Hinkley Point C proposes new wetland reserve to protect fish from cooling system

Pippa Neill, https://www.endsreport.com/article/1856616/hinkley-point-c-proposes-new-wetland-reserve-protect-fish-cooling-system. 05 Jan 2024
The developers of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station are asking the public for views on plans to create more than 320 hectares of saltmarsh habitat on the river Parrett in Somerset, which it says will act as a natural alternative to installing an acoustic fish deterrent.
Under a previous proposal, French energy firm EDF Energy was planning to install an acoustic fish deterrent (AFD) system to keep some fish species away from the power station’s cooling water system.
This system would have used 280 speakers to make noise louder than a jumbo jet, 24 hours a day for 60 years. However EDF said there were “significant issues” associated with the installation, namely that installing and maintaining the sound projectors underwater would present risks to divers and offshore works.
In August last year, the Environment Agency approved an amendment to the permit allowing the firm to remove this AFD system from the plans.
Campaigners have warned that the removal of the AFD could “decimate” fish stocks. A report published in 2021 by the Hinkley Point C stakeholder reference group, an expert panel which advises the Welsh government on the development of the new power station, estimated that without AFDs, 182 million fish would be caught by the system annually, “and it is likely that many of these will not survive”.
The firm has said that the proposed saltmarsh will help wildlife and the environment around the Severn estuary by providing breeding grounds for fish and providing food and shelter for birds and animals. The plans are being developed with Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency.
It also said that Hinkley Point C is “still the first power station in the area to have any fish protection measures in place – including a fish recovery and return system and low velocity water intakes. Power stations have been taking cooling water from the Bristol Channel for decades with no significant impact on fish populations”.
In March, the Environment Agency issued three new permits linked to the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk, despite concerns that the approved cooling system and lack of fish deterrent device could result in “thousands of fish dying every day”.
Chris Fayers, head of environment at Hinkley Point C, said: “The new wetland would be a fantastic place for wildlife and a beautiful place to visit. Using natural and proven ways to improve the environment is better than creating 60 years of noise pollution with a system that is untested far offshore in the fast-flowing waters of the Severn.
“Hinkley Point C is one of Britain’s biggest acts in the fight against climate change and its operation will provide significant benefits for the environment”.
The proposals for habitat creation and other changes to Hinkley Point C’s design, such as alterations to the way the power station will store spent fuel, will be included in a public consultation launching on 9 January.
Pentagon ‘out of money’ for Ukraine
https://www.rt.com/news/590145-pentagon-no-money-ukraine/ 5Jan 24
The US Congress must approve additional funds to maintain the flow of arms to Kiev, a top general has said
The US government has exhausted its funds for military assistance to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesman Major General Patrick Ryder has said, noting that Washington is simply “out of money” unless lawmakers pass a new aid package.
Speaking to reporters at a Thursday briefing, Ryder explained that while the Pentagon is authorized to spend another $4.2 billion on weapons for Ukraine, the actual funds are not available and must be set aside by Congress.
“We have the authority to spend that [$4.2 billion] from available funds but wouldn’t have the ability to replenish the stocks by taking money out – or taking stuff out of our inventory,” the spokesman said, adding “We’re out of money.”
The admission came after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that his country had no “plan B” without American military aid, reiterating demands for new combat drones, long-range missiles and air defense capabilities, among other gear.
Kuleba also noted growing political divisions In the US regarding Ukraine, as a vocal group of Republican critics have blocked the passage of additional aid funds while demanding sweeping immigration reforms. Though the party backed dozens of separate aid packages following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, some GOP members have soured on the American largesse in recent months, creating a widening partisan divide on the issue.
While President Joe Biden has urged lawmakers to pass a massive aid package including some $61 billion for Kiev, Congress has remained deadlocked for weeks amid Republican opposition, though independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema has said lawmakers are “closing in” on a deal.
Nonetheless, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Thursday to expect decreases in US aid in the future, voicing hopes to eventually help Ukraine “build its own military industrial base so it can both finance and build and acquire munitions on its own.”
The United States has authorized nearly $45 billion in direct military assistance to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia escalated in early 2022, in addition to other indirect military aid and financial and humanitarian assistance. Moscow has repeatedly condemned Western arms shipments to Kiev, arguing they would only prolong the fighting and do little to deter its military aims.
Nuclear Fuel: Russian Cutoff Would Upend Global Market
Jan 5, 2024, Author, Grace Symes, London. Editor. Phil Chaffee
The global nuclear fuel market could be upended this year by one increasingly likely scenario: the possibility that Moscow cuts off all nuclear fuel supplies to the US in retaliation for a bill expected to pass this month in the US Congress.
That bill would ban imports of Russian low-enriched uranium with waivers through 2028, but US nuclear operators fear it would prompt more immediate Russian retaliation, which would in turn have far-reaching effects on the global nuclear fuel sector and leave US utilities in a precarious position, whether or not they were reliant on Russian fuel. US utilities are unlikely to have to actually stop operating reactors due to a lack of available fuel, , but sources expect such a scenario to push further north already high prices for uranium, conversion
and enrichment.
Energy Intelligence 5th Jan 2024
https://www.energyintel.com/0000018c-cabf-d61c-a7cc-fbbf5b580000
Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLAs) call upon nuke cops chief to issue statement on ‘toxic’ Sellafield allegations

Following the disturbing revelations in The Guardian that a ‘toxic’
workplace culture exists within the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, the Nuclear
Free Local Authorities Chair has written to the force’s Chief Constable
‘offering him the opportunity’ to issue a statement.
The Guardian
published its allegations on 6 December, and this article included a
comment from Chief Constable Chesterman who said that he has ‘made it
clear that anyone holding misogynistic, racist, homophobic, or other
unacceptable views, or who carries out behaviour that breaches our
standards of professional conduct, has no place in the CNC.’
NFLA 3rd Jan 2024
Nuclear disasters–in–waiting

RICHARD STONE, Science 4 Jan 24
Having taken a heavy toll on Ukraine’s ecosystems and water resources, the war with Russia threatens to create a another environmental disaster: damage to the region’s extensive nuclear infrastructure—including 15 power reactors and three research reactors.
“There continues to be a highly precarious nuclear safety and security situation across Ukraine,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement after explosions were heard near the Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant and its two Soviet-era reactors on 28 November 2023—the second near-miss in a single month at the site. “All of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities remain vulnerable, either directly if hit by a missile or indirectly if their off-site power supplies are disrupted.”
Russia’s assault on Ukrainian nuclear sites began on the very first day of the full-scale invasion. On 24 February 2022, troops overran the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, infamous for the explosion and fire there in 1986 that sent a plume of radioactive smoke into Western Europe. During 5 weeks of occupation, Russian soldiers ransacked labs and kicked up radioactive soil and dust as they dug trenches and slogged through contaminated forests in the exclusion zone around the defunct plant. To the east that spring, Russian troops frequently shelled the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, damaging a hall containing a subcritical nuclear reactor.
Shelling has also flared up repeatedly around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, a complex of six reactors that constitutes Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Russia captured the plant in March 2022 and the reactors were shut down 6 months later, eliminating the risk of a core meltdown. Still, a prodigious amount of nuclear material remains there: The reactor halls hold 1380 tons of fresh and spent uranium oxide fuel, and two repositories store an additional 2100 tons of spent fuel laced with nasty long-lived radionuclides—the ingredients, many Ukrainians fear, of a “dirty bomb” that would use conventional explosives to spread radioactive isotopes……………………………………….
The presence of IAEA observers at the Zaporizhzhia station since September 2022 has deterred the theft of dirty-bomb ingredients. But a major missile strike on one of its spent fuel repositories could turn the plant itself into a dirty bomb, spreading radioactive contamination in a radius of up to 30 kilometers, says Volodymyr Borysenko, a nuclear engineer with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine’s Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP).
Even a smaller strike could contaminate the reactor complex. And the spent fuel is also at risk from repeated electricity blackouts that have struck the plant, the latest in early December 2023. Diesel-fueled generators can supply power for up to 10 days, but a prolonged outage could be dangerous, as power is needed to pump cooling water into the plant’s uranium reactor cores and pools holding spent fuel.
A lesser known radioactive risk is situated about 150 kilometers upstream from the Zaporizhzhia plant on the Dnipro River. During the Cold War, the Prydniprovsky Chemical Plant was one of Europe’s largest uranium ore processing facilities. The complex accumulated some 40 million tons of tailings—leftovers of milling uranium—and other foul residues before it closed in 1992. By early 2022, Ukraine, with help from the European Union, had fenced off highly contaminated areas. But a missile or artillery strike on a tainted building or dump could disperse radioactive dust over the nearby city of Kamianske.
One relative bright spot is Chornobyl, where Ukrainian scientists are restoring labs damaged early in the war. But large parts of the exclusion zone remain off limits because of the threat of mines and unexploded ordinance, says ISPNPP Director Anatolii Nosovskiy. Complicating matters for radiation monitoring, he says, the Ukrainian army has built defensive fortifications in the zone, near the border with Belarus…………………. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn7987
Germany’s coal power production drops to lowest level in 60 years in2023 after nuclear exit
Germany’s coal power production drops to lowest level in 60 years in
2023 after nuclear exit. Germany’s lignite power production fell to the
lowest level since 1963 last year, while hard coal power production even
dropped to the lowest level since 1955, an analysis by research institute
Fraunhofer ISE has found.
The country’s entire coal-fired power
production fell by almost one third (48 TWh), cutting coal’s share of
total net power generation to 26 per cent. Meanwhile, the country sourced
nearly 60 percent (59.7%) of its net power production from renewables,
which generated a total of 260 terawatt hours (TWh), an increase of 7.2
percent compared to 2022. With an increase of more than 17 TWh, output from
wind turbines grew particularly strong, according to the institute’s
annual energy review.
Renew Economy 4th Jan 2024
IAEA says its inspectors are denied access to parts of Ukraine nuclear plant .
The head of the U.N. nuclear power watchdog said on Wednesday his
inspectors had been denied access to parts of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and had yet to receive 2024 maintenance
plans for the facility. The plant was seized by Russia in the days
following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Each side has accused the
other of shelling around the station, Europe’s largest, though its six
reactors now produce no electricity.
Reuters 3rd Jan 2024
Nuclear weapons test treaty fears sink plans for major wind farm
UK Ministry of Defence objected to 315MW array over fears nuclear monitoring station would be affected by vibrations
5 January 2024 By Cosmo Sanderson , Recharge,
The UK’s obligations to monitor nuclear weapons testing have helped scupper a proposal for a Scottish wind farm over fears it could affect a nearby monitoring station.
The Scottish government rejected a proposal from British developer Community Windpower for a planned 315MW array made up of 45 turbines near the border with England last month.
The reasons for this included the potential impact of the wind farm on the nearby Eskdalemuir Seismic Array, a seismological monitoring station that forms part of the UK’s obligations under a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons testing…………..(Subscribers only) more https://www.rechargenews.com/wind/nuclear-weapons-test-treaty-fears-sink-plans-for-major-wind-farm/2-1-1579329
A ‘natural alternative’ plan for protecting fish from Hinkley nuclear station’s cooling system
Plans for a salt marsh near a nuclear power station have been proposed as
a “natural” alternative to protect fish from its cooling systems.
Campaigners had called for changes amid fears Hinkley Point C’s cooling
tunnels could kill millions of fish. EDF Energy said it would carry out a
consultation on its proposal for the 800 acres of wetland near Bridgwater.
Chris Fayers from Hinkley Point C said it would be a natural alternative to
installing an acoustic fish deterrent.
The deterrent system would have used
280 speakers to make noise “louder than a jumbo jet” 24-hours a day for 60
years. The alternative plans for the wetland, being developed with Natural
England, Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency, are expected
to create new habitats for fish and animals, improve local water quality
and help prevent flooding.
BBC 5th Jan 2024
UK Nuclear Output Slumps to 42-Year Low
- More reactors are due to be decommissioned in a few years
- EDF has warned of delays to its new Hinkley Point plant
Bloomberg, By Rachel Morison, January 3, 2024
Power output from the UK’s nuclear power plants slumped to the lowest in more than four decades last year, potentially increasing a reliance on fossil fuels that will make it more difficult to reach the nation’s net zero emissions target.
Output shrank to about 37 terawatt-hours after two stations closed, dropping below 40 terawatt-hours for the first time since the early 1980s, according to data from the government and the UK unit of Electricite de France SA. …the country’s current fleet of five nuclear plants scheduled to shrink to just three by the end of 2026,…
The UK, which has a target to reach net zero emission by the middle of this century, wants to build as much as 24 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by that time. The government is due to publish a roadmap on how it intends to achieve that ambitious target.
But construction takes many years and is often beset by cost overruns and delays. To reach the goal, developers would need to add 16 gigawatts in the next decade at a cost of more than £150 billion ($190 billion), according to estimates from Aurora Energy Research.
“With revenues materializing around a decade after the Final Investment Decision, this generally makes nuclear a very different investment case to banks compared to other low-carbon generation technologies, one which fewer lenders are willing to consider,” said Ashutosh Padelkar, senior associate at Aurora. “It would be extremely challenging if not impossible to deliver 24 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050 without the government taking most of the burden.”…………
Most of the current atomic fleet is reaching the end of it’s operating life. EDF has spent about £7.5 billion on life extensions and maintenance since 2009, when it acquired the current fleet.
EDF’s Hinkley Point C is the first project to be constructed in more than three decades. Startup of its two reactors is due in 2027 and 2028, though the utility has warned that may be pushed back by more than a year. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-03/uk-nuclear-output-slumps-to-42-year-low-in-threat-to-net-zero?embedded-checkout=true
EDF using Pontins Brean Sands has ‘big determinantal impact’ on local economy, tourism firm fears
It is unclear when the site will return to
being a holiday park. The continued use of Pontins Brean Sands to house
hundreds of Hinkley Point C workers is reportedly having a “big
determinantal impact” on the local economy, according to one tourism firm.
Up to 900 staff from Hinkley Point C have been living at Pontins Brean
Sands and are expected to be there across 2024 and perhaps beyond. The
holiday resort has seen a massive refurbishment of the chalets worth around
£2 million, which saw new kitchens, bathrooms, furniture, TVs, and new
Wi-Fi access installed. Yet Discover Brean has hit out at the continued use
of the site to Hinkley Point C workers and noted its impact on the local
economy and nearby traders.
Somerset Live 3rd Jan 2023
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/edf-using-pontins-brean-sands-9009354
‘Renewable surge powers all UK homes in 2023’
Renewable electricity production in the UK reached a significant milestone
in 2023, generating more than 90 terawatt hours (TWh) of power from wind,
hydro and solar sources. This amount surpasses the energy needed to power
all of the UK’s 28 million homes.
Energy Live News 2nd Jan 2024
Backing the wrong horse: Government doubles Sizewell C funding on nuclear bad news day

Given the Hinkley debacle, the NFLAs regret that Mr Bowie did not put his shovel to good use by burying the Sizewell project, but instead, like many reckless gamblers, Ministers and senior civil servants at the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero have chosen to blow more taxpayers’ money on a losing prospect, doubling their bet on Sizewell C to £2.5 billion.
The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities were incredulous to learn that government ministers chose to back Sizewell C with a further £1.3 billion of public money on the same day (23 January) French nuclear operator EDF announced that Sizewell’s older twin sister, Hinkley Point C, would begin operating even later and at an even greater cost.
The public relations team handling Hinkley Point C announcements at EDF Energy must have a thankless task as theirs is seemingly a role that involves continually dispensing bad news. Yesterday’s https://www.edf.fr/en/the-edf-group/dedicated-sections/journalists/all-press-releases/hinkley-point-c-update-1 took the biscuit (though whether the PR team could console themselves with any given the state of the corporate finances is debatable; humble pie maybe?)
In the latest in a long litany of gloomy announcements portending further cost and delivery overruns, the company has now advised that the expected cost of delivering Hinkley Point C has increased by anything from £5-9 billion (your guess is as good as theirs) or ultimately between £31 and £35 billion. But this is based on 2015 estimates, so with inflation the bill might run to £46 billion at today’s prices. And the anticipated year in which Reactor 1 might start generating has slipped from the summer of 2027 to sometime never in 2029, with Reactor 2 coming online about one year later (or maybe not).
Interestingly our friends in Stop Sizewell report that Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie told them recently on his whistlestop visit to Suffolk, bearing a ceremonial shovel, that Hinkley would come online in the late 2020s or early 2030s, and even the Telegraph and Guardian have reported that the plant will not be operational until the next decade.
Rather unconvincingly EDF claims that ‘The project continues to capitalise on the experience gained from construction of the 4 other EPRs around the world’ which is hardly encouraging as Taishan-1 in China experienced a serious accident which led to its shutdown for many months; Flamanville-3 in France, started in 2007 and expected to commence generation in 2012, is only now about to start loading fuel after an unhappy history of faults and compromised quality control; and Olkiluoto-3 in Finland, begun in 2005 with a start date of 2010, was only finished last year after a prolonged construction period which included a bitter contractual dispute about the apportionment of the massively spiralling costs, followed by a corporate bankruptcy.
Given the Hinkley debacle, the NFLAs regret that Mr Bowie did not put his shovel to good use by burying the Sizewell project, but instead, like many reckless gamblers, Ministers and senior civil servants at the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero have chosen to blow more taxpayers’ money on a losing prospect, doubling their bet on Sizewell C to £2.5 billion.
Clearly, DESNZ is unaware that lumbering nuclear white elephants are not the best runners to back in a race, and that renewables, provided with equal financial encouragement, will romp home by a mile every time. Given its latest foolhardy behaviour, the NFLAs now venture to suggest that DESNZ be once more swiftly renamed – this time to the Department of No Energy and Zero Sense.
Fears after warning of ‘rotting’ nuclear infrastructure on Clyde

By Xander Elliards
THE UK Government must “urgently” make a statement to parliament on whether Scots living near its nuclear bases remain safe after alarm bells were rung over “rotting” infrastructure, the SNP have said.
It comes after Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, claimed
there was a top-level cover-up of the poor state of the UK’s nuclear
provision. Cummings said that in 2022 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had
approached him for help with the next General Election campaign, and he had
asked for several conditions in return.
One of these, he said, was
addressing the “fundamentally critical” issue of “the scandal of
nuclear weapons infrastructure which is a dangerous disaster and a budget
nightmare of hard-to-believe and highly classified proportions, and which
has forced large secret cannibalisation of other national security
budgets”.
Writing on social media, Cummings added that it was a
“fact that our nuclear weapons infrastructure is dangerously rotting and
is tens of billions secretly in the hole, with huge knock-on effects beyond
its destructive effects on MoD [Ministry of Defence] which has got *even
worse*”. HM Naval Base, Clyde, at Faslane on the west coast of Scotland is
home to the UK’s nuclear submarines. The nearby Royal Naval Armaments
Depot at Coulport is responsible for storing, processing, maintaining and
issuing key elements of the UK’s Trident nuclear missile system.
The National 2nd Jan 2024
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24023426.fears-warning-rotting-nuclear-infrastructure-clyde/
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