KPMG says nuclear power 'won't happen'
‘Britain's new generation of nuclear power stations will not be built if the Government refuses them any more support, a KPMG report will say this week. The study, commissioned by RWE npower, says it is still uneconomic for utility companies to invest billions of pounds in nuclear power. The Government has offered to impose a minimum price on carbon permits – which would raise the cost of fossil fuel generation and make low-carbon nuclear more attractive. It has made a promise not to offer any direct subsidies. KPMG's report will say a carbon "floor price" is not enough for the big utilities to commit large capital investments to the nuclear sector. It will suggest that the Government ought to introduce a variable premium tariff for all low-carbon technologies – from nuclear to renewables – to make sure enough new power generation is built before Britain starts to run short on capacity in the second half of this decade.’
International Power and GDF-Suez restart partnership talks
‘International Power, the UK power generation company, and GDF-Suez of France are understood to have revived talks about entering a partnership to create a global electricity group. The move could involve a cash payout to shareholders in International Power. It is understood that talks resumed at the start of this month. Confirmation of the discussions could come as soon as today. The two companies have been in detailed negotiations before. However, these collapsed in January after a failure by the parties to agree terms. In March, Philip Cox, chief executive of International Power, kept hopes of a deal alive when he said that some kind of partnership between the companies “potentially had commercial benefits”. Analysts have said that GDF-Suez’s Tractebel operation has a similar business model to that of the UK group. It is understood that the two sides are exploring the possibility the International Power could pay a special dividend to its investors as part of a deal to merge with the international assets of GDF-Suez.’
India - More power trouble for Mulund, Thane
‘It’s been a long, hot summer for most residents of the central suburbs of Mumbai and several parts of Thane. However, except for the rains there’ll be little respite for them. Due to a failure in the turbines, another unit of the Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS) has had to shut down since July 15. There was a fault in the Fuel Handling Section where a problem occurred in a robot that was handling the spent fuel. A senior official at the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) B D Jha said it would take a couple of days for TAPS 3 to be synchronised as scientists from the Anushakti Nagar office of NPCIL are working on a war-footing to repair the fault. Already, unit 4 of TAPS has been shut since June 22 due to an operational error. Due to these, around 720 MWe power generation from the two plants have been drastically hit. Site director for TAPS, R K Gargye, was unavailable for comment.’
Iran's parliament urges to continue uranium enrichment
‘TEHRAN, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Iran's parliament approved a bill on Sunday to urge the government to continue the 20-percent uranium enrichment, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Under the bill, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) is obliged to provide 20-percent enriched uranium fuel for Tehran' s research reactor, according to ISNA. According to the report, the bill, approved by the majority of the lawmakers, calls for the prohibition of implementing IAEA requests which go beyond the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations. Earlier in June, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called for the extension of Iran's uranium enrichment to a base level of 20 percent. In the same month, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to impose a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its suspected nuclear program.’
No details of Lithuanian plant until fall
‘Plans to build a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania are going ahead, but no details are likely to emerge before the fall on how or by whom the project will be financed and built, Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said on 12 July. Speaking after talks in Vilnius with his Estonian counterpart Andrus Ansip, Kubilius said plans for the plant were “acquiring both a regional and a European dimension.” “I believe that we will be in a position to hold very specific discussions on the countries’ participation in this project, the sharing of responsibilities and further implementation in the autumn,” Kubilius was quoted as saying by the press. Lithuania’s Soviet-era Ignalina facility was shut down on 31 December 2009, over fears that its Chernobyl-type reactors were unsafe. Construction of a replacement facility to serve the whole region in partnership with Estonia, Latvia and Poland is expected to cost up to €5 billion, depending on the number and type of reactors chosen. A tendering process to find a strategic investor from the private sector is currently underway, though no details of the companies involved are being released. The Lithuanian government hopes the new nuclear plant will go online in 2018 to 2020, though the project has so far been characterized by years of delays and a lack of binding agreements among the potential partners.’