France’s Flamanville EPR fiasco – not a good look for UK’s new nuclear reactors
Dr Paul Dorfman, of the Energy Institute at University College, London, believes the British public is facing a turbulent nuclear future. He says: ‘It’s extremely likely that the construction at Hinkley Point will be over-budget and late. It is unfortunate because it will be the UK taxpayer and consumer, no doubt, who will be picking up the bill.’…..
Professor Steve Thomas, an energy policy expert at the University of Greenwich, has written a damning report on the EPR project, claiming, in 2010, that the entire design and construction was ‘in crisis’. His 26-page report catalogued the errors at Flamanville and in Finland, and concluded construction had gone ‘dramatically wrong’.
Deaths, chilling safety lapses, lawsuits, huge cost over-runs and delays: Why we can’t trust the French with Britain’s nuclear future, Daily mail UK, , 26 October 2013, By STEVE BIRD
- EDF’s nuclear reactor plant at Flamanville, Normandy, is beset by financial mismanagement and the deaths of workers
- EDF, along with French nuclear group Areva and investors from China, are due to start work on a £16bn plant in Hinkley Point in Somerset in 2017 It will be the first nuclear reactor in the UK in nearly 20 years – and also first European Pressurised Reactor (EPR)
- … yet no reactor of this design is yet working anywhere in the world……
- The optimism and excitement of that first day of construction is now long gone.Since then, the predicted cost of just under £3 billion has rocketed to more than £7 billion (it could go up still further). Continue reading
AREVA’s renewable energy business slowing, because of political uncertainty
French Nuclear Giant Areva Sees Revenue Slump http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/french-nuclear-giant-areva-sees-revenue-slump-20670644 PARIS October 24, 2013 (AP) French nuclear giant Areva says its revenue fell in the third quarter partially due to a slump in business at its renewable energies division.
The state-controlled company said Thursday that its revenue dropped 5.8 percent to 2.1 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in the June-to-September quarter.
The company, which is struggling to stage a turnaround following a global rethink of nuclear energy, said some of the slide was due to unfavorable currency exchange rates, including a strong dollar. It also saw a slowdown in business in its reactors and services division in the U.S.
But the biggest slide came in its renewable energies division, which is small but had been growing quickly. Sales fell 46 percent there. Areva blamed the decline on indecision in the new market.
AREVA joins the pack marketing nukes to Britain
Areva Said Ready to Join Group Building U.K. Nuclear Power Plant, Bloomberg News By Tara Patel and Francois de Beaupuy October 16, 2013 Areva will take a stake in the Hinkley Point project from Electricite de France SA, the people said, asking not to be identified before an announcement is made. China General Nuclear Power Corp. will also become a shareholder, the people said. Areva and EDF’s boards will meet in the next week to approve the deal, they said.
Bringing in Areva and China General as partners will allow EDF to share the expense of a project likely to cost about 14 billion pounds ($22 billion). The EDF-led group, expected to sign an agreement with the U.K. government next week, will build two Areva-designed EPR reactors able to supply about 3,600 megawatts, more than 4 percent of U.K. generation capacity. Officials at EDF and Areva declined to comment. Nobody at China General was available to comment outside office hours……http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-16/areva-said-ready-to-join-group-building-u-dot-k-dot-nuclear-power-plant
Cloud of radioactive iodine reaches France, from Fukushima
Fukushima Doom Confirmed? France Hit By Iodine-131 Cloud While New Radiation Plume Expected To Hit West Coast Of America On Tuesday http://revolutionradio.org/?p=58394, September 22, 2013 By Paul Martin A cloud of Iodine-131 has reached France while the recent 5.3 Fukushima earthquake is sending a new radiation plume around the world according to a recent story from Bobby1′sBlog. This latest plume is expected to arrive on the West Coast of America on Tuesday, September 24th. With radiation now spreading across the entire Northern hemisphere and no end in sight, are we reaching the ‘beginning of the end’? Two videos below confirm the severity of this ongoing doomsday situation.
An earthquake that rocked Japan just south of the Fukushima area shortly after midnight on September 20 (Japan time) sent a new plume of radiation across the Pacific Ocean. Apparently radiation measurements in this area have temporarily spiked.
This new plume would arrive on the west coast around Tuesday, Sept. 24. Previous earthquakes have also generated plumes. I remember that the one that arrived after the Jan. 1, 2012 quake was really nasty.
In a previous discussion Iodine-131 from latest criticality it was noted that the iodine spike in Chiba prefecture sludge was deposited in the period August 7 through August 20. According to CRIIRAD, Montélimar, France had spikes in alpha and beta atmospheric radiation on September 4-7. Rhône river water in Avignon showed a spike in iodine-131 on Sept. 7. The iodine cloud must have widened and dispersed quite a bit in its journey across the northern hemisphere… and 75% or more of it would have decayed by the time it reached France. So it must have been quite a substantial radioactive cloud.
Fukushima not only affects Japan, but the Pacific ocean, North America, and Europe too. Australia has had average radiation levels increase substantially, also.
Nuclear and carbon taxes to help France move from nuclear power to renewable energy
France to Tax EDF Nuclear Output for Energy Shift to Renewables Bloomberg, By Tara Patel – Sep 21, France will introduce a levy on nuclear energy as well as a tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels to raise billions needed to boost renewable power and improve energy efficiency.
“All change is expensive in the short term even if it’s beneficial in the long term,” French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said today in a speech about the environment in Paris.
The nuclear levy will be applied to Electricite de France SA’s existing atomic reactors, he said. The carbon tax will be introduced “progressively” on fossil fuels in order to earn 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) in 2016…….
France’s Green party, which had said it would withdraw support for the Socialist government over the slow pace of policy initiatives, applauded the carbon tax announcement and new incentives towards home renovations for improved energy use.
Ayrault didn’t give details of how much EDF, which is 84 percent owned by the government, will have to pay. The utility is compensated for the higher cost of electricity produced by wind turbines and solar panels it buys through a tax on power bills called the CSPE…….
Carbon Tax The planned carbon tax, to be called a “climate energy contribution,” will be “neutral” next year and generate 2.5 billion euros in 2015 and 4 billion euros in 2016, Ayrault said. It will be applied to gasoline, diesel, coal, natural gas as well as heavy and heating fuels…….
Hollande said yesterday the an energy law would be passed by the end of next year capping nuclear-power capacity and granting the state the legal means to shut down reactors.The president hasn’t said whether more nuclear plants will close, beyond the planned shuttering of Fessenheim in eastern France by the end of 2016.
France will also seek to cut energy use in half by 2050 and fossil fuel use 30 percent by 2030, Hollande announced yesterday. It will implement incentives to spur energy-saving measures in homes and use of electric cars by adding recharging stations.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-21/france-to-tax-edf-nuclear-output-for-energy-shift-to-renewables.html
Niger government wants French uranium company AREVA to stop ripping it off
Niger audits Areva uranium mines, seeking better deal By Daniel Flynn and Abdoulaye Massalatchi NIAMEY | Fri Sep 20, 2013 (Reuters) – Niger has ordered an audit of French nuclear group Areva’s (AREVA.PA) uranium mines in the West African country as it presses for a better deal in talks over a new long-term contract, Mining Minister Omar Hamidou Tchiana told Reuters.
Areva’s two mines in Niger – Somair and Cominak – produce the fuel for roughly one-third of France’s nuclear power, providing some of the cheapest electricity in the West.
Niger, a former French colony and one of the world’s poorest countries, has long complained it does not reap enough benefits from these resources……..
Extractive industries watchdogs, including the local branch of Publish What You Pay, have accused Areva of a lack of transparency in its revenues and costs in Niger…….
Previous Niger governments have struggled to substantially increase the state’s take from uranium and details of the 2003 mining contract have been kept confidential. The IMF estimates Niger’s gross domestic product at around 5.5 billion euros, only just over half of Areva’s revenues of 9.3 billion in 2012……..http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/20/us-niger-areva-idUSBRE98J0MY20130920
Formal complaint from Japan, over French cartoons about Tokyo Olympic Games
Japan voices anger over French cartoons that use Fukushima disaster to mock Olympics decision ABC News, By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy, wires 12 Sep 2013 ,Japan says it will lodge a formal complaint with France over newspaper cartoons that poked fun at the decision to award the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo despite the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine has published a cartoon depicting two sumo wrestlers, each with an extra leg or arm, facing off with the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in the background.
In the foreground an announcer says: “Thanks to Fukushima, sumo is now an Olympic sport.”
Another cartoon shows two people standing in front of a pool of water while wearing nuclear protection suits and holding a Geiger counter, saying water sport facilities had already been built at Fukushima………
“This kind of journalism gives the wrong impression about the waste water problem.” [ -Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga]
The government has repeatedly claimed the accident and its waste water problem are under control and should not affect the Olympics.
Mr Suga says Japan will formally complain to the French embassy in Tokyo……….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-12/japan-protests-french-fukushima-cartoons/4954462
Nuclear waste from France to be dumped in Mississippi?
Cottonmouth – Is Mississippi going to be storing France’s Nuclear Waste? http://yallpolitics.com/index.php/yp/post/35788/ 28 Aug 13, While Bryant and his entourage were having a good time in Paris sampling the French lifestyle, did they take a moment to consider how most of the lights are powered there? You may be surprised to find out it’s nuclear power. France generates about 75 percent of its electricity needs from nuclear power. Their nuclear waste has to go somewhere, right? Why not Mississippi?
During their trip to France, did Bryant and his MDA director negotiate a deal with the French government to house that country’s nuclear waste?
Representatives from the Mississippi Energy Institute noted that they know of communities, that they did not specify, which are interested in this project. Were they referring to communities in France instead of Mississippi?
France’s Fessenheim nuclear plant to be shut down by 2016
France’s oldest nuclear plant to shut down by 2016: minister PARIS, July 21 (Xinhua) — French Environment Minister Philippe Martin on Sunday confirmed the closure of the country’s oldest nuclear plant of Fessenheim by the end of 2016, a local paper reported.
In an interview with the weekly Le Journal de Dimanche (JDD), the newly-appointed minister said “Francois Hollande’s nuclear commitments will be held in the five-year period.”
“I have a warrant, I shut Fessenheim by 31 December 2016,” he stressed……http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-07/22/c_132560534.htm
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Leaked documents reveal EU plan for nuclear power subsidies
Nuclear power: leaks show new EU push http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/19/nuclear-power-leaks-new-eu-push Terry Macalister The Guardian, Saturday 20 July 2013 Draft documents show EU weighing radical change in rules on state aid in move that would make it easier to build new reactors in Britain The European Commission is considering a radical change in rules on state aid to nuclear power in a move that would make it easier to build new reactors in Britain.
Draft documents show the proposals along with negative reactions from ministers in Berlin, who have abandoned nuclear in favour of renewables.
The proposals, drawn up by the EU’s Competition Commission after pressure from the UK and France and leaked in a German newspaper, are regarded as a work in progress and could yet be opposed by the influential German energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger.
But Rebecca Harms, co-chair of the Green parties in the European parliament, alleged a pro-nuclear camp around Oettinger and competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia were “leading the charge” for a U-turn on energy policy.
“The planned subsidy rules will supposedly make the construction of new nuclear power stations worthwhile again. Ailing nuclear groups are to be set back on the rails thanks to high state subsidies.” Continue reading
30 arrested after break-in to France’s Tricastin nuclear power plant
Greenpeace members arrested after France nuclear break-in CBC News 16 July 13, Intrusion raises questions about the security of France’s 19 nuclear power plants Around 30 Greenpeace activists were arrested on Monday after breaking into an EDF nuclear power plant in southern France, saying they wanted to expose security flaws and demanding its closure…… The action echoed tensions between the Socialist government and ecologists, who accuse Hollande of not doing enough to reduce France’s reliance on nuclear power and increase the use of renewable sources of energy.Greenpeace activists occupied this French nuclear power plant site before dawn Monday, a media stunt deeply embarrassing to a government intent on demonstrating that France’s reliance on nuclear power is safe. (Micha Patault/Greenpeace/AP)
Hollande sacked his energy and environment minister for publicly criticizing cuts to her budget earlier this month.
The president has pledged to cut the share of nuclear energy in the country’s electricity mix to 50 per cent from 75 per cent by 2025. He has also said he wants to close the country’s oldest plant at Fessenheim, near the German border, by 2017.
Greenpeace said to honour his promise, Hollande would have to close at least 10 reactors by 2017 and 20 by 2020. The campaign group said this ought to include Tricastin, which was built more than 30 years ago.
The dawn raid came less than a week after six female Greenpeace activists climbed London’s Shard, the tallest building in Western Europe, in protest over plans by oil producer Royal Dutch Shell to carry out drilling in the Arctic circle.http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/07/15/france-greenpeace-nuclear-plant.html
Antinuclear campaigners break in to French nuclear power plant
Break in at French nuclear plant Sky News, July 15, 2013 Around two dozen Greenpeace campaigners have broken into a nuclear plant in southern France, in the latest such break-in by the environmental group.
The activists managed to enter the grounds of the Tricastin plant, some 200 kilometres north of Marseille, at around 5am (1300 AEST), Greenpeace and police said.
They hung banners reading ‘Tricastin: a nuclear accident’ and ‘Francois Hollande: president of a catastrophe?’ in reference to the French leader, according to Isabelle Philippe, a Greenpeace spokeswoman.
Twelve of the activists were arrested more than two hours later, according to the EDF energy giant that runs the country’s atomic power plants……
Members of the environmental anti-nuclear group have staged several break-ins at French nuclear plants in recent years in an effort to highlight what they say are dangers of atomic power and to expose security problems at the power stations.http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=888225
Nuclear power forces get France’s Environment Minister sacked
Sacked French minister lays blame on nuclear power, fracking groups SMH, Tara Patel July 6, 2013 France’s former environment minister Delphine Batho, who was sacked on Tuesday, has blamed the fracking and nuclear power industries for her dismissal.
Ms Batho, who held the energy and the environment portfolios, was fired by President Francois Hollande after she called his 2014 spending plans ”bad” because they cut her department’s funds by about 7 per cent.
These forces that I am talking about wanted my scalp.
Mr Hollande announced her sacking via Twitter.
But Ms Batho said on Thursday that her support for France’s ban on shale gas drilling and reducing its dependence on nuclear power were the real reasons behind her departure. ”The battle crystallised notably on the question of shale gas and more discreetly on the reduction of nuclear in France,” she said at a news conference at the National Assembly in Paris. ”These forces that I am talking about wanted my scalp.”
She left at a critical time as the nation debates its future energy mix after Mr Hollande pledged to lower the proportion of power France derives from nuclear energy, the highest in the world.
An energy law was to be formulated in coming months and sent to parliament early next year.The stakes are high for Electricite de France SA, operator of the country’s 58 nuclear reactors, because it wants to extend the lives of its generators rather than have any of them shut down.
Socialist Philippe Martin was named to replace Ms Batho……… Mr Hollande has pledged to lower the dependence on nuclear energy to 50 per cent of total output by about 2025 from the present 75 per cent. http://www.smh.com.au/world/sacked-french-minister-lays-blame-on-nuclear-power-fracking-groups-20130705-2phc7.html#ixzz2YIsVQFKn
Deadly plutonium fallout over Mururoa – truth now revealed
Mururoa fallout worse than first thought http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/8872214/Mururoa-fallout-worse-than-first-thought 3 July 13 MICHAEL FIELD Newly declassified French military documents have revealed that nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll were far more deadly than has previously been admitted with plutonium fallout at much higher levels and over wider areas.
The documents cover the 46 atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at Mururoa and Fangataufa in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1974 and reveal that warships near the tests were hit by higher levels of radioactivity than known.
A New Zealand Labour Government in 1973 sent two warships, HMNZS Canterbury and HMNZS Otago, to monitor the Mururoa tests. It was not believed, at the time, that they may have received nuclear dusting but these new documents reveal there were much higher levels of radiation than were known.
A 1974 test, code named Centaur, dumped 500 times the maximum allowed level of plutonium fallout on Tahiti, 1250 kilometres away, the documents show.
There were also 140 more incidents of nuclear fallout above the 209 incidents already known. Tahiti, home to around 178,000 people, was hit 37 times by fallout. Continue reading
Britain cosying up with France in financing nuclear power research
UK invests £48.7m in nuclear cooperation with France http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2013/jun/nuclear-cooperation-uk-france.cfm 25 June 2013 By Tereza Pultarova A new £21.7m facility at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston is to be built as a further part of the UK’s contribution to the nuclear weapons information project with France.
According to the parliamentary sources, the overall investment in Project Teutates will amount to £48.7m.
The deal to share resources, in order to cut cost of military projects, between the UK and France was signed in 2010 by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Both countries committed to invest into new centres dedicated to experiments on warhead materials and parts.The facilities will use extremely high power X-rays to test materials at high temperature and pressure, mimicking conditions during nuclear explosions. The data gathered should help to assess performance and safety of warheads and might be used in development of new warhead types.
The facilities involved are the French Valduc Centre for Nuclear Studies and the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston.
Defence Minister Philip Dunne has confirmed the construction of the Technology Development Centre, which is part of the UK’s contribution to Project Teutates, has so far cost £27m and the remaining part will be invested into a new facility within the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston.
According to Mr Dunne, wider costs of Project Teutates have been withheld as disclosure would be “likely to prejudice commercial interests and would impact on the formulation of Government policy”.
1 This Month
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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