Nuclear plants get the go-ahead on the day the West changed forever
Friday, June 24, 2011Western Daily PressFollow
The landscape of the West changed irrevocably yesterday as the Government made it the hub of the UK’s nuclear future.
The region is the only part of the country that will host two new nuclear power plants, ratcheting up to boiling point the already high tension between the opposing camps.
Hinkley Point
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne gave the green light to eight new reactors, including ones at both Hinkley Point in Somerset and Oldbury in South Gloucestershire.
His decision paves the way for a clash between delighted supporters of the projects, who say they will secure thousands of jobs and pump billions into the economy and appalled anti-nuclear campaigners.
They are using the worldwide spotlight on the Glastonbury Festival, which kicks off today as a focus for their opposition.
Stop Hinkley spokesman Crispin Aubrey said rather than allowing more nuclear development, the Government should follow Germany and other European countries in abandoning it, following the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Mr Aubrey said: “After Fukushima, major European countries are showing the way towards a non-nuclear future.
“Germany is abandoning nuclear expansion plans, and going strongly for renewables, and Italy has voted by a massive majority against more nuclear plants.”
He said the arguments against include:
It will leave nuclear waste on the site for up to 160 years, adding to the stockpiles from previous nuclear plants for which there is no final resting place.
Nuclear power runs the risk of a catastrophic accident, radiation leaks and damage to local people’s health.
Nuclear power has always proved more expensive than planned, requiring massive state subsidies. The cost of Hinkley C is £8 billion and rising.
Communities round Hinkley Point will be blighted for 10 years or more by noise, construction traffic and a scarred coastline.
Britain does not need nuclear to keep the lights on and can meet future electricity demand by a mixture of cutting energy consumption, major investment in renewable sources and cleaner fossil fuel generation.
The Glastonbury Festival site is only 24 miles from Hinkley Point and it has always had a strong anti-nuclear stance – at one time it raised money for CND.
Stop Hinkley activities this year include a campaign stall encouraging festival-goers to sign a petition and support a blockade at the power station on October 3.
Reg Illingworth, who is campaigning against Oldbury, told the Daily Press: “It is far too premature to determine the full effects of Fukushima and the potential disasters that could still emanate from there.”
“The disaster in Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant was caused, not by the tsunami or earthquake, but by the human beings who built a nuclear power station close to an earthquake zone.
“Our Government risks building nuclear power plants in areas of amazingly high flood risk in a country that is, sadly, prone to significant terrorist risks without due consideration for the many generations to come.”
Anti-nuclear campaigners are targeting Hinkley as their main battle, as energy giant EDF has already submitted a planning application to West Somerset District Council for preparatory work.
Andreas Speck from Stop New Nuclear, an alliance of groups opposed to all eight new plants backed by the Government, said they would step up their campaign, targeting the blockade. He said if EDF could be forced to abandon plans at Hinkley, it hoped work at all the other planned sites would also be stopped.
EDF said yesterday’s announcement was a key step in the planning process, and it now looked forward to a Parliamentary vote before Summer Recess next month.
The firm, which is also planning for new nuclear at Sizewell in Suffolk, said they were encouraged by the broad cross-party support.
“These steps are important as we and our partner Centrica progress plans for new build at Hinkley Point and Sizewell. As we do so, safety is our number one priority.
“In turn, that will drive growth in jobs, rejuvenate the UK supply chain and help drive economic recovery.”
Alan Rayment of Horizon Nuclear Power said: “Oldbury is an excellent site for nuclear new build and a new power station here can bring hundreds of jobs and millions of pounds of investment into the area.”
“New nuclear developments can provide the UK with a clean, secure and sustainable energy future.”
Energy Minister Charles Hendry said up to 5,000 jobs could be generated at Hinkley Point alone by the construction of a new nuclear power station.
0recommendations Report
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Join the anti-nuclear movement united at Hinkley in October
To Reg Illingworth, Energy secretary Chris Huhne confirmed on Wednesday that the Government wants to press ahead with new nuclear power stations at eight sites, including Hinkley Point.
This really is an important time for the anti-Nuclear Power movement. As you may know, we are organising a mass blockade of Hinkley nuclear power station in October. We have stopped them at Hinkley before and with your help we can do it again. If they fail at Hinkley, it is unlikely the “nuclear renaissance” will have the momentum to continue.
PeterX2 are trying to organise accommodation for people taking part in the blockade that are unable to camp. They also need some drivers to help over the first weekend in October. Any offers of help would be most appreciated
1) Accommodation will be needed for various periods from Friday 30th September to Monday October 3rd. Most people will be camping but there will be a few people who cannot camp and we would like to offer them people's homes. Has anyone got a spare bed or even floor space? It will be a chance to meet other dedicated anti-nuclear power activists and help us accommodate everyone suitably.
2) Drivers and vehicles will be needed for a few chores over the weekend, running to and from the campsite, but mainly we are looking for people willing to collect those arrested from police stations on the Monday and take them to a central place.
Please let us know how you can help as soon as possible so we can start to organise this part of the support for the Blockade.
Could you please forward this email to anybody you know who might be able to help.
Contact: peter.j.kirkham@btinternet.com
subject: Help Stop New Nuclear
For more information about Stop New Nuclear and to sign the Pledge
visit www.stopnewnuclear.org.uk
We thank you for whatever help you can give.
Best Wishes PeterX2.
This really is an important time for the anti-Nuclear Power movement. As you may know, we are organising a mass blockade of Hinkley nuclear power station in October. We have stopped them at Hinkley before and with your help we can do it again. If they fail at Hinkley, it is unlikely the “nuclear renaissance” will have the momentum to continue.
PeterX2 are trying to organise accommodation for people taking part in the blockade that are unable to camp. They also need some drivers to help over the first weekend in October. Any offers of help would be most appreciated
1) Accommodation will be needed for various periods from Friday 30th September to Monday October 3rd. Most people will be camping but there will be a few people who cannot camp and we would like to offer them people's homes. Has anyone got a spare bed or even floor space? It will be a chance to meet other dedicated anti-nuclear power activists and help us accommodate everyone suitably.
2) Drivers and vehicles will be needed for a few chores over the weekend, running to and from the campsite, but mainly we are looking for people willing to collect those arrested from police stations on the Monday and take them to a central place.
Please let us know how you can help as soon as possible so we can start to organise this part of the support for the Blockade.
Could you please forward this email to anybody you know who might be able to help.
Contact: peter.j.kirkham@btinternet.com
subject: Help Stop New Nuclear
For more information about Stop New Nuclear and to sign the Pledge
visit www.stopnewnuclear.org.uk
We thank you for whatever help you can give.
Best Wishes PeterX2.
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Wade Allison to speak in Bristol
Subject: Science Cafe - next Monday, June 27th, Tobacco Factory, 8pm
Monday, June 27th, Tobacco Factory, 8pm - free
Ever since the Cold War with its threat of nuclear holocaust we have held radiation in awe.
But, unlike at other accidents, nobody died of radiation at Fukushima. Something is wrong! The safety of radiation is misunderstood.
Wade Allison is Professor Emeritus at Oxford University. He is the author of “Radiation and Reason: the impact of science on a culture of fear”. Copies will be available.
http://sciencecafe.co.uk
Life and Nuclear Radiation: Chernobyl and Fukushima in perspective
Professor Wade AllisonEver since the Cold War with its threat of nuclear holocaust we have held radiation in awe.
But, unlike at other accidents, nobody died of radiation at Fukushima. Something is wrong! The safety of radiation is misunderstood.
Wade Allison is Professor Emeritus at Oxford University. He is the author of “Radiation and Reason: the impact of science on a culture of fear”. Copies will be available.
http://sciencecafe.co.uk
Press release from SANE about Oldbury B
Today it has been announced that Oldbury remains one of the sites the government consider suitable for new nuclear reactors.
We at SANE (Shepperdine Against Nuclear Energy) have the following views:-
"It is far too premature to determine the full effects of Fukushima and the potential disasters that could still emanate from there
The German government and people have decided to close the existing nuclear power stations, The Italians voted in a referendum to scrap any plans for new nuclear
We with the French now stand alone in Europe as totally unmoved by the potential disasters that can be caused by nature or humans in their planning and control systems.
The disaster in Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant was caused, not by the tsunami or earthquake, but by the human beings who built a nuclear power station close to an earthquake zone.
Our government risks building nuclear power plants in areas of amazingly high flood risk in a country that is, sadly, prone to significant terrorist risks without due consideration for the many generations to come
We ,with our colleagues from the other seven sites, will continue to be involved with discussions with DECC as we go forward, I can also envisage a lot of anxiety from the members of Shepperdine Against Nuclear Energy.
We will be supporting Hinkley and Wylfa in their struggles as the potential first sites to be developed.
It is our intention to strengthen our links with municipalities in Germany to stop their energy companies, E.on and RWE, from building new nuclear in the UK.
We believe the moral standpoint of the German people and their government casts shame on our own feeble leaders in this matter.
The energy and power remains with us as a conscious set of people who fully understand the full ramifications of a complete lack of vision in energy policy in the UK.......It is us who will pay!
We pledge to peacefully halt new nuclear and to close down the existing old and risky sites, and we will overcome!"
Thank you
Reg Illingworth
if you want any comments or interviews please contact 07796 447 880
Fukushima is worse than Chernobyl!
Al Jazeera / By Dahr Jamail
Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public.
June 16, 2011
"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.
Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant.
Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.
"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."
TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water that has to be disposed of.
"The problem is how to keep it cool," says Gundersen. "They are pouring in water and the question is what are they going to do with the waste that comes out of that system, because it is going to contain plutonium and uranium. Where do you put the water?"
Even though the plant is now shut down, fission products such as uranium continue to generate heat, and therefore require cooling.
"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor," Gundersen added. "TEPCO announced they had a melt through. A melt down is when the fuel collapses to the bottom of the reactor, and a melt through means it has melted through some layers. That blob is incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive water."
Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are disconcerting.
"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen.
"The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl.
We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up.
We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl."
Read more:
http://www.alternet.org/story/151328/full_meltdown:_fukushima_called_the_'biggest_industrial_catastrophe_in_the_history_of_mankind'_?page=entire
Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public.
June 16, 2011
"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.
Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant.
Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.
"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."
TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water that has to be disposed of.
"The problem is how to keep it cool," says Gundersen. "They are pouring in water and the question is what are they going to do with the waste that comes out of that system, because it is going to contain plutonium and uranium. Where do you put the water?"
Even though the plant is now shut down, fission products such as uranium continue to generate heat, and therefore require cooling.
"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor," Gundersen added. "TEPCO announced they had a melt through. A melt down is when the fuel collapses to the bottom of the reactor, and a melt through means it has melted through some layers. That blob is incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive water."
Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are disconcerting.
"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen.
"The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl.
We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up.
We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl."
Read more:
http://www.alternet.org/story/151328/full_meltdown:_fukushima_called_the_'biggest_industrial_catastrophe_in_the_history_of_mankind'_?page=entire
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Rain to cause major problems at Fukushima!
TEPCO cuts back on water due to expected rains
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. has launched efforts to reduce the amount of radioactive water being generated at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, given that its water decontamination system has not been functioning properly and the rainy season has officially arrived in the area.
The efforts began following the Meteorological Agency's announcement Tuesday that the rainy season has begun in the Tohoku region, which includes Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is located.
TEPCO workers are covering the roofs of reactor buildings that were blown off in hydrogen explosions after the March 11 disaster to keep rainwater out, and the utility has cut back on the amount of cooling water being injected into the reactors.
The highly radioactive water accumulated at the Fukushima power station after leaking from damaged reactors. If it cannot be disposed of smoothly, it is feared it may overflow trenches and storage tanks before the end of the month.
But reducing the water being poured into the damaged reactors puts the plant operator in dilemma, since if the volume of water is reduced, temperatures in the reactors will likely rise. In fact, temperatures inside the No. 3 reactor have already risen slightly.
The amount of water being injected into the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors was reduced by half a ton per hour Tuesday for the second straight day to 3.5 tons per hour and four tons per hour, respectively. But plant workers have continued pouring 10 tons per hour into the No. 3 reactor because of high temperatures inside, TEPCO said.
Other measures to deal with expected heavy rain include installing sandbags around the reactor facilities, and covering roofs and doors with steel sheets.
Contaminated water in an operational trench for the No. 3 reactor reached its highest level when it rose to 12 centimeters below the top of the trench at 7 a.m. Wednesday. If decontamination does not proceed smoothly, the polluted water could overflow by next Wednesday, or even earlier if rainwater gets in.
Water levels in the same trench rose by 6.5 centimeters a day when an extratropical cyclone passed over the plant at the end of May, the utility said.
The Meteorological Agency has forecast precipitation for the coming month in the southern Tohoku region will be less than normal, but warned there was the possibility it would rain more heavily toward the end of the rainy season.
Radiation of 430 millisieverts per hour was detected near the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima plant, TEPCO said Wednesday.
The extremely high radiation level was measured at a mezzanine floor between the first floor and the basement of the No. 2 reactor building. This figure is the highest ever recorded in the building.
Highly radioactive water is believed to have leaked from the damaged reactor pressure suppression chamber in the basement, a TEPCO official said.
TEPCO workers entered the basement for the first time since the March 11 disaster Tuesday and measured radiation on the stairway on the northwestern side of the building.
(Jun. 23, 2011)
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. has launched efforts to reduce the amount of radioactive water being generated at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, given that its water decontamination system has not been functioning properly and the rainy season has officially arrived in the area.
The efforts began following the Meteorological Agency's announcement Tuesday that the rainy season has begun in the Tohoku region, which includes Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is located.
TEPCO workers are covering the roofs of reactor buildings that were blown off in hydrogen explosions after the March 11 disaster to keep rainwater out, and the utility has cut back on the amount of cooling water being injected into the reactors.
The highly radioactive water accumulated at the Fukushima power station after leaking from damaged reactors. If it cannot be disposed of smoothly, it is feared it may overflow trenches and storage tanks before the end of the month.
But reducing the water being poured into the damaged reactors puts the plant operator in dilemma, since if the volume of water is reduced, temperatures in the reactors will likely rise. In fact, temperatures inside the No. 3 reactor have already risen slightly.
The amount of water being injected into the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors was reduced by half a ton per hour Tuesday for the second straight day to 3.5 tons per hour and four tons per hour, respectively. But plant workers have continued pouring 10 tons per hour into the No. 3 reactor because of high temperatures inside, TEPCO said.
Other measures to deal with expected heavy rain include installing sandbags around the reactor facilities, and covering roofs and doors with steel sheets.
Contaminated water in an operational trench for the No. 3 reactor reached its highest level when it rose to 12 centimeters below the top of the trench at 7 a.m. Wednesday. If decontamination does not proceed smoothly, the polluted water could overflow by next Wednesday, or even earlier if rainwater gets in.
Water levels in the same trench rose by 6.5 centimeters a day when an extratropical cyclone passed over the plant at the end of May, the utility said.
The Meteorological Agency has forecast precipitation for the coming month in the southern Tohoku region will be less than normal, but warned there was the possibility it would rain more heavily toward the end of the rainy season.
Radiation of 430 millisieverts per hour was detected near the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima plant, TEPCO said Wednesday.
The extremely high radiation level was measured at a mezzanine floor between the first floor and the basement of the No. 2 reactor building. This figure is the highest ever recorded in the building.
Highly radioactive water is believed to have leaked from the damaged reactor pressure suppression chamber in the basement, a TEPCO official said.
TEPCO workers entered the basement for the first time since the March 11 disaster Tuesday and measured radiation on the stairway on the northwestern side of the building.
(Jun. 23, 2011)
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