Dounreay
A fire at the Dounreay nuclear plant resulted in an “unauthorised” release of radioactivity, an investigation has found. Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL), the company responsible for decommissioning the site on the north coast of Scotland, said it had identified “unacceptable behaviours and practices” by staff. The fire broke out on October 7 in the prototype fast reactor sodium tank building, where sodium residues from the operation of the reactor are stored. The Dounreay on-site fire brigade extinguished the blaze and no one was hurt. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and regulators were informed and an investigation was launched. A statement from DSRL said: “The investigation thoroughly checked each aspect of the work and identified procedural non-compliances and behavioural practices that were factors in the incident, and fell short of the values and standards expected of our people. “It also confirmed the release of radioactivity via an unauthorised route.”
Herald 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Herald 22nd Nov 2014 read more »
A fire caused by staff error at a Scottish nuclear reactor site in October 2014 led to an “unauthorised release” of radioactivity admits Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL), the company licensed and responsible for the clean-up and demolition of the site. DSRL said the fire at the sodium tank farm in Dounreay on 7 October was caused by “unacceptable behaviours and practices” from staff that “fell well short of our values and standards.” The fire was immediately extinguished and the site was confirmed safe within 30 minutes. No one was harmed in the incident and action has been taken to stabilise the situation and stop work in the tank farm until the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) was satisfied with the DSRL’s improvements.
IB Times 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Engineering & Technology 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Express 21st Nov 2014 read more »
STV 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Times 22nd Nov 2014 read more »
Scotsman 22nd Nov 2014 read more »
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said the problems at Dounreay were disturbing. “Until we can clone enough popes to staff all the world’s nuclear reactor control rooms, there will always be a fallible human component in nuclear power stations. This worrying news demonstrates why it’s important to remember that even a reactor design which looks safe on paper can never completely design out the actions of human beings. Its why renewable energy always scores better on safety, because far less can go wrong.” The Nuclear Free Local Authorities Secretariat, the local government voice on nuclear issues, described the Dounreay incident as “alarming” and called for more information. “To hear that critical staff were not fully conversant in fire safety procedures and that a release of tritium occurred; putting into danger staff and the wider public; is quite disgraceful at such a sensitive nuclear site like Dounreay,” said councillor Mark Hackett, the NFLA’s chair.
Guardian 21st Nov 2014 read more »
NFLA Press Release 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Hinkley
Michael Meacher: The news for nuclear gets worse every day. The latest news today is that the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset, the government’s flagship nuclear project is near the point of collapse. After Ed Davey, the LibDem secretary of state (there was a time before they joined the government in 2010 that the LibDems were solidly against nuclear) waved through the most expensive power station in history, and then the EU Commission suspiciously decided that the huge financial concessions (bribes?) offered to EDF did not mysteriously constitute an illegal state aid, it now looks as though Areva, the French designer of the reactor and the only company that can provide the equipment, is in a state of free fall. Areva was already building two reactors, one at Olkiluoto in Finland and the other at Flamanville in France. Both have been a disaster, massively behind schedule and over budget. As a result Areva has been forced to suspend all its profit predictions and its shares have crashed nearly a quarter. Can Hinkley Point C survive? If not, the government’s whole energy policy is in deep trouble.
Michael Meacher 20th Nov 2014 read more »
EDF has already moved heavy earth moving gear onto the Hinkley C nuclear power station construction site, writes Doug Parr – but that doesn’t mean it’s a done deal. On the contrary, a host of intractable problems are coming home to roost, and the increasingly troubled project is looking shakier than ever.
Ecologist 20th Nov 2014 read more »
Plans for Britain’s first new nuclear plant in a generation could be threatened by a financial crisis at the company supplying the reactor, experts have claimed. But the financial crisis isn’t the only sticking point the plant could face. It has also been revealed a secret review has been launched by the Government amid fears the completion of the project will be delayed for years.
Bristol Post 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Torness
A nuclear reactor at the Torness power station in East Lothian has gone offline in an unplanned outage, its operator has said. EDF Energy said the 640MW Torness 2 reactor went offline at 01:16 on Friday. The unit was expected to remain unavailable for seven days, the firm said. It means nearly 5GW of British nuclear capacity is offline. The reactor normally has a capacity of 640 megawatts. Lang Banks, WWF Scotland director, said: “With yet another unplanned shutdown this year at a Scottish facility, nuclear power has once again shown itself to be a totally unreliable source of energy. “Thankfully Scotland has plenty of cleaner, safer energy alternatives it can call on to be able to deal with unplanned shutdowns at atomic facilities like this. “Last month, wind turbines in Scotland alone generated enough electricity to supply three millions homes in the UK – equivalent to 126% of the electricity needs of every house north of the border.” Reactor 1 at the plant was temporarily shut down in July due to an issue with the electrical system.
BBC 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Herald 21st Nov 2014 read more »
STV 21st Nov 2014 read more »
New Nukes
Geoffrey Lean: Sir David King said a lot about the promise of renewable energy, he said almost nothing about nuclear power – despite for long having been one of its foremost and most influential advocates in Britain, describing it, for example, as a “massive economic opportunity” for the country. So I got up and asked him about it, expecting the same pro-nuclear response as I had heard from him many times before. Instead he amazed me by suggesting that Britain “might well” be able to do without atomic power altogether, and that the real priority should be on developing ways of storing electricity so as to be able to depend on famously intermittent sun and wind. In recent years there have been several much publicised conversions of former opponents of nuclear power – like columnist and activist George Monbiot, and former Greenpeace executive director Stephen Tindale – to supporting it. Could this be the first example of a powerful nuclear advocate going, at least partially, the other way? Back in 2005 George wrote a typically trenchant column attacking David as “our own nuclear salesman” and suggesting he had “political reasons” for trying to sell new nuclear power stations. Which all goes to show just how unexpected life can be.
Telegraph 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Small Nuclear
Small modular reactors (SMRs) are not the solution to all of the UK’s energy needs, according to Labour. Speaking at the Nuclear New Build conference yesterday, shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex warned the government that “nuclear has an important role in the UK’s transition to a low-carbon power sector”. He said there are “many opportunities” for small and medium scale reactor technologies, but warned “no one, including the Chancellor as he drafts his Autumn Statement, should be fooled into thinking that small nuclear reactors are somehow the answer to all our energy needs.” SMRs have some support on the government benches, including energy and climate change select committee members Peter Lilley and Phillip Lee. Greatrex also reiterated Labour’s call for the Hinkley Point C deal, with a strike price of £92.50/MWh – £89.50/MWh if EDF Energy proceeds with construction of the Sizewell C nuclear plant – to be reviewed by the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Utility Week 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Terror
With unidentified drones regularly overflying French nuclear power plants, Daniel Salisbury and Christopher Hobbs warn that despite the dismissive responses of nuclear operators, they have cause for concern: the drones may be unable to cause serious damage in themselves, but they compromise site security and open the way to future attacks.
Ecologist 20th Nov 2014 read more »
AWE
Nuclear Information Service and Medact have undertaken a two-year study to investigate research links between British universities and the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), which is responsible for designing and manufacturing the UK’s nuclear weapons. This report presents the executive summary and key findings from our study. We found that approaching half of British universities have research links with AWE. Much of the work funded by AWE qualifies as ‘blue skies’ research which is not aimed at any particular application. However, some of the research funded by AWE may have ‘dual use’ potential – the capability to be used for both benign, peaceful purposes and military purposes contributing to the development of weapons of mass destruction.
Radiation Free Lakeland 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
The Republic of the Marshall Islands recently launched a bold legal action against the nine nuclear-armed states before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). They’re taking the nuclear weapons states to task for failing to eliminate this danger that threatens us all. Between 1946 and 1958, the US conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshalls – described as ‘by far the most contaminated place in the world’. Having seen their land, sea and people poisoned by radiation, the islanders are now standing up to the nine nuclear giants to say, “Never again.” The Marshall Islanders argue that the nine states are required under international law to enter into serious negotiations towards total nuclear disarmament but that, to date, they have failed to do so.
Greenpeace 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Energy Policy
As the governing conservative party lurches ever further to the right, writes Kyla Mandel, it feels like UKIP has already won the election – six months before it’s even happened. Tory ministers are already executing UKIP policies, with their ignorant but implacable hatred of renewable energy in all its forms.
Ecologist 17th Nov 2014 read more »
Iran
Philip Hammond will join US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to continue talks aimed at breaking the nuclear deadlock between Tehran and six world powers.
ITV 22nd Nov 2014 read more »
Skilled negotiators often seek to bridge the most unbridgeable divides by the time-honoured methods of fudging and renaming. The IRA never disarmed: instead it “decommissioned” its weapons and put them “beyond use”. The reason why these talks are deadlocked is that America and Iran have both allowed themselves to be impaled on one issue that remains defiantly beyond fudge. The roadblock to a final agreement that could resolve the nuclear-tipped cold war between Washington and Tehran has remained the same for more than a decade. It comes down to one question: how many centrifuges will Iran be allowed to keep?
Telegraph 22nd Nov 2014 read more »
Guardian 21st Nov 2014 read more »
For many years, the US and its allies tried to deny Iran this right. While it has now abandoned that attempt, it is still trying to limit the scale of Iran’s enrichment capabilities. It has no right to do that. The NPT doesn’t put limits on the right of a sovereign state to decide for itself the scale of enrichment it requires. Of course, it will be said that Iran is a special case – that it is developing nuclear weapons or has the intention to do so – and therefore such limitations are justified. We suggest that anybody who still believes that Iran had a nuclear weapons programme reads Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare by US investigative journalist Gareth Porter. It demonstrates beyond peradventure that this is a myth based on intelligence that was either misinterpreted or simply false.
Telegraph 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Channel 4 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Telegraph 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Renewables – wave
Wave power technology firm Pelamis has called in administrators KPMG after failing to secure development funding. The Edinburgh-based firm has been testing its wave energy converters at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney for a number of years. But in a statement Pelamis said it had “reluctantly” moved to appoint an administrator. KPMG said it was seeking a buyer who could protect the business and its 56 employees. In 2012, the inventor of the Pelamis wave energy device, Dr Richard Yemm, won the annual Saltire Prize Medal for his outstanding contribution to the development of the marine renewables sector. Announcing the administration move, the company said: “The directors of Pelamis regret to announce that they have been unable to secure the additional funding required for further development of the company’s market-leading wave energy technology.
BBC 21st Nov 2014 read more »
FT 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Times 22nd Nov 2014 read more »
Herald 22nd Nov 2014 read more »
Scotsman 22nd Nov 2014 read more »
Business Green 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News. Farms could provide another 20GW and large-scale PV to be cheaper than gas by 2018.
Microgen Scotland 21st Nov 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos, Environment Secretary Liz Truss, the Environment Agency and its ex-boss Lord Smith all suffer from a blind spot, writes David Lowry – the dangers of fracking, its radioactive emissions and the toxic chemicals that threaten to pollute our aquifers. As for official advice that ‘regulation needs to be strongly and robustly applied’ – pass the Tippex!
Ecologist 21st Nov 2014 read more »
