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In focus with Sir Bernard Ingham
Up to our ears in debt but value for money still has no appeal
Well, now we know how much Chancellor George Osborne is committed to value for money in energy policy. Not much. True, in his autumn statement he halved subsidies for solar panels but only because their cost has come down substantially. He also brought in £250m energy cost relief for intensive energy users who are supposed to be a prime target for reducing carbon emissions, thereby complicating energy policy still further while usefully helping to retain heavy industry in the UK.
Areva has put eight major investment projects on hold and will cut operating expenses by 1 billion euro (EUR) (1.3 billion US dollars) by 2015 under a plan intended to reverse losses and allow it to fund capital expenditure with in-house cash by 2014, the company said today.
Nuclear energy cooperation agreements between Japan and four other countries have been approved by both houses of the Japanese Diet (parliament), the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) has said.
Delegates at United Nations talks in South Africa agreed a roadmap yesterday towards an agreement that for the first time would force major carbon emitters such as the US, India and China to take action to slow the pace of global climate change.
The UK should set up an agency to discuss with potential overseas partners ways of sharing experience and reducing the cost of nuclear R&D, the chairman of France’s Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) has said.
Research and development funding in the UK should be first directed towards thermal reactors rather than fast reactor systems, a parliamentary committee has been told.
The UK has “missed the boat” in terms of research and development for Generation III nuclear reactors and needs to invest in R&D for Generation IV, including fast-breeder reactors, a parliamentary committee has been told.
Europe has reached “a full agreement” on funding for the next two years of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project based at Cadarache in southern France.
