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Nuclear News

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Terminal Decline? Fukushima and the Deepening Crisis of Nuclear Energy

Saturday March 11 marks the sixth anniversary of the triple-disaster in north-east Japan – the earthquake, tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. And the news is not good.

 

Scientists are wondering how on earth to stabilise and decontaminate the failed reactors awash with molten nuclear fuel, which are fast turning into graveyards for the radiation-hardened robots sent in to investigate them.

 

The Japanese government’s estimate of Fukushima compensation and clean-up costs has doubled and doubled again and now stands at ¥21.5 trillion (US$187bn; €177bn). Indirect costs – such as fuel import costs, and losses to agricultural, fishing and tourism industries – will likely exceed that figure.

 

Kendra Ulrich from Greenpeace Japan notes in a new report that “for those who were impacted by the worst nuclear disaster in a generation, the crisis is far from over. And it is women and children that have borne the brunt of human rights violations resulting from it, both in the immediate aftermath and as a result of the Japan government’s nuclear resettlement policy.”

 

The full article by Jim Green of Counterpunch can be seen here:

 

RECORD LEVELS OF LETHAL RADIATION MEASURED IN FUKUSHIMA REACTOR

Justin McCurry in Tokyo writing for the Guardian on 3 February 2017, says that extremely high radiation levels have been recorded inside a damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, almost six years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown.

 

The facility’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said atmospheric readings as high as 530 sieverts an hour had been recorded inside the containment vessel of reactor No 2. The extraordinary radiation readings highlight the scale of the task confronting thousands of workers, as pressure builds on Tepco to begin decommissioning the plant – a process that is expected to take about four decades. Even if a 30-percent margin of error is taken into account, the recent reading, described by some experts as “unimaginable”, is far higher than the previous record of 73 sieverts an hour detected by sensors in 2012.

 

A single dose of one sievert is enough to cause radiation sickness and nausea; 5 sieverts would kill half those exposed to it within a month, and a single dose of 10 sieverts would prove fatal within weeks.

 

A remote-controlled robot that Tepco intends to send into the No 2 reactor’s containment vessel is designed to withstand exposure to a total of 1,000 sieverts, meaning it would only survive for less than two hours before malfunctioning.

 

The full article can be seen here

 

How the Nuclear Industry in Japan changed the goalposts after Fukushima - to suit themselves, not to protect the workers or civilians

 

Permitted Radiation levels pre-disaster - Nuclear workers – 20 mSv / year, with a maximum lifetime exposure of 400 mSv

General public – 1 mSv

 

Permitted Radiation levels post-disaster - Nuclear workers – level raised to 250 mSv / year (no lifetime limit) / year

General public – level raised to 20 mSv / year

 

EDF faces £1m a day bill to keep French nuclear reactor offline

Prolonged closure at Flamanville plant after fire damage piles further financial pressure on state-owned energy firm

 

The prolonged closure of a major French atomic reactor after an explosion this month probably costs EDF at least £1m a day, according to experts. The nuclear plant operator, which will spend £18bn building the UK’s first new nuclear power station in a generation, shut unit 1 at its Flamanville plant after a fire broke out in the turbine hall. The company initially estimated it would switch on the reactor within a week, but later pushed the date to the end of March. Work begins this week on replacing damaged equipment.

 

The unexpectedly long closure adds to the financial pressure on EDF, which last week reported a 6.7% decline in core earnings to €16.4bn (£14bn) in 2016. Closures of its French nuclear plants last year, partly for safety checks, have already cost the 85% state-owned company an estimated €1.3bn. Prof Neil C Hyatt, head of nuclear materials chemistry at the University of Sheffield, said the lost revenue from the reactor closure in Normandy could be £1m per day. “Bringing a nuclear power plant back online after an unscheduled outage is a complex task and EDF will want to ensure that all parts of the system are working safely and effectively. A short delay to complete the necessary checks is to be expected, given that the outage was unplanned,” he said

 

Read the full story here.

 

Neighbouring countries concerned about the risk of a Belgian Nuclear meltdown

On 10 January 2017 a new emergency plan was presented in a commission in Belgium's Parliament. The evacuation perimeter was conveniently halved to 10km to avoid an evacuation of Belgium's second and third cities in case of a meltdown.

 

The plan has been called totally inadequate. NICK MEYNEN reports.

 

It's not the metaphorical political meltdown of Belgium that neighbouring governments fret about, but a nuclear meltdown.The Netherlands, Luxemburg and Germany have all asked Belgium's government to close its most risky reactors with immediate effect.

 

The city of Aachen and 30 other major cities and districts are also suing Belgium for not closing them. The German government no longer trusts the Belgian Nuclear Safety Agency and wants permission for its own agency to do safety checks. So far, foreign pressure is falling on deaf ears.

 

Belgians have even more reasons to worry. On 10 January 2017 a new emergency plan was presented in a commission in Belgium's Parliament. The evacuation perimeter was conveniently halved to 10km to avoid an evacuation of Belgium's second and third cities in case of a meltdown.

 

Nuclear Transparency Watch, a European organisation created by Members of the European Parliament of all political colours, called Belgium's plans totally inadequate and incoherent.

 

So rather than signing agreements with Belgium about sharing information, where are the sanctions for Belgium? There are both EU and UN regulations that could shut the reactors down, as more than a million people requested a year ago. Belgium's neighbours have reasons to get tough.

Nuclear regulator investigated over “lax attitude to safety”

Whitehall is investigating the nuclear regulator after The Times revealed that several serious accidents had been dismissed as posing no safety risk.

 

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has come under fire from experts who argue it is too close to the industry to police it rigorously. Yesterday an investigation disclosed that the inadvertent discharge of a torpedo at a nuclear submarine docks in Plymouth, a complete power cut at the country’s nuclear weapons base and the contamination of at least 15 workers with radioactive material were among the events it had said were of no concern.

 

Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions, which is responsible for the ONR, are understood to be looking into whether the regulator is doing enough to keep the country's reactors, nuclear processing sites and military bases safe. Although the number or publically acknowledged accidents has been stable for more than a decade, the rate of incidents judged to be "of no nuclear safety significance" has crept up to more than one a day over the last five years. Between 2012 and 2015 these included three road accidents involving nuclear material, a dozen leaks and at least 30 fires as well as 70 anomalies on the Atomic Weapons Establishment site at Aldermaston near Reading.

 

The ONR has said that all of its safety classifications followed international guidelines and insisted that it remained a robust and independent regulator. Nuclear experts, however, called on the government to launch a review. Stephen Thomas, emeritus professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich, said the news had reinforced his suspicions that “the first priority for the ONR is not to frighten the horses” He said the body had previously ignored warnings about the safety of extending the lifespan of the AGR, an old reactor design that is still in use at seven sites in the UK, as well as the reliability of the newer EPR model, the latest version of which is due to be installed at Hinkley Point C. "Ironically, since they became an independent body rather than being part of the Health and Safety Executive [in 2014], they seem to have got worse”, Professor Thomas said. “Independence is just a cheap and easy way for government to wash its hands of its rightful responsibility. “Independent regulators must be accountable to the public and if it is not through a democratically elected government, who is it through?"

 

Earlier this year the ONR appointed as its chief executive a career civil servant with no background in nuclear engineering. David Toke, reader in energy politics at the University of Aberdeen and a member of the Nuclear Consulting Group, said this suggested that nuclear safety issues were a “low priority’ for the organisation. "Of course there should be more attention to this issue and a discussion about whether the de facto slide towards less nuclear safety in the UK is a good one," he said.

 

Reprinted from The Times, 28th December 2016

Nuclear reactor cracks 'challenge safety case' 31st Oct 2016

 

Fears have been raised that two of the UK's nuclear reactors might not be able to shut down in an emergency.

 

Documents show the nuclear regulator raised concerns over fractures in keyways that lock together the core of Hunterston B power station in Ayrshire. They also show the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) raised concerns that Hinkley B might have similar problems. The regulator has agreed the stations can continue to operate after the reactor shutdown process was modified. EDF Energy's Brian Cowell said the level of cracking is considered "reasonable" and is "far below anything which would affect the reactor's safe operation".

 

Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B, in Somerset, were the first of Britain's Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors [AGR], built in the 1970s. In the documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request, the ONR raised concerns over cracks in reactor three of Hunterston B and spoke of the possibility of them being present at Hinkley B.

 

John Large, who helped design AGRs, believes that if the cracks get any worse it could jeopardise the reactor's stability in the event of a big disaster - such as an earthquake - and make it impossible to lower control rods to shut the reactor down. "These keyways are beginning to fracture... that means the locking together - the way that force can be transferred from one brick to another - is lost, so it becomes a very loose stack of bricks."

 

Read the full article here

Secret government papers show taxpayers will pick up costs of Hinkley nuclear waste storage 30th Oct 2016

 

Taxpayers will pick up the bill should the cost of storing radioactive waste produced by Britain’s newest nuclear power station soar, according to confidential documents which the government has battled to keep secret for more than a year.

 

The papers confirm the steps the government took to reassure French energy firm EDF and Chinese investors behind the £24bn Hinkley Point C plant that the amount they would have to pay for the storage would be capped.

 

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy – in its previous incarnation as the Department for Energy and Climate Change – resisted repeated requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the release of the documents which were submitted to the European commission. “The government has attempted to keep the costs to the taxpayer of Hinkley under wraps from the start,” said Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace chief scientist. “It’s hardly surprising as it doesn’t look good for the government’s claim that they are trying to keep costs down for hardworking families.”

 

Read the full article here

Hinkley Point: UK approves nuclear plant deal 15th Sept 2016

 

The government has given the go ahead for a new £18bn nuclear power station in the UK after imposing "significant new safeguards" for future projects.

 

The new plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset is being financed by the French and the Chinese. In exchange, China wanted to use its design for new UK nuclear stations. However, the government said it would now "impose a new legal framework for future foreign investment in Britain's critical infrastructure".

 

Critics of the deal have warned of escalating costs and the implications of nuclear power plants being built in the UK by foreign governments. France's EDF is funding two-thirds of the project, with China investing the remaining £6bn.

 

Read the full article here

Belgium: 48 hours to stop the next Chernobyl

Experts say we could be facing the biggest risk of nuclear disaster in Europe since Chernobyl after two old and cracked nuclear plants in Belgium were just restarted even after suffering a big explosion: but in 48 hours an unprecedented amount of pressure from all Europe can shut them down. And these reactors are so old that this weekend, one already started to leak thick white gas again and citizens have taken to the streets on the Dutch and German borders in protest.

 

In 48 hours, all of us in Europe can make a big impact backing these protesters when an official ministerial Dutch-Belgian joint visit to assess the safety situation. Any nuclear disaster will affect all of us in Europe. So let’s get to 500,000 signatures and deliver them to both ministers in front of the media and make it clear that EU citizens will not allow Belgium to put us at risk of another Chernobyl that would affect millions of us.

 

Sign now and share with everybody: See article on right for link to petition

Official Volcano Evacuation Warning Near Re-opened Nuclear Reactors in Japan; Volcanic Ashfall Could Lead to Meltdown

The dangerous Sakurajima volcano is located approximately 50 km (30 mi) from the Sendai Nuclear Power Station, which just re-opened a few days ago. Japan has issued a prepare to evacuate warning for the areas around the volcano.

 

Read the full story here

Government can now bury nuclear waste wherever they like! April 27 2015

Amendment to bill makes objection unlawful

 

Government is "wiping out democracy to dump nuclear waste" say Cumbrians

 

In a shameful abuse of the parliamentary process, the government forced through an amendment to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Bill (NSIP) just before dissolving Parliament, allowing the Government to bury high and intermediate level nuclear waste wherever they want, without opposition, having removed the right of councils - or anyone else - to object, on any grounds whatsoever.

 

There was no advance notice of the amendment, thus there was no chance for environmental and human rights groups to organise opposition and lobbying.

 

English Heritage describe how the normal checks and balances of democracy are wiped away by the undemocratic NSIP: "Planning permission, listed building consent, scheduled monument consent and conservation area consent amongst other are not required for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects."

 

In other words hard won planning protections are null and void as is democracy, with the final decision on any future 'geological disposal facility' (GDF) taken by the Secretary of State alone.

 

Read a full account in the Ecologist, here

 

Japan's nuclear future in doubt

Objectors win victory to prevent reopening of nuclear plant

 

Judges rule against restart of reactors at Takahama plant over safety concerns, dealing setback to PM’s plans to relaunch nuclear power generation four years after Fukushima disaster

 

A court in Japan has dealt a blow to plans by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to relaunch nuclear power generation four years after the Fukushima meltdown by halting the restart of two reactors over safety concerns. The country’s Nuclear Regulation Authority had approved the restart of the reactors at the Takahama plant in Fukui prefecture, but in a ruling on Tuesday judges sided with residents who had sought an injunction against the facility’s operator, Kansai Electric Power (Kepco). The residents had argued that nuclear officials had underestimated the plant’s vulnerability to powerful earthquakes of the kind that triggered the Fukushima disaster. They added that the reactors did not meet proper safety standards and that evacuation contingencies were inadequate

 

Full story here

Fukushima setback as transformer robot stalls

Decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a setback after a robot sent into a damaged reactor to locate melted fuel stalled hours into its mission and had to be abandoned.

 

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the robot stopped moving on Friday during its first inspection of the containment vessel inside reactor No 1, one of the three reactors that suffered meltdown after the plant was struck by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Tepco, which recently conceded that the technology for robots to retrieve the nuclear fuel had yet to be developed, said on Monday it would cut the cables to the robot and postpone a similar inspection using a separate device. The “transformer” robot, which can alter its shape depending on its surroundings, was sent in to take photographs and record temperatures and radiation levels. It had covered 14 of 18 locations when it stalled, about three hours after beginning its journey around the vessel, officials said, adding that they had yet to establish the cause of the problem. More than four years after the plant suffered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, radiation levels inside the reactors are still far too high for humans to enter

 

Full story here

Belgian nuclear reactors riddled with 16,000 unexplained cracks

The discovery of over 16,000 cracks in two Belgian reactor vessels may have global implications for nuclear safety, says the country's nuclear safety chief. He and independent experts are calling for the immediate checks of nuclear reactor vessels worldwide.

 

Thousands of cracks have been found in the steel reactor pressure vessels in nuclear reactors Doel 3 and Tihange 2 in Belgium - vessels contain highly radioactive nuclear fuel cores.

The failure of these components can cause catastrophic nuclear accidents with massive release of radiation.

The pervasive - and entirely unexpected - cracking could be related to corrosion from normal operation, according to leading material scientists Professor Walter Bogaerts and Professor Digby MacDonald.

Speaking on Belgian TV, Professor MacDonald said: "The consequences could be very severe ... like fracturing the pressure vessel, loss of coolant accident. This would be a leak before break scenario, in which case before a fracture of a pipe occurred ... you would see a jet of steam coming out through the insulation.

"My advice is that all reactor operators, under the guidance of the regulatory commissions should be required to do an ultrasonic survey of the pressure vessels. All of them."

Professor Bogaerts added: "If I had to estimate, I would really be surprised if it ... had occurred nowhere else ... I am afraid that the corrosion aspects have been underestimated."

Jan Bens, Director-General of the Belgian nuclear regulator the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC), has said that this could be a problem for the entire nuclear industry globally - and that the solution is to begin the careful inspection of 430 nuclear power plants worldwide.

 

Austria Launching Legal Challenge Against EU Decision To Allow Hinkley Point C Nuclear Subsidies

The government of Austria is planning to make a legal challenge with regard to the European Union’s relatively recent decision to allow the Hinkley Point C nuclear energy project to be subsidized to the tune of billions of pounds, according to recent reports.

 

The European Union (EU) approved Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant receiving a £17.6 billion subsidy deal last October — a decision that was met with a fair amount of debate at the time. Austria’s appeal (to be launched in April) could mean that the subsidy deal will be, at the least, delayed for 1–2 years.

 

Given that Luxembourg — nuclear-free, like Austria — is considered very likely to support the appeal, there appears to be a fair deal of opposition behind the approval of the subsidy package. There are reportedly other countries that might back the appeal as well, but that’s unverified as of right now.

 

The reasoning behind the legal challenge is that the UK’s 35-year loan guarantees constitute illegal state aid. “There has been a high-level decision by our chancellor and vice chancellor to challenge the EU decision on Hinkley within two months of its publication in the EU’s official journal,” stated Andreas Molin, the director of Austria’s environment ministry, in a conversation with the Guardian.

 

The foreign policy adviser to the Austrian federal chancellory, Stefan Pehringer, stated: “The Austrian government has announced its readiness to appeal against the European Commission’s decision concerning state aid for the Hinkley Point project, as it does not consider nuclear power to be a sustainable form of technology — neither in environmental nor in economic terms.” The Hinkley project represents what is, if completed, the first new nuclear reactor in the UK in ~20 years — representing a step backwards for opponents of the technology. (There are numerous good reasons for opposing the technology, as evidenced by this recent news: Uranium Contamination Persisting At Old Processing Sites Despite Remediation.)

 

It’s worth noting here, though, that if Hinkley C is completed and performs according to expectations, it’s expected to cover roughly 7% of the UK’s electricity needs by 2023, with a 3.3 GW generating capacity — with the power generated being bought at a strike price of £92.50 per megawatt-hour, roughly twice the market rate. The approval of the project’s subsidy deal — between the French state-owned EDF and the UK government — was previously described by David Cameroon as being “a very big day for our country.” Commenting on an analysis of European court cases of this type done by the Austrian government, Molin stated that this might go on longer than normal, “as this is going to be a more complicated and fundamental case, it will last a little bit longer. Two years could be a rough guess.”

 

Molina concluded: “If you accept the argument that Hinkley constitutes a ‘market failure’ as put forward by the commission, you could apply it to all other means of electricity production, probably all other forms of energy conversion, and it might even apply beyond the energy sector. We think that the single energy market itself is at stake in this case.” Work on the project has reportedly already begun.

Leaked Sellafield photos reveal 'massive radioactive release' threat

Dilapidated nuclear waste storage ponds abandoned 40 years ago containing hundreds of tonnes of fuel rods pose an immediate danger to public safety, photographs sent to The Ecologist reveal. The fuel and sludge in the ponds could spontaneously ignite if exposed to air, spreading intense radiation over a wide area. See the full Ecologist article here

Tritium up tenfold in Fukushima groundwater after Typhoon Phanfone

The radioactive water woes at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant got worse over the weekend after the tritium concentration in a groundwater sample surged more than tenfold this month.

 

A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday that heavy rain caused by Typhoon Phanfone probably affected the groundwater after the storm whipped through Japan last week. Some 150,000 becquerels of tritium per liter were measured in a groundwater sample taken Thursday from a well east of the No. 2 reactor. The figure is a record for the well and over 10 times the level measured the previous week. In addition, materials that emit beta rays, such as strontium-90, which causes bone cancer, also shattered records with a reading of 1.2 million becquerels, the utility said of the sample.

 

The well is close to the plant’s port in the Pacific. The water crisis could get worse as the nation braces for Typhoon Vongfong this week. Although downgraded from supertyphoon status, the storm was still packing winds of up to 180 kph and on course to hit Kyushu by Monday. The Meteorological Agency said it could reach Tokyo on Tuesday before gradually losing strength as it races north toward Tohoku. The storm dumped heavy rain on Okinawa, and at least 35 people have been reported injured in both Okinawa and Kyushu, where authorities told 150,000 people to evacuate as the typhoon toppled trees, flooded streets and cut power to more than 60,000 homes.

 

Tepco also revealed that, at a separate well also east of the No. 2 reactor, a groundwater sample was giving off a record 2.1 million becquerels of a beta ray-emitting substance, nearly double the level from a week earlier. The cesium activity in the sample was 70 percent higher at 68,000 becquerels. Tepco has been periodically measuring the concentration of radioactive materials in groundwater at 34 points east of the reactors 1 through 4. Readings hit record highs at three points after the heavy rain caused by the typhoon, but the utility said it does not know why.

 

See the source (Japan Times) here

 

European Commission approves Hinkley Point nuclear subsidy deal

Brussels gives go ahead to state subsidy scheme, that offers EDF Energy a set price for 35 years, clearing the way for first nuclear reactors to be built in Britain for almost 20 years

 

See the full story in the Guardian here

 

New cracks in Hunterston reactor put 14 UK reactors at risk

BBC web site 6/10/2014

 

New cracks found in the core of the Hunterston-B nuclear reactor could threaten operator EDF's plans to extend the Scottish power station's life.

 

Experts say fissures in two of the 3,000 graphite fuel bricks that make up its No 4 core are of a new type. These "Keyway root cracks" are said to be more serious than previously identified fractures.

 

Safety rules stipulate that if the new problem gets above a certain threshold, the reactor would have to close.

 

Hunterston-B came online in 1976, and was due to close in 2016, but EDF wants to keep it running until 2023 and beyond.

 

For full story, visit the BBC web site here

Austria to sue European Commission if it agrees to Hinkley deal

From Reuters, 6/10/2014

 

"Alternative forms of energy are worthy of subsidies, not nuclear energy,”says Austria’s chancellor.

 

Under the plan, Britain would be allowed to offer EDF a guaranteed price of more than twice the current market rate.

 

Austria will take the European Commission to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) if it approves Britain's plans for a 16 billion-pound nuclear power plant, a spokesman for the chancellor said on Sunday.

 

The deal to pay a guaranteed price for the power produced in the plant faces opposition from a quarter of EU policymakers, who want to overturn approval from the top European regulator.

 

A vote is expected on Wednesday.

 

For the full story, follow this link.

 

Tougher energy efficiency target would boost UK economy by £62bn says study

Guardian, 6/10/2014

Environmentalists cite unpublished EU figures in call for a more ambitious goal for reducing energy use by 2030

 

A 40% cut in energy use by 2030 through efficiency measures would increase the UK’s GDP by £62bn and create 40,000 new jobs, according to unpublished EU figures.

 

Hitting a lower target of 30% would create 13,000 jobs and boost the economy by £17.3bn, says the study by independent consultancy Cambridge Econometrics, obtained by WWF after an access to information request.

 

For the full story, follow this link.

 

Sellafield nuclear clean-up bill rises over £70bn

Private consortium accused of spending cash 'like confetti'.

 

Sellafield is regarded as the most dangerous and polluted industrial site in western Europe. It houses 120 tonnes of plutonium, the largest civilian stockpile in the world.

 

STAND says: This is why the government has been forced into the incredibly dangerous practice of storing all future high level plutonium waste on the sites of nuclear power stations, including the proposed Oldbury plant. But who will look after the stockpiles of lethal waste when the power station operators have packed up and gone home? The UK taxpayer, that's who. But instead of one centralised plant to deal with the waste there will be several, with all the extra cost - and extra danger - that will bring.

 

Those engaged in the clean-up are still some way from knowing exactly what is in the storage facilities. "Record-keeping in the past was clearly not what it should have been," said a source.

 

Senior nuclear executives will be asked by Public Accounts Committee to comment on how £6m of bonuses came to be shared out among NMP bosses over three years and why the consortium paid back £100,000 in expenses that had been wrongly claimed.

 

Read the full article in the Guardian here

Fukushima meltdown is warning to the world, says nuclear plant operator

In a shock article published in major UK newspapers today, Naomi Hirose, president of the company that runs Fukushima, said Britian’s nuclear industry must be 'prepared for the worst'

 

He said that despite what the nuclear industry and the public wanted to believe, nuclear power was not 100 per cent safe.

 

The full story can be read here on the Guardian's web site or here on the Telegraph's web site.

 

French and Chinese Governments handed huge subsidy to build new Nuclear Power Station in UK

The spectre of a new nuclear power station at Oldbury came a step nearer today as the UK Government announced it has given the go-ahead for a new nuclear power station at Hinkeley Point in Somerset.

 

Although the government has always said it will not offer extra subsidies to the nuclear industry, that is just what it has done. It has offered a ridiculously high price for the future production and has made no stipulations about disposal of waste. And all this not to British companies but to to two foreign governments, the French and the Chinese!

 

The plan now is to store waste on site. This will mean that tons of highly dangerous radioactive waste will be stored on the same site as nuclear power stations. Althought the staions themselves have a life of only 35 years, the waste will remain toxic for thousands of years. Who will look after this? And who will paye for it? The UK taxpayer and energy bill payer , that's who!

 

There is an excellent article about the crazy economics of nuclear power by Jonathon Prritt and others from Friends of the Earth here

 

Satistician says chances of Fukushima style accident at new Oldbury power station a staggering 200-1

STAND believes the ongoing and seemingly unresolvable emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi plant serves as a stark warning to the UK and any other country thinking of embarking on the lunacy of nuclear power.

 

Eminent statistician and epedimioligist, John Urquart, has told STAND that the chances of an accident of the severity of Fukushima happening to the proposed Oldbury Nuclear Power Station are a staggering 1 in 200 in its lifetime.

 

Do you think these are good enough odds, given the utter devastation and loss of life - not to mention the loss of millions of homes - that would ensue? And remember, nuclear acidents are specifically excluded from home insurance policies.

 

 

There is a great article from the BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes about the state of Fukushima today, in which he quotes influencial sources in Japan saying that the disaster was avoidable and could happen anywhere. Read it here

 

(See our new Q and A facts page for further details)

 

Nuclear Industry Committed Act of Treason say Japanese Fishermen

2 years on, Fukushima still leaking 300 tons of highly radioactive water per day. Public to pick up the bill. Tepco said to have lied to public about leaks.

 

In a furious letter to Tepco's president, Naomi Hirose, Japan's national fisheries federation said the water leakages were an "act of treason to all fishing industry workers and to all members of the public in Japan".

 

Read the full article here (Guardian) and here (BBC News)

 

STAND believes the ongoing and seemingly unresolvable emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi plant serves as a stark warning to the UK and any other country thinking of embarking on the lunacy of nuclear power.

 

Eminent statistician and epedimioligist, John Urquart, has told STAND that the chances of an accident of the severity of Fukushima happening to the proposed Oldbury Nuclear Power Station are a staggering 1 in 200 in its lifetime.

 

Do you think these are good enough odds, given the utter devastation and loss of life - not to mention the loss of millions of homes - that would ensue? And remember, nuclear acidents are specifically excluded from home insurance policies.

 

(See our new Q and A facts page for further details)

 

British taxpayers must fund EDF's Hinckley nuclear power station to tune of £10bn + double subsidy

As well as being given £10 bn, EDF, who are half owned by the French state and have already prepared the Hinckley site, are blackmailing the British government to give a guaranteed minimum price for the electricity the new reactor would produce that is much higher than for other forms of new electricity generation.

 

Lib/Dems are reported unhappy at renege on promises of fair subsidies for all new power generation.

 

See article here.

30th June 2013

UK's nuclear clean-up programme to cost billions more than expected

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority declines to predict final lifetime clean-up cost amid fears total bill could exceed £100bn

The public body charged with overseeing the dismantling of Britain's network of atomic power and research stations has revealed that its estimates for the lifetime cost of the programme has risen by billions of pounds.

 

See article here.

23rd June 2013

Nuclear Waste could be dumped at Berkeley says Nuclear decommissioning Agency

The NDA, desperate to find a home for dangerous nuclear waste after their last hope, Cumbria County Council, refused permission, has proposed that around 280 yellow boxes of intermediate level waste could be brought from other sites to be stored at Bradwell in Essex

But, significantly, it also mentioned as potential sites for storage, Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, Trawsfynydd, in Gwynedd, and Hinkley Point, in Somerset. It is interesting to note that these are all old decommissioned nuclear power stations, where presumably the local councils cannot object, as they have elsewhere in the UK.

 

See article here

 

16th June 2013

For earlier news items go to Archives page

 

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Since the beginning of the nuclear power industry the British public has been lied to and misled about the safety and cost of Nuclear Power.

 

In the early fifties we were told nuclear power would be too cheap to meter. It proved to be the costliest of all after Michael Heseltine was forced to admit to parliament that it had been lied to for decades about the true cost of Nuclear Power.

 

For many years British Governments denied that our nuclear power industry was supplying weapons grade plutonium to the USA - until the US freedom of information act let the cat out of the bag

 

And still it goes on - in July 2008 a document supressed by the government but ordered by a judge to be released under the freedom of information act shows that the UK government is planning to replace all its nuclear warheads.

 

THE PRODUCTION OF NUCLEAR WARHEADS HAS ALWAYS GONE HAND IN HAND WITH NUCLEAR POWER.

 

Suddenly the Government's bulldozing through of Nuclear Power makes sense. It certainly doesn't make sense from a climate change or economic perspective.

 

FUKUSHIMA DAY

Saturday 11th March, Lydney Docks.

 

 

A group of Forest residents braved the rain at Lydney harbour last Saturday evening to commemorate Fukushima Day and remember the plight of the displaced victims of one of the worst nuclear accidents the world has seen.

 

The event was organised by STAND (Severnside Together Against Nuclear Development), a group of concerned Foresters who oppose the building of a proposed large new nuclear power station at Oldbury, just across the river Severn.

 

Barbara French for STAND told the gathered crowd: “It was exactly 6 years ago today that a tsunami destroyed the nuclear reactors in the Japanese city of Fukushima and started a reactor core meltdown. The company who built the reactors had assured the local population that the reactors were tsunami proof, but this turned out to be untrue.

 

“300,000 people were initially evacuated in a 30 km (19 miles) radius from around the nuclear plant, and now, 6 years on, 100,000 of them are still unable to return to their homes because the land is too radioactive. The Japanese government have tried to bully the evacuees into returning by threatening to cut their housing subsidies and by arbitrarily, with no scientific evidence, raising the maximum allowed radioactive dose from 1mSv (millisievert) to 20 mSv per year. But understandably they are scared to return. “The latest news from Fukushima is chilling – it would appear the radioactive meltdown, rather than being contained, is actually getting worse, to the point where even radiation-hardened robots are being destroyed within minutes of entering the reactors.

 

“To put it into perspective, if the same evacuation rules were applied here following a major accident to a nuclear installation on Severnside, the whole of Bristol and the whole of the Forest of Dean would have to be evacuated for years, some of it for ever.

 

“We believe that to build a huge new nuclear power station at Oldbury, and to store highly radioactive waste at Berkeley, just across the river, on land increasingly in danger from flooding, is sheer folly and will leave a deadly legacy for future generations.”

 

Also addressing the supporters was Green Party Forest of Dean district councillor Sid Phelps who said: “We are here today primarily to remember the displaced thousands of people still unable to go back to their homes after the dreadful events 6 years ago. But we can also learn lessons from it. Nuclear power, as well as being very dangerous, is very expensive, requiring huge taxpayer subsidies. Renewable sources such as solar, wind and tidal power offer cheap, clean, safe and sustainable electricity while creating thousands of local jobs and boosting the local and national economy".

 

Cheryl Mayo of STAND then read out a moving letter from some of the displaced Fukushima residents that they had sent to the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who’s government is buying Japanese nuclear reactors.

 

The letter begins:“Among us, there are those who lost their homes, those who lost their jobs, those who lost their hometowns and friends, those who lost their future, those who lost their joy in life, and those who lost their very lives. All of this was taken by the nuclear accident.”

 

There then follows a plea for the Indian Government to not buy Japanese reactors and risk the same terrible disaster that happened at Fukushima. The letter ends:

 

“Nuclear power plants will not bring happiness to your citizens. We who experienced the injury of the nuclear accident, we came to understand this through our own bodies and lives. Mr. Modi, for the Indian people and the future of India, please do not sign the India-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. We beseech you to make a wise judgment. Fukushima Women Against Nukes”

 

The group then walked to the harbour lock-gates, carrying lanterns and singing; then threw flowers of remembrance into the water to the sound of Japanese music.

 

RECORD LEVELS OF LETHAL RADIATION MEASURED IN FUKUSHIMA REACTOR

 

 

Justin McCurry in Tokyo writing for the Guardian on 3 February 2017, says that extremely high radiation levels have been recorded inside a damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, almost six years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown.

 

The facility’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said atmospheric readings as high as 530 sieverts an hour had been recorded inside the containment vessel of reactor No 2. The extraordinary radiation readings highlight the scale of the task confronting thousands of workers, as pressure builds on Tepco to begin decommissioning the plant – a process that is expected to take about four decades.

 

See Nuclear News, left, for more.
The full article can be seen here

 

Neighbouring countries concerned about the risk of a Belgian Nuclear meltdown".

 

On 10 January 2017 a new emergency plan was presented in a commission in Belgium's Parliament. The evacuation perimeter was conveniently halved to 10km to avoid an evacuation of Belgium's second and third cities in case of a meltdown. The plan has been called totally inadequate.

 

Courtesy of Nick Meynen of The Ecologist.

See the full story in Nuclear News (left hand column)

 

Nuclear regulator investigated over “lax attitude to safety".

 

Whitehall is investigating the nuclear regulator after The Times revealed that several serious accidents had been dismissed as posing no safety risk.

 

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has come under fire from experts who argue it is too close to the industry to police it rigorously.

 

The inadvertent discharge of a torpedo at a nuclear submarine docks in Plymouth, a complete power cut at the country’s nuclear weapons base and the contamination of at least 15 workers with radioactive material were among the events it had said were of no concern.

 

See the full story in Nuclear News (left hand column)

 

NUCLEAR WASTE SURVEY
9 out of 10 people completely unaware of the presence of dangerous nuclear waste 3 miles from Lydney

 

We have found that many local people are not aware of the fact that 3 miles from Lydney there is the UK’s largest Intermediate nuclear waste store of its kind.

 

 

We conducted a survey of people in Lydney on Friday 18th November to find out what percentage are aware that there is a nuclear waste store on their doorstep: over 90% had no knowledge of the store and most expressed dismay and concern.

 

The results were not unexpected, given the poor record of the nuclear industry sharing their plans with those of us in the Forest of Dean:

 

The local press printed our press release in full detailing our findings.

Intermediate Level Waste Store at Berkeley

 

It is surprising how few people looking directly across the river from Lydney docks realise that the sports hall-like building on the other bank is in fact a new storage facilty for dangerous intermediate level radioactive waste.

 

Originally it was to be a temporary storage facilty but now it looks like it is here to stay for a long time. Magnox say it is only until underground repositories can be found, but that seems increasingly unlikely to happen; and with Sellafield full, and in a mess regarding safety, there is little doubt that this storage faclity is not going away any time soon.

 

The original planning permission application was for a Low Level Waste store just for waste from Berkeley. However, it now holds the far more dangerous intermediate level waste and the permit covers waste from Oldbury, Sizewell and Dungeness Nuclear Power Stations as well as Berkeley.

 

Stroud News and Journal reported on the 18th February 2016:

 

NUCLEAR waste from other power stations is now being stored in Berkeley despite residents being told that this would never happen.

 

Members of the Magnox-run power station’s site stakeholder group (SSG) were told that waste from Sizewell A and Dungeness A power stations would be kept at Berkeley via Oldbury.

 

Magnox began storing the waste using Ductile Cast Iron Containers, but finding concrete to be cheaper, they are now also applying to build a plant to encapsulate the waste in concrete.

 

The fact is that nuclear waste storage is a problem without a solution, yet the Government seems hell bent on rushing in to a new tranch of Nuclear Power stations without any regard to the problems of safety and cost it is storing up for future generations.

 

How can they even consider building a new nuclear power station when the horrendous nuclear waste storage problems are still not sorted out?

 

And see Nuclear news, left, for how the Government was forced to admit that the taxpayer, not the foreign owned nuclear power companies, will pick up the bill for nuclear wste disposal


For earlier main items go to Archives page

 

The Facts About Nuclear Power

Things the nuclear industry won't tell you