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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.
Recommendations for future operations at the Petten high-flux reactor (HFR) in the Netherlands have been published today by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
A new report published in the US has outlined the research that is needed in an effort to deploy nuclear energy in the decades ahead and to make sure it has a prominent role in meeting the nation’s energy needs.
Nuclear operator Magnox has been fined 250,000 pounds (GBP) (355,000 US dollars, 282,000 euro) and ordered to pay GBP 150,000 costs for over 14 years of radioactive leaks at the former Bradwell nuclear power plant in Essex, England.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said there is “now an emerging consensus” for proposals aimed at putting all facilities for enriching uranium and reprocessing plutonium under multinational control.
The UK government is to conduct a review of productivity and skills in the engineering construction sector to ensure British companies benefit from projects such as future nuclear new-build.
The second annual Financing Nuclear Power conference in London will take a practical look at the “challenges and developments” of financing the nuclear renaissance, organisers say.
France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy said he is considering the construction of a third European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR) unit as part of a long-term energy policy that could see France “conquer world energy markets” and end its use of oil and gas.
During a visit on Friday 6 February to the Normandy construction site for Flamanville-3, the country’s first EPR, Mr Sarkozy told workers that France has the industrial infrastructure to carry out the policy. With Electricité de France (EDF), GDF Suez, Total, Areva, and Alstom, France also has the capacity to develop its energy exporting capacity, he said.
The Dutch authorities yesterday gave permission to allow the restart of the Petten high-flux research reactor (HFR) in the Netherlands, the Nuclear Research & Consultancy Group (NRG) said.
Russia will supply a total of 2,000 tonnes of natural uranium pellets for India’s pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) units, under a long-term contract signed by both countries in Mumbai yesterday.
