nuclear-news

Britain’s nuclear future very dubious

A bright nuclear future: true or false? Britain has identified 10 ‘suitable sites’ for next-generation nuclear power plants. Here’s a list of awkward questions Guardian.co.uk, by Jeremy Leggett 10 Nov 09

1) The independent French nuclear safety authority posts French nuclear incidents on its website, all 800-a-year of them.

2) One of the two reactors Areva is building as forerunners for the 12 that will supposedly be built in the UK, the Olkiluoto plant in Finland, has fallen far behind schedule and over budget and the French company is locked in a legal battle over the overruns with the end user, the utility company TVO. The second reactor, at Flamanville in France, is also way behind schedule.

3) The Finnish nuclear regulator has attacked Areva for fielding experts in the reactor-building programme who have a “lack of professional knowledge“.

4) A spate of nuclear leaks has forced the French government to address public fears ………………..

5) This July, a heatwave shut a third of French reactors, because rivers became too hot to act as coolant. France was forced to import electricity from the UK.

6) ………, France will have to import electricity at peak hours during the winter – for the second year running – to avoid the risk of blackouts.

7) French government ministers and officials had to cancel their visits to the flagship Cadarache nuclear facility after kilograms of plutonium dust were discovered on the site.

8) There were 1,767 leaks, breakdowns, or other safety “events” at British nuclear plants between 2001 and 2008…..

9) A radioactive leak, undiscovered for 14 months, was found at Sellafield …..

10) Sellafield Ltd has admitted its £1.8bn nuclear reprocessing plant may not be able to meet NII orders for operation, as a result of continuing technical problems. ……..meaning another drain on the British public’s taxes.

11) The NII, charged with overseeing all such problems, has an acute staff shortage. T…….

12) Nuclear safety authorities from France, Finland and UK have asked Areva to modify its EPR reactor design. ……..

A bright nuclear future: true or false? | Jeremy Leggett | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

November 10, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, spinbuster, UK | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, renewables