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Wylfa nuclear project: Donald Trump plea over site sale dismissed

Wylfa nuclear project: Donald Trump plea over site sale dismissed, Hitachi has said it has no plans to sell a Welsh nuclear power site to a Chinese corporation after comments by Donald Trump. BBC, 28 June 20The US president was quoted by the Sunday Times warning it not to sell Wylfa, on Anglesey, “to China”.

Work on the £13bn project was put on hold last year because of rising costs after Hitachi failed to reach a funding agreement with the UK government.

A Horizon Energy spokesman said: “We don’t comment on speculation.

“Our focus remains on securing the conditions necessary to restart this crucial project, which would bring transformative economic benefits to the region and play a huge role in helping deliver the UK’s climate change commitments.”

Horizon is owned by Hitachi and was set to lead the project to build the site……. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-53212790

June 29, 2020 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Radiation level increase in northern Europe may ‘indicate damage’ to nuclear power plant in Russia

  • Russian authorities deny any leakage or fault with power plants in St Petersburg and Murmansk   Independent Tim Wyatt  27 June 20Low levels of radiation spotted in northern Europe may have come from a malfunctioning nuclear power plant in western Russia.
  • Nuclear safety officials from Finland, Norway and Sweden have all announced earlier this week they have detected increased radioactive isotopes across Scandinavia and in some Arctic regions.

    While the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said on Tuesday it was not possible to confirm the source of radiation, Dutch authorities have analysed data from their Nordic neighbours and concluded it originated in western Russia………

  • The Russian news agency Tass quoted an unnamed spokesperson from Rosenergoatom who said both a plant near St Petersburg and another near Murmansk were operating “normally, with radiation levels being within the norm”.

    Radiation levels at the two plants had not changed for the whole month of June, the spokesperson added.

    “Both stations are working in normal regime. There have been no complaints about the equipment’s work. No incidents related to release of radionuclide outside containment structures have been reported.”…..

  • Other groups have also spotted the slight rise, however. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation said on Friday their radiation-monitoring sensors in Sweden had also detected a slight increase of several harmless isotopes in northwestern European airspace.

    Russia is one of the largest producers of nuclear power in the world, with 10 currently operational plants and several more under construction.

    The country’s nuclear power operator has also signed billions of dollars-worth of contracts to build nuclear power plants using Russian technology in other countries, such as India, Turkey and Iran.  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/radiation-scandinavia-nuclear-power-plant-russia-

June 29, 2020 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Unacceptable to build a radioactive waste repository on the BiH border, Bosnia forming an expert team to plan Croatian nuclear waste disposal .

Bosnian Minister announced Formation of Expert Team for Croatian Radioactive Waste Repository near Bosnia, Sarajevo Times, JUNE 28, 2020  The Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Stasa Kosarac, expects that at the next session of the Council of Ministers, a decision will be made on the formation of an expert team for Trgovska Gora, because it is unacceptable to build a radioactive waste repository on the BiH border.Kosarac emphasized that this will enable experts in BiH, on the basis of scientific, research and professional knowledge, to answer all open questions regarding the possible construction of a nuclear and radioactive landfill on Trgovska Gora, Vijesti.ba news portal reports.

He expects that after the formation of the expert team, a meeting with the competent ministry in the Government of Croatia will follow and that, based on the application of European conventions, scientific, research and professional staff from BiH will be able to come to Trgovska Gora……  Košarac added, they are working on forming a proposal of a team for legal experts not to give up on the internationally recognized rights that BiH has signed at the international level.

He reiterated that it is completely unacceptable to build such a landfill on the border with BiH.  https://www.sarajevotimes.com/164093-2/

June 29, 2020 Posted by | EUROPE, politics international | Leave a comment

Judge orders temporary stop to decommissioning Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station

Judge Orders Decommissioning Temporarily Halted at Former Nuclear Plant

Lacey Officials, Oyster Creek Generating Station Owners Disagree on Land Use Oversight, The Sandpaper, June 24, 2020, By Gina G. Scala  Ocean County Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson issued an order of temporary restraint to the owners of the shuttered Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station on June 2, stopping all decommissioning activities unrelated to site security and maintaining the dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel.

Hodgson’s order came after counsel for Lacey Township filed a complaint against Holtec International and Holtec Decommissioning International in late May.

Holtec is a Camden-based global energy technology company that assumed ownership and licensee status of Oyster Creek in June 2019 after a near 10-month application review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The plant had previously been owned by Exelon Generation, part of the Exelon Corp. nuclear fleet. Lacey Township is the host community of the shuttered nuclear plant, which went online in December 1969 and sits on 779 acres of land in the Forked River section of the township.

In his finding, Hodgson ordered that pending a future court date, Holtec is temporarily prohibited and restrained from continuing any and all work at the facility unless or until permits are provided to plaintiff’s attorney documenting that the work being undertaken is permitted by the appropriate regulatory authority.

At issue is whether the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and other federal law supersedes the uniform construction code and municipal oversight from mandating a building permit, local planning board approval and site plan approval, among other approvals, prior to construction beginning, according to Jerry J. Dasti, head counsel for Lacey Township, writing in a June 11 supplemental memorandum of law argument filed with Hodgson.

Citing the U.S. Constitution and numerous state and federal Supreme Court cases, Dasti argued determining preemptive status of state laws is well established and Holetc’s argument doesn’t meet the criteria.  ……..

Holtec has until June 24 to respond, in writing, to Hodgson’s order, including a request for relief from his determination. The township has until June 29 to file its written response in opposition, according to the June 2 order of temporary restraint.

In the meantime, Holtec officials have come to an agreement with the state of Massachusetts on key issues related to the safe decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Station, located on Cape Cod Bay in Plymouth.  ……

Both Oyster Creek and Pilgrim were boiling water reactors powered by General Electric. The nuclear power plants both used local water sources as their cooling method, as opposed to cooling towers. Oyster Creek permanently ceased operations on Sept. 17, 2018. Pilgrim was shuttered on May 31, 2019. https://www.thesandpaper.net/articles/judge-orders-decommissioning-temporarily-halted-at-former-nuclear-plant/

June 29, 2020 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Bradwell nuclear power station – an unwise plan

http://www.leightimes.co.uk/article.cfm?id=127423&headline=Letter%20from:%20Paul%20Fox,%20Woodfield%20Road,%20Leigh%20-%20Nuclear%20Power%20Station&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2020Saturday, 27 June 2020 –

I am concerned about the building of this Nuclear Power Station, as it is very close to Leigh, as the crow flies.

Our government may go ahead on the July 1 and build a Nuclear Power Station at Bradwell. I write because of my concern about the increasing involvement of Chinese companies/Government in British infrastructure in general and the above Power Station in particular.

There are several issues about the proposed new nuclear stations.

1. As renewable sources of energy become cheaper and more reliable do we need more nuclear sources at all?

2. Have the dangers and problems of disposal of nuclear waste been fully resolved yet?

3. Although the carbon footprint of nuclear production is low, building in this low lying, flood prone area will be very high and detrimental to the surrounding land.

4.Even though because of Brexit the government wants to develop trade with as many countries as possible, do we want to be in hock to the Chinese. Their track record in Africa where they have been responsible for a massive amount of infrastructure, is with the passage of time not proving as beneficial as hoped.

Also the State-owned China General Nuclear Power Group specified as a designer and operator of the plant, is blacklisted by the United States Department of Commerce for attempting to acquire advanced U.S. nuclear technology and material for diversion to military use.

I believe my fears are similar to those of Mr Tom Tugenhardt MP and Mr Duncan Smith MP even if without their depth of knowledge, I think the country should be made more aware of the risks we may be taking on especially as regards the Nuclear industry.

Can anything be done to halt the above development? You may not realise  how much bigger the new power station will be.

June 29, 2020 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

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