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Nuke free bloc at the March in March

March 16, 2015

Nuclear OMIMperations Watch Port Adelaide are organising a nuke free bloc in  March in March rally this Sunday 22nd March. If you’d like to join in, meet 11:30am at Victoria Square for a march to Parliament House for speeches.

“In the light of the Royal Commission into SA nuclear industry – take your nuke free message to the street as we join March in March. NO URANIUM. NO WASTE DUMPS!

Also – we are looking for 20 people to take part in a lively barrel brigade political art installation”.

Friends of the Earth is a member group of NOWPA.

 

FoE, Old_Notes

Apologies

March 4, 2015

Our last FoE Notes was inadvertantly a repeat of the previous issue. For those of you who suffered an unintended feeling of deja vu, our apologies. We shall take steps to try and prevent a recurrence. Still wrangling the new technology, after all.

This issue has a few items about trade deals and La Via Campasina. While perusing the draft terms of reference for the Nuclear Royal Commission, some questions occurred to us about the cost and nature of “next gen” nuclear reactors. We found a few articles which tackled these issues, so we though we’d draw them to your attention, as well.

Please feel free to pass this on to any friends who may be interested. They can subscribe, if they wish,  using the form at bottom left on our website’s home page.

 

 

Old_Notes

What is the carbon footprint of renewable electricity?

March 1, 2015

As part of an analysis of the carbon footprint of nuclear power, Keith Barnham notes the footprint of renewables. The british Climate change commission (CCC) has recommended any new power stations should not exceeed 50 gCO2/kWh.

When comparing the carbon footprints of electricity-generating technologies, we need to take into account carbon dioxide emitted in all stages in the life of the generator and its fuel. Such a study is called a life cycle analysis (LCA).

There are other gases such as methane that are more dangerous greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. The most reliable LCAs take all greenhouse gases into account and present equivalent carbon dioxide emissions.

In a recent paper in Energy Policy, Daniel Nugent and Benjamin Sovacool critically reviewed the published LCAs of renewable electricity generators. All the renewable technologies came in below the 50 gCO2/kWh limit.

The lowest was large-scale hydropower with a carbon footprint one fifth of the CCC limit (10 gCO2/kWh). A close second was biogas electricity from anaerobic digestion (11 gCO2/kWh). The mean figure for wind energy is 34 gCO2/kWh, and solar PV comes in a shade under the 50g limit, at 49.9 gCO2/kWh. Bear in mind that rapidly evolving PV technology means that this last figure is contantly falling.

It’s a lot more difficult to do the calculation for nuclear power, because of the concentration of uranium affects the energy to enrich; the costs of decommissioning (dismantling and waste disposal) are poorly known. Barnham’s article goes into more detail about the wide range of estimates and their assumptions.

Nuclear, Old_Notes

We’re not impressed with the draft terms of reference for the Nuclear Royal Commission

March 1, 2015

“This Royal Commission will be hearing evidence in a vacuum: the draft terms forbid it from considering any aspects of the industry we are familiar with (mining), and insist it consider aspects of the hypothetical future next generation reactors, which are so wonderful that no-one is building them commercially.”, said Roman Orszanski, Climate & Energy campaigner for Adelaide Friends of the Earth.

The full media release is here

Nuclear, Old_Notes

Solar thermal to provide baseload?

March 1, 2015

One of three solar towers at the Ivanpah CSP plant on the Nevada-California border.

One of three solar towers at the Ivanpah CSP plant on the Nevada-California border.

Chris Goodall suggests in the ecologist website that the UK might use solar thermal to provide baseload power…

Despite its high capital cost, attention is increasingly directed towards ‘Concentrating Solar Power’ (CSP), a technology that uses focused light to heat a liquid that turns to steam and drives generators.

(more…)

Old_Notes