Tag: energy

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Listen to Australian Labor Party’s academic expert as she warns nuclear energy proposal causes ‘cancer, strokes and heart attacks’

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Labour Party in Scotland fully backs the UK Government plans to build new nuclear power stations in Scotland, regardless of widespread opposition to the idea among the population and UK research linking these installations to a range of cancers, but especially breast cancer, thyroid cancer and child leukaemia, in surrounding areas.1 Meanwhile, in Australia, the Labor Party is campaigning against plans there using research by the former GP now Melbourne University lecturer, Dr Margaret Beavis, who argues: “There are definite increases in cancer, strokes and heart attacks with nuclear power. With renewable energy we have … Continue reading Listen to Australian Labor Party’s academic expert as she warns nuclear energy proposal causes ‘cancer, strokes and heart attacks’

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Scotland’s electricity transfers to England worth more than £3 BILLION

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From Energy Statistics for Scotland – Q3 2024, published today: Scotland is a net exporter of electricity. In 2023, the equivalent of 33.8% of electricity generated in Scotland was exported: 13.9 TWh to England and Wales, and 2.0 TWh to Northern Ireland. Scotland has seen a steady rise in the proportion of electricity generated from low-carbon sources from 49.4% in 2004 to 89.6% in 2023.1 According to EDF, 1 KWh is currently worth around 24p2. One TWh is 1 000 000 000 KWh So 1 TWh is worth around 1 000 000 000 times 24p or £240m. 13.9 TWh is … Continue reading Scotland’s electricity transfers to England worth more than £3 BILLION

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Labor Party warns nuclear energy proposal causes ‘cancer, strokes and heart attacks’

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The Labour Party in Scotland fully backs the UK Government plans to build new nuclear power stations in Scotland, regardless of widespread opposition to the idea among the population and UK research linking these installations to a range of cancers, but especially breast cancer, thyroid cancer and child leukaemia, in surrounding areas.1 Meanwhile, in Australia, the Labor Party is campaigning against plans there using research by the former GP now Melbourne University lecturer, Dr Margaret Beavis, who argues: “There are definite increases in cancer, strokes and heart attacks with nuclear power. With renewable energy we have much safer alternatives,” she … Continue reading Labor Party warns nuclear energy proposal causes ‘cancer, strokes and heart attacks’

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UK Government to risk lives in Scotland by extending life of cracked power station against wishes of Scottish Government

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC Scotland, today: The lifespan of Scotland’s last remaining nuclear power station and three other plants in England are to be extended. EDF Energy says Torness, in East Lothian, and its sister site Heysham 2, in Lancashire, will continue generating for an extra two years until 2030. Two other sites – Hartlepool and Heysham 1 – will continue for an extra year until 2027. The French state-owned company says it will now invest £1.3bn across its operational nuclear estate over the next three years.1 This decision has been taken to help with UK Labour’s allegedly ‘clean … Continue reading UK Government to risk lives in Scotland by extending life of cracked power station against wishes of Scottish Government

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Scotland’s oil and gas revenues, even ten years after we were told it was running out, are still FOUR TIMES that of Guyana’s apparently ‘mind-boggling oil wealth’

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By Professor John Robertson OBA In 2022, the South American country Guyana produced $7.5 billion in oil and gas revenues.1 In the same year, Scotland produced $31.8 billion in oil and gas revenues.2 Today, in the Guardian: Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad will receive a payout of around £370 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth.3 If $7.7bn is ‘mindboggling’ then what is $31.8 bn, especially when we were told it was soon to run out? Sources: Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/ The Oliver Brown … Continue reading Scotland’s oil and gas revenues, even ten years after we were told it was running out, are still FOUR TIMES that of Guyana’s apparently ‘mind-boggling oil wealth’

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Nuclear Power Stations – Is Scottish Government being tricked by Shanks’ Trojan Horse legislation?

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I’m grateful to Frances who, after reading Labour’s new plans to streamline planning applications, wonders: This sounds ominous … Holyrood depends on  control of planning to hold back nuclear lobby? Yesterday, in the National: REFORMS to energy planning rules aimed at accelerating new clean power developments have been unveiled by the Scottish and UK governments. The Scottish Government has welcomed Labour’s announcement that they are “modernising outdated bureaucratic processes” to make it easier to develop new green energy projects. Acting Energy Secretary Gillian Martin said that the reforms – which are reserved to Westminster – would “help support Scotland realise our clean power … Continue reading Nuclear Power Stations – Is Scottish Government being tricked by Shanks’ Trojan Horse legislation?

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Nuclear waste – cleaning up Sellafield will take 100 years, or more

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By stewartb With the Labour government in Westminster embracing nuclear energy just as much as the Tories before it – committed to more big nuclear power stations and to ‘small modular reactors’ – it’s instructive, sensible and sobering to read about the legacy of the UK’s past investments in civil nuclear power. There is much in the recent National Audit Office (NAO) report that should – but won’t – change Westminster/Whitehall establishment minds about the merits of another generation of nuclear power installations. Source National Audit Office (16 October 2024) Decommissioning Sellafield: managing risks from the nuclear legacy – Department for Energy … Continue reading Nuclear waste – cleaning up Sellafield will take 100 years, or more

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Texas takes fight against massive federal Sellafield-like nuclear dump proposal to highest level – supreme court

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By Professor John Robertson OBA In the Texas Tribune, two days ago: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a yearslong dispute over a plan to ship highly radioactive nuclear waste to rural West Texas, a case that could have sweeping implications for how the nation deals with a growing stockpile of waste generated by nuclear power plants. A company called Interim Storage Partners has long pursued the plan to move “high-level” nuclear waste from power plants across the nation to an existing nuclear waste storage facility in Andrews County, on the Texas-New Mexico border. Last year, in a Texas-led lawsuit, a federal … Continue reading Texas takes fight against massive federal Sellafield-like nuclear dump proposal to highest level – supreme court

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“If the technologists and scientists involved in disposal [of nuclear waste] are so confident in the safety then they should do it in the cities which are demanding the energy,”

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When I moved to Ayr in 1984, locals were protesting British Nuclear Fuel’s plans to bury nuclear waste under a hill only 15 miles to the south of the town. The protest worked and the waste is still being dumped at Sellafield in Cumbria. However, Ayr remains on the atmospheric and coastal water flows from it, the most toxic site in Europe, and local shellfish, estuary and beach sediment, bottom feeding fish and animals that feed on them, are more radioactive than EU legislation on consumption would allow. Scottish Labour, doing what they’re told, are in favour of the new … Continue reading “If the technologists and scientists involved in disposal [of nuclear waste] are so confident in the safety then they should do it in the cities which are demanding the energy,”

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Another nail in Scottish Labour’s nuclear balloon as cost of one station in England now exceeds total devolved budget for Scotland

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I’m grateful to Dottie once more for alerting me to this and for the above headline mixing metaphors to good effect in triggering the above image in my head. From the FT yesterday: UK ministers have made contingency arrangements to fund the Sizewell C nuclear power project in case a final agreement with potential private investors is delayed by as much as two years, officials have admitted. A £5.5bn subsidy scheme set up in August to support the construction of Britain’s next nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk envisages a scenario where there is no agreement with private sector … Continue reading Another nail in Scottish Labour’s nuclear balloon as cost of one station in England now exceeds total devolved budget for Scotland