Sunday 28 June 2009

Nuclear News

Here's the latest crop of stories on Nuclear Power:

1) A 2007 nuclear leak at Sizewell A in Suffolk was discovered by luck and could have cased an airborne off-site release of radioactivity. It's only come to light now because of the Freedom of Information Act. (GW)

2) Robot under-water crawlers are to search the sea off the coast of Dounreay for up to 1500 potential radioactive fragments. Other specialist robots have also been built for use in dismantling parts of the reactor. This type of equipment doesn't come cheap. Thus the taxpayer is still obliged to spend large sums on a power station that closed 30 years ago. You can bet that these costs were not factored into the claimed cost of electricity back then. There must be a better way to provide employment in places like Dounreay than contaminating them with nuclear reactor waste.


3) The Finnish Nuclear and Radiation Safety Authority (STUK) has sent a letter to Areva, the French company building the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant, stating that they will shut down the power station site if Areva doesn’t fix problems in the plant’s automation systems.This is a potentially devastating, blow because one of the main selling points of the new reactor has been that its safety systems will work far better than those in current reactors. It is particularly important that they do because, as The Independent on Sunday reported in February, they will produce many times as much radiation that could be rapidly released in the event of an accident. See: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/safety-threat-to-planned-nuclear-power-stations-1682293.html.

4) Reactor 2 at Oldbury nuclear power station has just been switched back on (according to Professional Engineering). This is the first time in 5 years that both reactors at the site have been working.

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