The future of nuclear energy has always courted controversy but countless research programmes, surveys and studies have concluded that it’s one of the cheapest and safest forms of electrical energy generation, and that is why it’s seen by successive governments as an integral part of UK energy’s future.

A recent survey by three UK universities identified that nuclear power will be key to meeting both future demand and carbon reduction targets and that it is one of the safest sources of electricity – even when radiological consequences of a large accident are taken into account.

As for meeting carbon emissions targets, the research found that this would only be possible with a huge expansion of both renewables and nuclear electricity. By 2020, renewables would have to contribute 55% to the UK electricity mix (the current government target is 15% by 2020) and nuclear 35% by 2035. The study does warn, however, that there are considerable unanswered questions surrounding the expansion of nuclear power including depletion of natural resources, ozone layer reduction, toxicity and health impacts from radiation.

Milestone for UK’s nuclear power programme

Earlier this year, and following four years of intense consideration involving more than 60 scientists, engineers and regulators, the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency granted interim acceptance to the generic designs for both EDF and AREVA UK’s EPR reactors and Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor.

A number of issues and questions have come to light in recent years, particularly in relationship to nuclear safety and these and more were brought into sharp focus by Japan’s Fukushima disaster in March 2011.

The grant for interim acceptance is an important milestone for UK’s nuclear power programme in that it confirms that all the plans on how the industry will resolve the outstanding issues are in place. However, no reactor will be allowed to be built until all the issues have been resolved and this is now in the hands of plant designers.

Fukushima ready to be decommissioned

It has been confirmed that Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant has been stabilised following the earthquake and Tsunami disaster back in March 2011, which means decommissioning can now begin.

The nuclear reactor has reached a state of cold shutdown, which brings an end to the “accident phase”. It will be a long time before the area fully recovers, which reinforces the need for nuclear investors to have in place a contingency fund for the decommissioning of UK plants in the event of a disaster.

China invests in nuclear future

Meanwhile, in support of its burgeoning economy, China is investing in new nuclear with the country aiming for an increase of up to 300GW of power through nuclear coming online within the next 10-20 years (according to a report in China Daily).

The cost of such an increase will be the equivalent of approximately £81 billion.

Safety aside, no method of power generation, distributed through a grid system is ever going to be 100% reliable or a clean source of energy so the need for power protection will only increase in line with our reliance on electrical appliances, devices and equipment. Riello UPS’s website has lots of information for customers, specifiers and power protection resellers, on UPS products, solutions, applications, equipment and services.

I read with interest on BBC news today comments made by director of GCHQ (Government Communication Head Quarters) Iain Lobban saying that the UK’s critical infrastructure – such as power grids and emergency services – face a “very real and credible threat from cyber attack”.

Speaking to delegates at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, he stressed that the country’s future economic prosperity rests on ensuring a defence against such assaults. Apparently, around 1,000 malicious emails a month are deliberately targeted at government computer networks.

He also said that the threat offers an opportunity if the UK can get its defences right and maintain integrity of financial and commercial services, which will lead to competitive advantage.

What struck me were the words “real and credible threat”. Coming from a man at the centre of the intelligence industry, I’m inclined to take him seriously.

If power grids are attacked, the problem could be far wider reaching and affect far more businesses and organisations than a cyber attack on a specific computer system.

For years we’ve been working in partnership with our customers to protect against power interruptions caused by unforeseen or unfortunate circumstances, like natural disaster, human error, freak weather – all the kinds of events that when they occur can be devastating but that are not deliberate and therefore can be imagined and planned for. Here we are dealing with – and having to protect against – something equally devastating, the threat of which is growing like an alien force but the like of which it seems impossible to imagine.

On a positive note, however, there is much that can be done by businesses to ensure power continuity – independent of the national infrastructure – even if the National Grid were to suffer such an attack. And with such threats looming, it really is a case of “not if, but when” those power continuity systems will be required to come into their own.

While the debate surrounding the pros and cons of wind power rumbles on, the increasing numbers of turbines that are appearing across the country are beginning to make a real contribution to the UK’s energy supplies.

The National Grid reports that Monday 6^th September saw a record output for the wind farms of Britain – generating nearly 5% of all power going into the Grid at that time. The company confirmed that with output peaking at 1,860MW, the power generated by the wind energy sector was greater than that produced by three nuclear power stations.

The National Grid believes that over that 24-hour period (and taking into account embedded wind generation), nearly 10% of the UK’s power came from the wind alone. A great achievement, even if the UK is still a long way behind other parts of Europe in this field. Spain and Portugal, for example, consistently meet 50% of their energy demands through wind farmed along the Iberian Peninsula. But as mentioned in an earlier post, the political, social and economic infrastructure of these nations seems to offer greater support to the renewable cause than here in the UK.

When considering the 2020 target of generating 15% of the UK’s energy from renewable sources, this latest data should be encouraging news for the industry – and could go a long way to helping raise the common image of wind farms from ‘noisy blots on the landscape’ to valuable part of the renewable energy mix.

I read with interest on Guardian online that Britain’s oil and gas companies, including BP, Shell and British Gas which recently announced record profits, are saying they need improvements in tax breaks if they are to meet higher production targets in the North Sea.

On the one hand, in my view, it seems they are holding Britain (and every energy consumer in the country) to ransom; ‘give us the economic incentive or we wont invest in North Sea Gas!’. But if we can’t produce enough Gas at home our imports will have to increase and that, I think, is bad news. We have little or no control over foreign supplies, which could be affected by political, economic or regulatory issues beyond our control. We can’t influence continuity or security of supply nor pricing. I think for these reasons Britain’s energy companies should be given some incentivising tax breaks to protect our North Sea interests. Of course it’s a contentious issue and one that will run and run but how else are we supposed to compete on the world stage if we do not protect, or invest in, our own energy assets? Limited as they are we need to keep them operational.