ENERGY GAP: Power suppliers are turning back the clock to use coal-fired plants as their main source of electricity in a bid to avert potential shortages this winter.
POWER SUPPLIERS are turning back the clock to use coal-fired plants as their main source of electricity in a bid to avert potential shortages this winter. (more…)
A growing number of people are warming to nuclear power and more people now favour it rather than oppose it, according to a new YouGov survey for EDF Energy, the French nuclear power operator.
The survey, to be published tomorrow, shows that 53 per cent of the 4,449 people who took part in the online poll are now in favour of nuclear power stations to replace old ones. This compares with 46 per cent last year, and 41 per cent the previous year. At the same time 62 per cent agree that nuclear is needed as part of a balanced energy source for the UK compared with 59 per cent last year, and 54 per cent in 2006. (more…)
LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The B2 turbine at British Energy’s Sizewell nuclear power plant was offline on Monday morning, a website operated by the National Grid showed.
The unit in southeast England has capacity of 594 MW. (more…)
PARIS, Nov 12 (Reuters) - France’s EDF plans to start the new-generation EPR reactor under construction at the Flamanville nuclear site in northwest France in 2012, and not in 2013 as stated by Areva earlier, EDF said on Wednesday.
“EDF confirms the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) will start in 2012,” EDF said in a statement. (more…)
POLICE officers who are called to protests outside Suffolk’s nuclear power station will receive specialised training and equipment courtesy of those who own the reactor.
British Energy has given £10,000 to the county’s police force to help them remove campaigners from the site at Sizewell. (more…)
LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Britain has set up a watchdog to ensure that decommissioning the nuclear power plants that the government wants to be built, and disposing of the waste, does not cost the taxpayer anything.
The Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB) will scrutinise how the companies planning to build the new power plants will pay to shut them at the end of their useful lives and clean up the radioactive waste they produce. (more…)
It’s not only banks that are asking investors for billions of pounds these days. Last week Centrica, the energy company behind British Gas, tapped its shareholders for £2.2 billion in what will be one of the biggest rights issues outside financial services this year.
Unlike the banks, Centrica doesn’t need the money to save itself from destruction. In a harking-back to precredit crunch times, Centrica wants the cash to invest in a new business. City institutions are relieved. “They [Centrica’s large shareholders] have all said thank goodness you are here to talk about that and not another recapitalisation,” said Sam Laidlaw, Centrica’s chief executive. (more…)
PARIS, Nov 4 (Reuters) - The seven banks guaranteeing a loan to help French power company EDF finance the takeover of British Energy are struggling to find additional banks to share the risk, Les Echos reported on Tuesday.
EDF last month launched an 11 billion pound ($17.9 billion) loan backing the 12.5 billion pound acquisition with BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Calyon, HSBC 005.HK, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Capital and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi. The loan was conservatively structured with short-term maturities and generous pricing after EDF’s bid was recommended by British Energy’s board in September. (more…)
LONDON (Reuters) - British Energy’s Hunterston B7 nuclear reactor was shutdown manually late on Tuesday but it is still unclear why the reactor in Scotland needed to be stopped, a spokesman for the company said.
“We are still looking into that,” he said on Wednesday. (more…)
REPAIRS at British Energy’s coal-fired Eggborough power station will be delayed until next year after the company said maintenance of its ageing nuclear power reactors is taking longer than expected.
The nuclear power group, which recently agreed to a £12.5bn marriage with French giant EDF, said maintenance of a unit at Eggborough in North Yorkshire will now happen in the first quarter of next year rather than November. (more…)
