Further outages at UK’s Dungeness nuclear power plant: its future in doubt
Nasdaq 28th May 2021, EDF Energy has extended outages at the two nuclear reactors at its
Dungeness B nuclear power plant in Britain to next year, company data
showed. The Dungeness B-21 reactor is expected to restart on June 6, 2022
instead of Aug. 2 this year and the Dungeness B-22 reactor is expected to
restart on May 27, 2022 instead of July 23 this year. The reactors have
been offline since 2018. The company previously said Dungeness B has a
number of unique, significant and ongoing technical challenges that
continue to make the future both difficult and uncertain.
EDF’s report on silo collapse at Hinkley Point C nuclear construction raises more questions than answers
Stop Hinkley 24th May 2021, EDF Energy has published its report on the Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag (GGBS) silo collapse which took place on the Hinkley Point C construction site on 10th June last year. The report’s headline conclusion on the sudden silo collapse – that it was caused by the overloading of a bolted joint due to inadequate design, raises more questions than it answers.
New study into mental health of atomic bomb test veterans
Eastern Daily Press 22nd May 2021, A nuclear test veteran blamed himself for the birth defects which he
believed he passed on to members of his family, his daughter has revealed.
Suzanna Ward spoke as a new study was launched into the mental health of
the children, wives and widows of nuclear veterans. Around 22,000 British
servicemen witnessed nuclear tests on mainland Australia, the Montebello
Islands off Western Australia and Christmas Island in the South Pacific,
during the 1950s and 1960s.
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/new-study-into-mental-health-of-nuclear-veterans-7991116
Dalgety Bay – 20,000 tonnes of radioactive material from the area to screen, – clean-up begins at last.
Scotsman 23rd May 2021, 30 years on, Scotland’s radioactive beach clean-up begins at last. It’s not a scene which might usually be welcome, but locals in the Fife town of Dalgety Bay have been waiting decades for this – ever since highly dangerous radioactive material was detected on the shoreline more than 30 years ago. Contamination was first identified there in 1990, but the source – luminous paint used on aircraft navigation dials – dates back to theSecond World War.
The area was once home to Donibristle military airfield,
where a large number of planes were dismantled after the end of the
conflict in 1945 and the debris burned and buried. Part of the foreshore at
Dalgety Bay has been off limits to the public since 2011 due to the health
risks posed by radioactive debris.
Radium was used to coat instrument
panels so they could be seen in the dark, but it is radioactive and toxic
to human health, with a half life of 1,600 years. Work to clean up
potentially deadly radioactive contamination has got under way at Dalgety
Bay in Fife, caused by debris from aircraft used during the Second World
War.
David Barratt, Fife councillor for Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay, has
welcomed the work finally getting started. He said: “It has taken over 30
years and significant pressure from the community to get to this point.
“I’m delighted that works are now under way and grateful to Sepa for
all their effort in ensuring it will be done right, providing a permanent
solution.
“It should send a clear message that it doesn’t matter how much
time passes, the polluter should always pay. “Time will tell if its
smooth sailing from here and whether a 2022 completion date is possible.
They have around 20,000 tonnes of material from the area to screen and the
more contamination they find, the longer it will take, but at least now we
know it will be safe, however long it takes.”
Anxieties on the impact of pandemic on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project, -major delays could result
Telegraph 23rd May 2021, EDF has warned that the coronavirus pandemic could cause major delays to its £23bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant. Talks are continuing between the French state-owned power business and British officials about potential hold-ups caused by the Covid crisis. Hinkley’s start date has already been pushed back to June 2026 due to a six-month delay caused by the pandemic. It was originally due to come online in 2025 when it was given the go-ahead in 2016. EDF first raised concerns over the possible delays at the start of the pandemic with the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC), the government-owned company that acts as counterparty on clean energy subsidy contracts. Under its subsidy contract, Hinkley Point C is guaranteed £92.50 per MwH for 35 years. The Somerset site – eing built by EDF and its Chinese partner CGN – will become the UK’s first nuclear power plant in decades. However, the length of this 35-year term will be cut if Hinkley is not generating by May 2029 – reducing the guaranteed income for EDF. It can be cancelled altogether if the plant is not operational by October 2033. EDF said it has not applied to the LCCC for a specific extension to those deadlines, but that on principle it may be entitled to an extension because Covid is a “force majeure” event – an unforeseen event that affects a company’s ability to deliver on its contract. It stressed that the June 2026 schedule for Hinkley Point C to start generating, which was announced in January, remains unchanged and the project is making good progress. “We anticipate that it may take some time to establish the true impact of Covid-19 on complex construction projects such as Hinkley Point, as it is still unknown when Covid-19 restrictions will cease.” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/05/23/edf-warns-delays-hinkley-due-pandemic/ |
“You can forget about the protection of area of outstanding natural beauty because if Sizewell C nuclear goes ahead nowhere is safe”
Sizewell C: Bill Turnbull says nuclear plant will cause ‘devastation’ Presenter Bill Turnbull has told a Planning Inspectorate hearing the Sizewell C nuclear power station would cause “awful devastation”. BBC , 21 May 21,
The former BBC Breakfast anchor was speaking on the last day of a four-day public hearing into the proposed plant on the Suffolk coast.
He said he was speaking on behalf of “those who have no voice – the rare and abundant wildlife around Sizewell”.
Turnbull, who is now a presenter on Classic FM, spoke in the final session of the hearing, saying it was “in sorrow, because [Sizewell C] will be awful devastation”.
He said he lived about two and a half miles away from the proposed power plant, where “the wildlife is extraordinary”.
He expressed concern over the impact on local birds including nightingales, cuckoos and owls and called the proposed link road to the plant a “highway of destruction”.
Turnbull questioned building the plant next to RSPB Minsmere, asking the Planning Inspectorate “has the world gone that mad?”.
The 65 year old asked if the power plant was approved, “what message would it send?”
“You can forget about the protection of area of outstanding natural beauty because if Sizewell C goes ahead nowhere is safe,” he said.
The Planning Inspectorate also heard from actress Diana Quick, who said she had “became convinced nuclear was a dubious option” for energy generation.
Quick, who received a Bafta nomination for her role in Brideshead Revisited, said she was “very concerned about the pollution, from many sources, such as light, dust, and traffic fumes”.
She also said her home village, Theberton, had been flooded “with mud and water” and this could increase with the building of the power plant.
William Kendall, a farmer, food and drink entrepreneur and chairman of soft drinks manufacturer Cawston Press, also spoke at the hearing.
He said as a “lifelong environmentalist” he used to support Sizewell C, but subsequently saw “several neighbours and friends upset” by the plans.
Mr Kendall, who is also president of Suffolk Wildlife Trust, said he now believed there was an “overwhelming case against” the plant.
He said it would “leave our local tourism industry millions of pounds worse off”.
Mr Kendall said he had also spoken to politicians who were against Sizewell C, saying: “If you turn down this application no tears will be shed here or in Whitehall.”………..
A decision on the power plant is not expected until later this year. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-57202548
Sizewell nuclear project will harm Suffolk’s tourism industry
East Anglian Daily Times 20th May 2021, The construction of large-scale energy projects on the coast is of
“significant concern” to Suffolk’s tourism industry, a Planning
Inspectorate hearing on Sizewell C has heard. EDF Energy’s proposals to
build a £20billion nuclear power station are being discussed in a four-day
public hearing.
Katherine Mackie, chairman of the Aldeburgh Society, told
the hearing on Thursday a study had revealed that more than four million
tourists visit the area every year, bringing in more than £160million to
the economy. That number rose to £228m for the wider Suffolk Coast and
Heaths area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) in 2019 with around 5,000
jobs supported, she added.
Mrs Mackie said the figures would be
“significantly impacted due to the loss of defined AONB characteristics”.
She also cited research by the Suffolk Coast Destination Management
Organisation, which found that construction of the Sizewell C project – as
well as ScottishPower’s proposed windfarm off the Suffolk coast – could
reduce visitor numbers by 17%.
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/sizewell-c-edf-planning-inspectorate-public-hearing-7988408
Boris Johnson’s plan for more nuclear weapons in Scotland ‘breaks international law’
Boris Johnson’s plan for more nuclear weapons in Scotland ‘breaks international law’,The National, By Gregor Young 19 May, 21 BORIS Johnson’s plan to increase the UK’s stockpile of nuclear warheads would breach international law, experts have warned.
The Tory government announced in March that it wants to raise the legal limit on the number of the weapons of mass destruction, which would be available to its submarine fleet at Faslane. Currently, the cap is set at 180, but the new defence review revised that up to 260.
Downing Street will also send more troops abroad “more often and for longer” as part of the £24 billion hike in defence spending.
Scotland’s Justice Secretary previously described the proposals as “utterly unacceptable”, while Washington think tank, the Arms Control Association (ACA), said they were inconsistent with the UK Government’s prior pledges under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
That conclusion has now been backed by two academics at the London School of Economics who were commissioned to examine Johnson’s pledge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the Record has reported.
Led by Professor Christine Chinkin, a long-time consultant for the UN, and Dr Louise Arimatsu, a former fellow at the NATO Cyber Defense Centre, the legal report finds the increase constitutes a breach of article six of the NPT treaty.
CND general secretary Kate Hudson told the Record: “The increase in the UK’s nuclear arsenal has been exposed to intense criticism nationally and internationally, including from the United Nations. Thanks to the work of highly respected academic experts, we now know it is illegal under international law.
“Everything points to the decision costing tens of billions of pounds. During this pandemic, there are other urgent uses for public money.
“The decision breaks with the gradual nuclear reductions implemented by successive governments going back nearly 30 years and is at odds with the decision by Presidents Biden and Putin to continue bilateral nuclear reductions.”……………https://www.thenational.scot/news/19309984.boris-johnsons-plan-nuclear-weapons-scotland-breaks-international-law/
How many nuclear weapons does Britain have? Non-Proliferation explained
How many nuclear weapons does Britain have? Non-Proliferation explained https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1437927/How-many-nuclear-weapons-does-Britain-have-non-proliferation-ev
BORIS JOHNSON has been accused of infringing international laws with his plans for British nuclear proliferation. How many nuclear weapons does Britain have?, By LIAM DOYLE May 18, 2021
The current crop of roughly 195 warheads sits in an ocean-based fleet of Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines.
They operate on a continuous patrol to preserve the UK’s deterrence policy from the sea.
Britain has previously committed to non-proliferation and intended to limit its stockpile.
Mr Johnson’s predecessors outlined these intentions in the 1968 Treaty on Non-Proliferation and the Strategic Defence and Security Review.
The latter policy, brought forward by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, aimed to reduce national stockpiles by 65 percent during the 2020s.
The Government’s 2021 Integrated Review found it could no longer commit to this policy.
The Prime Minister intends to push the UK’s stockpile up by 40 percent to “no more than 260 warheads”.
The review cites the current “security environment” as its primary reason for proliferation.
And this is where the earlier 1968 treaty comes into play.
Nuclear and non-nuclear powers alike signed the Treaty on Non-Proliferation as a collaborative pledge to limit nuclear technologies.
The treaty attracted the UK, US, the then Soviet Union and a further 59 other signatories.
The ratified document prevents non-nuclear states from acquiring weapons, commits nuclear states to push for disarmament, and allowed all participants to access technology for peaceful purposes.
Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project, said the Government’s latest pursuit would break parameters set by the treaty.
He cited Article 6, which commits signatories to step-by-step disarmament, specifically.
Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), added the “dangerous” decision “violates international law”.
She added: “While the majority of the world’s nations are leading the way to a safer future without nuclear weapons by joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the United Kingdom is pushing for a dangerous new nuclear arms race.”
New study on children, wives and widows of UK nuclear test veterans
Kent Online 18th May 2021, The children, wives and widows of nuclear test veterans in Kent are being
urged to sign up for a ground-breaking study. During the 1950s and 1960s,
around 22,000 British Servicemen – many of them called up for National
Service – witnessed nuclear tests on mainland Australia, the Montebello
Islands off Western Australia and Christmas Island in the South Pacific.
Rolls Royce plans fleets of small nuclear reactors. At approx £2billion per reactor (that’s approx $2.8billion) how much will each fleet cost?
Rolls-Royce expects the first five reactors to cost £2.2bn each, falling to £1.8bn for subsequent units.
SMRs could not achieve economies of scale unless developers secured a large number of orders. “How are you going to get orders for 16 of an unproven reactor type and if you don’t have orders for 16 how are you going to build a factory?”
Rolls-Royce courts investors for mini nuclear plants, Consortium led by engine group seeks £300m in funding as it prepares application for small modular reactors, Nathalie Thomas in Edinburgh and Sylvia Pfeifer in London Ft.com, 17 May 21,
A consortium led by Rolls-Royce that is hoping to build a fleet of mini nuclear power stations across Britain is talking to investors to secure £300m in funding as it prepares to submit its design to regulators later this year. The consortium, which also includes Jacobs and Laing O’Rourke, hopes to be the first “small modular reactor” developer to put its design through the UK’s rigorous nuclear regulatory assessment. The process is expected to take up to four years but would keep the companies on track to complete their first 470MW plant by the early 2030s, which would be capable of generating enough low-carbon electricity for about 1m homes.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson backed SMRs as part of his 10-point plan for a “green industrial revolution” last year. The technology is viewed within the government as a good way to create manufacturing jobs as well as delivering on Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda. Rolls-Royce believes at least 16 SMRs could be installed at existing and former nuclear sites in Britain and more could potentially be built at locations such as former coal mines. It estimates the programme could create as many as 40,000 jobs in the UK regions by 2050.
Environmental groups say the technology is unproved and point out that nuclear energy leaves behind a legacy of waste, the most toxic of which takes at least 100,000 years to decay The prime minister has promised £215m in public funds, which the consortium hopes will help it secure the £300m in private match funding needed for the project to progress.
Rolls-Royce, which has been working on SMRs since 2015, expects the first five reactors to cost £2.2bn each, falling to £1.8bn for subsequent units.
It has argued that its design, which uses pressurised water reactors similar to existing nuclear power stations and boasts an increased generation capacity from 440MW previously, is more commercially viable and lower-risk than rival plans. The company has also claimed it could compete with renewable technologies such as offshore wind. Tom Samson, chief executive of the Rolls-Royce-led consortium, said “the way we manufacture and assemble our power station brings down its cost to be comparable with offshore wind at around £50/MWh”.
But Tom Burke, chair of climate change think-tank E3G, argued that SMRs could not achieve economies of scale unless developers secured a large number of orders. “How are you going to get orders for 16 of an unproven reactor type and if you don’t have orders for 16 how are you going to build a factory?” If sufficient private funding is secured, the consortium intends to set up a special purpose vehicle this summer in which Rolls-Royce is expected to retain a significant interest. The programme could give Rolls-Royce an important new revenue stream as it looks to reduce its exposure to the commercial aerospace sector, which has been severely dented by the coronavirus pandemic.https://www.ft.com/content/11ba5955-2f75-4eb5-b3e9-73f74684eb10
Weatherwatch: does nuclear power really keep the lights on?
Weatherwatch: does nuclear power really keep the lights on? With nuclear fading away, Britain must learn how to carefully manage renewable energy https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/may/15/weatherwatch-does-nuclear-power-really-keep-the-lights-on, Paul BrownSat 15 May 2021 1
The nuclear industry is fond of telling us the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow, as if people living in Britain did not already know that. But the point atomic enthusiasts are making is that wind and solar electricity generation is not reliable, while nuclear will keep the lights on.
But things are a bit more complicated than that. This is partly because large-scale batteries, pump storage in reservoirs and other ways of topping up electricity supplies mean that baseload power provided by nuclear reactors is no longer needed. Another reason is that nuclear output is falling while renewables get ever stronger.
Output of electricity over a year is measured in terawatt hours (TWh). In 2020, generation from nuclear was 50.3TWh, down 11% from 2019, partly because of cracks and rust in ageing reactors. Renewable output reached a record high of 120.3TWh.
Significantly, 2020 nuclear generation was 13TWh less than in 1989, when nuclear provided 20% of the nation’s electricity, and wind and solar contributions were hardly measurable.
Even with the massive station Hinkley Point C being built in Somerset, nuclear power is fading away. To keep the lights on we will have to increasingly learn to carefully manage the power produced by our unreliable weather.
OVER 440 safety incidents have been recorded at Scotland’s nuclear bases over the last three years,
The National 16th May 2021, Faslane and Coulport** OVER 440 safety incidents have been recorded at Scotland’s nuclear bases over the last three years, with events becoming increasingly more frequent.
More than 80% of the incidents occurred at HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane,
where most of the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet is located. A number of
safety incidents were also recorded at the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at
Coulport, home to the nuclear warheads. SNP MP Deirdre Brock, who obtained
the figures, told The Scotsman: “This is an appalling safety record and
it just should not be tolerated. Scotland has an arsenal of weapons of mass
destruction sitting just a few miles from our biggest city.
Both Germany and Britain are decarbonising while nuclear production is greatly reducing
Nuclear Phase-Out – UK & Germany**
Even-handed analysis of data from Germany and the UK indicates that it is
still easily possible to dramatically reduce carbon emissions whilst
greatly reducing the amount of energy coming from nuclear power.
One thing not usually appreciated in the arguments about the impact of nuclear power
plant retirements in Germany is that in reality much the same process has
occurred, for different reasons, in the UK.
In both Germany and the UK the
falling proportion of electricity coming from nuclear power has gone along
with dramatic reductions in carbon emissions from electricity in both
countries.
Peering through the fog of the current debate one would almost
think that ‘pro-nuclear’ UK was busy cutting its carbon emissions by
increasing nuclear output whilst ‘anti-nuclear’ Germany was busy
increasing them, or at least not reducing them, by its phase-out policy.
Yet nothing of the sort has been happening. Both the cases of Germany and
the UK knock the pro-nuclear arguments on the head that say that increases
in renewable energy cannot reduce carbon emissions without maintaining
nuclear production. Clearly they can!
100% Renewables 16th May 2021
EDF’s Sizewell B nuclear station: steel components wearing out. EDf to close Hinkley Point B in Somerset and Hunterston B in Scotland early.
Times 17th May 2021, Steel components in the heart of Britain’s most modern nuclear power
station are wearing out more quickly than expected, forcing EDF to carry
out lengthy unscheduled repairs.
The French energy giant is having to keep
Sizewell B in Suffolk offline for three months longer than planned to deal
with the safety issues. …
EDF said it had found wear to some of Sizewell’s stainless steel “thermal sleeves”, which form part of
the mechanisms that insert control rods into the reactor core to shut it
down. Experience at a reactor in France has shown that extreme wear could
eventually result in parts of the thermal sleeves coming loose and
obstructing the control rods. EDF is assessing the cause and extent of the
wear at Sizewell and how many components need to be replaced before it
seeks permission to restart the plant. It insisted the damage was
“nowhere near” the stage where it would prevent control rods
functioning, and that in any event the reactor could still be shut down
safely.
EDF has said it will close Hinkley Point B in Somerset and
Hunterston B in Scotland permanently by next year, earlier than planned,
because of cracks in their graphite cores. It is also considering closing
Dungeness B in Kent as soon as this year. The plant was not scheduled to
close until 2028 but has been offline since 2018 because of corrosion.
1 This Month
23 April – WEBINAR – Why new nuclear reactors are the wrong tools for decarbonization Thursday, April 23 • 1 AM – 2 AM AEST
World Nuclear Power. Reactors 1951-2026, 75 Years of Nuclear Power.
Interactive Map– https://dv.worldnuclearreport.org/
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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