Such is the concern about its safety standards that US officials have warned of its creaking infrastructure in diplomatic cables
If cracks in the edifice continue to grow, officials will be forced to seal it up entirely in red tape.
Tag Archives: nuclear power
Polarised
“Nuclear reactors bobbing around the Arctic Ocean will pose a shockingly obvious threat to a fragile environment which is already under enormous pressure from climate change. … [The Lomonosov] is designed with the great margin of safety that exceeds all possible threats and makes nuclear reactors invincible for tsunamis and other natural disasters.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/floating-nuclear-power-plant-russia-floating-chernobyl-nuclear-titanic-akademik-lomonosov-launch-a8327316.html
Russian roulette anyone?
Somewhere, over the Radioisotope…
“The Moorside [nuclear] Power plant is slated to be completed in Cumbria’s rural landscape in 2024. A creative design competition, sponsored by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Landscape Institute, called on designers to submit creative landscape proposals for the project. … The cherry on top of [one top five] design is clearly the massive man-made rainbow that would arch over the landscape. Two large glass prismatic towers would be placed on opposite sides of the project and would use light and mist to create a continual rainbow, … ‘helping the power station blend in with the stunning scenery in the region, whilst providing a place for people to visit and learn about NuGen’s advancement of safe nuclear science and power.'” http://inhabitat.com/upcoming-nuclear-power-plant-in-the-uk-may-shoot-giant-rainbows-into-the-sky/
The plant is expected to become a top destination for tourists, who can look forward to being guided around the showcase site by a unicorn with liberal sprinkles of magic dust.
Radioactive decay
“Westinghouse and its parent Toshiba are in crisis because of massive cost overruns building four ‘AP1000’ nuclear power reactors in the southern US states of Georgia and South Carolina. … Toshiba says Westinghouse had debts totalling US$9.8 billion. …
Westinghouse is the major member of the Nugen consortium that’s set to build a massive three-reactor AP1000 nuclear complex at Moorside in the UK, next to the Sellafield site. The company has already stated that while it intends to progress the project through planning stages, it is unable to take on financing or construction and intends to sell its share.
Nugen’s other member, the French energy company Engie (formerly GDF Suez) has also gone on record as wanting to extricate itself from the Moorside project in favour of the ‘new energy’ economy based on renewable, storage and smart grid technologies. …
The UK’s Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) today – with impeccable timing – accepted the AP1000 design as “suitable for construction in the UK” and issued Westinghouse a Design Acceptance Certificate.” http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2988820/toshibas_nuclear_flagship_goes_bust_after_10_billion_losses.html
The UK government still hopes to save the nuclear industry by unveiling miracle cutting edge technology that uses radioactive heavy ironium.
Noclearer
“The UK’s energy department, BEIS, today announced the go-ahead for the controversial Hinkley Point C (HPC) nuclear power plant in Somerset … [despite]
•its very high cost, more than double the current wholesale power price and far more than the current cost of even high-cost renewable power from offshore wind;
•security concerns over China’s involvement in core UK infrastructure;
•the lack of any single example of a working EPR reactor anywhere in the world;
•the severe delays, cost overuns and technical problems at all EPR construction sites;
•the low value of HPC’s contribution to UK energy supply in the new decentralised ‘smart grid’ era;
•and, common to all nuclear power, the continued absence of any solution to the nuclear waste problem.” (http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2988131/hinkley_c_nuclear_goahead_may_caves_in_to_pressure_from_france_and_china.html)
“Ministers will impose a new legal framework for future foreign investment in Britain’s critical infrastructure, which will include nuclear energy and apply after Hinkley.” (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-confirms-hinkley-point-c-project-following-new-agreement-in-principle-with-edf)
After Hinkley?
“Hinkley Point C will provide seven per cent of Britain’s electricity needs for sixty years.”
Plus building and decommissioning time. So at least 100 years. If anyone can be bothered reviewing historical documents. If we haven’t extinguished ourselves by then. That’s a very long kick into very long grass.
“The Government will be able to prevent the sale of EDF’s controlling stake prior to the completion of construction, without the prior notification and agreement of ministers. This agreement will be confirmed in an exchange of letters between the Government and EDF.”
Who is this Government if it is not ministers?
“After Hinkley, the British Government will take a special share in all future nuclear new build projects.”
British Government, not UK. So, in 100 years, whatever artificial intelligence entity comprises Government is expected to have disintegrated the union of regions, if not yet detached from Europe.
“A new era of UK nuclear power – building on Britain’s strong nuclear legacy.”
That would be the nuclear waste, bequeathed to anyone left standing in 1000 years.
“The Contract for Difference would provide a set price of £92.50 per megawatt hour of electricity provided by Hinkley Point C for 35 years once it begins generating.”
Start betting on a very high rate of inflation.
“Is there anything wrong with this page?”
Er, yes.
Goosed
“The nuclear industry and the government claim Hinkley is a good option if we want to ‘keep the lights on’ – but is it really the golden goose they claim it to be?” (http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/nuclear/five-reasons-why-hinkley-not-golden-goose-20160811)
Don’t be fooled by a tasty goose;
You’ll only get a basted noose.
The government’s playing fast and loose,
Through foreign investors’ ghastly truce,
With failed technology that faced misuse.
So even if it bakes your hoose,
All you’ll get from this hasty ruse,
Is wasted chance and pricey juice.
Whatever government excuse,
In truth, it’s all pure nasty goose.
Stuff the goose: please sign and share Greenpeace’s petition.
Unclear Nuclear
“When Hinkley [Point C, a planned new nuclear plant in Somerset, England] was first announced, we were told that electricity generated by the power station would be ‘cooking Christmas turkeys by 2017’.” (http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/8-reasons-george-osborne-let-hinkley-nuclear-go-20160216)
Not conventionally, of course, just any within a 100 mile radius.
Please sign Greenpeace’s petition asking Chancellor George Osborne not to waste £billions on this deeply flawed nuclear power project.
Nuclear Confission
“A right-wing British government has invited companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party – and in one case, the Chinese military – into the heart of the UK’s strategically vital energy infrastructure.” (http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2986180/uks_nuclear_deal_with_china_is_a_boon_for_bankers_and_no_one_else.html)
Less Eco, more £.co
Subsilly
“The decision to give the green light to Hinkley [Point C nuclear plant] surprised many, as in January the European competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, who retires on 1 November, had earlier overseen a heavily critical report on the subsidy arrangements proposed by DECC [Department of Energy and Climate Change]. But he said he had changed his minds after making some changes to the original proposal.” (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/12/ecotrcity-legal-challenge-eu-hinkley-point-c-subsidy-nuclear)
The both of them that he was in?
£enerator
“The ongoing problems at Heysham 1 and Hartlepool [nuclear] reactors, taken offline last month, forced Centrica, a 20% owner of the atomic fleet with EDF, to issue a profit warning.” (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/04/nuclear-power-stations-out-december-edf)
A new definition of fuel poverty.
Ecomical 