Tricastin nuclear power station: a radioactive leak in groundwater
Tricastin nuclear power station: a radioactive leak in groundwater. EDF
revealed, this Tuesday, December 21, that a tritium leak had been detected
in the Tricastin nuclear power plant.
Le Dauphine 21st Dec 2021
Changes in UK nuclear third party liability
UK nuclear third party liability laws updated from January 2022 https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/uk-nuclear-third-party-liability-laws-updated-january-2022, OUT-LAW NEWS | 23 Dec 2021 Eluned Watson, Senior Associate Operators of nuclear sites in the UK, including those responsible for disposing of nuclear matter, should review their insurance and contractual arrangements to ensure they align with a new liability regime that takes effect on 1 January 2022, experts have said.
Michael Freeman and Eluned Watson of Pinsent Masons were commenting after an international protocol was ratified, triggering imminent changes to the nuclear third party liability regime in the UK.Currently, the liability regime for nuclear accidents in the UK is governed by the Nuclear Installations Act 1965. That Act implements the OECD Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and the supplementary Brussels Convention that followed. The Act makes provision for compensation to be claimed for personal injury or property damage stemming from a nuclear accident.
In 2004, signatories to the two Conventions adopted a protocol to amend the third party liability regime that the Conventions provide for. That protocol has only recently been ratified in enough of the signatory countries to allow the changes to take effect. n the UK, legislation was passed in 2016 to anticipate the protocol coming into force. The Nuclear Installations (Liability for Damage) Order 2016, which amends the 1965 Act, takes effect on 1 January 2022.
Both the protocol and the UK Order substantially increase the value of claims that can be made in the aftermath of nuclear accidents to €700 million in damages, up from €140 million previously. In line with flexibility provided under the protocol, a cap on claims at €80m has been set in respect of damage to the means of transport.
The legislation sets annual caps on liability for operators of nuclear sites in the UK, initially at €700m a year but rising to a total operator liability of €1.2 billion over a period of five years from 2022.Operators of nuclear licensed sites are required to make financial provision for such liability, such as by insurance.
“We have been working closely with clients in the UK nuclear sector to ensure that their existing insurance and financial provision arrangements incorporate the changes necessary to reflect the changes to the liability regime,” said Watson.
The type of claims that can be made have also been expanded under the new regime.
The additional types of claim that can be made are for compensation in respect of the cost of measures of reinstatement related to the impaired environment, loss of income derived from the environment, the cost of preventive measures, and personal injury and property damage caused by such measures. Limitation periods are also amended. The right to claim compensation for personal injury will be extended from 10 to 30 years. The time limit on bringing claims of all other kinds is fixed at 10 years.
“The changes brought about by the 2004 protocol represents the most significant revision of the nuclear third party liability regime since it was first introduced in the 1960s,” said Pinsent Masons’ Freeman.
“Those operating within the nuclear sector should review all relevant contractual and supply chain arrangements, and in particular nuclear third party liability indemnification provisions, in order to ensure that the changes introduced by the 2016 Order are adequately and appropriately reflected,” he said.
EDF HAS DECIDED TO CLOSE TWO NUCLEAR PLANTS AFTER FINDING CRACKS
EDF HAS DECIDED TO CLOSE TWO NUCLEAR PLANTS AFTER FINDING CRACKS
https://democratic-europe.eu/2021/12/20/edf-has-decided-to-close-two-nuclear-plants-after-finding-cracks/?fbclid=IwAR0PQ0CpQFhNptc25vic5vGb1Mo4apstAvB8erHrKAWA56AB8bcGOIV58Mg 20 Dec 21, Électricité de France S.A., comm owned by the state, shuttered two nuclear power plants after routine safety inspections found cracks at one power plant.
EDF wrote in a press release, “preventive maintenance checks on the primary circuit of reactor number 1 of the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant” found cracks due to corrosion on the pipes.
“Checks initiated on the same equipment of reactor number 2 of the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant revealed similar defects,” the French power giant said.
France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) was informed about cracks detected close to the welds on the reactor’s pipes.
EDF temporarily closed Civaux to “replace the affected parts on the two Civaux reactors, the work being governed by a technical instruction prepared in cooperation with the ASN, which leads to extend the shutdown of the two reactors,” it said.
EDF has also chosen to close two reactors at another nuclear plant at Chooz in the northeastern Ardennes department for inspections. Both power plants use the same reactor technology.
The temporarily closing of Civaux’s reactors and Chooz’s reactors will reduce one terawatt-hour of output and couldn’t come at the worst time as cooler weather sent French power contracts to a record high earlier this week.
A power reduction could suggest strain on the power grid amid cooler weather and higher power prices.
In Cumbria – Dangerous Nuclear Waste Dumping- Mission Creep and Obfuscation.
Dangerous Nuclear Waste Dumping- Mission Creep and Obfuscation.
The following images [on original] are from a four page Advertorial by NIREX in Cumbria Life from 1993 (NIREX was the then government body on “Nuclear Waste Disposal.” ) The NIREX plan was for “deep disposal” of intermediate and some low level nuclear wastes. Now in 2021 the “vision” is to put the intermediate level nuclear wastes (previously earmarked for the NIREX dump at Longlands Farm, Gosforth) into Not So Deep Silos’ at the Low Level Waste Repository at Drigg and the even higher activity and very hot nuclear wastes (which even the gung ho NIREX never proposed putting deep underground) into a Geological Disposal Facility ( deep under the Irish Sea is in the frame)……….
Note that the NIREX advert from 1993 states that the Geological Disposal Facility plan is for “intermediate and some low level wastes.” In a newsletter in March this year for the Low Level Waste Repository at Drigg, it was said: “The NDA is exploring the benefits of developing Near Surface (NSD) – for disposing of a proportion of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW), but no decision has been taken on whether UK Government will pursue this option or whether LLWR, will in time, host a NSD facility.”
We asked a number of Freedom of Informations questions which have not been answered directly or honestly with a simple yes or no but serve to deflect and frustrate any scrutiny.
- Have the public been consulted about the RWM/NDA/CoRWM plan for Near Surface Disposal of Intermediate Level Waste at Drigg’s Low Level Waste Repository?
The honest answer would be NO
- Has the Borough or County Council held a debate or vote on whether to take any steps towards Near Surface Disposal of Intermediate Level Wastes by alllowing 16 rock characterisation boreholes to be drilled at a depth of 120m into the underlying sandstone ?
The honest answer would be NO
- What are the category of low and intermediate level wastes proposed for NSD and would this include the category of wastes previously designated by NIREX for a GDF ?
The honest answer would be: the major components of Intermediate Level Wastes are nuclear reactor components, graphite from reactor cores and sludges from the treatment of radioactive liquid effluents. All of these wastes were previously designated by NIREX for a Geological Disposal Facility.
You can see Low Level Waste Repository’s answers here: ………..https://www.lakesagainstnucleardump.com/post/dangerous-nuclear-waste-dumping-mission-creep-and-obfuscation
Finland’s Olkiluoto EPR nuclear reactor starting up, 12 years late
Nuclear: start-up of the Finnish EPR 12 years late. The EPR nuclear
reactor in Olkiluoto, Finland, started up overnight for the first time.
Between delays and financial problems, the work started in 2005 was strewn
with pitfalls for the French Areva. The EPR must supply 15% of the
consumption of the Nordic country.
Les Echos 21st Dec 2021
European Commission will decide in 2022 if it considers nuclear energy as a ”climate friendly” investment.
The European Commission plans to finish next year its long-awaited rules
on whether to label gas and nuclear energy as climate-friendly investments
under EU green finance rules, its environment policy chief said on Monday.
The European Union’s executive Commission is considering whether to include
nuclear and natural gas in its “sustainable finance taxonomy”, a rulebook
that will restrict which activities can be labelled as climate-friendly
investments.
Reuters 20th Dec 2021
Inspections of Britain’s ageing nuclear weapons facilities
Inspectors have completed their year-long investigation into the ageing
facilities at AWE in Aldermaston and Burghfield. The Office for Nuclear
Regulation (ONR) has conducted ‘themed’ inspections into five British
nuclear facilities over the last year. It has been looking at how the
industry manages ageing plants and facilities to ensure the necessary
standards of safety and security are maintained.
The final inspection
report is now being compiled, and is expected to identify where
improvements are required. In late 2020, ONR selected five licensees for
inspection, as a representative sample of the industry. They are the Atomic
Weapons Establishment (AWE Plc), in Aldermaston and Burghfield, Berkshire,
EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited, at Sizewell B Power Station in
Suffolk, Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd (DRDL) in Plymouth, Magnox Limited,
at Hinkley Point A in Somerset, and Sellafield Ltd, in Cumbria.
Berkshire Live 22nd Dec 2021
European Commission experts call on EU not to label nuclear ‘green’
Commission experts call on EU not to label nuclear ‘green’, https://euobserver.com/climate/153891, By WESTER VAN GAAL 22 Dec 21
BRUSSELS, Thirteen members of the EU Commission’s Technical Expert Group (TEG) put out a petition on Tuesday (21 December) calling on nuclear energy not to be labelled as ‘green’.
“We recommend that nuclear fission has no place on the EU taxonomy of sustainable activities,” the group, led by Dawn Slevin, a financial expert and core member of the commission’s financial stability TEG, wrote.
Dealing with the “do no significant harm” principle in the taxonomy, they concluded nuclear may damage the environment due to the need to store it in underground bunkers for thousands of years, and “because the risk of a severe nuclear accident cannot be excluded, even in the best commercially available nuclear power plants.”
They also warn against politicisation of the rules. “Proponents of nuclear energy use the taxonomy to put a ‘scientific’ stamp on what is primarily a political position on nuclear fission energy aiming to satisfy the few EU member states that wish to promote the associated technologies,” the petition states.
France is spearheading an alliance of 10 member states that argue that nuclear fission and gas-fired power plants should be included in the taxonomy.
The TEG members point out that France and Finland are currently the only EU countries actively building nuclear facilities.
The Finnish Olkiluoto-3 was meant to start generating power in 2009, followed by the French Flamanville-3 in 2012.
However, both are still not operational, tripling anticipated costs, the group wrote. The group includes Paolo Masoni, a nuclear engineer, and Eric Laes, a post-doctoral researcher specialising in atomic energy at the Technical University of Eindhoven.
Politicised debate
In recent months, the decision on whether to include nuclear and gas in the taxonomy has become politicised.
Last week, EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton told five European newspapers, including Die Welt, that “it is a lie that the EU can become CO2-neutral without nuclear power.”
French president Emmanuel Macron said last week that France and Germany will try to find a compromise on whether the EU should label nuclear and gas as green investments.
But on Monday, the German Greens, part of the new ruling coalition, came out strongly against nuclear, reiterating their opposition to the inclusion of nuclear in the taxonomy.
“The German government’s stance is that nuclear power is not one of the sustainable forms of energy [that] remains,” environment minister Steffi Lemke told fellow EU environment ministers in Brussels on Monday.
German climate and economics minister Robert Habeck later echoed his colleague on German radio Deutschlandfunk, saying: “I do not think nuclear power is the right technology.”
However, chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) did not make such a clear statement at the last EU summit on Friday – and admitted Germany will probably not be able to stop the French push for nuclear.
“France is taking a different path [than Germany]. Other countries do as well,” he said.
“That is why it’s important that you can follow your paths and at the same time stay together across Europe,” he added.
The commission planned to present its decision on nuclear and gas on Wednesday, but this has been postponed until mid-January next year.
It now plans to consult a draft version of the taxonomy with member states before the end of the year or at the start of January 2022 – a process that will be clarified on Wednesday.
The Sustainable Finance Platform, a group of 57 NGOs, scientific and financial experts will also be consulted.
The commission has faced backlash in the past from some of its members, including one of the signatories of the petition, for allowing gas an nuclear to be considered in what was meant to be a science-led exercise.
France and Germany – opposite attitudes to nuclear power
Is nuclear energy green? France and Germany lead opposing camps.
The French government wants to build reactors. The German government wants to shut them down. WP 19 Dec 21,
”………………….. France is leading a group of mostly central and eastern European countries that are pushing the European Union to add modern nuclear energy to a list of “environmentally sustainable economic activities.”
…………. The president of the surrounding Alsace region, Frédéric Bierry, has urged Macron to consider Fessenheim as a possible future site, calling the old plant’s closure a “financial,” “social” and “economic” scandal in the face of a warming climate.
But one of the biggest obstacles — for Fessenheim and for Macron’s broader plans — lies about half a mile to the east of the town’s old nuclear plant. That’s where France ends and Germany begins.
The new German economy and climate minister, Green party member Robert Habeck, was among the politicians who signed a statement celebrating the closure of the Fessenheim plant. The German government has argued that nuclear plants are too risky, and too slow and costly to build, to be a solution to the climate crisis. Germany’s outlook is influenced by nuclear accidents, such as the 2011 Fukushima meltdown in Japan. And Berlin points to reports like one this past week, of cracks in the pipes at a French nuclear reactor, as evidence that plant safety remains a problem.
Germany is among a group of skeptics, including Denmark and Austria, that wants Europe to shut down its remaining nuclear plants and that fiercely oppose a climate-friendly designation for nuclear power, which would signal to green investors that nuclear energy is worthy of financing.
The controversy may come to a head within days, with the European Commission expected to make a decision just before its Christmas break.
………………………………… Environmental activists in Germany acknowledge that continued reliance on coal is a problem even in the medium term. But they are optimistic about how quickly the country can ramp up alternative energy.
Germany’s Green party, in its position as part of the new ruling coalition, has vowed to increase spending significantly on renewables and to limit energy price spikes for consumers. It wants renewables to account for 80 percent of electricity by 2030, up from the present target of about 50 percent.
For German politicians and activists, the idea of nuclear power as green or sustainable is anathema. They talk about the potential for accidents with catastrophic environmental consequences. They note the problems associated with the long-term storage of deadly radioactive waste. They say they don’t want to draw investment away from wind and solar.
German anti-nuclear and environmental activist Stefan Auchter said his country’s path will be validated when the next Chernobyl or Fukushima comes. He compared the use of nuclear energy to playing Russian roulette………………………. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/18/nuclear-energy-climate-france-germany/
The French government asked EDF for earlier restart of nuclear reactors (now on maintenance)
The French government asked Electricite de France SA to restart some
nuclear reactors earlier than planned in order to help with a winter energy
crunch across Europe. Ecology Minister Barbara Pompili said on France Info
radio that she had asked EDF Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy in a
meeting on Friday to restart more quickly than planned some reactors that
were halted for maintenance and scheduled to restart in mid-January.
Bloomberg 19th Dec 2021
U.S. congressional delegation arrives in Ukraine to discuss threat of war with Russia — Anti-bellum
US Congress delegation arrives in Ukraine to discuss threat of war with RussiaA group of congressmen announced Washington’s readiness to take tough measures in response to any encroachment on sovereign Ukrainian territory *** “Representative Jason Crow led a U.S. Congressional delegation to Kyiv to discuss Russia’s aggressive military buildup in and around Ukraine and hear […]
U.S. congressional delegation arrives in Ukraine to discuss threat of war with Russia — Anti-bellum
France’s Association for the Control of Radioactivity in the West (ACRO) reveals plutonium pollution in La Hague.
14 Dec 21, Plutonium pollution in La Hague revealed by ACRO. As part of its Citizen’s Observatory of Radioactivity in the Environment, ACRO regularly monitors radioactive pollution around the nuclear installations in La Hague, which enabled it, in 2016, to highlight unusual pollution. in the Ru des Landes
area, with the notable presence of americium-241 and plutonium, which are particularly toxic.
Areva, now Orano, has pledged to take back the contaminated land. But, as of December 2021, no sanitation work has yet been carried out and cows continue to graze there.
ACRO 14th Dec 2021
EU countries at odds over green investment label for nuclear energy
EU countries at odds over green investment label for nuclear energy, CNA, 19 De 21, BRUSSELS: European Union countries disagreed ahead of a summit on Thursday (Dec 16) over whether the bloc should label nuclear energy as a climate-friendly investment, as leaders await a decision on the matter from Brussels.
The European Commission is considering whether to include nuclear and natural gas in its “sustainable finance taxonomy”, a rulebook that will restrict which activities can be labelled as climate-friendly investments.
“We are against a greenwashing of nuclear energy … We have allies, among them Luxembourg, but of course also powerful opponents who are supporters of nuclear energy,” Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on his arrival at the summit of EU leaders.
“Poland very strongly supports the possibility of financing investments in gas and in nuclear power,” Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
“Others have doubts about that and Poland clearly calls for it and I will be saying that strongly today to adopt that in the conclusions,” Morawiecki said.
The Commission has said it aims to decide this month on whether nuclear and gas are labelled green, but has struggled to resolve in-fighting between the bloc’s countries – including France and Germany, who are split over the fuels……………
The taxonomy does not ban investments in activities not labelled “green”. But by limiting the green label to those activities deemed truly climate-friendly, the EU aims to steer cash into low carbon projects and stop companies or investors from making unsubstantiated environmental claims. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sustainability/eu-nuclear-energy-clean-green-investment-2384321
France ready to join forces with fossil fuel promoters, in order to put nuclear at the heart of European environment policy.
To put nuclear power at the heart of European environmental policy, France
is ready to join forces with countries which promote fossil fuels.
European taxonomy is a register classifying the different energies with a more or
less green label. Obtaining it may in particular make it possible to
benefit from grants or funding.
For its part, France is pushing for nuclear
power to be recognized by the European Commission as sustainable energy. To
achieve its ends, it is not excluded that it ally with other countries
which, for their part, support natural gas – fossil energy – as shown by a
note revealed by the newspaper Context relayed by many NGOs.
France Inter 17th Dec 2021
French Environment Minister asks EDF to conduct audit on nuclear power availability, following safety shutdowns
French Environment Minister Barbara Pompili asked power utility EDF
(EDF.PA) on Friday to conduct an audit on the availability of its nuclear
power stations after the company shut down some of its reactors due to
technical problems. EDF, whose reactors provide up to 70% of the country’s
electricity needs, said on Wednesday it found faults at a nuclear power
station and shut down another plant using the same kind of reactors.
Reuters 17th Dec 2021
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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