nuclear-news

The Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, due to start operating in December, will run on two European pressurised reactors, or EPRs – a new Franco-German pressurised-water reactor which the groups say is immature.

French nuclear power giant Areva sealed an €8 billion (HK$92.53 billion) deal to build the two reactors for China’s state-owned Guangdong Nuclear Power Group in 2007. Construction began in 2009.”It is very risky to import a European nuclear reactor technology that has not even met the proper nuclear safety standards and regulations in Europe,” said Albert Lai Kwong-tak, an engineer and a policy expert at independent lobby group the Professional Commons.

Two EPR projects, one in France and another in Finland, have been plagued by delays after safety-related flaws were found. Both projects are not expected to be completed now until 2015 at the earliest, despite construction commencing years earlier than in Taishan.Lai said that upon completion, Taishan would be the “most dangerous nuclear power plant in the world” given its potential radiation level was three times higher than Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.

“Design flaws such as how to power cooling systems for its external spent nuclear fuel pool in the event of an emergency have not been addressed,” he said.

“A digitised and automated emergency control unit also lacks a manual override … these are all lessons which should have been learnt after Fukushima.

“One must ask if Chinese authorities have taken any of these into account.”……. http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1303433/nuclear-threat-our-doorstep