Chernobyl: radiation sickness in soldiers, theft of radioactive materials, wildfires – a frightening case of the multiple dangers of nuclear power.
Russian soldiers in Chernobyl suffering from radiation poisoning, Several Russian soldiers in Chernobyl have fallen sick with radiation sickness after digging trenches in contaminated forests, news.com.au , Katie Davis and The Sun, 1 Apr 22,
Dozens of Russian troops stationed at the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine have reportedly been struck down with radiation sickness after digging trenches in the contaminated forests.
Seven buses of soldiers suffering from acute radiation syndrome were taken from the exclusion zone to a hospital across the border in Belarus, The Sun reports.
Chernobyl was captured in the opening days of the current invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops. However it was the site of a nuclear disaster in 1986 when a reactor exploded, contaminating the surrounding area.
As Russian soldiers took hold of the site, it sparked fears of a major radioactive disaster as a result of heavy fighting around the plant
Already, just three days after entering the area, the disturbing of soil by military vehicles saw radiation levels spike.
It also has been alleged Russian troops dug trenches in the highly toxic Red Forest zone, according to UNIAN News Agency.
And according to workers at the site, Russian soldiers drove their tanks and armoured vehicles without radiation protection through the area – kicking up clouds of radioactive dust.
A Chernobyl employee branded their actions as “suicidal” because the dust they inhaled was likely to cause internal radiation in their bodies.
The two Ukrainian sources said soldiers in the convoy did not use any anti-radiation gear while in the Red Forest – the most contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl.
Dozens of Russian troops stationed at the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine have reportedly been struck down with radiation sickness after digging trenches in the contaminated forests.
Seven buses of soldiers suffering from acute radiation syndrome were taken from the exclusion zone to a hospital across the border in Belarus, The Sun reports.
Chernobyl was captured in the opening days of the current invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops. However it was the site of a nuclear disaster in 1986 when a reactor exploded, contaminating the surrounding area.
As Russian soldiers took hold of the site, it sparked fears of a major radioactive disaster as a result of heavy fighting around the plant.
Already, just three days after entering the area, the disturbing of soil by military vehicles saw radiation levels spike.
It also has been alleged Russian troops dug trenches in the highly toxic Red Forest zone, according to UNIAN News Agency.
And according to workers at the site, Russian soldiers drove their tanks and armoured vehicles without radiation protection through the area – kicking up clouds of radioactive dust.
A Chernobyl employee branded their actions as “suicidal” because the dust they inhaled was likely to cause internal radiation in their bodies. The two Ukrainian sources said soldiers in the convoy did not use any anti-radiation gear while in the Red Forest – the most contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl.
Yaroslav Yemelianenko, an employee at the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, said Russian troops were taken to the Belarusian centre of radiation medicine in Gomel.
“Digging the trenches in the Rudu forest?” he wrote on Facebook. “Now live the rest of your short life with this.
“There are rules of handling this territory. They are mandatory to perform because radiation is physics – it works regardless of status or chases………………
Radioactive material stolen from Chernobyl
Earlier this week, it was reported that radioactive material was stolen from the site of the damaged nuclear power station…………………….
Ukraine’s State Agency blamed Russian troops for stealing “unstable” nuclear samples from Chernobyl after ransacking a lab.
They are believed to have then destroyed the November Central Analytical Laboratory which was full of nuclear waste and located in the radioactive exclusion zone.
The agency said the stolen radionuclides are “highly active”…………
Just last week, wildfires around Chernobyl sparked by Russian shelling scorched 10,000 hectares of forest.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk accused Russia of “irresponsible” acts around the Chernobyl power station as she urged the United Nations to dispatch a mission to assess the risks.
She claimed Russian forces were preventing firefighters from bringing large numbers of fires in the zone under control……….
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova warned an increased level of radioactive air pollution could threaten neighbouring countries.
“Control and suppression of fires is impossible due to the capture of the exclusion zone by Russian troops,” she wrote on Facebook.
“As a result of combustion, radionuclides are released into the atmosphere, which are transported by wind over long distances. This threatens radiation to Ukraine, Belarus and European countries.”
The politician warned that failing to intervene could see “irreparable consequences” for “the whole world”.
“Catastrophic consequences can be prevented only by immediate de-occupation of the territory by Russian troops,” Ms Denisova said………… https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/russian-soldiers-in-chernobyl-suffering-from-radiation-poisoning/news-story/d98c53269a9602841331453438c482dd
Anxieties at Varash nuclear power station, and other ones in Ukraine – ”town smells of fear”
Ukraine worries about disaster as Russia targets nuclear power plants, WP, By Max Bearak, 1 Apr 22, VARASH, Ukraine — The director of the largest nuclear power plant still under Ukrainian control was exhausted, curt with his replies and fidgeting with his glasses, which he turned around and around in his hands.
In the past two weeks, Ukraine’s military said it has shot down two Russian drones that approached as close as three miles from the plant in the northwestern city of Varash, which supplies 12 percent of the country’s electricity — but that wasn’t even the biggest of Pavlo Pavlyshyn’s concerns.
………….. Chernobyl, while decommissioned, houses thousands of spent cooling rods that if not properly cared for could lead to an increase in radioactive leaking at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster 36 years ago……………
…………Militarization wasn’t the only threat. Ukrainian staff at the plant haven’t had a day off since March 20 and are barely getting sleep. A power outage could disrupt the ventilation system and lead to overheating.
……………At Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, near Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine — which has been under Russian occupation since March 4 — Galushchenko said between 300 and 500 Russian soldiers and as many as 100 heavy vehicles including tanks were stationed within the plant’s perimeter. To take control of that plant, Russian forces fired artillery shells into one of the cooling units.
Besides the one in Varash, two other smaller Ukrainian plants are still under Ukrainian control. More than half of Ukraine’s electricity is provided by nuclear plants, and despite being under Russian control, the plant in Zaporizhzhia is still supplying the Ukrainian grid, though at a reduced capacity. Electricity consumption is also down across the country ……………
Varash, on the other hand, is carrying on much as usual. The town’s 8,000-plus plant workers are exempt from conscription into the military. Few have fled. Buses carrying workers to and from the plant, which looms over the whole city, bounce along wide boulevards while their families go about their daily lives.
The plant, which was built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s, is the entire reason for the city’s existence. About 30 miles south of the border with Belarus, Varash is otherwise relatively secluded and in one of the few areas of Ukraine that is still largely forested.
Here, residents worry about a reckless Russian attempt to take over the plant or even an errant shell causing a release of radiation.
City officials are already taking steps to prepare, including giving 50,000 residents potassium iodide tablets — which can help block the absorption of radioactive iodine in humans during prolonged exposure.
The mayor, Oleksandr Menzul, 49, worked for 25 years as a safety adviser at the plant, planning for various scenarios that could trigger a meltdown.
“We never estimated risk of Russian shelling,” he said. “Because it’s nonsense, right? Varash doesn’t even have bomb shelters, because who would bomb a city with a nuclear facility? But for Russia, an international disaster is just one mistake away…..
Menzul calms himself with the possibility that in the event of a disaster in Varash, prevailing winds might carry the worst of the radioactive steam from a blast into nearby Belarus or areas of Ukraine now occupied by Russia.
“If it blows in the enemy’s direction, at least there is some benefit to us,” he said, nervously chuckling.
This week, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Ukraine to offer technical assistance, meeting with Galushchenko and other top officials.
“There have already been several close calls. We can’t afford to lose any more time,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, the agency’s head, said in a statement. “This conflict is already causing unimaginable human suffering and destruction. The IAEA’s expertise and capabilities are needed to prevent it from also leading to a nuclear accident.”
But Ukrainian officials have criticized the IAEA for not directly calling out Russia, which they say would bring more attention to the risks at nuclear facilities that, if shelled or otherwise damaged by Russia, could lead to a disaster with regional and potentially global implications.
The recent shooting down of two Russian drones over Varash — which was confirmed by Vitaly Koval, the regional military administrator — has raised questions about Russia’s possible surveillance of plants that are far from the front line.
The city is on edge. Despite being accompanied by a minder from the local government, visiting reporters were questioned by law enforcement. Citizens were apparently worried that the journalists could be Russian saboteurs.
It also is a city filled with memorials to past disasters. A monument to the Chernobyl victims stands prominently in the city center. Not far away is one to the victims of World War II. And a memorial to those killed in the ongoing war is already being planned.
“It should be a peaceful town, but it smells of fear,” the local minder said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/31/nuclear-power-plant-ukraine-danger/
Head of IAEA to visit Chernobyl, as Russians withdraw from the site
 | |||
UN nuclear watchdog to head mission to Chernobyl as Russians withdraw from site
Russians leaving Chernobyl have taken Ukraine soldiers with them, say officials https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/01/russians-fled-chernobyl-with-radiation-sickness-says-ukraine-as-iaea-investigates Jon Henley, Fri 1 Apr 2022 22
The head of the UN atomic watchdog has said he aims to lead a mission to Chernobyl as soon as possible, after Russian troops were reported to have largely withdrawn from the decommissioned nuclear power station.
Rafael Grossi tweeted on Friday that he would head an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “assistance and support” mission to the highly contaminated site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in the first of a series of such visits to Ukrainian nuclear plants.
The announcement came after Ukrainian officials said the Russian soldiers who had occupied the highly contaminated plant since 24 February – the first day of the invasion – had left taking several Ukrainian service personnel with them. Some Russians remained in the surrounding exclusion zone, they said.
The Ukrainian state power company Energoatom alleged that the pullout followed a number of Russian soldiers receiving “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone, a claim the IAEA said it could not independently confirm but would investigate.
Energoatom said the troops had “panicked at the first sign of illness”, which “showed up very quickly”. Chernobyl’s No 4 reactor exploded on 26 April 1986, killing hundreds and spreading radioactive contamination west across Europe.
The IAEA said earlier on Friday Kyiv had informed it that Russia had transferred control of the site back to the Ukrainians charged with overseeing the safe storage of spent fuel rods and maintaining the concrete-encased ruins of the reactor.
But the UN agency said it could not independently confirm the claim that the Russian soldiers, whose capture of the plant raised fears around the world of increased radiological risks, had been exposed to radiation.
Energoatom did not say how many soldiers were involved and gave no details of how they had been affected. The Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk also said Russian troops were exposed to radiation after digging trenches in the forest.
Some Ukrainian reports have suggested the soldiers were taken to a special medical facility in nearby Belarus after driving tanks through the exclusion zone, kicking up radioactive dust. The Kremlin has not commented on the claims.
Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert with the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists, told the Associated Press on Friday it seemed unlikely a large number of troops would develop severe radiation illness, but added that it was impossible to know for sure without more details.
Citing plant workers, Energoatom said in a statement on Friday that the “Russian occupiers, as they ran away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, took members of the national guard, whom they had held hostage since 24 February, with them”.
The Ukrainian government had repeatedly expressed safety concerns about Chernobyl and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Russian troops, whose presence prevented the normal rotation of personnel for several weeks.
Russian forces also retreated from the nearby town of Slavutych, where Chernobyl workers lived, Energoatom said, and the IAEA said it was preparing to send its first assistance and support mission to Chernobyl within the next few days.
Grossi was due to hold talks with senior Russian officials in Kaliningrad on Friday after visiting a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Wednesday on his first trip to the country since the invasion.
The IAEA chief, who has repeatedly warned of the dangers of the conflict – Ukraine has 15 reactors at four active nuclear power plants, as well as stores of nuclear waste at Chernobyl and elsewhere – was expected to hold a press conference at the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna later on Friday.
BAE shipyard – home to nuclear submarine construction ‘set to flood’ due to impact of climate change
BAE shipyard in Barrow ‘set to flood’ due to impact of climate change 31st March DAN TAYLOR, CHIEF REPORTER BARROW’S shipyard is at ‘very great’ risk of flooding in the near future, according to a report.
Findings by the Nuclear Consulting Group suggest BAE’s shipyard would be left ‘profoundly vulnerable’ to flooding from sea-level rises due to the impact of climate change.
It claimed the shipyard was among nine nuclear sites that are threatened by the possibility of increased rainfall and a rise in sea levels.
The report is based on models predicting sea levels in 2050 following the effects of climate change.
…….. Writing in the report Dr Paul Dorfman, the chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group think tank, said: “Present UK coastal military nuclear infrastructure is profoundly vulnerable to flooding from sea-level rise, storm intensity and storm surge – with inland nuclear facilities also facing inundation and flooding.
“Ministry of Defence and nuclear regulatory mitigation efforts will become obsolete, and sooner than planned.
“In other words, UK nuclear military bases are set to flood.”
The next generation of Trident nuclear submarines are being built in Barrow, alongside the Astute hunter-killer boats.
And raising concern about the shipyard, Dr Dorfman warned: “Despite the key role the shipyard plays in the UK nuclear military enterprise, climate change (even in lower-mid range projections) will challenge the utility and viability of the facility due to the combined impact of future sea-level rise, storm surge and flooding.”………… https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/20028594.shipyard-flood/
Growing resistance to EU proposal to label gas and nuclear as ”sustainable” energy
| Resistance has been growing to an EU proposal to label gas and nuclear energy as sustainable investments, officials said this week. The European Commission last month proposed including both in the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy, a system for labelling climate-friendly investments. The proposal split opinion among the European Parliament and EU countries, which disagree on the fuels’ green credentials and could also still reject it. Two groups of lawmakers – the Greens and the Socialists and Democrats – confirmed that they would file a motion to reject the rules. German Green lawmaker Michael Bloss had confirmed the Greens’ objection earlier in the week. “Nuclear power and fossil gas are not ‘sustainable’, far too dangerous and not a bridge technology,” he said in a tweet. The move is the opening salvo in a months-long process of negotiations, which would culminate in Parliament voting by July on the potential motions to reject the gas and nuclear proposal. Emerging Risks 1st April 2022 https://emergingrisks.co.uk/resistance-grows-to-eu-nuclear-and-gas-taxonomy/ |
Wide reporting on Russian soldiers affected by radiation, leaving Chernobyl
| The UN atomic watchdog is investigating Ukrainian claims that Russian soldiers occupying Chernobyl nuclear power station left after receiving high doses of radiation. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it could not confirm the claims by Ukrainian state power company Energoatom and was seeking an independent assessment. Energoatom said the Russians dug trenches in the forest inside the exclusion zone at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, and that the troops “panicked at the first sign of illness” which “showed up very quickly” and began preparing to leave. The Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, also made the claim that Russian troops who dug trenches in the forest were exposed to radiation, but it has not been independently verified. Some reports have suggested the soldiers are being sent to a special medical facility in Belarus after driving tanks through the “dead zone” around the nuclear plant, kicking up radioactive dust. Guardian 1st April 2022https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/01/russians-fled-chernobyl-with-radiation-sickness-says-ukraine-as-iaea-investigates |
Russian forces that occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power station after
invading Ukraine have left the defunct plant, and suggested radiation
concerns had driven them away. Chernobyl is back under Ukraine control
after Russians forces formally give up the nuclear site.
The Ukrainian
state nuclear company said on Thursday most of the Russian forces that
occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power station after invading Ukraine have
left the defunct plant, and suggested radiation concerns had driven them
away.
Energoatom said it had also confirmed information that Russian troops
had built fortifications including trenches in the so-called Red Forest –
the most radioactively contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl. As a
result of concerns about radiation, “almost a riot began to brew among the
soldiers,” it said in the statement, suggesting this was the reason for
their unexpected departure.
Mirror 31st March 2022
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-chernobyl-back-under-ukraine-26606690
Energoatom also said reports were confirmed that the Russians dug trenches
in the Red Forest, the 10-square-kilometer (nearly four-square-mile) area
surrounding the Chernobyl plant within the Exclusion Zone, and received
“significant doses of radiation.” The Russian troops “panicked at the first
sign of illness,” which “showed up very quickly,” and began to prepare to
leave, the operator said. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Daily Mail 31st March 2022
Energoatom said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received
“significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the
exclusion zone around the closed plant, although there was no independent
confirmation of that.
Independent 1st April 2022
Low-lying Dungeness threatened by climate change – sea level rise.
Dungeness could find itself underwater within 30 years, threatening both a
tourist hotspot and a vital conservation area. Dungeness and its nature
reserve are low-lying, which means that they are particularly vulnerable to
climate change and rising sea levels.
Climate Central is an organisation
dedicated to researching the impact of global warming. The organisation
uses UN-approved data to predict which areas of the world could be most
threatened by rising sea levels, with variables concerning pollution levels
and extreme weather events. Here’s an example of one of Climate
Central’s maps, [on original] showing what Dungeness could look like in 2050 should
global warming continue at its current rate. The red parts show areas
beneath the tide level.
Time Out 30th March 2022
https://www.timeout.com/news/dungeness-could-be-underwater-by-2050-033022
Sizewell new nuclear will not solve the government’s energy problems, but will punish the poorest.
| Nick Butler: Spending £4bn on a new nuclear station at Sizewell will not solve the government’s energy problems. Instead of sensible short-term measures to help those facing energy poverty, the government is focusing on a technology with a track record of failure. In the face of surging energy prices and the prospect of more problems as Europe turns off Russian gas supplies, the UK government is struggling to find a coherent energy policy. The latest move, a £4bn investment in the proposed new nuclear station at Sizewell, is both a mistake and an irrelevance. Private investors who are being asked to stump up the majority of the £20bn total cost should politely decline the offer. The current energy challenge—driven first by the surging post-Covid economy around the world, and now by fears of a fight for supplies as Europe reduces its use of Russian gas by two-thirds by 2023—is not the fault of the British government. The UK is not dependent on Russian supplies, which account for less than 5 per cent of British consumption. We do, however, import half our gas, and are therefore vulnerable to whatever happens on the world market. The government is responsible for the response to a crisis which will raise retail bills in April, and again in the autumn. The burden of these sudden increases will hit the poorest hardest, adding to cost of living pressures already evident. The Bank of England talks of inflation of 8 per cent by the end of the year. Many commentators think 10 per cent is more likely. The answer to the challenge has to begin with welfare support for those who cannot cope. A temporary removal of some of the taxes on energy supply, including VAT, would also offer some relief. The £2bn being given to the developers of Sizewell would have made a material difference to those facing energy poverty. The choice of EDF’s European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) technology is the worst from any perspective. In the face of an energy crisis and soaring bills, the government needs solutions which are practical and affordable. There is no way of insulating the UK from developments in the world market. The poorest can and should be protected but the rest of us will undoubtedly have to pay more. What matters now is that the short-, medium- and longer-term solutions to limit that exposure are deliverable and affordable. Sizewell is neither. Prospect 30th March 2022 https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/science-and-technology/spending-4bn-on-a-new-nuclear-station-at-sizewell-will-not-solve-the-governments-energy-problems |
Russian troops pull out out of Chernobyl after suffering ”acute radiation sickness”
Russian troops have pulled out of Chernobyl and handed control back to
Ukrainian authorities after soldiers suffered acute radiation sickness from
digging trenches in contaminated soil. Energoatom, Ukraine’s state
nuclear energy company, said that soldiers had received “significant
doses of radiation” after they constructed trench fortifications in the
Red Forest, a highly toxic area surrounding the defunct plant.
Times 1st April 2022
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sick-russian-soldiers-seen-fleeing-chernobyl-ztcwvgzwg
Greenpeace activists storm French nuclear plant
Greenpeace activists break into the construction site of the Flamanville
EPR nuclear reactor to protest against pro-nuclear candidates in the French
presidential elections.
Launched at the end of 2007, the Normandy project
is 11 years overdue and its cost has risen to 12.7 billion euros according
to EDF, compared with the 3.3 billion announced in 2006. Greenpeace France
has called for an independent assessment of the viability of EPR nuclear
reactors.
Euronews 31st March 2022
https://www.euronews.com/2022/03/31/greenpeace-activists-storm-french-nuclear-power-plant
Boris Johnson’s fixation on nuclear power is not justified by the facts, as Britain’s electricity demand continues to fall.
| Letter Andrew Warren, Chairman, British Energy Efficiency Federation: In declaring that Boris Johnson’s fixation on nuclear is a threat to British energy supply, Simon Nixon (Mar 31) draws attention to the fallacious belief by the Department for Business (if not at the National Grid) that demand for electricity is expected to expand enormously, apparently even double, over future years. Strangely enough, precisely the same justification was used in 2006, when the Labour government first committed itself (as Nixon observes) to a “family” of further nuclear power stations. Based on the official forecasts issued in 2006, we should by now be consuming at least 15 per cent more electricity than we were then. But we are not. In fact UK electricity consumption has gone down by more than 15 per cent since 2006. In other words, all that “expectation of demand growth” used then to justify new nukes was grossly exaggerated, by well over 30 per cent. In the interim, no new nuclear power stations have been added to the system. It hasn’t collapsed, and is far less carbon intensive. Surely, we should not be fooled again by the same spurious rhetoric about endless consumption growth? In that immortal phrase of the 1970s: “Save it. You know it makes sense.” Times 1st April 2022https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/times-letters-lessons-of-the-shropshire-maternity-scandal-7vs5xwfw3 |
UK government’s nuclear dream likely to fade away, as private investors resist that risky call
Private investors are yet to be convinced that the returns from nuclear
power are sufficiently attractive to plow billions of pounds into a new
fleet of reactors that is being pushed by the U.K. government.
Unclear policy, competition from renewables and concerns about how attractive the
financial returns will be all make the investment case for nuclear less
compelling, according to people involved in the discussions.
That could be a major stumbling block for the government as it seeks to enlist private
capital to help fund projects like Electricite de France SA’s Sizewell C
plant.
Financial Post 29th March 2022
Scrutiny on Switzerland’s nuclear power industry- it gets uranium from Russia
Use of Russian uranium for Swiss nuclear power under scrutiny, Russia’s state-owned nuclear firm Rosatom helps fuel two nuclear power plants in Switzerland. That commercial link is now under scrutiny as the Western world puts financial pressure on Russia to stop its aggression against Ukraine. Swiss Info March 31, 2022
Swiss electricity company Axpo purchases fuel from Rosatom to operate the Beznau and Leibstadt nuclear power plants in canton Aargau.
In a statement published on Thursday, the environmental NGO Greenpeace urged the authorities of seven Swiss cantons – which own Axpo – to stop buying uranium from Rosatom.
This commercial relationship, the NGO argued, helps to finance Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. Competitor company Alpiq, which runs the Gösgen nuclear site, stopped sourcing from Russia in 2016.
………………………………….. Of Switzerland’s four nuclear reactors, only Gösgen, operated by the company Alpiq, does not buy Russian uranium. Alpiq said this decision was taken in 2016 due to considerations about environmental compatibility and supply chain transparency………..
By paying for Russian uranium – Switzerland could also indirectly help finance Russia’s military apparatus. SRF points that Rosatom is the manufacturer of Russia’s warheads and now controls the operation of various Ukrainian nuclear power plants, such as at Zaporizhia, seized after fighting on March 4. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/use-of-russian-uranium-for-swiss-nuclear-power-under-scrutiny/47479722
Getting bigger but not safer or cheaper – the myth of Rolls Royce and its very big non-modular reactor
Rolls Royce are now starting a ‘Generic Design Assessment’ (GDA) process with the ONR which will take around 5 years. After then they will be asking the UK Government for a blank cheque for the project.
https://100percentrenewableuk.org/getting-bigger-but-not-safer-or-cheaper-the-myth-of-rolls-royce-and-its-very-big-non-modular-reactor By David Toke, 30 Mar 22, Rolls Royce’s so-called small modular reactor (SMR) is getting bigger, but is likely to have fewer special safety features compared to EDF’s increasingly pricey design for Hinkley C.
In 2017 Rolls Royce said that its small modular reactor would be between 220 and 440 MW, but the latest design is bigger, at 470 MW. It is strange to call this small. Reactors in service at the moment (the so-called AGR reactors) were around the 600 MW size for each unit and, strange as it might seem, most of the first generation of so-called ‘Magnox’ nuclear reactors built in the UK were actually smaller than 470 MW. They were not called ‘small’. So why is Rolls Royce calling this a SMR? There’s no reason for this other than public relations.
Rolls Royce claim that the parts will be mainly built in factories. Well, of course they will, that’s always the case with nuclear power plant. The difference with building a relatively smaller plant of course is that you get less of the economies of scale in doing this. That is why nuclear power plant have got bigger.
So the fact that the Rolls Royce unit will be about a third the size of the EPR is likely to make them cost more. But there is one way that Rolls Royce will be able to economise compared to the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) being built at Hinkley C, and that is because I have seen no sign that Rolls Royce will include some special safety features that have been included in the EPR.
The best known of these safety features are a) a ‘double containment’ feature that is designed to stop material from the inside getting out (as well as another external shell to shield from aircraft) and b) a ‘core catcher’ to stop a melting core eating its way into the ground and potentially contaminating water courses. I am assuming Rolls Royce will not be including either of these features, although it will have to satisfy the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) that it has other ways of stopping radioactive releases from accidents.
Rolls Royce are now starting a ‘Generic Design Assessment’ (GDA) process with the ONR which will take around 5 years. After then they will be asking the UK Government for a blank cheque for a project.
Of course there is another factor and that is that EDF have some experience (admittedly not very successful of late) of building nuclear power plant. Rolls Royce do not have experience of building large nuclear power plant (which is what they are really hoping to do). Producing small (and, it must be said extremely expensive) genuinely small reactors for nuclear submarines is not the same thing at all! So Rolls Royce are likely not to have the skills to build large nuclear power plant. That is a bad sign!
The so-called SMRs proferred by Rolls Royce will just be the latest in a long line of very expensive, very lately delivered nuclear power stations in the UK. It is unlikely to be any cheaper than the reactor that EDF is building at Hinkley C (becoming more expensive as time goes on). But it will have fewer safety features.
Robert (Bob) Hoggar comments: Small Mod Reactors scattered about Britain will also have lots of nuclear waste scattered about Britain which will need careful looking after and that is guaranteed to be an additional rusk to the nation.
European Union lawmakers move to reject inclusion of nuclear energy as ‘green’
EU lawmakers move to reject green gas and nuclear investment rules, Reuters, By Kate Abnett and Simon Jessop
- Summary
- Greens, Socialists and Democrats oppose proposed rules
- Parliament vote on taxonomy proposal due by July
- EU advisers launch report on other environmental criteria
BRUSSELS, March 30 (Reuters) – At least two groups of European Union lawmakers have confirmed they will reject an EU proposal to label gas and nuclear energy as sustainable investments, officials said on Wednesday.
Reporting by Kate Abnett, Simon Jessop, editing by Ed Osmond………… (registered readers only) https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/eu-lawmakers-move-reject-green-gas-nuclear-investment-rules-2022-03-30/
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