Discount over: Gazprom hikes Ukraine gas prices 44%

​Russia’s state-owned gas major Gazprom announced a new price for gas exports to Ukraine of $385.50 per 1,000 cubic meters as of April 1, 2014. The price increased by $117 after Gazprom cancelled its discount agreed in December. "This follows Ukraine’s default on its obligation to repay its debt for gas supplies in 2013 and the 100 percent lack of payment for current supplies,” Gazprom chief Aleksey Miller said Tuesday. Gazprom had until April 10 to decide on a new price. Ukraine, which imports about half its natural gas from Gazprom, owes the company $1.7 billion for gas that has already been delivered in 2013 and 2014. The Russian government and Gazprom had announced they would stop providing Ukraine with a 33 percent discount after the first financial quarter of the year. Transit fees for gas moving through Ukraine will also be bumped up 10 percent following an agreement reached in 2009. Gas pricing disputes and unpaid bills have led Gazprom to turn off supplies through Ukraine twice, once in 2006, and again in 2009. Gazprom has a multi-tier pricing system for its clients- offering the generous subsidies to domestic buyers, cheaper gas for former Soviet states, and the most expensive prices for European customers. Under the 2010 Kharkov Agreement, Russia guaranteed Ukraine a $100 gas discount in return for using the Sevastopol port to host its naval fleet. Now that Crimea has joined the Russian Federation, the additional $100 could be added to the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas. Last December, Russia offered Ukraine’s Yanukovich-led government a $15 billion loan and a 33 percent discount on natural gas, a lifeline to help its faltering economy. As tensions in Kiev escalated and President Yanukovich was ousted, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, which is home to an ethnic majority Russian population.

France, China to invest $26bn into next generation of UK nuclear power

Britain has embarked on its first nuclear power station in 20 years, which will start delivering energy to 7 million homes from 2023. The deal agreed by UK, France and China will also cut consumer fuel bills by more than 75 pounds a year from 2030.

Hinkley Point C nuclear power station (Photo from wikipedia.org)

 

 

China will team up with Electrcite de France SA (EDF) to build two nuclear reactors at the Hinkley Point site in southwest England, the Paris-based utility said in a statement released Monday. This will mark the first nuclear construction since Japan’s Fukushima disaster and the first in Great Britain since the Sizewell B power station opened in 1995.
EDF will hold a 45 to 50 percent stake in the pressurized water reactors that will have the capacity to produce 7 percent of UK electricity and power up to 7 million homes. “This also marks the next generation of nuclear power in Britain,” Prime Minister David Cameron was quoted in the statement.
Under the 35 year contract, the consortium could build a second plant to the Sizewell site in Suffolk. The UK government will provide loan guarantees for 65 percent of the construction financing.
“This deal means 16 billion pounds [$26 billion] of investment coming into the country and the creation of 25,000 jobs,” Cameron said, stressing the important role the project will play in helping the UK meet energy needs.
China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) will hold a 30 to 40 percent combined share and Paris- based Areva, will consult on the technology and design and have a 10 percent stake. Up to 15 percent in equity remains up for grabs, and there is a shortlist of candidates which are currently being discussed.
The statement says the project will offer a “fair price for consumers”. It is a timely victory for Cameron as his coalition has come under scrutiny over rising electricity bills and the rising risk of blackouts. The deal is Cameron’s first in an attempt to attract 110 billion pounds of investment into Britain’s outdated electricity industry by 2020.
Electricity prices will be set at 92.5 pounds [$150] per megawatt hour, and lowered to 89.5 pounds [$145.9] if the second Sizewell plant is realized.
Before final contracts are drawn up, EDF is waiting on state-funding from the European Union.
On the last day of his week-long trip to China, British Chancellor George Osborne hinted Chinese investors could grab up to a 100 percent stake in the venture.
Recently China agreed to heavily invest into  the first airport city project in Manchester, estimated at 800 million pounds, and the UK agreed to reform visa applications for Chinese residents.

Heavy rains overflow barriers surrounding Fukushima water tanks

Water has overflowed at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is attempting to discern the quality of the water and possible radioactive substances which could have been spilled.

TEPCO announced on Monday that the water overflowed in 12 areas of the plant.

Heavy rains caused water to flow over the barriers of an artificial embankment which surrounds a dozen tanks of radioactive water at the plant. TEPCO reported that liquid containing a source of beta radiation was found beyond the levees.

The company said the incident was “due to heavy rain in the Tohoku region.” Company specialists are attempting to identify the amount of leaked water and the radiation levels present in the liquid.

Radioactivity levels in a well near a storage tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have risen immensely, the plant’s operator earlier reported, fueling ongoing concern about the impact of radiation on the surrounding environment.

Last Wednesday, heavy rains brought with Typhoon Wipha caused reservoirs for collecting rainwater to overflow. The natural disaster was described by weather forecasters as the strongest in a decade, leaving at least 17 people dead and 50 others missing in its wake.

Workers at the Fukushima plant had to pump rainwater out of protective containers surrounding approximately 1,000 tanks holding radioactive water. It is thought that the heavy rains lifted contaminated soil.

Shortly afterwards, radiation levels were found to have skyrocketed. TEPCO officials said Friday that they detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances - including strontium - at the site of a well near a storage tank. The level was 6,500 times higher than readings taken Wednesday, according to NHK World.

The news showed that radioactive substances like strontium have reached the groundwater, according to the officials. In August, the same storage tank leaked over 300 tons of contaminated water.

Earlier this month, TEPCO announced that 430 liters of polluted water had spilled from a tank as the company’s employees tried to remove rainwater dumped at the plant by recent typhoons. The contaminated water may well have flowed into the sea, TEPCO said.

However, estimates still may be unreliable. The UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) raised doubts at the beginning of the month. A preliminary report published in the Japanese press concluded that estimates of radioactive substances discharged at the plant provided by the Japanese authorities, TEPCO, and other entities may have underestimated the impact of the disaster.

The power plant was disrupted in March 2011 by a massive earthquake and tsunami which wreaked havoc at Fukushima and sparked a nuclear crisis in which meltdowns occurred in three reactors.  It was considered to be the world’s worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

In September, a senior utility expert at Fukushima, Kazuhiko Yamashita, said that the plant was “not under control.” TEPCO downplayed his comments, saying that he had only been talking about the plant’s waste water problem – not the facility as a whole. 

FDA: Alcoholic Energy Drinks Off Shelves Soon

FDA: Alcoholic Energy Drinks Off Shelves Soon


The Food and Drug Administration says major brands of caffeinated alcoholic drinks should be off store shelves by mid-December. (Nov. 24)