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2005 Nov, Newsletter No.87 |
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Written by SONE
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Tuesday, 01 November 2005 |
ALL RECORDS BROKEN – BUT STILL NO NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
SONE’s annual general meeting on October 26 had a record attendance and
reported a record membership, the busiest year so far and the most
targeted lobbying yet undertaken. It was agreed that the politics of
nuclear power seemed to be moving favourably but it was likely to be a
long haul. SONE was important to the outcome of the argument because it
was the only independent body promoting nuclear power.
SONE’s annual general meeting on October 26 had a record attendance and
reported a record membership, the busiest year so far and the most
targeted lobbying yet undertaken. It was agreed that the politics of
nuclear power seemed to be moving favourably but it was likely to be a
long haul. SONE was important to the outcome of the argument because it
was the only independent body promoting nuclear power.
That summarises the main conclusions of an excellent meeting addressed
by Lord Wakeham, chairman of the House of Lords economic committee, and
Dr Ian Cook, manager of the Fusion Technology programme at Culham.
Some 53 members were present and 87 expressed their apologies.
The main points were:
1 – members’ approval to raise ordinary
subscriptions from £25 to £30 a year from July, 2006, if SONE finances
require it.
2 – a credit balance of £8,527 at the end of the year to June and a record membership of 292.
3 – formal adoption of the annual report and accounts.
4 – The following elections took place: Directors: Sir William McAlpine
(chairman), Sir Bernard Ingham (secretary) and J T Corner (Treasurer) –
all re-elected.
Committee: The directors plus Robert Armour, Neville Chamberlain, Dr
David Fishlock, Robert Freer, Ken G Jackson, Dr J Dickson Mabon, Sir
Robert Malpas, Martin R Morland, Keith Parker, Ann Robinson, Professor
J A Simmons, Paul H Spare, Peter Vey and Dr W L Wilkinson FRS – all
re-elected appart from Messrs Freer and Vey who were elected for the
first time.
Auditors: Gary Sargent & Co, Swanley, Kent.
5 – Members agreed to adopt a simplified and cheaper annual
certification of the company’s accounts instead of a full audit, as
recommended by the auditors.
6 – On the motion of the Secretary, members placed on record their
thanks for help as listed in the annual report and especially for the
generosity of the chairman in enabling so much lobbying to be done over
lunches; to StickyNewMedia for their generous assistance with the
website and design of printed material; to Nuclear Issues for their
work in support of the Newsletter; to British Energy, hosts for the
meeting; and to the Nuclear Industry Association for their support in
distributing SONE material.
7 – Sir William, the chairman, thanked all who contributed to his
appeal for raising £5,505 and enabling the preparation and distribution
of the leaflet “The Looming Energy crisis”.
COMPANY BUSINESS
The chairman opened the meeting at the Royal Academy of Engineering, London, at 12noon.
The minutes of the previous AGM, held October 27, 2004 and previously
circulated as the November 2004 Newsletter, were approved and signed by
the chairman.
Website Jim Corner, reporting on SONE’s revamped website, said it was
now much improved, thanks to the work of StickyNewMedia. It was more
dynamic, topical and more involving of the membership. The site now
featured back numbers of the SONE Newsletter, Nuclear Issues and SONE’s
two principal publications “The Looming Energy Crisis” and the SONE
leaflet. All could be downloaded.
Industry-related news, policy statements, members’ letters to the press
and links to other key organisations could also be accessed through the
site. The web pages would continue to evolve and, in this context,
members were invited to put forward ideas and suggestions on how they
might be further improved”.
The committee undertook to publish through the Newsletter information about the usage of the website.
Secretary’s report: Reporting on the year under review, the Secretary
said he had been told that the Government knew what needed to be done
but could not see how to do it politically. Latterly there had been
three breakthroughs:
1 – the Prime Minister’s recognition in the
margins of the UN that governments would not sacrifice their economies
on the altar of Kyoto and that the correct strategy to pursue was the
development of technology and adaptation to the effects of climate
change. It was presumed that the technology included nuclear.
2 – Mr Blair’s recognition at his party’s conference of the risks of relying on imported gas for most of our energy.
3 - Margaret Beckett, Environment Secretary, trimming to the prevailing
wind in saying she had never said she was against nuclear power.
The Government was also sensitive over Meteorological Office forecasts of a hard winter.
Malcolm Wicks, Energy Minister, had admitted that industry could be
affected by a shortage of gas if the weather was very cold. He no doubt
saw himself as the potential fall guy.
Unfortunately, nuclear was not the answer to black- or brown-outs,
given the time it was likely to take to build nuclear stations.
Progress likely to be slow The Secretary said that the earliest he
expected a new White Paper on energy was autumn 2006 by which time the
Committee on Radioactive Waste Management should have reported on how
(but not where) longer-term nuclear waste should be stored or disposed
of. The White Paper was intended to provide the basis for a public
debate with a view to a nuclear decision being made one way or the
other within this Parliament, assuming Mr Blair remained and kept his
nerve.
It seemed unlikely that any concrete would be poured before 2009 at the
earliest. But the important thing for SONE, if the Government wanted to
develop the nuclear industry, was to assist it to do so. That was the
route down which SONE started in 1998 and had been following since with
intensive lobbying of Ministers, politicians, industry, generators,
distributors, intensive energy users, Greens and media.
It was also the route pursued with the publication in April of the
leaflet “The Looming Energy Crisis” which was sent to about 1,000
politicians, including the Cabinet and all MPs, selected peers,
officials and media. The leaflet had been well received by some MPs and
especially by SONE members who were now armed with a comprehensive
pro-nuclear argument.
Leaflet “impossible” without members The Secretary said the leaflet and
its distribution had been expensive and had taken much of the £5,505
raised by the chairman’s appeal. It could not have been produced
without their generosity.
But the return on capital could be measured almost daily in SONE arguments being deployed in the media.
Subsequently, the Centre for Policy Studies had asked him to produce a
polemic on the energy situation. This was published late in September
in pamphlet form and led to a column under the Secretary’s name in the
Daily Telegraph and a BBC Newsnight debate. The pamphlet had even been
reproduced in full in the John O’Groat’s Journal since Caithness was
battling to retain a highly qualified nuclear economy with the rundown
of Dounreay.
Other work The Secretary said the committee had held quarterly meetings
– five, in fact. The chairman had generously given 18 lunches to a
broad spectrum of targeted guests. As Secretary, he had addressed 11
meetings and conferences and given a large number of interviews and
about 10 broadcasts. Other members had been active in giving papers and
writing to the press. SONE had revamped its stationery and website and
was steadily becoming more professional in spite of its slender
resources.
Summary Summarising, the Secretary said SONE started a new year in a
better, more positive atmosphere about nuclear power. Renewables and
energy conservation were being seen in a more realistic light and the
dangers of heavy reliance on imported gas for the bulk of our energy
needs were almost daily recognised. Industry was also exercised about
the risks to the security of its supplies.
He expressed three hopes for the future:
1 – Let us avoid fratching in
public over the best reactor or the best way of dealing with long-term
waste. The priority was to secure the development of nuclear power.
Purism could wait.
2 – Let us recognise that a decision to develop nuclear power would
turn on security of supply at affordable cost and not on global
warming. Nuclear’s carbon-free status was a bonus.
Governments would crash not by failing to observe Kyoto but because the
economy was vulnerable to interruptions in electricity supply and was
uncompetitive.
3 – Let us recognise that we are in for a long haul, take nothing for
granted and keep deploying our arguments to all who will listen. The
Government had so far done nothing to prepare the way for nuclear by
way of reactor licensing, site identification and market access. The
ground was wearing away under the anti-nukes’ feet but the erosion had
a long way to go. And SONE was the only independent body promoting
nuclear power. That might speak volumes about the state of the nuclear
industry but it also showed how necessary SONE was.
The formal business concluded at 12.30pm.
LORD WAKEHAM’S SUCCESS
The first speaker, Lord Wakeham, a SONE member and former Secretary of
State for Energy, reported almost immediate success for the report on
the economics of climate change produced in July by the Lords’ select
committee that he chaired. The Chancellor, he said, had set up a
high-powered committee under a senior Treasury official, Sir Nick
Stern, to pursue the issue. Sir Nick had also been asked to report next
year and not in 2007 as originally proposed.
This, he said, was a move in the right direction Lord Wakeham
emphasised that his all-party committee, including two former
Chancellors and two former Energy Secretaries, had not attempted to
reach any conclusions on the science of climate change. Instead, they
had looked behind the science and found uncertainties as well as
positive aspects to global warming of which little was heard.
He spoke of a worrying politicisation of the ICCP process and the need
for much more serious cost-benefit analysis of both the mitigation of
global warming and adaptation to it. Far more attention needed to be
paid to adaptation. To this end, his committee had called for a more
extensive Treasury role on the issue.
Domestically, his committee had found British energy and climate change
policy based on dubious assumptions about the role of renewable energy
and energy efficiency and their costs. It also advocated the retention
of current nuclear power, implying new build.
He concluded by arguing that a moral question lay at the heart of the
issue: if emissions were at the high end of forecasts, this implied a
far richer world in 100 years’ time. If so, the issue today was the
right priority in the use of resources. He also expressed the hope that
the Lords would extend their inquiries into risk assessment in relation
to climate change.
In the course of a lively discussion covering changing public
attitudes, media bias and the impact of rising energy costs this
winter, Lord Wakeham acknowledged that it was not going to be easy for
the Government to manoeuvre towards a nuclear decision. Dr Wilkinson
said SONE needed to make it clear to the government what the nuclear
industry needed by way of preparation of the infrastructure for nuclear
development. The electricity industry also needed to engage with the
City over how finance for a nuclear power station might be raised in
5-10 years’ time.
Gerald Clark raised one disturbing issue: the proposed renewal of the
nuclear deterrent. This, he said, had come at an inopportune time for
civil nuclear power.
FUSION: AN UPBEAT REPORT
The final speaker after a buffet lunch was Dr Ian Cook, manager of the
Fusion Technology Programme at Culham. He stood in at short notice for
Professor Sir Chris Lewellyn Smith FRS, the director of Culham, who was
detained in China for a Ministerial meeting.
Dr Cook gave a fascinating report – fascinating, not least, for the
clarity of his exposition - on progress with fusion, holding out the
possibility of commercial power in 43 years’ time (2048).
He argued that a reasonably certain prospect of fusion would make it
easier for politicians to sanction another generation of fission power
stations.
Fusion had essentially unlimited fuel, was carbon free and had no long-life radioactive residues.
Progress with the project, initially very slow, had now speeded up and materials R&D was crucial.
He laid no claim that all problems had been solved but gave the
impression that, whereas 15 years ago it was very much “suck it and
see”, there was now much greater confidence of eventual success at an
acceptable price, even though fusion had never benefited from defence
spending.
He saw delays in decision making as the greatest likely source of delay
and emphasised the importance of changing the project’s mindset from a
semi-academic approach. In short, it seems, the long, slow race to
commercial fusion is on.
ATTENDANCE
The following indicated an intention to be present:
Patrons: Gordon Adam, John Edmonds, Lord Gregson, Sir Ian Lloyd, Sir William McAlpine (presiding), Ann Robinson, Lord Walker.
Committee: Jim Corner, Dr David Fishlock, Robert Freer, Sir Bernard
Ingham, Sir Robert Malpas, Martin R Morland, Professor Jack Simmons,
Peter Vey, Dr W L Wilkinson.
Members: Craig Arnold, Dr Johnny Ball, Philip Barnard, Robert Barnes,
Louise Barton, Roger Boissier, Frank Chadwick, Gerald Clark, Mike
Collard, Sir John Cullen, Professor Ken Durrands, Michael Gammon,
Geoffrey Greenhalgh, Sir John Guinness, E G Harling, Andrew Harris,
John Henderson, John Hole, Professor J D Jackson, David Jefferies,
George Jennings, Joseph Lambert, Derek Limbert, A A Newton, G Packman,
Robert Paul, Eric Prescott, W F Raymond, Angus Ross, Richard
Sargent-Manse, Alan Shaw, Commander Kevin Stagg, Geoffrey Stone, Roger
Vaughan, Lord Vinson and Carl Gibson (British Energy) and Philip Owen
(Sticky New Media).
Apologies were received from:
Patrons: Sir Christopher Audland, Giles Chichester, Lord Maclennan and Lord Tombs
Committee: Robert Armour, Neville Chamberlain, Keith Parker, Paul Spare
Members: Harry Allardice, D G Avery, Leonard Ainsworth, Trevor Barrett,
Doug Barrow, Robert Beith, Sir Win Bischoff, John Bond, A E Bunnell,
Commander Cambrook, Steuart Campbell, Sir Peter Cazalet, N Cenci, Ian
Currie, Philip Dewhurst, Mrs Beryl Ellis, David Erskine, David Evans,
Lawton Fage, Sir William Francis, Sel Ghalib, Sir Grank Gibb, Maurice
Giniff, David Golden, Dr Roger Gower, Lord Gray, Malcolm Grimston, Ray
Hall, Lord Hannay, Ron Hargreaves, John Haddon, Dr Robert Hawley, John
Hayles, J M R Hook, Lord Hunt of Wirral, Robert Ingham, Terri Jackson,
Lord Jenkin, M T Jenner, Jim Jones, Derek Kingsbury, Vernon Koller,
Damon de Laszlo, Sandy Lawrie, Dennis Leeson, Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd, the
Earl of Lonsdale, Douglas McDevitte, Bill Macrae, Roy R Matthews, Dr E
O Maxwell, Brian Mills, Guy Moore, David Morphet, David Ness, Fred
Nicholson, Ted Pugh, Joan Pye, Simon Rippon, John Robbins, Sir Denis
Rooke, John Sandalls, Dr Leslie M Shepherd, Mrs Ruth M Shepherd, J A
Simpson, Dr David Skeggs, Derek Smith, Graham Smith, John B Snell,
Dennis Stephenson, Anthony Sullivan, Roy Sumerling, Tom Tuohy,
Professor J H P Watson, Peter White, Peter Williams, Dr Peter D Wilson,
John Wright.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
The next annual general meeting will be held in London on Tuesday, October 24, 2006.
SUCCESS AT LAST
We are delighted to report that Malcolm Wicks, Energy Minister, has
agreed to meet SONE’s representatives in January. He is the first of
the six Energy Ministers since SONE’s formation in 1998 to agree to do
so and, as such, is clearly an exceptional politician. SONE’s objective
is to help all those responsible for taking major decisions about our
energy supplies to reach a conclusion in the national interest. We are
looking forward to constructive discussions.
HIS EDUCATION STARTS HERE
Soon after the AGM, David Cameron, the favourite to win the
Conservative Party leadership election, managed to make a speech about
moving to a low-carbon world without so much as a reference to nuclear
power. His education starts here. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 13 December 2005 )
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