Nuclear Sites
As many as 12 of Britain’s 19 civil nuclear sites are at risk of flooding and coastal erosion because of climate change, according to an unpublished government analysis obtained by the Guardian. Nine of the sites have been assessed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as being vulnerable now, while others are in danger from rising sea levels and storms in the future. The sites include all of the eight proposed for new nuclear power stations around the coast, as well as numerous radioactive waste stores, operating reactors and defunct nuclear facilities. Two of the sites for the new stations Sizewell in Suffolk and Hartlepool in County Durham, where there are also operating reactors are said to have a current high risk of flooding. Closed and running reactors at Dungeness, Kent, are also classed as currently at high risk. Another of the sites at risk is Hinkley Point in Somerset, where the first of the new nuclear stations is planned and where there are reactors in operation and being decommissioned. According to Defra, Hinkley Point already has a low risk of flooding, and by the 2080s will face a high risk of both flooding and erosion.
Guardian 7th March 2012 more >>
Map of nuclear sites.
Guardian 7th March 2012 more >>
DEFRA Analysis available here.
Rob Edwards 7th March 2012 more >>
New Nukes
“It would be ideal if Fukushima could steer us away from prophecies and towards a sensible assessment of market economics, climate science and nuclear risks. Then nuclear power would serve the public, not the other way around. I don’t know how many reactors we would get, but we would get the number that we need.” In the fiendishly complex debate on the merits of nuclear power, that analysis is the most clear-eyed and crisply expressed that I have seen. It comes from nuclear industry veteran and academic Peter Bradford and is published in the leading journal Nature. I’ll make no apology from quoting from his article liberally. The UK government is now having to torture the language of new policies to subsidise new reactors without this being recognised as such. That contortion, the result of a coalition between two parties with opposing views on nuclear power, alongside the fallout from Fukushima appears to have heavily dented UK public confidence.
Guardian 7th March 2012 more >>
Nature 8th March 2012 more >>
Oldbury
On Wednesday Oldbury nuclear plant closed after 44 years of operating – at last – many of us have long argued it should have closed many years ago. It will take 100 years to clean up and indeed is a very tough job….for many hundred years after that it will still need to be kept secure.
Ruscombe Green 3rd March 2012 more >>
Cumbria
Passenger trains could be run by the organisation responsible for cleaning up after Britain’s nuclear-power industry. Freight operator Direct Rail Services, a subsidiary of the state-owned Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, has held talks with Cumbria County Council over the plan for the coastal line between Barrow and Carlisle.
Independent 8th Mar 2012 more >>
Radwaste
Fresh from watching a webcast, perhaps better described as “The Elaine Woodburn Show”, we must admit to a certain feeling of righteousness. Taking part in the show were three pro-nuclears, one lightly anti-nuclear and one who was difficult to describe, but managed to make the rest seem competent – not an easy feat. The whole idea of burying waste in the ground had been predicated on a suitable site being found – essentially and uniquely this being centred on a site near Longlands Farm, near Gosforth. Contrary to what the geologist said during the programme, we think we are right in saying that boreholes have already been drilled there and were capped off after failing to satisfy the Nirex Inquiry that even the least unsatisfactory site in western Cumbria was unsuitable for the burial of highly radioactive waste. We would be happy to be corrected about the presence or otherwise of bore holes.
Toxic Coast 6th March 2012 more >>
A new research report illustrates that the UK must take a different approach to delivering the nuclear roadmap. Any delay in making strategic decisions could jeopardise the UK nuclear supply chain from capitalising on global business opportunities, say the authors. Delivering an expanded nuclear scenario in the United Kingdom, beyond the proposed 16 GW to replace existing capacity by 2025, could require a distinctly different approach than has been historically administered. In fact, a new report published by the Energy Research Partnership, highlights that perhaps a more dynamic approach to the UKs nuclear capacity programme should lead with a better understanding of the fuel cycle and waste management implications, rather than by the choice of reactor alone. The report stresses the key issues and analysis that will be needed to inform the strategic decisions on which a research and development roadmap can be based. But the core of the research lies with two possible nuclear new build scenarios a Replacement Scenario, generating 16 GW of electricity until 2025, and an Expansion Scenario, generating 16 GW until 2025 and then building up to 40 GW in 2050 – and examines the issues and consequences that need to be addressed for both.
Nuclear Energy Insider 7th March 2012 more >>
Terror
Stateless terrorists are closer to unleashing a nuclear attack on Britain than ever before, Nick Clegg will warn today. The Deputy Prime Minister will say materials and internet instructions on how to make a ‘dirty bomb’ have become so readily available in recent years that police forces are unable to contain such a threat.
Daily Mail 7th Mar 2012 more >>
Fukushima
Dr Ian Fairlie: This note briefly discusses why the nuclear disaster happened, why it is still occurring, the main preliminary lessons, its likely health effects and its political effects in Europe. Information and new insights about Fukushima are appearing almost on a daily basis. This briefing was written on March 7, 2012. It is too early to make firm predictions, but judging from the exposures and effects seen at Chernobyl, its likely that at least a few thousand fatal cancers will occur among those exposed to Fukushimas radioactive fallout. In addition, its likely that Fukushima plant workers will suffer as the Japanese Health and Labor Ministry reported that nearly 100 workers had exceeded legal radiation limits by June 2011.
Ian Fairlie 7th March 2012 more >>
In the accompanying post, I attempt to sum up the situation at Fukushima. This has not been an easy task. Unlike the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 where too little information was disseminated, after the Fukushima disaster clearly too much information is available for any one author to process. For example, there have been about five major independent reports of variable quality on Fukushima and its effects in the past year, plus the same number of official reports. More are expected soon. And it is estimated that several thousand webpages are dedicated to aspects of the Japanese nuclear disaster. Many of the ones I looked at just contain opinions and are of little merit: the signal-to-noise ratios are often very low.
Ian Fairlie 7th March 2012 more >>
This weekend, campaigners from across Wales will be marking the first anniversary of the on-going Daichi-Fukushima nuclear disaster by calling loudly and clearly for a halt to nuclear energy expansion. They will be protesting against plans to build new nuclear reactors at Wylfa on Anglesey/Ynys Môn, and to build more nuclear reactors next to the existing nuclear site at Hinkley in Somerset just 30 miles across the Bristol Channel from Wales.
CND Cymru 7th March 2012 more >>
Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, which was last year hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami, could become an export hub for offshore wind technology under plans put forward by a consortium to build the world’s first floating wind farm. Logistics corporation Marubeni yesterday announced it would lead a project to build three floating wind turbines with a total of 16MW capactity and one floating substation off the coast of Fukushima, with work starting as early as this year.
Business Green 7th March 2012 more >>
Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update 2nd – 5th March 2012
Greenpeace 5th March 2012 more >>
Japan’s worst-ever nuclear accident displaced more than 100,000 people. Many could now safely return home. Yet mistrust of the government prolongs their exile.
Nature 7th March 2012 more >>
Only two of the 54 reactors that were in service before the Fukushima accident are producing power. The remaining pair are scheduled to go off-line by early May, leaving Japan without a working atomic plant for the first time in four decades, and depriving it of what had been the source of up to 30 per cent of its electricity. Although the government of Yoshihiko Noda, prime minister, has talked of reducing Japans dependency on nuclear power in the long run, it is lobbying local leaders to allow their nuclear plants to resume operations for now, pending safety checks. We hope to regain the publics trust, Mr Noda said in a recent interview with the Financial Times and other foreign journalists. But in the end it will come down to a political decision.
FT 7th March 2012 more >>
Just days before Japan marks the anniversary of March 11, 2011 tsunami and the nuclear disaster that followed, leaders from more than 50 organisations and prominent individuals from all around the world today released an open letter to world leaders calling for investments in safe, renewable energy in order to end to the threat of nuclear power and put protecting people ahead of protecting the nuclear industry.
Greenpeace 7th May 2012 more >>
ONR
A year on from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the UKs Chief Nuclear Inspector and Executive Head of the Office for Nuclear Regulation explains how we are ensuring lessons are learned from Fukushima.
ONR 7th March 2012 more >>
Chernobyl
Pripyat, in Ukraine, once housed thousands of families of men and women working at the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But on April 26, 1986 disaster struck – when an explosion at the plant caused radiation to leak from a nuclear reactor. The 50,000 residents of Pripyat – now a ghost town – were evacuated in a major government operation starting the day after the catastrophe, on April 27. The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.
Daily Mail 7th Mar 2012 more >>
Telegraph 8th Mar 2012 more >>
China
China moved a step closer this week to achieving its ultimate goal of supplying its AP1000-based nuclear reactor technology, CAP1400, to domestic and international projects. A sign that the Chinese 3G nuclear supply chain is becoming increasingly home grown pushing out established foreign players.
Nuclear Energy Insider 7th March 2012 more >>
Iran
In an age of dithering Western leaders who are more interested in the policies of appeasement and cutting defence spending while shoring up massive entitlement programmes, it is refreshing to see a figure like Benjamin Netanyahu on the world stage.
Telegraph 7th March 2012 more >>
US President Barack Obama suggested Tuesday that Iran’s nuclear program was not an immediate threat, but said new world power talks would “quickly” establish if Tehran wanted to end the crisis.
Middle East Online 7th March 2012 more >>
Western pressure will cause discussions on Irans controversial nuclear programme to fail, the Iranian parliamentary speaker said today.
Independent 7th March 2012 more >>
Iran is trying to remove evidence that its scientists tested detonators for nuclear weapons by clearing a military site ahead of a visit by inspectors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Telegraph 7th Mar 2012 more >>
Guardian 8th Mar 2012 more >>
US
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has started a formal evaluation of potential generic safety implications for dam failures upstream of US commercial nuclear power plants. The NRC began examining this issue after inspection findings at two plants and recently completed an initial screening assessment.
Water Power 7th March 2012 more >>
Green Deal
A total of £3.5million in funding has been announced today to help train hundreds of people in key green skills ahead of the launch of the Green Deal, delivering on the Deputy Prime Ministers announcement in March last year to create 1,000 Green Deal apprenticeships. The Green Deal is the Governments flagship energy efficiency scheme aimed at renovating millions of draughty, energy-inefficient homes and office buildings across the UK. This scheme will begin later this year and will support an estimated 65,000 jobs by 2015. Trained, skilled professionals in assessing home energy efficiency and installing insulation are crucial for getting the Green Deal off the ground which is why todays money for training will go a long way to help the UK prepare for the launch.
DECC 8th March 2012 more >>
Renewables
Wadebridge in Cornwall aims to become the first town in the country to run significantly on renewable energy sources. This film documents a local activist group’s efforts to convince the rest of the community that solar panels and wind turbines are the way forward.
Guardian 7th March 2012 more >>
