policy. We were concerned at that time that this bias was distorting views on what was known then as the ‘energy trilemma’: availability (as in security of supply); affordability (unlike this government, David Cameron’s at least professed to care about fuel poverty); and decarbonisation. We invited him to acknowledge that the costs of his pro-nuclear policy were already significant and would escalate over time, whereas the benefits were intangible, remote and would almost certainly prove illusory. As we said: “Viable options are available to meet our energy and climate security needs at much lower economic and political risk, and will create predominantly British jobs and growth.” It’s depressing how much of the counter-briefing that we provided him with at that time would be as relevant for Boris Johnson today as it was, nine years ago, for David Cameron. That pro-nuclear bias was epitomised in the advice of Sir David MacKay, DECC’s chief scientific adviser between 2009 and 2014. Just before his untimely death in 2016, he described the suggestion that solar, wind and other renewables (combined with effective storage technologies) could power the UK’s electricity needs as “an appalling delusion”, forcefully recommending that the government should double down on both nuclear power and carbon capture and storage. Just five years later, in 2021, renewable energy is already providing more than 40 per cent of the UK’s electricity supply. On the recent Bank Holiday, wind power alone provided an astonishing 48.4 per cent of the UK’s electricity.

Green Alliance Blog 7th May 2021 read more »

Energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan says the UK Government remains committed to new nuclear investment at Wylfa Newydd and her department continues to talk to potential developers. The update came during an online meeting with the minister organised by Ynys Môn MP Virginia Crosbie and involving Anglesey County Council, Llanbadrig Community Council, M-SParc, Menter Môn and Coleg Llandrillo Menai. During the talk, the minister said: “We all appreciate that Wylfa Newydd is a great site and we have the commitment within our energy white paper and the 10-point plan that new nuclear investment is a critical part of our energy mix going forwards.

North Wales Chronicle 6th May 2021 read more »

The proposed Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station on Anglesey has been given fresh hope after energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told stakeholders that the government is in discussion with “a number of potential developers”. Trevelyan told a meeting of stakeholders that Wylfa is “a great site”. She added: “We have regular discussions with a number of potential developers and investors and that will continue because we are absolutely committed to having at least one more large-scale nuclear plant.” In November, NCE reported that a Bechtel-led consortium was in talks with the government about delivering a nuclear power plant on the site after Horizon Nuclear Power’s parent company Hitachi announced that it was pulling out of the project. Following this, Horizon officially withdrew its planning application for the proposed power station in January. The government has, however, said it is still very “keen” to find a developer for the Wylfa site. Trevelyan also emphasised the importance of nuclear energy. “Nuclear is an absolutely central part of what our energy mix will have over the next 50 years plus,” she said. “And Wylfa remains one of the best potential sites for those technologies, in large part not only because of the geology and geography, but because you have this really passionate and involved community who understand the value of what that brings.” Ynys Môn MP Virginia Crosbie said the meeting was “positive”, adding that it “updated” stakeholders on the government’s thinking and, “crucially, its continuing commitment to new nuclear on Anglesey”.

New Civil Engineer 5th May 2021 read more »

UK Government is committed to at least “one more large nuclear plant” as a minister said they continue to talk to potential developers interested in the Wylfa Newydd site. Hitachi pulled the plug on the £16bn project last year after failing to reach a funding agreement with UK Government. The Government is now negotiating with EDF to enable investment in the planned Sizewell C nuclear power plant project in Suffolk but said there is the potential for more sites. The Anglesey community council where a Wylfa B would be sited said they remained supportive but were “tired of the uncertainty”. Energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Anglesey stakeholders: “We all appreciate that Wylfa Newydd is a great site and we have the commitment within our energy white paper and the 10-point plan that new nuclear investment is a critical part of our energy mix going forwards. “We have regular discussions with a number of potential developers and investors and that will continue because we are absolutely committed to having at least one more large-scale nuclear plant.”

Business Live 4th May 2021 read more »

The world’s largest land-based crane, “Big Carl”, completed its second major lift last week at Hinkley Point C near Burnham-On-Sea. The second of three prefabricated steel rings to form the reinforced cylinder around the new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point C has been lifted from the bunker in which it was constructed to a lay-down area. The ring – which is 17m tall and 47m wide – is now being prepared for the final lift into the first reactor building. It was constructed in factory conditions in the bunker – one of the innovations to improve quality on the project.

Burnham-on-sea.com 3rd May 2021 read more »

Hinkley Point C contractor joint venture Bylor has constructed the second massive prefabricated steel ring section for the site’s first reactor building a third faster. The world’s largest land-based crane, Big Carl, lifted the second of three massive containment rings for the reactor building from the construction bunker where it was constructed in factory conditions. The site team built the 17m-tall and 47m diameter ring 36% faster than before using the experience gained during the construction of the first ring. Eventually, two main reactor buildings will be constructed at the West Country nuclear power station site. Big Carl will lift more than 500 prefabricated steel and concrete elements weighing up to 1,600 tonnes.

Construction Enquirer 4th May 2021 read more »

How Beijing bought up Britain. China has quietly spent £134bn hoovering up UK assets, from nuclear power to private schools and pizza chains. Research reveals that almost 200 British companies are either controlled by Chinese investors or count them as minority shareholders. The value of Chinese investments totals £134 billion. Some of the biggest sums have been spent in the energy sector, notably nuclear power. Chinese state-owned China General Nuclear (CGN) bought a 33.5 per cent stake in Hinkley Point C power station in Somerset, the first new nuclear facility to be built in the UK in more than 20 years. The main investor is France’s EDF. CGN, which has been blacklisted in America for allegedly helping to acquire US tech for military use in China, has also joined with EDF on the proposed nuclear plant at Sizewell C in Suffolk. CGN will take a 20 per cent stake during the plant’s development. Plans for a third plant, at Bradwell in Essex, have China hawks up in arms, because CGN intends to take a majority 66.5 per cent stake during development and will use its own reactor technology.

Times 2nd May 2021 read more »

Using figures taken directly from EdF’s own DCO documents for Sizewell C, Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) has calculated the scale of the slaughter of fish which will occur in the event that Sizewell C is approved and operates alongside the existing ‘B’ plant between 2035 and 2055, the assumed start date for Sizewell C and the year in which Sizewell B is now expected to cease operations, assuming it applies for and is granted regulatory approval for the expected twenty year life extension to 2055. In that twenty year period, an estimated 560 million fish will be sucked into (entrained) and impinged within the cooling systems of both plants, with a toll of 28.5 million fish every year. Sizewell C, taking in 131 cubic metres of seawater per second – 2.5 times that of Sizewell B – will be responsible for 20 million of that number, or over 70% of the total. But this staggering figure hides a grim truth: it represents only a percentage of the overall impact on the marine environment inflicted by nuclear power. Unknown millions of eggs, marine crustaceans, larvae and post larval stages of fish fry along with other marine biota are entrained through the nuclear plant cooling systems every year, adding to the toll of those impinged on the mesh of the cooling intakes and the decimation of fish stocks.

Essex Magazine 29th April 2021 read more »