Author Archive: roman

An interesting review of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015 (WNISR 2015) in the current Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Nuclear heavyweights. In both France and Japan, two of the three countries with the largest installed nuclear capacity (the United States is number one), the nuclear industry is in deep trouble. Although Japan still has 40 reactors that are counted as installed capacity, none of them operated in 2014. It was the first time in 50 years that Japan was without nuclear electricity for an entire calendar year. And no lights went out. As of today, it appears likely that two reactors, at most, will restart in Japan this year.

In France, long the world’s role model for how to successfully develop nuclear energy, the National Assembly passed an energy bill that defines a target to reduce nuclear’s share of the electricity mix from three-quarters to half by 2025. The French state-controlled energy group Areva—the self-proclaimed global leader in nuclear energy—went technically bankrupt after reporting massive losses for four years in a row. Credit-rating agencies have downgraded Areva’s long-term debt to “junk,” and the company’s share price plunged to a record low earlier this month, a level 90 percent below its record high in 2007.

We’ve put in the first two submissions to the Royal Commission on nukes (thanks to Robyn and Philip), and Nectaria, our anti-nuke campaigner, is busy working on the next two. Lots of dates for your diary this issue, and don’t forget the CANE meetings: Mondays at Kappys Tea & Coffee Merchants, in Compton Street near the market, from 5 to 6pm.

And a reminder: If you would like to give a one-off or ongoing donation to the Campaign Against Nuclear Expansion (CANE) you can use the online form at

https://www.givenow.com.au/foeadelaide

Donations are tax deductible.

Join the Repower Port Augusta Alliance for an evening discussing why and how we can make Solar Thermal happen in South Australia.

When : Wednesday the 5th of August. Doors open 6pm for 6:30 start.

Where : Allan Scott Auditorium (H2-16), Hawke Building, City West Campus, University of South Australia (55 North Tce, Adelaide)

With Dr Keith Lovegrove a solar thermal expert with the Climate Change Institute at ANU (Canberra); Dr. Peter Burdon a Senior Lecturer at the Adelaide Law School; Gary Rowbottom the Chairperson of Repower Port Augusta, and technical officer at Alinta Energy’s Pt Augusta Power Stations. Plus Darrin Spinks the Executive Director of Heliostat SA.

Entry by donation to support the campaign.

RSVP on the Facebook event.

Two major players have joined the divesters this fortnight:

Climate progress reports

At a business and climate change conference held this week in Paris, AXA — France’s largest insurer — announced that it would sell €500 million ($US559 million) in coal assets by the end of 2015, while increasing its “green investments” in things like renewable energy, green infrastructure, and green bonds to €3 billion ($US3.3 billion) by 2020.

During the announcement on Friday, AXA’s chief executive Henri de Castries spoke about the threat that climate change poses to the environment, and the responsibility of insurance companies to deal with those threats. Last year, AXA paid over €1 billion ($US1.1 billion) globally in weather-related insurance claims, citing climate change as a “core business issue” already driving an increase in weather-related risks.

From a report in the Business Spectator

The Climate Spectator notes

Norway’s giant Government Pension Fund Global is set to divest from companies that derive more than 30% of their revenue or operations from coal, with activists calling it the biggest step yet in the global fossil fuels divestment campaign.

However

Bloomberg said Australian coal mine operators BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Glencore were set to fall safely under the 30% threshold.

Details at “Norway’s giant fund to divest coal-reliant companies” by John Conroy at the Climate Spectator