Undersea nuclear waste dump off Cumbria would imperil marine life, experts warn
UK looking for storage site for world’s biggest stockpile of untreated waste, including 100 tonnes of plutonium
Guardian, Mattha Busby, Fri 29 Jul 2022
Plans to dispose of radioactive nuclear waste beneath the seabed off the north-west coast of England risk seriously harming marine life including mammals such as dolphins and whales, experts have warned.
Seismic surveys in the Irish Sea near Cumbria get under way on Saturday to explore whether the area is suitable for a proposed facility. The UK government is seeking a location for a deep underground repository to store the world’s largest stockpile of untreated nuclear waste.
Officials have said that a decades-long accumulation of materials including more than 100 tonnes of plutonium – which could create thousands of nuclear bombs – cannot sustainably be stored above ground for ever and they are therefore searching for a site to “keep it safe and secure over the hundreds of thousands of years it will take for the radioactivity to naturally decay”.
In 2019, radioactivity leaked into the soil beneath Sellafield, in Cumbria, which saw a serious leakage in the 1970s and was not built with decommissioning in mind. There are 20 surface facilities that store highly radioactive waste across the UK. About 750,000 cubic metres, equivalent to 70% of the volume of Wembley stadium, is earmarked for “geological disposal”.
But impacts related to noise exposure from seismic gun blasts have been linked to vastly reduced sightings of whales, whose primary sense is acoustic. There is also concern over storing nuclear waste underwater, with just a handful of such sites globally.
The Zoological Society of London’s cetacean strandings investigation programme manager, Rob Deaville, said that seismic blasts can cause habitat avoidance, risk excluding mammals from an area, and raise the risk of decompression sickness. “Potential impacts can also include direct physical effects ranging from temporary or permanent threshold shifts in hearing to direct blast trauma,” he told the Guardian.
There are also concerns that the blasts may drown out mating calls and even cause deaths, after more than 800 dolphins washed ashore in Peru in 2012 after seismic tests. On the Cumbria survey, Deaville added that the area is a known habitat for porpoises, dolphins and other species. “Our teams are very much on standby, in the event we receive increased reports of live/dead strandings over this period.”
In a letter to campaigners shared with the Guardian, an official from the Marine Management Organisation, a public body, acknowledged “the potential disturbance to certain cetacean species” but noted that the plans were largely exempt from regulations.
Critics also suggest it may be impossible to predict the consequences of storing heat-generating nuclear waste beneath the sea in perpetuity.
The chair of Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA), David Blackburn, also leader of the Green party group at Leeds city council, told the Guardian: “The waste would be left in situ for millennia and, no matter how effective the barriers, some of the radioactivity will eventually reach the surface. The rate at which radioactivity would leak from a [geological disposal facility (GDF)] can be poorly predicted and is likely to remain so for an indefinite period.
“Rather than solving a problem for future generations, it could be leaving them a legacy of a nuclear waste dump gradually releasing radioactivity into the environment and cutting off their options for deciding how to deal with this waste.”
The NFLA prefers the idea of a “near surface, near site storage of waste” to allow for monitoring and management, and action in the event of a leakage. “Further scientific research may yield advancements that could mean that radioactive waste can be treated such as to make it less toxic in a shorter time period,” Blackburn added. “Chucking it in a hole in the ground or under the seabed precludes this possibility…………………………….. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/29/undersea-nuclear-waste-dump-off-cumbria-risks-harm-to-marine-life-experts-warn
Nuclear reactors: Engie’s demands are prerequisites to any further extension of nuclear power in Belgium.
https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium-news/264186/nuclear-reactors-engies-demands-are-prerequisites-to-any-further-extension,30 July 2022 By Lukas Taylor
Having agreed to extend their nuclear reactors by 10 years, Engie has confirmed that the Federal Government will meet the French energy company’s conditions.
On 21 July, the Federal Government and Engie reached an ‘agreement in principle‘ to extend two nuclear reactors until 2035. In reality, this agreement is a letter of intent upon which further negotiations will be held.
In a press statement announcing that their profits had more than doubled in the last six months, Engie maintained that the terms outlined in the letter are ‘intrinsic’ to the extension.
Nuclear conditioning
Engie set three prerequisites for extending Doel 4 and Tihange 3 reactors. Firstly, that the extension will begin within five years of the agreement’s signature.
They then stated that they want a shareholding company to be founded with a 50/50 involvement of the Belgian State and Electrabel, so that the government can play a role in strategic matters concerning the extension.
Finally, the letter of intent set a cap on Engie’s expenses of decommissioning the reactors, as well as the management of fissile materials and radioactive waste. This will come in the form of a fixed amount to be determined by the Nuclear Provisions Commission and the National Organisation for Radioactive Waste and Fissile Materials (Ondraf).
EDF forced to redesign UK nuclear reactors after horror leaks at Chinese sites
Energy crisis: EDF forced to redesign UK reactors after horror leaks at
Chinese sites. The company announced that it would change the way fuel rods
are held in place in their flagship new EPR generators, following reports
of fuel cell damage that forced a nuclear power plant with the same design
in China to shut down. Last year, state owned China General Nuclear (CGN)
announced that the EPR reactor at the Taishan plant, about 80 miles west of
Hong Kong, was shut down for “maintenance” after cracks in the fuel
rods were discovered.
Express 25th July 2022
Scotland’s government dithering about nuclear power
The SNP Government is facing calls to explain an apparent U-turn on energy
policy after revealing its ‘prospectus for independence’ will consider
nuclear power. Liam Kerr, Scottish Conservative Shadow Net Zero Secretary,
said the SNP administration needed to explain what brought about their
U-turn following years of opposition.
A freedom of information request
published by the Scottish Government includes questions about Scotland’s
energy supply and the impact of moving away from fossil fuels. One of the
questions asked if the government had factored in the effects of Scexit and
breaking up the United Kingdom.
The Scottish Government confirmed that in
the next stage of its independence prospectus it would look into
Scotland’s energy outlook. It revealed that the prospectus will
“consider future nuclear, oil and gas supply” in an independent
Scotland. The reply revealed that Scotland’s climate change plans
highlighted the importance of nuclear, oil and gas in reducing Scotland’s
energy systems. Officials said the move towards electric vehicles, heat
pumps and hydrogen would help Scotland move away from oil and gas but it
failed to confirmed if the plan would include moving away from nuclear.
They wrote: “Sector analyses and modelling conducted for Scotland’s
climate change plans show that nuclear, oil and gas can play a reducing
role in Scotland’s energy system, and this is necessary as we move
towards 2045 and our net zero legislated target.
Mr Matheson said in an
interview on Good Morning Scotland that the Scottish Government was against
nuclear power for three reasons: its long legacy in terms of construction
cost and nuclear waste, concerns around safety, and that it is the “most
expensive form of electricity”, with renewable alternatives being cheaper
to run and better at helping lower peoples household bills – adding that
nuclear is “heavily subsidised”.
Express 26th July 2022
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-government-called-explain-u-27579843
Latest Research – Baseload generators such as Sizewell C nuclear power plants are not needed in an all-renewable future and their use would simply increase costs
Latest Research – Baseload generators such as Sizewell C nuclear power
plants are not needed in an all-renewable future and their use would simply
increase costs. Sizewell C is much more expensive and slower to build than
proven and reliable alternative low carbon solutions say elite Energy Think
Tank. Professor Mark Barrett, from UCL, who has modeled the comparative
costs of nuclear and renewable power, using hour-by-hour wind and solar
data with 35 years of weather data , said: “Nuclear power is more
expensive and slower to build than renewables, particularly offshore wind.
7 GW of wind will generate about 40% more electricity than Hinkley at about
30-50% of the cost per kWh and will be built in half the time. Neither wind
nor nuclear plant operates all the time, so both will need backup. Modeling
shows the total cost of a renewable generation to be less than nuclear and
to be just as able to provide continuous power even with wind and solar
droughts.”
100% Renewables 26th July 2022
Rolls Royce hyping up risky and unproven small nuclear reactors
The seeds of a recovery are in place. The company’s nascent small
modular nuclear reactor operation is hugely promising. They can be built
for a fraction of the cost [ed -this is a dubious claim] and are much quicker to assemble. The Government
has thrown its weight behind the technology with £210m of grants. Yet the
project will require four new factories to be built and the first reactor
isn’t expected until 2029. There are high hopes, too, for a move into
electric powered planes and clean fuel. With a cutting edge in combustion
engines that burn hydrogen or artificial fuels, the real elephant in the
room for Rolls is decarbonisation. Yet, the newer technologies it is
pouring money into are risky and unproven.
Telegraph 27th July 2022
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/07/27/rolls-royce-existential-crisis-new-unknown-b
Campaign groups in Wales join to fight nuclear power plans
More than 30 anti-nuclear campaigners representing the major Welsh
campaign groups met in Caernarfon on Saturday to discuss their strategy to
withstand plans from the Welsh and UK governments to develop new nuclear
power stations at Wylfa and Trawsfynydd. The UK government confirmed in
April this year that re-opening Wylfa nuclear power station was part of its
energy strategy, with the idea to move ahead with the project “as soon as
possible this decade”. Scotland, meanwhile, will not see any new nuclear
reactors as part of the UK government’s energy strategy.
The National (Wales) 27th July 2022
https://www.thenational.wales/environment/20513304.wylfa-campaigners-fight-nuclear-power-wales/
Nuclear giant EDF and waste company Veolia continue to do business with Russia – the nuclear industry gets uranium from Russia, and sends wastes there.
Two utility giants raking in billions from British customers are STILL doing business with Russia — five months after Vladimir Putin ‘s forces invaded Ukraine.
Energy supplier EDF and waste firm Veolia have been accused of indirectly funding the war. Despite the death of 5,000 civilians, EDF Group’s contracts include a deal to source uranium from state-run nuclear power giant Rosatom. And Veolia – like EDF, French-owned – has a number of lucrative heating and waste supply contracts. Both firms insist they comply with international sanctions and that their activities are to provide essential public services.
But critics believe they should cut all ties immediately. Lib Dem energy spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said: “EDF should do the right thing by ending their business with brutal dictator Putin.”
Mirror 23rd July 2022
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/two-energy-firms-earning-billions-27560187
Russia accused of waging war out of working nuclear power plant in Ukraine
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220725-russia-accused-of-waging-war-out-of-working-nuclear-power-plant-in-ukraine Russian forces have reportedly been using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, near Nikopol in southern Ukraine, as a base to launch attacks, ramping up security concerns in surrounding areas.
The power plant in Ukraine is the largest in Europe and has been under Russian control since March. It is the only working nuclear power plant in history to be occupied by an invading army
Recent reports have noted shells being fired from the direction of Zaporizhzhia towards Ukrainian forces. “Ukrainian forces can’t shoot back in case they hit the plant,” a local told FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg, reporting from Nikopol.
The Ukrainian nuclear energy agency, Enerhoatom, has also raised concerns about the risk of heavy military equipment and explosives being stored inside reactor buildings and military trucks parked in the reactor hall.
“The question is what happens if there’s a fire?” said Petro K., president of Enerhoatom. “It won’t be possible to put the fire out because these trucks block the firefighters’ access.”
At the same time, Russia has accused Ukrainian forces of risking a nuclear catastrophe with alleged military activity in the area. Ukrainian officials deny these claims, saying they are all too aware of the dangers and would not take such risks
Anti-nuclear groups gather in Wales
Organizations meeting to oppose nuclear energy in the north. In Caernarfon
on Saturday, a number of anti nuclear organizations came together to oppose
any plans to build new power stations on Anglesey and Trawsfynydd. The
organizations present – PAWB, CADNO, Cymdeithas yr Iaith, Welsh Anti
Nuclear Alliance and the Nuclear Free Local Authorities – claimed that
nuclear energy is not the way forward to meet Wales’ power needs. They were
also concerned about the effect that nuclear projects in Welsh speaking
areas would have on the language.
BBC 24th July 2022
France should “rethink the temperature thresholds of rivers”,
Nuclear: with the heat wave, “we should rethink the temperature thresholds of rivers”, says the ASN chief inspector. The news sparked heated controversy: faced with heat records, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and the Ministry for Energy Transition granted an environmental waiver for four nuclear power plants: Saint-Alban, Golfech, Le Blayais and Le Blayais. Bugey.
Until July 24, these sites will be authorized to exceed the regulatory levels of water temperature discharged into the rivers and rivers in which they feed, in order to be able to operate if necessary for
the electricity network. For La Tribune, the ASN chief inspector, Christophe Quintin, discusses the reasons for this derogation, its implications and the lessons to be drawn from it.
La Tribune 21st July 2022
EDF’s new demand means that Hinkley Point C will be further delayed, with costs escalating to £34 billion.
EDF have implicitly admitted that the construction of Hinkley C may take
at least 11 years to finish signalling cost overruns of 70 per cent or
more. Bloomberg reports that EDF is requesting the Government that EDF be
given another 15 months to complete the plant and be fully generating
beyond 2029.
Under the terms of EDF’s contract with the UK Government if
Hinkley C fails to generate power by 2029 it will start losing the amount
of subsidy it can claim. Adding 15 months to this as requested (under a
‘force majeure’ clause) will take us into 2030. Hinkley C construction
was begun seriously in early 2019, meaning a total construction period of
over 11 years.
The plant was supposed to be operating by the end of 2025
according the EDF’ earlier plans. Using the rule of thumb that
construction cost is directly proportional to the length of construction
time this would imply a 70% cost overrun. That could mean a cost rise, in
today’s prices from around the original £20 bn to £34 billion. However,
one should in no way assume this will be all the time that is needed.
Things may well get worse.
100% Renewables 22nd July 2022
Guardians of the East Coast (Gotec) fight to stop nuclear waste dumping in the sea near holiday resorts UK
As Boris Johnson forged ahead with plans to triple Britain’s nuclear output in the shift away from a reliance on Russia and fossil fuels, he pledged to build a mini-nuclear reactor in almost every garden across the country.
The outgoing prime minister’s plan was typically bombastic, yet reflected the Government’s ambitious target to deliver up to a quarter of the country’s electricity from nuclear technologies by 2050.
What is less clear, however, is exactly where to put the hazardous waste produced from
reactors. Currently, Britain stores spent nuclear fuel at a number of nuclear sites including Sellafield, in Cumbria, and Sizewell B, in Suffolk.
But these on-land sites are not intended to be a permanent solution to the radioactive material building up as a by-product of Britain’s nuclear programme. The Government’s arms-length body Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) has been tasked with finding a permanent disposal site. Bruce Cairns, chief policy adviser at NWS, says: “We’re talking about a solution that should last hundreds of thousands of years. “What do you trust the most? Do you really want to leave this stuff at the surface, where it is vulnerable to
extreme weather events, climate change, sea level rise, terrorism, war or the breakdown in society?
“Everyone reaches the same conclusion. We just can’t give any guarantees that there will be people on the surface capable of looking after it over those timescales.” Countries worldwide with nuclear programmes are all trying to find ways to store the waste so that it will not endanger future civilisations, with policy makers discussing how to make it completely inaccessible to future populations likely to
speak different languages, hold different values and have access to new technologies. The best way forward, they have decided, is to store the waste in rocks deep underground.
But finding a local area happy to host the site has its challenges, and has come up against opposition. A number of locations in Cumbria are being vetted by the Government, with the communities near Sellafield considered more amenable because they are already better acquainted with nuclear technologies and aware of the economic benefits of the industry.
However, a new entrant has emerged on the east coast. A community group assessing plans for a GDF has been set up in Lincolnshire. The facility’s entrance would be located at a former gas terminal near the village of Theddlethorpe and the popular seaside town of Mablethorpe. Underground tunnels dug out of layers of deep rocks would lead to the underwater site around six miles from the coastline. NWS and other proponents of the site point out that granting a GDF in the area will unlock significant government funding for local projects.
Yet opponents fear it would wreck the local tourism industry. A group called the Guardians of the East Coast (Gotec) are fighting the plans through protests, petitions and coverage in local and national newspapers. Ken Smith, chairman of Gotec, says: “Mablethorpe is one of the east coast’s principle bucket-and-spade holiday resorts. “I imagine that having four square miles of nuclear waste just six miles off the coast is not exactly going to encourage people to send their children along to bathe in the sea.” Local Conservative MP Victoria Atkins has also expressed reservations and held meetings with site organisers.
Telegraph 23rd July 2022
Russia is using captured Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station as a launch pad for military attacks
Captured nuclear plant doubles as launch pad for relentless Russian rocket
attacks. The Russian army seized the vast facility — the biggest in
Europe, with six 950MW reactors — in the early weeks of its invasion,
destroying a training office during the assault despite the obvious risks
of damaging the plant and radiation leaks. Since then, Ukrainian officials
say, the Russians have stationed 500 troops and heavy weapons within the
perimeter — in breach of International energy conventions — and are
using the reactor blocks to protect against retaliatory fire.
FT 22nd July 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/857ee467-c920-4ba0-b915-684e0afbf594
Protest against radioactivity-contaminated water, at French nuclear site
ALERT Cigéo = radioactivity = contaminated water http://burestop.free.fr/spip/spip.php?article1040&fbclid=IwAR05l37LqSVNJwx7JOKpqVBxYmfqiTd8ggXjx_YYpUxc1w1Ock_MoaMBjyY COMMUNIQUE COORDINATION CIGEO/BURE STOP – 23/07/2022,
Small rafts to warn of the danger threatening a large territory!
The Coordination Stop Cigéo organized this Saturday 23/07/2022 a symbolic action in Bar-le-Duc, to make visible what Andra does not show, to tell what Andra is silent about: operating discharges of Cigeo for 150 years, just as those resulting from an underground accident will be impossible to control.
The small wooden rafts, painted with radioactive symbols and arrows, mentioning Cigéo/Bure and Paris and thrown over the water in the Ornain, symbolized the phenomenal danger that threatens water resources, this common good.
SEE THE PICTURES ( Pictures )
Indeed, the water discharges contaminated by the operation of the site or in the event of an accident, would come out in an anarchic way on the sector in a few days, towards Saulx via the losses of Orge, towards Bar-le-Duc via Haironville, towards Saint-Dizier via Ménil-sur-Saulx, towards Joinville, haphazardly… knowing that everything would end up flowing into the Marne. The impacts of Cigeo (1) would not be confined to the ultra-local perimeter as Andra claims, but would be diluted in the hydrographic network towards Paris.
A gigantic site, a scary future
The high water consumption of the site would clearly have an impact on the local resource and its distribution… which worries many municipalities today. What will become of local waterways (fragile natural environments)? What effects on tap water? What are the impacts of chemical and radioactive releases on activities such as fishing, market gardening, etc.? All these simple but essential questions have never been addressed. Afraid to tell the truth?
Cigeo could endanger the territory and beyond, permanently, if the water were to suffer contamination and scarcity. At a time when heat and drought are becoming an agonizing and lasting reality, there is still time to refuse such an impacting project for man and nature and to change course.
Public utility, obtained on a file more than inadequate
Andra repeats that the public utility of Cigéo does not mean authorization of the project. But the recent signatures of the DUP and OIN decrees are incomprehensible, given the lack of figures on the real impact of nuclear storage on water resources and surface waters. Beyond the inadequacy of the data in the DUP file, Andra is postponing the potential conclusions of the research until later, at the stage of the creation authorization application, which according to it, would serve as an application for authorization of rejection. And that is not enough for us!
Everyone at the Bure’lesques festival, August 5-6-7, 2022 in Hévilliers
The question of water from here and water from elsewhere, threatened by nuclear power and its waste, will be at the heart of the conferences and round tables of the Bure’lesques 2022. Three days of exchanges and information but not only! Film screenings, shows, concerts and good food, a rich and beautiful program is announced for this 3 rd edition. ALL INFO on https://burefestival.org/
1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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