nuclear-news

Uncertainties swirl around Britain’s Moorside nuclear project – NuGen looks like becoming very OldGen

Beyond Nuclear 10th Aug 2017, The fact that the alleged nuclear revival has evaporated into the ether is
being trumpeted as breaking news. But there was never a nuclear revival —
only “plans” and “aspirations” built on quicksand.

The collapse of the South Carolina nuclear new build project at V.C. Summer had been seen
coming since it’s first glimmer on paper — by groups such as Southern
Alliance For Clean Energy, relegated, as are many of us, to anti-nuclear
Cassandras.

The same reactor design — the untested AP 1000 — is planned
for a site next to the Sellafield reprocessing facility in the UK. But with
the implosion of Toshiba under the weight of the Westinghouse financial
collapse, that project is under serious threat.

The site is owned and operated by the rashly named consortium, NuGen. But as the sign at the site
indicates, there is nothing happening there right now as NuGen partners
scamper for the exits and the South Koreans — who have forsaken nuclear
power at home — mull sticking it on others overseas.

If the South Koreans switch out the AP 1000 for their own reactor design at the Moorside NuGen
site, it will become very old Gen indeed, with likely many more years of
delay. By that time, nuclear energy will have become 100% redundant, as
renewables, combined with energy efficiency, will have completely taken
over.

As Martin Forwood of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment
commented in a recent press release: “The latest news of the plug being
pulled on the half-built AP1000 reactors in the US and the fall from grace
on the Tokyo Stock Exchange of NuGen’s sole investor Toshiba will further
add to the increasing uncertainties swirling around in the Moorside
mists”.

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/international-whats-new/2017/8/10/no-future-for-nuclear-is-not-breaking-news-it-was-ever-thus.html

August 12, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general