nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Failure to deal with Trident concerns ‘puts Scots lives at risk’

FAILING to address acute concerns about the state of Trident nuclear
submarines is putting Scottish lives “at risk” and shows Westminster’s
“blatant disregard for Scotland”, an MP has said.

Martin Docherty-Hughes issued the warning ahead of a debate in Parliament today,
in which he will attempt to get answers from the UK Government over serious
concerns raised by a top insider about Britain’s nuclear weapons. The SNP
defence spokesperson will lead an adjournment debate on Wednesday evening
to highlight bombshell comments from former top government adviser Dominic
Cummings.

Cummings sparked concerns about Trident when he claimed to have
sought assurances from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that he would deal with
the “scandal” of nuclear weapons infrastructure which he described as a
“dangerous disaster and a budget nightmare of hard-to-believe and highly
classified proportions”.

The National 24th Jan 2024

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24070255.failure-deal-trident-concerns-puts-scots-lives-risk/

January 30, 2024 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Hinkley Point is glowing on my doorstep, but that won’t help us get a bus into town

In west Somerset broadband is patchy and childcare is scarce, but there’s always £10bn to spare for a badly run mega-project

WILLIAM SITWELL,

In west Somerset broadband is patchy and childcare is scarce,
but there’s always £10bn to spare for a badly run mega-project.

Some 10,000 people work on site there (with another 12,000 associated jobs elsewhere).
Lifting the 245-tonne steel roof onto the first reactor, a few weeks ago,
utilised the world’s largest land-based crane. Hinkley Point C (next to the
original facilities A and B) will power some six million homes and what I
lie in bed at night wondering about is how the hell they feed the 10,000.
The Chinese state-owned CGN has a one-third stake in Hinkley and the French
state-controlled energy company EDF controls the rest.

It’s due to start generating power in 2030 and is the world’s most expensive power station.
Then this week EDF announced that, whoops, they need another £10 billion.
Prices have increased since 2015, design changes require more steel and
concrete and, I imagine, given the French contingent at the facility,
increases in the price of butter have skyrocketed the projected costs of
croissants. The final costs could be around £46 billion with the project
looking at a four-year delay.

All of which is great if you’ve got a job
there, be it in security, catering or nuclear fission, but otherwise this
futurist megalith rather clashes with the neighbouring muddy fields of
Exmoor. There are three key stumbling blocks here: childcare is scarce,
broadband is patchy and there are no buses. Which leaves people feeling
that these infrastructure projects – Hinkley Point, HS2 – are like the huge
sewage pipes that run through the slums of Mumbai. They carve up and
disrupt the landscape and lives of those who exist around it, but it’s only
the comfortable middle classes who benefit.

Telegraph 27th Jan 2024

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/01/27/william-sitwell-hinkley-point/

January 30, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

US will station nukes in Britain for the first time in 15 years, as West escalates conflicts on multiple fronts

  • Pentagon documents reveal the US is intending to place warheads three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb on UK soil

 https://www.sott.net/article/488290-US-will-station-nukes-in-Britain-for-the-first-time-in-15-years-as-West-escalates-conflicts-on-multiple-frontsBy PIRIYANGA THIRUNIMALAN and MARK NICOL 27 January 2024 |

The United States is planning to station nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time in 15 years to counter threats from Russia, it emerged last night.

Pentagon documents reveal the US is intending to place warheads three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb on UK soil. Moscow said it would view the move as an ‘escalation’ that would be met with ‘counter-measures’.

Procurement contracts for a new facility at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk show the US plans to house B61-12 gravity bombs ‘imminently’ at the site. 

US warheads were last stationed in Britain in 2008, when it was judged that the Cold War threat from Russia had decreased.

The plans come as part of a Nato-wide programme aimed at developing and upgrading nuclear sites in response to rising tensions with the Kremlin. 

The unredacted documents from the US Department of Defence’s procurement database show the Pentagon has ordered equipment, including ballistic shields, for Lakenheath, and state that construction of a housing facility for US soldiers at the base will start in June.

Nuclear weapons were stationed at RAF Lakenheath during the Cold War. Activists held protests outside the site in 2022 when it was reported that US warheads could be stationed there.

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said: ‘In the context of the transition of the United States and Nato to an openly confrontational course of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia, this practice and its development force us to take compensating countermeasures to reliably protect the security interests of our country and its allies.’

Comment: ‘An openly confrontational course’; because, whilst the West’s aggression against Russia has been brazen, the intention behind this move is undeniable.

Notably, back in August 2023: Poland’s President says Russia’s moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus ‘shifting regional security’

The Pentagon insisted the documents ‘are not predictive of, nor are they intended to disclose any specific posture or basing details’. 

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘It remains a longstanding UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.’

Comment: This comes amidst the escalation of the US-UK-Israel genocide in Gaza; repeated air strikes against Yemen; and NATO’s largest military exercise (also since the cold war) at Russia’s borders; all the while on its Ukraine front it faces looming defeat:

January 29, 2024 Posted by | UK, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Hinkley Point C nuclear could go £28bn over budget, and tax-payer takes larger stake in Sizewell C nuclear.

The Chemical Engineer, by Adam Duckett, 28 Jan 24

EDF SAYS its Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant could be delayed to as late as 2031, with costs rising to £46bn (US$58bn).

The project, which includes building two 1,630 MW nuclear reactors in Somerset, was estimated to cost £18bn when it was first agreed in 2016 and had been scheduled to begin operations in 2025. The project has since struggled with a series of delays and cost hikes. The firm has now outlined three scenarios that push operations back until the end of the decade at the earliest.

The first reactor could begin operations in 2029, or, under a base case scenario that assumes delays in the electromechanical work and testing start-up, could fall back to 2030. Under a third scenario, there could be a further delay to 2031.

In a letter to staff, Stuart Crooks, managing director of Hinkley Point C, said: “Like other infrastructure projects we have found civil construction slower than we hoped and faced inflation, labour and material shortages on top of Covid and Brexit disruption.”

He added that EDF has been required to substantially adapt its reactor design to satisfy British regulations, requiring 7,000 changes that have added 35% more steel and 25% more concrete.

EDF says the delays and extra work will hike costs to between £31-35bn in 2015 values meaning under the worst case scenario the price could reach £46bn.

Hinkley Point C is key to the government’s target to almost quadruple nuclear power output from 6.5 GW today to 24 GW by 2050. To meet this goal, it published a plan earlier this month that includes building at least one other plant the size of Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C that EDF is planning in Suffolk, along with suites of smaller modular and advanced nuclear reactors…………….

News of the delay prompted further criticism from nuclear opponents who argue that governments should invest in renewables instead. There are also concerns that with the Chinese junior partner in Hinkley Point C refusing to contribute any more money to the project that the UK government will be called up on to help meet the climbing costs. A government spokesperson told the Financial Times that any additional costs “will in no way fall on taxpayers”.  

Government takes larger stake in Sizewell C

Earlier this week, the UK government announced it would make an extra £1.3bn available to support EDF’s construction of Sizewell C so that construction work can continue ahead of a final investment decision being made later this year. Sizewell will use the same design as Hinkley Point C.

The government’s investment further consolidates its position as the majority shareholder in the project. Last year, it bought out the project’s Chinese state-owned partner China General Nuclear as part of efforts to limit Beijing’s involvement in critical infrastructure.

The government has now invested £2.5bn in Sizewell C and the project is being funded by a so-called regulated asset base model under which surcharges on consumer energy bills help fund the project while it’s being constructed. Last year, the government opened up a bidding process to attract external investors in a bid to raise an estimated £20bn to construct the plant.  https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/hinkley-point-c-could-go-28bn-over-budget-as-edf-predicts-further-delays/

January 29, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

UK government pours good money after bad, into failing Hinkley Point C nuclear boondoggle

The Stop Hinkley Campaign has reacted to the news that the cost of Hinkley
Point C has ballooned to £46bn and that the first reactor may not now be
open until 2031. Stop Hinkley Spokesperson Roy Pumfrey said: “The
Government will have known for days if not weeks that this announcement was
coming – we certainly heard rumours. You would have thought it would have
provoked them into at least re-examining their nuclear roadmap.

Instead, on Monday they decided to waste another £1.3bn of taxpayers’ money on a
carbon copy of Hinkley Point C on the Suffolk Coast. Any sensible
Government would be urgently looking at the overwhelming case to provide
our power from 100% renewables.” “And it’s not just HPC’s costs
that are ballooning, the whole project is swirling around making a horrid
noise like a punctured balloon. And trying to cram 15,000 workers toe to
toe on the site to play catch up will mean H&S rules go out the window.”

 Stop Hinkley 24th Jan 2024

http://stophinkley.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Press-Release-240124.pdf

January 29, 2024 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Campaigners call on Science Minister to back citizen science with funding

Nuclear Free Local Authorities, 25 Jan 24

The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have been joined by campaigners from six local groups opposed to nuclear power in calling on the Science Minister to provide funding for citizen science projects to test levels of radioactivity near to civil nuclear power plants.

The partners have used the birthday of American ornithologist Wells Cooke (25 January), considered to be the founder of modern citizen science, to make their appeal to Michelle Donelan, who is the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

From 1881, Cooke engaged amateur birding enthusiasts in collecting information about bird migration. His program evolved into the government-run North American Bird Phenology Program supported by volunteers across the nation. More recently, even BBC television programmes, like Nature / Springwatch, have enrolled citizens in observing and reporting on wildlife in their gardens and communities.

Although citizen science has the virtue of engaging laypeople in research, making science more relevant and ‘immediate’ to the general population, for campaigners in West Cumbria sampling for radioactivity has not been a mere academic exercise for it highlighted radioactive ‘hotspots’ where exposure could be prejudicial to human health.

For almost ten years, volunteers at Radiation Free Lakeland have been taking soil and sand samples at various sites along the coast of West Cumbria from Whitehaven to Barrow-in-Furness, including beaches frequented by many tourists, and sending these to the United States for testing at a professional institute.

Due to a lack of available funding, the group could only afford to commission the institute to test for two isotopes – americium and caesium [1]. In 2018, undergraduate nuclear science students from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts compiled the results into an initial report:

‘Of the 36 samples tested 10 (28%) were found to be over the safety limit for cesium-137 and 14 (39%) were found to be over the safety limit for americium-241.’

Some of these adverse findings were from coastal sites near to St Bees and Ravenglass, which attract many seasonal tourists.

Americum-241 is highly radioactive and chemically toxic if absorbed, with deposits accumulating in the liver and bones, remaining there for twenty and fifty years respectively, or in the sexual organs, where its residence is permanent. In all these organs, americium promotes the formation of cancer cells through its radioactivity.

Caesium-137 is soluble in water and if ingested is soon uniformly distributed within the body and remains there for up to 70 days. Based on the findings of animal experiments and autopsies performed on children exposed to radiation in the Chernobyl accident, absorption can lead to the development of pancreatic cancer.

Former US nuclear industry regulator Arnie Gunderson, touring West Cumbria at the invitation of Radiation Free Lakeland, said that some of the samples were as radioactive as those found at Fukushima, where a major nuclear accident occurred in 2011.

Gunderson was in no doubt that it was only the dedication, rigour and persistence of citizen scientists that brought these findings to light:……………………………………………………….. more https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/campaigners-call-on-science-minister-to-back-citizen-science-with-funding/

January 29, 2024 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

MP wants public vote on nuclear waste disposal

Richard Madden, BBC News, 26 January 2024 more https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crg7nlwnz59o

People in part of East Yorkshire should be given a referendum on a proposal to bury nuclear waste, the area’s MP has said.

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), a government agency, has identified South Holderness as having potential for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said any development would need public consent.

Officials behind the scheme said on Thursday that if the community did not express support the disposal facility would not be built.

‘Toughest test’

Mr Stuart said: “Everyone is right to be concerned about the possibility of a nuclear waste facility in our area.

“They are required to get local consent and I want that to be the toughest available test, a referendum of residents in the affected area”, he said.

A working group has been formed to look at the proposal and a series of public meetings will take place.

Drop-in sessions

  • 1 February – Patrington Village Hall
  • 2 February – Withernsea, The Shores Centre
  • 8 February – Aldbrough Village Hall
  • 9 February – Easington Community Hall
  • 12 February – Burstwick Village Hall

All sessions run from 11:30 – 18:00 GMT.

Officials from NWS said the project could create thousands of jobs and investment in local infrastructure in South Holderness.

But campaigners in other areas have raised concerns about the impact on tourism, house prices and the environment, leading to protests.

The GDF would see waste stored under up to 3,280ft (1000m) underground until its radioactivity had naturally decayed.

Other proposals have been put forward in Cumbria and at Theddlethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.

January 29, 2024 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

UK’s Ministry of Defence has continued to allow critical parts of the nuclear weapons infrastructure to rot

Dominic Cummings said amongst other things the MoD has: continued to allow
critical parts of the nuclear weapons infrastructure to rot creating
further massive secret budget nightmares as well as extremely serious
physical dangers (cf. the recent near disaster with a submarine),

UK Parliament 24th Jan 2024

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-01-24/debates/1F1CF40C-91E6-4C9B-A9BB-32A7EB43DAC4/NuclearDefenceInfrastructureParliamentaryScrutiny

January 29, 2024 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Growing mountain of wasted money is a radioactive prospect

Alistair Osborne: Growing mountain of wasted money is a radioactive
prospect. Rishi Sunak’s apparent determination to press ahead with
mammoth investment in new nuclear reactors, whatever the cost, might not
prove to be the best solution.

It’s only a week since he set off — again — with his uncosted “nuclear road map”: a plan to have 24 gigawatts of new reactors by 2050, or seven more Hinkley Point Cs. On
Monday, the government sank another £1.3 billion into Sizewell C, so it
could “steam ahead” with that project, too, as Andrew Bowie, the
minister for nukes, put it.

Listen to him and investors are queueing up. So
what better news to encourage them than this jaw-dropper from EDF, the
state-backed French outfit behind both schemes? Hinkley Point’s costs
have shot up by as much as £10 billion to a top-end £35 billion, in 2015
prices.

And, instead of firing up in 2027, the first of the Somerset
nuke’s twin reactors could in an “unfavourable scenario” (the likely
outcome) be delayed until 2031. This is what comes with Hinkley’s
European pressurised reactor tech, as EDF has also proved at France’s
Flamanville, Finland’s Olkiluoto and China’s Taishan.

Indeed, two years after the Chinese nuke became operational, one unit had to be taken offline for a year’s repairs. So why is the government hellbent on a re-run with
Sizewell in Suffolk? Alison Downes from the Stop Sizewell C campaign is no
neutral voice. But she’s right to say the project “epitomises the
definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a
different result”. With Sizewell, though, things would be far pricier.
Under the contracts-for-difference regime, EDF is on the hook for
Hinkley’s costs. Repeat the trick at Sizewell and, under the new
regulated asset base model, consumers would find £10 billion added to
their bills — before the nuke’s even operational.

 Times 25th Jan 2024

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/24osborne-hzs6r76nf

January 28, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Don’t be surprised if the UK tax-payer, not France, ends up paying the astronomic costs of Hinkley C nuclear power station .

Should we be bothered that Hinkley C nuclear power station has run even further over
budget (the latest estimate is £35 billion, nearly twice that quoted when
the project was given the go-ahead in 2016) and that its completion date
has been put back yet further, to 2031?

After all, the whole point of offering French energy giant EDF a guaranteed ‘strike price’ at the then juicy rate of £92.50 per megawatt-hour (at 2013 prices, rising with
inflation) was supposed to be to transfer financial risk to EDF and its
financial backers. ‘It is important to say that British consumers won’t
pay a penny, with the increased costs met entirely by shareholders,’ EDF’s
managing director of the Hinkley project state this morning.

I wouldn’t be so confident. Yet more delays to Hinkley C punch a huge hole in the
government’s net zero plans, which include the full decarbonisation of the
national grid by 2035 (Labour says it will do it by 2030). By 2028, all but
one of the UK’s existing five nuclear power stations are due to close – and
the other one, Sizewell B, is due to be gone by 2035. From generating
nearly a third of the UK’s power at its peak in 1998 the nuclear industry
could be down to virtually nothing by the time Hinkley C eventually opens.


No-one should be surprised if, before we get to 2031, EDF goes cap in hand
to the government, and the government offers it some kind of deal which
transfers risk back onto the taxpayer.

Spectator 24th Jan 2024

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/hinkley-c-and-the-rising-cost-of-net-zero/

January 28, 2024 Posted by | politics international, UK | Leave a comment

The War On Journalism In Belmarsh, The War On Journalism In Gaza

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, JAN 26, 2024,  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-war-on-journalism-in-belmarsh?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=141058691&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email—

I haven’t written much about Julian Assange lately because I’ve been so fixated on what’s been happening in Gaza, but we should all be acutely aware that the 20th and 21st of February may be the WikiLeaks founder’s final chance to avoid extradition to the United States to face persecution for the crime of good journalism. 

Assange and his legal team will face two High Court judges during the two-day hearing in London, who will then determine whether or not the UK will allow the Australian journalist to be dragged to the US in chains for a crooked show trial and cast into one of the world’s most draconian prison systems for exposing the war crimes of the world’s most powerful government. 

Some US lawmakers are attempting to block the extradition from the other end with House Resolution 934, which asserts that “regular journalistic activities are protected under the First Amendment, and that the United States ought to drop all charges against and attempts to extradite Julian Assange.” If charges were dropped it would not only prevent the extradition but allow for Assange to be freed from the Belmarsh maximum security prison, where he has been jailed by the British government since 2019.

The fight to free Assange is a fight to protect press freedoms around the world, since the US is using the case in an attempt to set a legal precedent for extraditing and imprisoning any journalist or publisher anywhere in the world who shares information with the public that the US doesn’t want shared. 

And it’s worth mentioning that this fight is not actually separate from the fight against Israel’s efforts to keep journalism out of Gaza by assassinating reporters and blocking the press from entering the enclave. It’s also not separate from humanity’s overall struggle to build a truth-based civilization, nor ultimately from our greater struggle to become a conscious species.

All throughout humanity there are pushes toward truth and seeing and pushes toward secrecy and darkness. In the press we see both: the authentic journalists like Assange who want all that is hidden to be made transparent, and the propagandists of the mainstream media who work to obfuscate and distort the truth. Those who seek the emergence of a harmonious and truth-based society want as much visibility into what’s really happening as possible, while tyrannical power structures like the US empire and Israel are constantly working to dim the lights.

Wherever you see domination and abuse, you see efforts to limit perception and keep human minds from seeing and understanding what’s going on. It’s true of empires, it’s true of governments, it’s true of cult leaders, it’s true of abusive spouses, and it’s true of the unpleasant dynamics within our own psyches that we would rather not look at. The less seeing there is, the more abusiveness is possible; the more seen things become, the closer we get to freedom.

I’m no prophet, but I strongly suspect that our future as a species will be determined by the outcome of this struggle. If the impulse toward truth and seeing wins out, we are probably headed toward a world of health and harmony. If the impulse to keep everything confused and hidden and unconscious wins, we are probably headed for dystopia and extinction.

In any case, all we can do is fight to make things more visible so that health and harmony become possible. Fight to make things conscious within ourselves. Fight to keep journalism legal in the shadow of the empire. Fight to spotlight Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. Fight to make the unseen seen. Fight to bring humanity into the light of consciousness.

January 28, 2024 Posted by | Legal, media, UK | Leave a comment

Brexit blamed for delays to nuclear power project

EDF’s former CEO had pledged christmas turkeys would be cooked by the plant by 20172

i By Ben Gartside, 24 Jan 24

The UK’s premier nuclear power project could be delayed by another four years as costs continue to balloon, with Brexit cited as a major factor………………According to EDF, the French firm in charge of developing the site, issues on the project had been caused by Brexit, the Pandemic and inflation…………………………………………………….

How has Brexit affected construction costs?

Developers have been hit hard by both the Covid pandemic and soaring energy prices. Tim Heatley, co-founder of Manchester-based Capital&Centricm, said Brexit had also been a “major factor”.

He previously told i: “On the surface there doesn’t seem as much jeopardy in construction as car manufacturing – you can’t outsource building new homes to Asia.

“But, I’d argue, we’re facing even bigger economic consequences if we don’t get things under control.”

“Both construction material and labour costs have rocketed here way more than EU countries, so Brexit must be a major factor.”

A report published in 2023 found that between 2015 and 2022 the cost of construction materials including cement, timber and steel increased by 60 per cent in the UK compared to 35 per cent in the EU……………………..  https://inews.co.uk/news/brexit-blamed-delays-nuclear-power-lower-energy-bills-2871548—

January 28, 2024 Posted by | politics international, UK | Leave a comment

Plan to store nuclear waste under Holderness for 175 years

Nuclear waste from across the UK could be stored below an area of East Yorkshire for up to 175 years.

Government agency Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) announced proposals today to build a storage facility beneath South Holderness.

A group has been set up to examine the proposals, but the agency’s chief executive Corhyn Parr said the scheme would only go ahead with residents’ approval.

She said: “This is a consent-based process, meaning if the community does not express support… it won’t be built there.”

Ms Parr added that the new geological disposal facility would bring benefits to the area, including thousands of jobs and transport improvements.

Two similar working groups are already established in Cumbria and at Theddlethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.

Dr David Richards, independent chair of the South Holderness working group, said the aim was to work with local communities to discuss the potential of a series of vaults and tunnels being built deep underground, or under the sea, where the material would be buried.

He added: “My role as chair is to make sure local communities have access to information and to understand what people think.”…………………………

Graham Stuart, the MP for Beverley and Holderness, said that he will be meeting with Dr David Richards to discuss the plans.

He wrote on Facebook: “I’ll be asking for a copper bottomed guarantee that nothing would happen without public consent…………………………. https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2024-01-25/plan-to-store-nuclear-waste-under-east-yorkshire-for-175-years

January 28, 2024 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

The Post Office Scandal, Nuclear Waste and The Bransty Tunnel – Off Limits for Nuclear Luvvies at Britain Remade?

 https://www.lakesagainstnucleardump.com/post/the-post-office-scandal-nuclear-waste-and-the-bransty-tunnel-off-limits-for-nuclear-luvvies-at-br?fbclid=IwAR1KpP9iidhPdh6hyL3dhFAkUvOaXSla84RLykZttBRu4lOlokQIVRUjOvc 24 Jan 24

Trudy Harrison MP and wannabe MP Josh MacAlister have joined forces under the banner of “Britain Remade”. Their dream of building a nuclear prefab “faster” and “cheaper” next to the worlds biggest stockpile of plutonium is within our grasp they breathlessly tell us. “There could be new nuclear power in Cumbria, delivering jobs for the region, and clean energy for the whole country”.

Hot and dangerous Nuclear wastes from their “clean energy” trundles through the Bransty Rail Tunnel under the town of Whitehaven EVERY week enroute to the Sellafield site already bursting at the seams with radioactive crapola. The Bransty Rail Tunnel has served Network Rail and the nuclear industry well. It is a fine piece of old Victorian engineering which extends for a full 1km directly under homes and businesses in Whitehaven. Only recently it has become unstable. Network Rail are rather worried about the impacts of reactivated old mine water water bubbling up into the tunnel and even putting pressure on the sides of the tunnel (as we can see from Network Rail’s own video taken recently).

Rather than gushing about building untried untested nuclear prefabs (euphemistically called “Small Modular Reactors” actually pretty large at half the size of Calder Hall reactors), the MP and wannabe MP should be putting EVERY EFFORT into protecting the safety of the folk of Whitehaven by CLOSING THIS TUNNEL certainly to Nuclear Waste Transports and possibly to passenger and other freight trains. Ceasing nuclear waste production in Scotland and the North wouldn’t make a huge difference to electricity as nuclear’s contribution to the UKs electrcity capacity has been minimal according to National Grid with wind producing many times more capacity in the recent cold weather.

The most urgent question for Whitehaven is:

Why is heavily polluted mine water is still gushing into the nuclear waste route of the Bransty Tunnel over one year on and into Queens Dock, Whitehaven and what are Trudy Harrison MP and Josh MacAlister wannabe MP doing to address this?

Another equally urgent and topical question given the Post Office scandal is:

Are the MP and prospective MP happy that all nuclear waste consignments including those travelling a few times a week through the Bransty Tunnel are monitored and tracked by the same company, Fujitsu, responsible for the Post Office scandal. Fujitsu’s “Accountancy and Tracking Of Material” ATOM was contracted by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority in 2001. “Fujitsu chose a combination of Microsoft and Oracle systems with web portal technology to make this possible, i.e. to successfully design and implement a package to process, update and report on nuclear and radioactive materials throughout the supply chain.” As Dik Third of UKAEA says, “We believe that there is no other system in the world capable of dealing with such complexity and breadth of plant operations and regulatory accounting requirements.” Does Whitehaven feel lucky? Britain is being Remade into what? A Nuclear Sacrifice Zone?

January 27, 2024 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

US plans to store nuclear weapons in UK: report

Examiner  January 27 2024 –

The US is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years amid a growing threat from Russia, according to a report.

Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, The Telegraph reported.

The US previously placed nuclear missiles at RAF Lakenheath, removing them in 2008 when the Cold War threat from Moscow had receded.

Pentagon documents seen by the UK newspaper reveal procurement contracts for a new facility at the airbase.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “It remains a longstanding UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.”

………………………….. Downing Street defended the government’s spending on defence, saying Britain has been Washington’s “partner of choice” in its strikes against Houthi rebels in the Red Sea because of its “military strength”.  https://www.examiner.com.au/story/8500518/us-plans-to-store-nuclear-weapons-in-uk-report/—

January 27, 2024 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »