UK planning inspectorate accepts Sizewell C nuclear plans for examination
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Sizewell C: Nuclear power station plans accepted for scrutiny, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-53176514, 25 June 2020
An application to build a new nuclear power station has been accepted for examination by the planning inspectorate. Plans for the Sizewell C plant on the Suffolk coast were put forward by EDF Energy after being mooted 10 years ago. The acceptance means an examining authority will now be appointed to scrutinise the application, with the government having final decision. Stop Sizewell C (SSC) group said it will continue to fight the application. EDF Energy said in a statement: “The decision means the Inspectorate is satisfied that the eight years of public consultation by the project was conducted properly and that full examination of the proposals can now take place.” But Alison Downes from SSC said the “quality of EDF’s consultations failed to provide required information”. She added EDF “had not been transparent in its disclosures of environmental assessment or transport strategy” nor the plant’s impact on the local area. Concerns about effective scrutiny of pre-application proposals during the lockdown restrictions was supported in letters from local MP Dr Dan Poulter and Suffolk County Council. In a joint statement on Wednesday Suffolk County Council and East Suffolk Council said: “The lack of a comprehensive set of documents up to this point has compromised the engagement that has taken place, and the Councils do not feel they have been able to complete their pre-application work with the Applicant (EDF Energy) to the extent set out by the Planning Act 2008,” EDF Energy said a copy of the full planning application and supporting documents would become available on the Planning Inspectorate website. |
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Nuclear developers push UK government for prompt decision on government finance for new construction
Nuclear developers press for ‘prompt’ decision on new UK plants , Ft.com, Nathalie Thomas in Edinburgh, JUNE 24 2020
Britain’s nuclear energy industry has said it could cut the price of power from new large power stations by more than half as it presses ministers for a “prompt” decision on government financing to support construction. …….
The NIA argues that supply chain costs would fall further if it can build further scale and experience. But it warns that new projects rely on “prompt decisions” by ministers on an alternative financing mechanism to support nuclear plant construction. Executives at EDF have made clear they will not replicate the model used for Hinkley, which has been beset by cost overruns. A government consultation on alternative funding models, launched last year, is yet to report back.
Under a RAB model, households would pay for a plant’s construction through their energy bills long before any electricity is generated, allowing developers to attract cheaper finance from investors such as pension funds. But it also leaves consumers on the hook for cost overruns.
European Union countries agreed to exclude nuclear, fossil gas from green transition fund
 EU ministers exclude nuclear, fossil gas from green transition fund
EURACTIV.com with Reuters European Union countries agreed on Wednesday (24 June) that the bloc’s flagship fund to wean regions off fossil fuels should not finance nuclear or natural gas projects, despite calls from some Eastern countries for gas to be eligible for EU funding. The European Commission, the EU’s executive, wants to set up a €40 billion Just Transition Fund, comprised of €30 billion from an EU coronavirus recovery fund and €10 billion from its budget for 2021-27. The fund aims to encourage a shift from high-carbon industries that would help coal miners to retrain and find new low-carbon jobs, and support regions whose economies depend on polluting sectors to build new industries. Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 member states agreed on Wednesday that the Just Transition “shall not support the decommissioning or the construction of nuclear power stations” nor “investment related to the production, processing, distribution, storage or combustion of fossil fuels,” according to a document, published on Thursday (25 June). The position is in line with the Commission’s, making it likely that the final Just Transition Fund will exclude nuclear and gas. The proposal will be finalised following negotiations between member states, the Commission and EU Parliament, with the latter typically favouring ambitious climate change policies…….. https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/eu-ministers-exclude-nuclear-fossil-gas-from-green-transition-fund/ |
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US, Russia nuclear arms talks end with plans for second round
US, Russia nuclear arms talks end with plans for second round, Aljazeera, 26 June 20,
US says any new agreement on curbing nuclear weapons should include China, a condition Russia calls ‘unrealistic’. US and Russian negotiators have concluded a round of nuclear arms control talks in Austria’s capital, Vienna, aimed at producing a new agreement to replace the New START treaty that expires next year.
US negotiator Marshall Billingslea told reporters on Tuesday that the day of high-level “marathon discussions” ended late on Monday.
Billingslea said the talks had been productive enough to establish several technical working groups to delve deeper into the issues in order to pave the way for a second round of talks by late July or early August…… https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/coronavirus-deaths-children-extremely-rare-live-updates-200626000914304.html
Russia’s priority is to involve UK, France in future nuclear arms control talks — diplomat
Russia’s priority is to involve UK, France in future nuclear arms control talks — diplomat
The two states are the US closest NATO allies that possess nuclear weapons, the senior diplomat explained, MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. Russia thinks it necessary that the United Kingdom and France join the strategic nuclear arms control process as the United States’ closest NATO allies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman on Friday……. https://tass.com/politics/1172109
Lithuania standing firm against sales of electricity from Belarus’ new nuclear power station
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Lithuania spurns Baltic presidents’ meeting amid nuclear power rift KURESSAARE, Saaremaa, Estonia (Reuters) 25 June 20, – Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda refused to attend a planned meeting with his Estonian and Latvian counterparts on Thursday, saying he did so after the countries failed to agree to ban electricity purchases from a new nuclear power plant in Belarus. Lithuania has a law banning all Belarusian power sales after the power plant gets operational. The Estonian president’s office, which hosted the meeting, said that Nauseda, who is dealing with a reshuffle of his team, “decided to stay home at the last minute due to internal affairs”. Lithuania wants all the three countries to sign up to banning sales of Belarusian electricity after the nuclear plant comes online, binning an earlier draft agreement that only pledged to help keep the energy from being sold in Lithuania……. Lithuania sees the nuclear power plant, built by Russia’s Atomstroyexport near its capital and financed by Moscow with a $10 billion loan, as threat to its safety and national security, something Belarus disagrees with. “The President’s opinion is that negotiations should be finished first,” Nauseda’s spokesman told Reuters in a statement.https://www.reuters.com/article/us-baltics-energy-belarus/lithuania-spurns-baltic-presidents-meeting-amid-nuclear-power-rift-idUSKBN23W27C |
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2,000 Covid-19 Cases in Severodvinsk, city that builds Russia’s nuclear submarines
The City That Builds Russia’s Nuclear Submarines Now Has Over 2,000 Covid-19 Cases, By The Barents Observer, 24 June 20,
Two naval construction yards in a northern Russian city near the site of last year’s mysterious nuclear testing accident have become new hotbeds for the coronavirus.
Severodvinsk is near the Nyonoksa testing site where an August 2019 explosion during a rocket engine test killed five nuclear workers and led to a radiation spike. The building of nuclear subs and other naval vessels continues despite the increasingly serious virus situation.
Approximately 43% of all infections in the Arkhangelsk region are in Severodvinsk, regional authorities recently announced.
That indicates that there now are more than 2,000 cases in the city.
The lion’s share of the people infected are affiliated with Sevmash and Zvezdochka, the two naval yards.
Despite the introduction of protective measures, the virus has continued to spread among the local population of about 180,000.
In the past week alone, more than 320 new cases have been registered in town, most of them among the shipbuilders, a statistics overview said.
Temperature testing is conducted at entry points to the yards as well as on the construction premises, and workers are required to wear masks.
But the mask requirement is not observed, a local employee told the Sever.Realii newspaper in early June. Every worker is given 10 masks every five days along with a liter of antiseptic.
But most workers still do not wear the masks and ignore social distancing rules, the worker said.
There are about 30,000 employees at the Sevmash and about 11,000 workers at the Zvezdochka.
While the Zvezdochka engages primarily in vessel repair and upgrades, the Sevmash builds nuclear submarines. At the moment, there are at least eight new vessels under construction onsite, among them four Borey-class and four Yasen-class subs. AT TOP https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/06/24/the-city-that-builds-russias-nuclear-submarines-now-has-over-2000-covid-19-cases-a70681
How we can manage the intermittency of renewables and attain 100% renewables
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Yes. In fact, many ways are possible, including
Interestingly, in June 2020, several large power companies, including Centrica and E.ON, sent an open letter calling on National Grid to accelerate the deployment of smart electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, energy storage and other flexibility services in order to manage the Grid more rationally. The utilities’ letter stated that a number of options existed to reduce its current reliance on curtailing renewables, from long-duration storage to industrial-scale demand response. They stated that EVs, smart electric heaters and home solar batteries “could all be providing services at this time if the right signals and instructions were being administered”. They added “flexible technologies and storage assets will be needed to integrate a higher level of renewable generation into the system to produce carbon savings. Harnessing the potential of these technologies is critical to ensuring green energy supply isn’t unnecessarily wasted”. https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/smart-flexibility-could-slash-uk-coronavirus-curtailment-costs Indeed, throughout the UK,local authorities and local companies are in fact steaming ahead with their own initiatives. See box below. In addition, the recent UK pressure group, 100percentrenewableuk, was also set up to press for these developments. www.100percentrenewableuk.org Some examples of innovative flexible RE technologies Continue reading |
UK’s expensive problem of nuclear power’s inflexibility
Because of the inflexibility of the AGRs, RE suppliers are shut off first. This is explained in a recent report by the newly-formed pressure group, 100 percentrenewable uk, which explains that the inflexible nature of nuclear power is instrumental in forcing the National Grid to turn off large amounts of wind power (ie in the jargon to be ‘constrained’) in Scotland when there is too much electricity on the network.
This appears nonsensical as the Grid is turning off cheap renewables to preserve expensive nuclear, and then paying large compensation payments to them to do so.
UK Electricity: Renewables and the problem with inflexible nuclear, Ian Fairlea, June 21, 2020
In recent years, the share of the UK’s electricity supplied by renewable energy (RE) sources has increased substantially to the point that RE is now the second largest source after gas: It now supplies 20% to 25% of our electrical needs. This is greater than the amount supplied by nuclear – about 15% to 18%. Coal, hydroelectric, and mainly gas (~40%) constitute the other sources. See chart [on original] for Britain’s electrical power supplies in 2019.
Why are AGR reactors inflexible? Continue reading
Nuclear waste from Germany to Russia
A shipment of 600 tonnes of depleted uranium has left a nuclear fuel plant in Germany bound for Russia, a Russian environmentalist group says.
Twelve rail cars left the Urenco plant in the town of Gronau, close to the Dutch border, on Monday 22 June, according to the Ecodefense group.
The waste will reportedly be moved by sea and rail to a plant in the Urals.
Urenco told the BBC its uranium would be further enriched in Russia and the process met environmental standards.
Russia’s state atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, insisted it was “inaccurate and misleading” to refer to the depleted uranium as waste.
But environmental activists have long been concerned that Russia may become a “dumping ground” for radioactive material from power plants.
Greenpeace protested last year after German media reports that Urenco had resumed shipping depleted uranium from Germany to Russia after a gap of 10 years. Russia had halted the practice in 2009 under pressure from environmentalists.
On Monday activists in Germany posted video on social media of what appeared to be the train en route from Gronau, as well as photos of anti-nuclear protesters.
Why is the shipment being sent to Russia?
According to the report (in Russian) by Ecodefense, some of it will be shipped by sea to Russia via the port of Amsterdam.
It will, the group says, eventually arrive at the Ural Electrochemical Combine in Novouralsk, 3,400km (2,500 miles) away in Russia’s Ural Mountains.
The group believes that nearly 3,000 tonnes of depleted uranium have already been shipped from Germany to Russia this year.
The Urenco spokesperson contacted by the BBC said they could not give details of shipments for “safety and security reasons”.
But Urenco did confirm that it had a contract with a firm called Tradewill, a subsidiary of Tenex which is the overseas trade company of Rosatom.
Under the contract, it said, depleted uranium “tails” are sent to Russia for further processing. The enriched uranium product then returns to Urenco while the “depleted fraction” remains with Tenex.
“This is common and legal practice,” Urenco says. “We also retain depleted uranium at Urenco in Europe.”
Urenco, which is a partnership between German, British and Dutch companies, said its representatives had inspected the facilities involved in the process and had found that they complied with “all internationally recognised logistics standards, which includes handling, storage, safeguarding and processing of nuclear material, as well as appropriate environmental standards”.
Why are environmentalists so concerned?
One of the big questions is how much of the waste is eventually returned to Germany, with activists arguing that most of it stays in Russia.
There are also fears of toxic pollution in the event of any spill.
On 15 June, a petition to stop the shipments was sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was signed by environmental groups and activists from Russia, Germany and the Netherlands.
The petition calls for an end to the “colonial policy of moving hazardous cargoes from Europe to Russia’s Siberian and Ural regions”.
It argues that Germany has the technology to deal with its own nuclear waste and ends with the words: “Russia is not a dumping ground!”
Greenpeace argued last year that Russia lacked a plan to utilise depleted uranium on a large scale. Continue reading
Record breaking heat in Verkhoyansk, north of the Arctic Circle
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A Siberian town near the Arctic Circle just recorded a 100-degree temperature https://www.vox.com/2020/6/21/21298292/siberia-temperature-100-climate-change
One of the coldest towns on Earth clocks a potentially record-breaking — and worrying — temperature. By Zeeshan Aleem@ZeeshanAleem Jun 21, 2020,A small town in Siberia reached a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, which, if verified, would mark the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle. Temperatures have jumped in recent months to levels rarely seen in the Russian region, and it’s a sign of a broader trend of human-caused climate change that’s transforming weather patterns in the Arctic Circle. The town of Verkhoyansk is one of the coldest towns on Earth — temperatures dropped to nearly 60 degrees below zero there this past November — and the average June high temperature is 68 degrees. The 100.4 reading in Verkhoyansk, which sits farther north than Fairbanks, Alaska, would be the northernmost 100-degree reading ever observed. The Washington Post reports that while there are questions about the accuracy of the record temperature, a Saturday weather balloon launch that found unusually high temperatures in the lower atmosphere supports the reading. And on Sunday, the town reached 95.3 degrees, according to the Post. CBS News meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli wrote on Saturday that 100-degree temperatures in or near the Arctic are “almost unheard of.” Before Saturday, Siberia was already experiencing an extraordinary heat wave. Surface temperatures in Siberia were 18 degrees higher than average in May, making it the hottest May in the region since record-keeping began in 1979, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. “It is undoubtedly an alarming sign, but not only May was unusually warm in this region,” said Freja Vamborg, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service, in a statement about the finding. “The whole of winter and spring had repeated periods of higher-than-average surface air temperatures.” Climate scientist Martin Stendel said on Twitter that the temperatures recorded in northwestern Siberia last month would be a 1-in-100,000-year event — if not for climate change. Berardelli said the average heat across Russia between January and May actually matches what current models project to be normal for the region in 2100, if carbon emissions continue. “Due to heat trapping greenhouse gases that result from the burning of fossil fuels and feedback loops, the Arctic is warming at more than two times the average rate of the globe,” he explained in his analysis of the Verkhoyansk reading. “This phenomenon is known as Arctic Amplification, which is leading to the decline of sea ice, and in some cases snow cover, due to rapidly warming temperatures.” He noted that if the climate continues to heat up, extreme heat waves will become more of the norm. |
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Anti-nuclear resistance in Russia: problems protests, reprisals
Mayak victims’ organizer, Nadezhda Kutepova, a Nuclear-Free Future Award winner, was eventually forced to flee the country. (Photo: ©Orla Connolly)
Standing up to Rosatom
https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2020/06/21/standing-up-to-rosatom/ June 21, 2020 by beyondnuclearinternational
Anti-nuclear resistance in Russia: problems protests, reprisals
The following is a report from the Russian Social Ecological Union (RSEU)/ Friends of the Earth Russia, slightly edited for length. You can read the report in full here. It is a vitally important document exposing the discrimination and fear tactics used against anti-nuclear organizers in Russia and details their courageous acts of defiance in order to bring the truth of Russia’s nuclear sector to light.
Rosatom is a Russian state-owned corporation which builds and operates nuclear power plants in Russia and globally. The state-run nuclear industry in Russia has a long history of nuclear crises, including the Kyshtym disaster in 1957 and Chernobyl in 1986. Yet Rosatom plans to build dozens of nuclear reactors in Russia, to export its deadly nuclear technologies to other countries, and then to import their hazardous nuclear waste.
This report is a collection of events and details about the resistance to Russian state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, and other activities that have led to the pollution of the environment and violation of human rights. Social and environmental conflicts created by Rosatom have been left unresolved for years, while at the same time, environmental defenders who have raised these issues, have consistently experienced reprisals.
Nuclear energy: failures and Lies
Bradwell nuclear project “unsustainable, unsuitable and unacceptable” – and not a done deal
Clacton Gazette 20th June 2020, CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for a new nuclear power station at Bradwell are calling for the proposals to be scrapped. Opposition group Banng – Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group – has prepared a 13,000-word response to the stage one public consultation.a joint operation between CGN and EDF Energy. Banng chairman Andy Blowers said: “This is not a done deal as CGN would have us believe. A new nuclear power station is not needed, and especially it is not needed at this site.”
EDF’s failing nuclear reactors in UK
- NuclearNews No 126 20 June 20,Hinkley’s sister reactors at Hunterston B (all 4 reactors have operated since 1976) have both been closed for much of the past two years. Reactor 3 has been offline for more than two years, since March 2018. Reactor 4 was first shutdown on 2nd October 2018 but was allowed a trial operation between August 2019 and 10th December 2019. The safety case for restarting Reactor 3 was finally been submitted to the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for its assessment in mid-May and for Reactor 4 on 29th May. EDF now says it is hoping that Reactor 3 can restart on 13th July 2020 and Reactor 4 on 27 July 2020.
EDF may be hoping to restart the two reactors in July but there are increasing concerns regarding revelations the graphite cores have begun to crumble as cracks spread. At least 58 fragments and pieces of debris have broken off the graphite bricks that make up the reactor cores. According to the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) there is “significant uncertainty” about the risks of debris blocking channels for cooling the reactor and causing fuel cladding to melt. Such a disaster could result in a radiation leak and contamination right across the central belt of Scotland. Small wonder then that many local residents are pressing ONR to refuse EDF permission to restart these decrepit 44-year old reactors. (3)
EDF says it has spent more than £200 million on tests, inspections and creating quarter-scale models of the reactor cores that are shaken to mimic a quake to try to prove that the graphite is safe. EDF hopes the new safety cases will be approved in July to allow for six months of operation. That may pave the way for approval for Hinkley Point B with “pretty much the same safety case”.
£200 million may seem like a lot of money, but it’s only about one reactor’s income for one year, so if it helps EDF keep its fourteen AGRs generating for longer it will have been well worth it for the Company.
But, like Hinkley Point B, the two Hunterston reactors are due to shut for good in 2023. EDF chose not to enter the two Hunterston B reactors into the capacity market auction for the period October 2022 to September 2023. Although Hinkley Point B entered into the auction “it exited above the clearing price and therefore did not get an agreement. The revenues at the clearing price did not provide sufficient reward to take on the risk of penalties arising from non-delivery” (4) – probably indicating a lack of confidence at EDF that any of the 4 reactors will make it as far as September 2023.
Another signal that minds at EDF are switching from generation to decommissioning is the fact that the generator has announced plans to submit scoping requests to North Ayrshire Council ahead of planning applications for waste facilities to support future decommissioning activities.
As part of the preparations for decommissioning, EDF is planning to build a new intermediate level waste (ILW) store and two waste processing facilities on the B site with applications for planning permission submitted by early 2021, following a period of consultation with a range of stakeholders.
A final decision has still to be taken on the best route for storage of ILW from Hunterston B and EDF is still looking at a range of options including the shared use of the Hunterston A ILW store. But to ensure the site can move into de-fuelling with no unnecessary downtime, applications are being lodged now to speed up the process should EDF decide to build a new store.
Discussions are also reported to be underway between BEIS, EDF Energy and the NDA, to examine the future decommissioning of the AGR fleet when it is time for the reactors to come off line. As yet no decisions have been made, and those discussions continue.
But it’s not just Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B which are causing sleepless nights for EDF. As Emily Gosden, writing in The Times, points out, all of “the AGRs are scheduled to close permanently between 2023 and 2030, but all also have graphite cores that bring their lifespans into doubt.”
- All the AGRs will eventually exhibit some form of cracking towards the end of life says Richard Bradfield, chief technical officer for generation at EDF Energy: “There are two irreplaceable components on an advanced gas-cooled reactor: the graphite and the boilers.”
- Hartlepool and Heysham 1 Hartlepool and Heysham 1 are both due to shut-down in 2024. Although they were entered into the capacity market auction for October 2023 to September 2024 and EDF says “we are confident they will operate to their scheduled closure date of 2024, they exited above the clearing price and therefore did not secure agreements. The revenues at the clearing price did not provide sufficient reward to take on the risk of penalties arising from non-delivery.” (5)
Heysham 1 Power Station was recently served with an improvement notice by the Office for Nuclear Regulation after contravening safety regulations regarding the pressure systems of their nuclear reactor. The notice was served on June 4 after shortfalls were discovered in the examination and inspection of the Reactor 1 pressure vessel. Nuclear reactor pressure vessels feature hundreds of sealed penetrations which must be routinely inspected to ensure they are free from defects. Out of the 600 penetrations in one of the reactors ONR found that EDF Energy had failed to examine 11 penetrations within the intervals specified in the written maintenance scheme. EDF must comply with the improvement notice served to them by the ONR and complete the 11 overdue examinations by December 18, 2020. (6)
Dungeness B On 27 August 2018 Dungeness B shut down Reactor 22 for its planned statutory outage. On 23 September 2018 Reactor 21 was also shut down for the planned double reactor outage. Both reactors have been shut since. The regular inspections on the reactors in Kent in late summer 2018 identified the need for repairs on steam pipes. The inspections showed that seismic restraints, pipework and storage vessels associated with several systems providing a safety function were found to be “corroded to an unacceptable condition” according to ONR. (7) Measures are being taken to eliminate the corrosion, including the upgrading of more than 300m of pipeline associated with reactor cooling systems and renewal of numerous seismic pipework supports and remediation of carbon dioxide storage vessels. On 26th February 2020 EDF Energy announced further extended outages at the two reactors The Dungeness B21 reactor was due to come back online on April 20 but the outage was extended to July 18. The Dungeness B22 unit was previously due back online on May 2 but that was extended to July 8. The dates given now are 21st September and 11th September. (8)
- The boiler design at Dungeness was “very different” to the other AGRs and probably would be the life-limiting factor for the plant. However, EDF says the issues are “manageable” and that the company aimed to present a safety case shortly to seek to restart in September. (9)
- Torness and Heysham 2 The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) published its Project Assessment Report which allows Torness and Heysham 2 to continue operating for the period 2020 – 2030. (10) The Ferret website reported that cracks in the graphite core are now expected to start appearing six years sooner than previously thought (11)
- ONR said that the cracking could cause debris to inhibit vital cooling of highly radioactive reactor fuel beginning as soon as 2022 rather than 2028. It said Torness and Heysham 2 will be able to keep operating until 2030 – but only if inspections to check for cracks are intensified. ONR promises to “robustly challenge” the plant’s operators, EDF Energy, to ensure that it “remains safe”.
- Campaigners fear that Torness will become increasingly unsafe, and warn it may have to close down sooner than expected. EDF, however, insists that the station will keep generating electricity safely until 2030. NFLA has called on ONR to keep Torness under close scrutiny. “These safety reservations surrounding the Torness periodic safety review need to be cleared up as soon as possible,” said the group’s Scotland convenor, SNP Glasgow councillor, Feargal Dalton. “Whilst EDF is having to spend large resources trying to persuade the regulator that it is safe to restart the Hunterston B reactors, this report emphasises that similar issues with ageing are likely to arise at Torness over coming years.” Councils would press ONR “to forensically scrutinise what look like significant weaknesses in the EDF safety case,” Dalton added. “In the meantime, the Scottish Government should start discussions about a ‘just transition’ for the workers at both Hunterston and Torness so that Scotland can move to a safe, sustainable and nonnuclear economy as quickly as possible.”
ONR made nine recommendations to remedy major “safety shortfalls” at Torness and Heysham 2 and raised 41 minor matters with EDF. These include “weaknesses” in health reviews, as well as issues with “structural integrity”, “corrosion management” and “cyber security”.
Although no cracks have yet been detected, ONR inspectors pointed out there was a significant difference in the design of Torness and Heysham 2 compared to that of Hunterston. The newer stations have seal rings between the graphite bricks that make up the reactor core. ONR quoted EDF saying that there could be “a systematic failure” of the seal rings after cracking. “This could lead to debris with the potential to challenge the ability to move or adequately cool fuel,” said ONR. “If keyway root cracking predictions are realised, then the safety case is unlikely to remain robust for the next ten years periodic safety review period,” observed ONR inspectors.
It could, in fact, be cheaper to build new renewable capacity rather than continue to operate these ageing reactors. This could soon be the case with Torness, especially if it has to keep being turned on and off to inspect the graphite core. Scotland clearly needs to be prepared for the possibility that Torness might be forced to close not long after 2022.
- Flexible Return Dates
- Paul Brown asked EDF “At what point do you cut your losses and close the stations permanently?” but failed to get a sensible reply. On Dungeness B it said: “For the past two years we have undertaken a major investment programme at Dungeness to secure the station’s longer-term future. Since the start of the year we have made great progress in tackling some of the complex problems our works identified. However we still have further engineering works to complete, and a detailed safety case to finalise, before we ask for restart approval from our regulator. Our present position for estimated return to service is 11 September for Reactor 22 and 21 September for Reactor 21.”
Stephen Thomas, professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich, commented on the constantly postponed start-up dates for the ageing reactors: “It is clear, given that shutdowns expected to take two months are now expected to take two years or more, that EDF has found huge unanticipated problems”, he said. “It is hard to understand why, when the scale of the problems became clear, EDF did not cut its losses and close the reactors, but continues to pour money into plants to get a couple more years of operation out of plants highly likely to be loss-makers. It is depressing that ONR, which has a duty to keep the public informed on such important issues, chooses to hide behind bland statements such as that it will take as long as it takes, and that it will not comment on EDF’s decisions.” (12)
Europe’s effort to save Iran nuclear deal
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Europe scrambles to save Iran nuclear deal as Trump insists key part of accord is scrapped
US president’s administration announces it has drafted extension to arms embargo on Tehran, Independent UK, Kim Sengupta, Defence Editor, 19 June 20, Western European diplomats are working on how to save the Iran nuclear accord in a day of important developments on the issue which saw Tehran censured by the UN nuclear watchdog, and the US reiterate its demand that a key part of the deal is scrapped. Foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany – three signatory states to the agreement – met in Berlin to formulate a strategy for the next crucial months with Iran and its nuclear programme under focus. At a meeting in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) called on Iran to stop blocking its inspectors from two sites and the Trump administration announced that it has drafted an extension to an arms embargo on Iran which is due to be lifted in a few months time.
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23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
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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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