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Nuclear in Scotland

Nuclear power industry is waging a propaganda war. Here’s why it should have no place in our energy future – Dr Richard Dixon. Reports at the weekend revealed the scale of nuclear industry lobbying of MSPs and ministers. Sadly for them nuclear reactors across Europe are increasingly showing the folly of relying on complex, always late and eye-wateringly expensive technologies for power. MSPs from the Scottish Labour, SNP and Tory parties have heard from the industry at six private meetings in 2021 and another four in 2022. The industry has already been quite successful at lobbying the UK Government. Boris Johnson recently used the pretext of the war in Ukraine to make the insane promise that they would build a reactor a year for the next eight years. In the real world, the new Finnish reactor at Olkiluoto has had a further delay, meaning it may eventually feed actual electrons into the power grid in December, nearly 13 years later than planned and at a nearly four times the original cost estimate. It is the first new reactor to be completed in Europe for 15 years. The previous one, in Romania, was officially ‘under construction’ for 24 years. Construction of two reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset continues but last month energy company EDF admitted that the proposed start date has slipped once again to June 2027, ten years later than originally proposed, and the costs have risen again to over £25bn, from an original price tag of £18bn. A decision on whether to proceed with the proposed reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk will be made next month. Recent academic research suggested the power station could cost twice as much as predicted, at over £48bn, and take five years longer to build, totalling 17 years. In France, one of the most nuclear-dependent countries in Europe, problems with cracks in the vital cooling circuits of 12 reactors have forced them to shut down. With other reactors closed down for maintenance, half of France’s reactors are currently out of action. The country will have to import power and may face rolling blackouts this winter. And of course the reactors at Torness in East Lothian are going to be shutting earlier than expected because of cracks in their cores. The money and political capital they are throwing at this this would be much better spent making sure renewables expand at the fastest possible rate. You would hope that Scottish politicians gave the lobbyists short shrift in their recent meetings.

Scotsman 23rd June 2022 read more »

Scotwind

Ministers are considering “pickpocketing” the public body in charge of managing Scotland’s land for a cash boost expected from offshore windfarms. In the ScotWind auction for seabed rights for the green projects, 17 bidders paid almost £700 million in rental. Crown Estate Scotland, which manages the country’s seabed, coastline, rural estates and more, brokered the deals. It was expected that it would receive up to 9 per cent of the revenue profits returned — about £60 million of the total sales revenue — but there are doubts over whether that will be followed through. Edward Mountain, the Scottish Conservative MSP, asked the Scottish government specifically to confirm the funding. Michael Matheson, the energy secretary, replied: “Scottish ministers are considering how the ScotWind revenues should be invested to maximise the benefits for the people of Scotland.”

Times 23rd June 2022 read more »

Nuclear Power in Scotland

The UK nuclear industry has stepped up its lobbying of MSPs in a bid to get the Scottish Parliament to reverse its opposition to the building of new nuclear power stations. An investigation by The Ferret has revealed that nuclear energy companies and their lobbyists have talked up the industry’s potential benefits to ministers, Tory, Labour and SNP MSPs at six meetings in 2021 and four so far in 2022. According to the Scottish Parliament’s lobbying register, there were no pro-nuclear lobbying meetings in 2020, three in 2019 and four in 2018. There is only one recorded lobbying meeting by an anti-nuclear group since 2018. Campaigners accused the nuclear industry of “getting desperate” and “flogging a dead horse” by launching a “propaganda offensive”. Scotland did not need to build any more nuclear stations, they said. The industry, however, defended its lobbying, arguing that ruling out new nuclear power was “bad science and bad judgement for Scotland”. It urged the Scottish Government to drop its “blanket opposition” to nuclear developments. On 24 May the UK Nuclear Industry Association arranged a full day of “engagement with the Scottish Parliament”. This included lunch and a series of pro-nuclear presentations at the upmarket Signet Library hosted by Edinburgh corporate energy lawyers, Castletown Law, as well as an evening reception in the parliament. For the lunchtime meeting Castletown produced a 16-page brochure entitled ‘The Importance of Nuclear Power to Scotland’. This was aimed at “trying to put right some of the misrepresentations on nuclear power generation”. One of its authors was Castletown’s principal, Simon Stuttaford, who used to work for the nuclear industry. His co-author and fellow principal was Andrew Renton, who has accused the media of being “indoctrinated” by anti-nuclear lobbying. Castletown Law is a member of the UK Nuclear Industry Association, which also invited MSPs to a “nuclear energy reception” at Holyrood at 6pm on 24 May. Politicians were offered meetings during the day with the association’s chief executive and former Labour energy spokesperson, Tom Greatrex, to “discuss nuclear energy matters in more depth”. The meetings on 24 May have not yet been recorded in Holyrood’s lobbying register. The nuclear association said it was “in the process” of declaring them. According to Glasgow SNP councillor and convener of the nuclear free group of local authorities in Scotland, Feargal Dalton, the nuclear industry was “getting desperate”. The industry was trying to “get its foot in Scotland’s door” before everyone realised that the country could be run on 100 per cent renewables, he warned. He added: “I am confident that the Scottish Government will stick to its guns, and in a couple of years’ time England and Wales will be wondering why they ever gave nuclear power so much air time.” The veteran environmental campaigner, Dr Richard Dixon, attacked the nuclear industry for making “false claims” about costs and radioactive waste. “Despite the obvious futility, the nuclear industry continues to flog its dead horse,” he said.

The Ferret 19th June 2022 read more »

The National 19th June 2022 read more »

SMRs

A new generation of mini reactors could be built in Scotland despite the SNP’s opposition to nuclear power. The Sunday Times has learnt that government body Scottish Enterprise and Cavendish Nuclear, a subsidiary of Babcock International, is putting a bid together to locate a factory at Rosyth to make key elements for Rolls-Royce’s Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) nuclear programme. The revelation that a Scottish government agency is helping make the case for jobs in an industry that the SNP has banned in Scotland led to claims of hypocrisy. Cavendish has nuclear manufacturing capabilities at Rosyth and is part of a consortium led by Rolls investing £500 million, including £210 million of taxpayer funding, to develop SMRs, which are critical to Westminster’s push for zero-carbon energy. The pitch from Scottish Enterprise and Cavendish to locate the plant in Scotland says it would allow SMR development — which is based on modular off-site construction of components — to utilise the skilled workers at Rosyth, home to one of the UK’s largest modular manufacturing facilities. The new factory would construct heavy-pressure vessels (HPVs) — in effect, steel tanks that provide one of several barriers to keep radioactive material out of the environment. A document with the bid says Rosyth has a “track record in high-integrity modular nuclear design, manufacturing and delivery for the new-build, decommissioning and naval nuclear sectors”. It adds that as Babcock owns the site and is the “statutory harbour authority with permitted development rights”, it will be able to “streamline any … planning applications” for new facilities. A Scottish Enterprise spokeswoman said that if the bid succeeded, it would result in “hundreds of millions of pounds of investment into Scotland and create hundreds of highly skilled engineering jobs”. She added: “This is not a project to bring new nuclear energy to Scotland; it is about maximising supply-chain opportunities for companies. The nuclear market, both in the rest of the UK and overseas, offers substantial economic opportunities for Scottish companies.” But Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Conservatives’ Covid recovery spokesman, said: “There are massive opportunities for Scotland from a new civil nuclear programme, but it reeks of hypocrisy for the SNP government to be using public funds to attract jobs here, whilst … opposing new nuclear build here.”

Times 19th June 2022 read more »

Nuclear in Scotland

Business comment: Nuclear’s role in Scotland’s energy future. Much has been written and discussed in relation to Scotland’s future energy strategy, but the discourse has hitherto lacked a factual review of how nuclear power can contribute. If we are to be able to deliver clean, secure energy infrastructure, openness to scientific evidence and factual reality is critically urgent. Five years ago, the Scottish Government’s revised energy strategy set out milestones to reach by the year 2050. So far, this strategy has consistently missed key milestones. In 2020 the target was for 100 per cent of Scotland’s electricity consumption to be generated from renewables but the actual amount achieved fell short. This target underpinned a much larger milestone: the equivalent of 30 per cent of Scotland’s heat, transport and electricity consumption powered by renewable sources. These targets were not met and the closure of Hunterston B power station in 2022, leaves Scotland highly dependent on intermittent generation and imported electricity. Heating accounts for a much larger proportion: 51.5 per cent of all energy consumption in 2020, largely from burning gas. Another target was missed in 2020: 11 per cent of heating that isn’t produced by electricity should have been from renewable sources such as biomass and heat pumps. This target was missed by a long way: just 6.4 per cent of Scotland’s non-electrical heat demand was supplied by renewable sources in 2020. The vast majority of heating is still from fossil fuels. Holyrood opposes current nuclear technology but does not rule out new and developing nuclear technologies. The energy strategy states that government is “duty bound to assess new technologies and low carbon energy solutions”. If Scotland’s energy needs for heating and transport are to be decarbonised this most likely means switching to electrical sources. Diverse sources of electricity are needed that don’t all rely on the weather. Even if we were to rely on hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels, this technology isn’t in use yet; it seems foolish to rely on a technology that may not mature in time. And if this technology does become part of our future, electricity is still required to produce the hydrogen. By leveraging Scotland’s existing engineering capability, investment from the private sector will be attracted to advanced nuclear technology that does not produce greenhouse gas emissions, and produces a low amount of hazardous waste that is responsibly managed and regulated nationally and internationally. It will secure long-term jobs and an investment in plant workers. Future nuclear plants can also come with other benefits such as the supply of district heating, and the ability to produce hydrogen. It has the potential to put Scotland once again at the forefront of advanced engineering and provide export opportunities for the whole industry supply chain.

Scotsman 19th June 2022 read more »

Biodiversity

THE Scottish Government has called on people across the country to submit their views on its new strategy for protecting and restoring Scotland’s biodiversity. In response to evidence that Scotland faces ongoing declines in terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity, the new strategy aims to halt nature loss by 2030 and reverse it by 2045. However, doing so will require “transformative change”, according to the Government.

The National 19th June 2022 read more »

Transport (Scotland)

Transform’s director Colin Howden reflects on the National Transport Strategy Delivery Plan, published on 8 June. On the face of it, there is much to welcome and indeed support in the new National Transport Strategy Delivery Plan. There is a commitment to deliver safer roads, improve health and well-being through an extension in active travel, address inclusive economic growth via more affordable public transport, and coordinate collaborative activity across government in support of ‘Mission Zero’ for climate action. It is therefore disappointing that after thorough consideration of the proposals published this month by Transport Scotland for the coming year, it’s clear that for all the positive words and noble statements, investment in sustainable transport remains stuck slogging uphill in the slow lane. In contrast, spending on the massive Scottish road building programme continues apace, accelerating into the distance and embedding additional carbon commitments that will take many more years to mitigate. Last summer, we published ‘Roads to Ruin’, an objective assessment of the extent of the Scottish road building programme promoted by Transport Scotland and its deleterious impact on climate change targets and skewed investment priorities when set against the Sustainable Travel and Investment Hierarchies heralded in the National Transport Strategy, NTS2. Of the sixteen schemes outlined in the future road building programme exactly 50%, 8 schemes, have now been confirmed at a collective cost of some £6.8bn. This sits in stark contrast to the actual investment in sustainable transport where, for example, just £25.8m has been committed from the much-vaunted Bus Partnership Fund totalling £500m, despite that funding commitment being made as long ago as September 2019.

Transform Scotland 16th June 2022 read more »

Climate Policy – Scotland

SNP ministers have been urged to match promises to end Scotland’s contribution to the climate crisis with action after admitting that their next strategy will not set a complete path towards its 2045 net zero pledge. Environmental campaigners have called for “positive, transformative steps” to be laid out in the next climate change plan, to be drawn up by SNP and Greens ministers by the end of 2023. But SNP Net Zero Secretary, Michael Matheson, has admitted that the strategy will not provide a complete route to his 2045 net zero ambition – despite the UK Government publishing its plan for its 2050 vision ahead of Cop26 in Glasgow last year. Mr Matheson has confirmed that the next full climate change plan will be published by November 2023. He added: “That plan will extend the emissions reduction pathway towards the ambitious 2040 target of a 90 per cent reduction and will include estimates of the costs and benefits of the policies to achieve that. The last version of the Scottish Government’s climate change plan was heavily criticised by Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises both Scottish and UK governments. The CCC’s chief executive, Chris Stark, told MSPs that the strategy was “on the fringes of credibility” and has recommended that ministers should draw up an alternative proposals in case plans to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) to mitigate emissions do not materialise in reality. There are fears that CCS funding may not match the ambition in time to have a real impact at the scale hoped for. The CCC has also recommended a host of other policies such as encouraging behaviour change in the public including cutting the amount of red meat people consume – but ministers have yet to take forward any action. Plans to decarbonise Scotland’s homes currently have a huge funding gap – while fears have been raised about the likelihood that Glasgow and Edinburgh can achieve their net zero plans by 2030. Friends of the Earth Scotland’s head of campaigns, Mary Church, said: “The new climate plan must spell out the positive, transformative steps the Government will take to ensure that we can slash pollution from how we heat our homes and travel around. “It must also end the delusion that CCS and hydrogen can deliver any meaningful action to cut climate pollution within the next decade, if ever.”

Herald 12th June 2022 read more »

Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Scotland

The Scottish Government has confirmed that national decreases in emissions between 1990 and 2020 exceeded key commitments, shortly after the EU posted a 34% reduction within the same timeframe, where it had been aiming for 20%. The Scottish Government’s official greenhouse gas statistics for 2020 confirm that the nation’s net emissions in 2020 were 40 million tonnes of CO21 – a 51% reduction from the 1990 baseline. Net emissions calculations – also known as source emissions – cover all emissions generated domestically and all emissions from international shipping and aviation, minus emissions removals generated domestically through nature-based and man-made solutions. The statistics also detail calculations made using the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) emissions accounting and reporting methodology, created with the intention of improving the accuracy of reporting toward the UK’s legally binding net-zero goals. The UK as a whole has a legally binding 2050 net-zero target while Scotland’s devolved target has been set at 2045. Using the CCC methodology, the report confirms that Scotland’s emissions were 58.7% lower in 2020 than at the baseline period. The CCC’s approach sets a 1990 baseline for CO2, NOx and methane and a 1995 baseline for other significant greenhouse gases. Scotland’s net-zero law – the Climate Change Act 2019 – specifies that a 56% reduction in emissions within the CCC’s methodology would be needed by 2020 to keep the nation on track to achieve its long-term targets. While this progress is significant, the Scottish Government has noted that the year-on-year emissions reductions recorded between 2019 and 2020 were, ultimately, what took emissions levels below the limits set out by its targets. These reductions were largely attributable to lockdown restrictions implemented during Covid-19 and were steepest in the transport sector. Between 2019 and 2020, emissions from car travel fell by 26.6% and a 61.5% reduction was documented in emissions from domestic aviation. Overall, the transport sector’s emissions were down by 20.9%, compared with a reduction of 13% in emissions relating to energy generation and supply. The SNP’s Net-Zero Secretary Michael Matheson has stated that Scotland “must be prepared for figures to substantially rebound in 2021”, given that lockdown measures were being eased. Similar sentiments have been expressed by MSPs of other parties, and by environmental groups including Stop Climate Chaos Scotland.

Edie 7th June 2022 read more »

Scotland met its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, but only because the Covid lockdown forced millions of people to stay at home. Official figures showed that national emissions were down by 58.7 per cent on baseline 1990 levels, slightly exceeding the Scottish Government’s target of 56 per cent. However, ministers admitted that the impact of the pandemic had been crucial to the trend and that emissions were expected to “substantially rebound” in 2021.

iNews 7th June 2022 read more »

SNP hits target on greenhouse gases only thanks to pandemic. Scotland has met its statutory greenhouse gas emissions target for 2020 because of the low levels of air travel during the coronavirus outbreak. Climate change activists have said that ministers failed for three years to achieve the cut and that it was “hugely disappointing” that the target was met from reduced car traffic, aviation and shipping during Covid-19 lockdowns. Emissions fell 58.7 per cent between the baseline period and 2020 — Scotland’s target was to cut emissions by 56 per cent. Government data showed domestic transport, which has the highest level of emissions, fell by 20 per cent. There were also significant drops in energy supply, waste management and domestic transport emissions.

Times 8th June 2022 read more »

Scotsman 7th June 2022 read more »

Herald 7th June 2022 read more »

The drop in greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, published by the Scottish Government today (7 June 2022), was due to reduced car traffic during lockdown, say campaigners. The statistics, which are published every year to monitor Scotland’s progress in reducing the emissions which cause climate change, show a 12% reduction from 2019 to 2020. Emissions from domestic transport, Scotland’s largest emitting sector, dropped by 20.9% from 2019 to 2020. This was due to Covid-19 restrictions taking vehicles off the road, in particular during the first lockdown. There was also a substantial drop in aviation and shipping for the same reason. The biggest drops in emissions came from: Domestic Transport (-2.5 MtCO2e, Metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) international Aviation and Shipping (-1.1 MtCO2e) Energy Supply (-0.8 MtCO2e). The reductions in Domestic Transport and International Aviation and Shipping amount to 66% of the total reduction across all sectors. (3.6MtCO2e of a total 5.4MtCO2e reduction).

FoE Scotland 7th June 2022 read more »

Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics 2020.

Scottish Government 7th June 2022 read more »

Fuel Poverty

Keith Baker: Mediocre attempts of the Scottish Government to tackle fuel poverty (meant to be eradicated by November 2016) mean the condition remains rife and far worse in some areas than others – Na h-Eileanan Siar (40%), Highland (33%), Argyll and Bute (32%), Moray (32%), Dundee City (31%), Shetland Islands (31%) and Orkney Islands (31%). Spot a pattern? The renewables-rich Highlands and Islands experience the worst fuel poverty and pay the highest standing charges for their electricity in Europe. These figures gloss over two other uncomfortable realities. The proportion of elderly people in fuel poverty in the Highlands and Islands is even higher and, as proven by Glasgow Caledonian University’s research back in 2016, when we used real data to study the extent of fuel poverty – as opposed to the modelled “data” favoured by the Scottish Government – the true extent of the urban/rural divide is even higher than those official figures. Thanks to that work, the Scottish Government included a financial uplift for householders in remote areas in the 2019 Fuel Poverty Act, but as a recent report by the UK’s Climate Change Committee noted, this won’t go far enough to help them. And that’s before we get to the impacts of the energy price rises coming this October. So, what can we do about this, and how much could independence benefit the fuel-poor in the Highlands and Islands? First of all, there is an oft-repeated mantra that energy is a reserved matter. This is true insofar as the Electricity Act is reserved, and one of the first things the government of an independent Scotland must do is legislate to reduce those standing charges and ensure those living closest to sources of renewable energy actually pay less. It is simply not fair that dwellers in the Central Belt and wealthier urban areas are effectively subsidised by the rural poor. We would also have to establish our own energy regulator and agree terms for trading electricity with rUK and Europe. I’m taking it as read that we would seek to rejoin the EU and should expect those negotiations to be largely positive, but as a small country with renewable energy, we must be careful not to sell it off quickly to the highest bidder. Sadly, the ScotWind debacle gives me little confidence that such care would be taken under the current administration. However, dealing with Westminster could be much harder. Ofgem may be completely toothless as a regulator but it has already made a successful power grab for regulating heat (a devolved competence) north of the Border, and we should expect Westminster to play hardball. We should have already established a regulator to govern the aspects of energy that are already effectively devolved, particularly heat networks, to build up capacity among civil servants as a preparatory step to building a new country. Heat networks, along with the development of supply chains for sustainable biomass (another area of energy policy that could benefit rural communities), nuclear and fracking can largely be directed through planning law – but it is only on the latter two that the Scottish Government has taken any substantive action. This is one reason why Common Weal proposed the establishment of a Scottish Energy Development Agency (SEDA). Backing for SEDA has been dropped by both the SNP and Greens in favour of a vaguely defined “public energy agency” due to be launched, virtually, this August. We will continue to argue the case for going further.

The National 8th June 2022 read more »

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