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EDF subsidiary NNB Generation Company (HPC) Ltd argued that mud dumping near Cardiff did not need an environmental impact assessment

Wales Online 17th Sept 2018 , Protesters seeking an injunction to stop the dumping of mud from Hinkley
Point nuclear power station off the coast of Cardiff have had their
application adjourned after the energy company behind the dumping admitted
it had given inaccurate information to the High Court.
In documents submitted to the court in Cardiff by NNB Generation Company (HPC) Ltd – a
wholly owned subsidiary of the French energy giant EDF – it was argued
that the dumping did not require an environmental impact assessment (EIA)
under European regulations.
However, the company’s barrister James
McClelland told the court that an environmental statement was made by the
company at the time it sought approval for the whole Hinkley Point C power
station in Somerset, the successor to two previous nuclear power stations
on the same site.
Dozens of peaceful protesters assembled outside Cardiff
Civil Justice Centre before the hearing, not all of whom were able to get
seats in the court room. Opponents of the dumping say they fear radioactive
particles present in the mud could pose a health threat. More than 100,000
people have signed petitions against the dumping.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/live-updates-protest-held-cardiff-15162790

September 21, 2018 Posted by | Legal, UK | Leave a comment

Big companies including Facebook, Google and Microsoft not supporting EU’s plan for more ambitious climate change goals

Guardian 19th Sept 2018 Companies including Facebook, Google and Microsoft have failed to distance
themselves from a lobby group’s proposal to fight any effort by the EU to
set more ambitious climate change goals. A leaked document shows that
BusinessEurope, Europe’s biggest business lobbying group, will urge members
to oppose any moves by the European Commission to ratchet up the bloc’s
2030 targets for clean energy, carbon cuts and energy efficiency.

The commission is considering whether to set more ambitious goals in November
after a key international science panel report on meeting tougher global
warming targets is published in October, and before a UN climate summit in
December.

But, at meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, BusinessEurope will ask
big companies to agree a “line to take” on the prospect of steeper carbon
cuts. If the commission’s measures have teeth, the group’s “advocacy and
communication strategy” recommends companies agree to fight them. “To
oppose the new increase of ambition, using the usual arguments of global
playing field, we cannot compensate for others, etc,” the document said. If
the commission opts for warm words and a political statement rather than a
material ratcheting up of the targets, the group suggests it should react
by being “rather positive”.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/19/tech-giants-fail-to-distance-from-businesseurope-fight-against-eu-climate-targets

September 21, 2018 Posted by | climate change, EUROPE | Leave a comment

Hypocrisy of UK government on nuclear disarmament

David Lowry’s Blog 18th Sept 2018 , All this week the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog body, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has held its annual (62nd)
General Conference in Vienna. On 17 September, the junior Foreign Office
minister Sir Alan Duncan, told the conference “We live in an increasingly
uncertain and dangerous world. We have seen the destabilising consequences
when States pursue nuclear weapons. And we have worked together to prevent
terrorists acquiring nuclear material”.
This statement makes a lot of sense, until it is put in the context of what his own British Government is
doing in wasting £205,000 m (£205 billion) of tax payers’ money of
replacing the Trident nuclear WMD system, which makes the faux concern over
nuclear weapons pure, unadulterated hypocrisy.
To put the scale of this gross hypocrisy in context, Duncan asserted in Vienna that he UK had
“already contributed £4.1 million this year to the Nuclear Security
Fund,” and urged all to “support the Agency’s work to help Member
States implement robust nuclear security regimes.”
This ‘do as we say, not as we do’ policy cuts zero ice with the vast majority of sensible
Governments, who want genuine global nuclear disarmament, not shameful
finger-wagging from countries bristling with deadly nuclear weapons like
the UK.
http://drdavidlowry.blogspot.com/2018/09/atomic-hypocrisy-peaks-in-vienna.html

September 21, 2018 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Brexit has brought Britain to a standstill

Bloomberg 19th Sept 2018 , . “The country—as an
administrative entity—has virtually stopped working.” The energy issue
has been particularly badly hit. “There are the micro-processes of
government that are in turmoil because of the revolving doors of ministers,
and then there’s been the internal party fighting and squabbling, which
is then consuming all of the political oxygen,” says Mary Creagh, a
lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party and chair of Parliament’s
Environment Committee. “It means the normal decision-making of government
is not happening and has not happened for two years.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-19/brexit-has-brought-britain-to-a-standstill

September 21, 2018 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

EU votes for copyright law that would make internet a ‘tool for control’

MEPs defy warnings from internet pioneers, civil liberties groups and commercial interests, Guardian,   Rankinin Brussels, Wed 20 Jun 2018 A European parliament committee has voted for legislation that internet pioneers fear will turn the web into “a tool for surveillance and control”.

In a key vote on a draft law to overhaul EU copyright rules, the parliament’s legal affairs committee on Wednesday voted for measures that would require the likes of Google and Microsoft to install filters to prevent users from uploading copyrighted materials.

The MEPs voted narrowly for the provision, despite warnings from some of the biggest names in the internet, and civil liberties campaigners, that the law would damage freedom of expression, while entrenching the power of the biggest companies and loading costs on to European startups.

The plans still have to be agreed with representatives from the EU’s 28 governments before becoming law, but the vote reduces the chances of serious changes.

Opponents of the law vowed to fight on when the legislation comes before all MEPs for a final vote………https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/20/eu-votes-for-copyright-law-that-would-make-internet-a-tool-for-control

September 21, 2018 Posted by | civil liberties, EUROPE | Leave a comment

French nuclear industry in turmoil, – inadequate welds at Flamanville nuclear reactor

Le Monde 16th Sept 2018 [Machine Translation] Nuclear: In Flamanville, the welds of the discord.
The manufacturing difficulties of the French EPR have cruelly recalled the pitfalls that threaten the tricolor nuclear industry: an extremely ambitious initial vision and implementation difficulties with heavy consequences.
At the beginning of the year, problems with essential welds at the Flamanville reactor will lead EDF to re-evaluate the costs and delays of the project. While the group’s management hoped to start in early 2019, it will be necessary to wait until 2020 to see the EPR be connected to the network.
The welding business illustrates bitterly the difficulties of the French nuclear industry, faced with its loss of skills and know-how. EDF has defined this new quality standard for the construction of the EPR and has not been able to enforce it to its own subcontractors In February, EDF discovered problems on thirty-eight welds, on sixty-six of the secondary circuit. This water circuit is the one used to evacuate steam to the turbine. It consists of four loops, associated with four steam
generators.
As a first step, the group explains that these pipes comply with the regulations but that they should have corresponded to the “high quality” standard, which is more demanding than the regulations in force. Specifically, EDF had defined this new quality standard for the construction of the EPR and was unable to enforce it to its own subcontractors. “Why did we need to create this new standard?”
But things got complicated a few weeks later. The extensive examination of the welds reveals that a large part of them do not comply with the standard required by EDF, or even the regulations required for pressurized nuclear equipment.
As a result, the group has to take back fifty-eight welds, knowing that a single weld represents eight weeks of extra work.
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/09/16/nucleaire-a-flamanville-les-soudures-de-la-discorde_5355892_3234.html

September 18, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, France, safety | Leave a comment

Financiers desert France’s EPR nuclear power plan for UK’s Hinkley Point C project

Le Monde 16th Sept 2018 [Machine Translation] Can EDF’s finances support such a trajectory? The company’s chief financial officer, Thomas Piquemal, slammed the door in 2015, worried that the UK’s Hinkley Point EPR would weigh heavily on the company. According to him, the need for the nuclear company  to finance alone two thirds of the project creates a situation too risky. ”

Who would bet 60% to 70% of its heritage on a technology that we still do not know if it works, while it’s been ten years that we try to build it? “, He launches in front of the deputies in 2016. This is the heart of the problem for EDF: how to finance new reactors? For Hinkley Point, it took considerable resources, even though EDF won a gold contract with the British state: for thirty years, the French group will sell its electricity at a guaranteed rate, twice the current price electricity!

In other words, British consumers will see their bill increase. In fact, most countries that continue to build nuclear power can only do so with a strong commitment from the state and a guaranteed income for private investors.

But the France of 2018 is no longer that of Pierre Messmer and the Commissariat au plan in 1974, when the French nuclear plan was launched. The impossible equation But the atom requires long time. “When we talk about the EPR, we
are talking about an investment over a century. We are in a period in which people want shorter-term returns, even in infrastructure, “says Emmanuel Autier of Bearing Point.

“We are not going to scramble to finance a project that has not yet proved its worth while it is much more profitable and less risky to finance renewable energy,” notes an investment fund manager. Especially since EDF’s current structure, subject to stock market fluctuations, does not encourage long-term commitment. “Finance costs are a
very important part of construction. A listed company can not wear that on its balance sheet in a massive way, “agrees Valérie Faudon, SFEN.

“It will be necessary for the state to play its full role by creating a new regulatory framework,” admits Xavier Ursat. In other words: to sustain the EPR – and make survive EDF – it will be up to the state to guarantee the investments and consumers to bear the burden on their electricity bill.

This is the impossible equation in which EDF is: to survive in its current form, it must.
https://abonnes.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/09/16/l-epr-le-cauchemar-d-edf_5355883_3234.html

Les Echos 17th Sept 2018 Nuclear: the amazing schedule for the extension of reactors. The first reactor of the Tricastin plant will stop in June 2019 to start the extension work after 40 years. But ASN will not give its generic opinion on
the subject until the end of 2020.
https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/energie-environnement/0302222113379-nucleaire-letonnant-calendrier-de-la-prolongation-des-reacteurs-2205709.php

September 18, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Britain’s energy regulator trying to gag whistleblowers

Guardian 17th Sept 2018 Britain’s energy regulator has been fighting to keep secret the claims of
two whistleblowers who independently raised concerns about potentially
serious irregularities in projects worth billions of pounds, the Guardian
can reveal. The two men say Ofgem threatened them with an obscure but
sweeping gagging clause that can lead to criminal prosecutions and possible
jail terms for those who defy it.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/sep/17/ofgem-made-my-life-hell-whistleblowers-say-they-were-threatened-by-regulator

September 18, 2018 Posted by | civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

Judge calls for developers to clarify whether Hinkley radioactive mud dumping is covered by an environmental impact assessment (EIA)

BBC 17th Sept 2018 , Developers must clarify whether dumping mud from near a nuclear plant is
covered by an environmental impact assessment (EIA), a judge has said.
Judge Milwyn Jarman said EDF’s evidence was “not accurate on a very
important point” on whether material dredged from the seabed near Hinkley
Point C site in Somerset was included in the EIA. Campaigners want an injunction to halt the dumping that began last week. A High Court hearing
in Cardiff has been adjourned for seven days.
About 300,000 tonnes is to be
dredged from the seabed near the building site and deposited in the Cardiff
Grounds, a mile off the coast of the Welsh capital. Energy firm EDF, which
is behind the £19.6bn plan to build the nuclear plant, argued the mud dump
was addressed in a main environment statement that formed part of the main
planning application for Hinkley Point C and was approved by the UK
Government.
But the judge said that was not clear from a witness statement
the company had submitted to court. The firm’s barrister James McClelland
accepted the wording could have been made clearer. Legal action is being
brought by the Campaign Against Hinkley Mud Dumping, which includes Super
Furry Animals keyboard player Cian Ciaran. Campaigners asked for a
temporary injunction to be imposed until the next hearing, but the request
was turned down. Neil McEvoy AM said campaigners were planning to organise
a blockade in an effort to halt the dumping.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45546550

September 18, 2018 Posted by | Legal, UK | Leave a comment

The EPR, France and EDF’s nuclear nightmare


Le Monde 16th Sept 2018 , Le Monde 16th Sept 2018 [Machine Translation] The EPR, EDF’s nightmare. The European pressurized
reactor was to be the flagship of the French nuclear industry. For the
company it is now its survival and that of a whole sector that is at
stake, while the group is heavily indebted and its income is dwindling. 74
billion of debt … and with nuclear,that  is not finished!

At the headquarters of EDF, avenue de Wagram, in Paris, the gigantic banner of
Greenpeace shows the color: we see the CEO of EDF, Jean-Bernard Lévy,
making two fingers of honor to passersby, under the mention “Thank you
Jean-Bernard”. This action of December 2016 marked a new stage in the
argument of nuclear opponents: it is not only to explain the risk of
accidents, but also the financial risk that would weigh on EDF.

NGOs are no longer alone in this field. In June, the then minister responsible for EDF
Nicolas Hulot, took up the argument. “One of the reasons why EDF finds itself
in difficulty is that the nuclear industry, sorry to say, leads us into a
drift. In a clear allusion to the expensive shipyard Flamanville (Channel),
he said: “It is clear that economically, there is a kind of golden rule
that is being established in this sector, it’s that in reality, we never
keep our promises. The minister is picking up a criticism that is becoming
more and more common: not only has nuclear become too expensive, but it
would also be a major strategic mistake for EDF.

https://abonnes.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/09/16/l-epr-le-cauchemar-d-edf_5355883_3234.html

September 18, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Several nuclear reactors in Slovakia are out of operation

Some nuclear blocks temporarily out of operation https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20916677/some-nuclear-blocks-temporarily-out-of-operation.html, 17  Sept 18

Several repairs and checks are expected to be carried out Slovenské Elektrárne (SE), the country’s main energy generator, has temporarily shut down the operation of several blocks of its nuclear power plants.

The second block of the Mochovce nuclear power plant was put out of operation on September 15. It is the last general temporary shutdown planned for this year, and will last until the end of October, the TASR newswire reported.

Moreover, SE temporarily shut down the fourth block of the Jaslovské Bohunice nuclear power plant due to plans to repair one of the steam generators. The work is expected to be finished by the end of this week, TASR wrote. SE’s spokesperson Miroslav Šarišský confirmed for the Sme daily that the work in Jaslovské Bohunice does not endanger anybody’s health.

What work is planned?

In the case of Mochovce, a substantial amount of work is planned during the interruption of operation, including checks, exchanges and repairs of various components at selected devices of the nuclear block. A similar shutdown takes place every eight years.

The plan is also to remove the nuclear fuel from the reactor and the checking of the reactor’s pressure vessel and other components. Similarly to previous years, SE will replace part of the used nuclear fuels with a new one, TASR reported.

The work in both Mochovce and Jaslovské Bohunice is carried out by hundreds of employees and more than 700 people from supplying organisations.

After the planned maintenance and the replacement of nuclear fuel, the testing of the containment and primary circuit will be carried out, TASR wrote

September 18, 2018 Posted by | EUROPE | Leave a comment

List published of events that increased the risk of reactor core meltdown in French nuclear power plants.

Mediapart 14th Sept 2018 , Mediapart publishes a document that has never been made public: the list of all events increasing the risk of reactor core meltdown in French nuclear
power plants. Between 2003 and 2014, thirty-seven production units experienced more than ten. Cruas, Fessenheim, Gravelines and Tricastin are the most affected. It’s a list that has never been made public.

It was forwarded by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) to German MP Sylvia Kotting-Uhl, who herself sent it to Mediapart. It brings together the so-called “precursor” events, that is to say that increase the risk of reactor core meltdown occurring in French nuclear power plants between 2003 and 2014.

https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/140918/nucleaire-nouvelles-questions-sur-la-surete-des-centrales

September 17, 2018 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

Flamanville: decision to authorise the new reactor should be cancelled

Global Chance 12th Sept 2018 [Machine translation] , Comment on the draft decision of the Nuclear Safety Authority authorizing the commissioning and use of the EPR reactor vessel of the Flamanville NPP (BNI No. 167) The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has put into public consultation a draft decision authorizing the commissioning of the EPR reactor vessel under construction at Flamanville.
Ten years of technical faults and concealment by operators Areva and EDF led to the finding by the ASN, made public in April 2015 that the requirement of
technical qualification was not respected for the substance and EPR tank lid and that the operators had not made the choice of the best technique for the realization of these two parts, considered in “rupture exclusion and therefore subject to strict requirements. Such a judgment should have led to the rejection of these documents and the decision to replace them.
This was not done: EDF ignored these warnings, set up these two faulty parts and loaded the tank into the reactor and obtained a derogation from the
normal procedure, through an “ad hoc” decree of the government of December 2015 authorizing a derogation in case of “particular difficulties” (these
being in this case economic and not safety). There is thus a perverse shift in the requirements of nuclear safety, confirmed by the fact that the tank
lid will have to be replaced at the latest in 2024. In these circumstances, we consider that the decision submitted for consultation is not acceptable
and must be canceled.
http://www.global-chance.org/Commentaire-sur-le-projet-de-decision-de-l-Autorite-de-surete-nucleaire-autorisant-la-mise-en-service-et-l-utilisation-de-la-cuve-du-reacteur-EPR-de-la-centrale-nucleaire-de-Flamanville-INB-No-167

September 17, 2018 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

Greenpeace taking court action over Orano [formerly Areva] and transport of Australian nuclear waste to Cherbourg, France

Actu.fr 13th Sept 2018 Australian nuclear waste in Cherbourg: court hearing between Greenpeace and Orano postponed Greenpeace requested from the judge  the summary of the Cherbourg contract between ANSTO and  Orano [formerly Areva] . The case was postponed until 25 September.

Greenpeace was authorized, this Thursday, September 13, to file an interim complaint against Orano, to obtain a summary of the contract between Orano and the  Australian Agency for Nuclear Science and Technology (ANSTO).

The ship is expected this Friday. In the framework of an agreement between France and Australia signed in November 2017, the nuclear waste was loaded on board a cargo ship, BBC Austria,  – 236 spent fuel assemblies, reprocessed in four TN-MTR containers. It   left Sydney on July 29, the ship is expected Friday, September 14 in Cherbourg. Disguised storage? Greenpeace questions the legality of this contract.   It could actually be a disguised storage in France France……   https://actu.fr/normandie/cherbourg-en-cotentin_50129/dechets-nucleaires-australiens-cherbourg-laudience-entre-greenpeace-orano-reportee_18591884.html  

September 17, 2018 Posted by | France, Legal | Leave a comment

EDF misrepresents Greenpeace – Greenpeace DOES see the Hinkley mud as radioactive and toxic

Glamorgan Gem 13th Sept 2018 , Greenpeace has complained that EDF Energy, which owns the power station at Hinkley Point, has misrepresented the Greenpeace position on the dredging of mud from the Hinkley site and its disposal off the south Wales coast.

EDF says the mud poses no risk and Natural Resources Wales says it is safe, but local campaigners are demanding more tests are done. Disposal of the
mud began on Monday, September 10.

On Wednesday this week Greenpeace released a statement demanding that EDF stops stating that Greenpeace accepts the mud isn’t ‘toxic’. A Greenpeace spokesman said: “We request in the strongest terms that EDF ceases from stating that Greenpeace accepts that the mud is not toxic as that is not our current view.
http://www.glamorgan-gem.co.uk/article.cfm?id=122935&headline=Greenpeace%20and%20EDF%20in%20%E2%80%98toxic%E2%80%99%20stand-off%20on%20Hinkley%20mud§ionIs=news&searchyear=2018

September 17, 2018 Posted by | spinbuster, UK | Leave a comment

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