Nuclear Waste Train being loaded

Angela Paine shared Southwest AgainstNuclear's photo.

Nuclear Waste Train being loaded this 

morning next to Eastover Primary School 

at Bridgewater St

 

Second one this week

EDF Signs a historic agreement with London

Nucléaire: EDF signe un accord historique avec Londres

Par Veronique Le Billon | 17/10 | 13:20 | mis à jour à 18:55

L’électricien public a scellé un accord avec le gouvernement britannique pour construire deux EPR sur le site de Hinkley Point dans le Somerset. Areva et les chinois CGN et CNNC deviennent partenaires minoritaires et Londres ouvre la voie à de futures participations majoritaires chinoises.

French Electricity provider signs an agreement with the British Government to construct two EPR nuclear power plants at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Areva and the Chinese become partners.

China General Nuclear Power Corp. and Areva to join Hinkley Point UK nuclear consortium

Date: 17-Oct-13
Country: FRANCE
Author: Geert De Clercq

French nuclear group Areva is ready to join the EDF-led consortium that
plans to build a nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in the UK, Bloomberg
reported on Wednesday, quoting people with knowledge of the matter.

Bloomberg said China General Nuclear Power Corp. would also become a
shareholder and that Areva and EDF's boards would meet next week to
approve the deal.

Areva and EDF declined to comment on the report.

Areva would take a stake in the project from French utility EDF, allowing
EDF to share the cost of building two Areva-designed EPR reactors
estimated at 14 billion pounds (16.5 billion euros).

On Sunday, British Energy Minister Ed Davey said Britain was "extremely
close" to sealing a deal with EDF unit EDF Energy to build the country's
first new nuclear power station since 1995, adding there would also be
Chinese involvement in the talks.

The British government and EDF have long been in talks over financial
terms to build a new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset, southwest
England.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that British Finance Minister
George Osborne would sign a memorandum of understanding this week to back
Chinese General Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG) entering a deal with EDF for
the planned Hinkley Point plant.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; editing by David Evans)
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Reuters
© Thomson Reuters 2013 All rights reserved

EU energy guidelines leave out nuclear in blow for Britain (Reuters) -

(Reuters) - Britain's plans to use public money to subsidise a new generation of nuclear power suffered a setback on Tuesday when EU policy-makers decided to exclude atomic electricity from a list of funding guidelines.

An early draft raised expectations the Commission was preparing to sanction public support for nuclear power and whipped up a storm of protest, especially in the biggest EU economy Germany.
Germany is phasing out nuclear power and replacing it with renewable sources, such as wind and solar, whereas Britain wants to build new nuclear plants with the help of public funds.
Commission spokesman Antoine Colombani said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia proposed that guidelines, expected to be published in November, should not include specific criteria on nuclear power. The other commissioners agreed with him at an internal meeting on Tuesday, he said.
Omitting nuclear energy from the guidelines does not necessarily mean that using taxpayers' money to help finance nuclear power would be illegal under EU law.
"This simply means that state aid notifications by member states will continue to be assessed directly under (EU) treaty rules and the standard in this field will be determined by the Commission's case practice," Colombani said.
In reality, any decision on the legitimacy of Britain's plans to use public money to help finance the Hinkley Point nuclear plant in southwest England is likely to set a legal precedent, EU sources said.
The level of public support for the new plant, to be built by French firm EDF, is seen as vital to its success.
Environment campaigners and Green politicians welcomed Tuesday's news.
"It is a major setback for the legal certainty of nuclear energy," said Claude Turmes, a member of the European Parliament representing the Green party.
DIVIDED WITHIN

The issue of whether the general public should subsidise nuclear as well as other forms of energy has been divisive within the European Commission, the EU executive, as well as at the level of national governments.
Internal documents seen by Reuters showed objections from within the Commission to an earlier draft version of the guidelines under review.
"The impression given in the draft is that the Commission opens up aid to fossil fuel energy and nuclear while becoming much stricter on aid to renewable energy," an internal document from the Commission's climate service said.
It also questioned why nuclear should need state aid, given that it is a mature technology. In principle, EU law says subsidies should be reserved for new technology, such as solar.
A separate document from the energy service says a proposed phase-out of renewable subsidies requires "a longer transition period".
EU sources said the Commission would continue to debate how to tackle "the distorting effect" of overly generous renewable subsidies.
State aid guidelines differ from other EU law in that they do not have to be approved through lengthy consultation with member states and parliament and the Commission has said they will be finalised early next year.
(Additional reporting by Tom Koerkemeier; editing by Foo Yun-Chee and William Hardy)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/10/08/uk-wheu-nuclear-idUKBRE9970TM20131008

Planned ice wall at Fukushima will make soggy ground worse, risking nuclear reactors collapsing

Asahi: Buildings at Fukushima plant can start floating from too much groundwater — Expert: Blocking groundwater with ice wall may weaken soil and cause buildings to topple (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/asahi-buildings-at-fukushima-plant-could-start-floating-from-continuous-flow-of-groundwater-expert-ice-wall-may-weaken-soil-and-cause-buildings-to-topple-audio
Asahi Shimbun,, Sept. 18, 2013: [...] The site receives so much groundwater that special equipment–rendered useless by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami–was set up to prevent the plant’s buildings from floating on the continuous flow. [...] The original site of the Fukushima No. 1 plant was a cliff more than 30 meters high. But 20 meters was lopped off [...] putting the groundwater level only a few meters below the surface. The plant itself was constructed on land containing gravel layers through which water can easily pass through. In the past, a brook trickled by the No. 4 reactor. [...] Without that pumping, the buildings faced the danger of being buoyed by rising groundwater. [...] TEPCO officials have pinpointed only two locations, including the turbine building of the No. 1 reactor, where groundwater is entering the building basements. They believe there are many more breaches. [...]

Atsunao Marui,, head of Groundwater Research Group at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology: “About 4 million tons of rain falls on the plant site over the course of a year. Of that figure, it is believed that between 1 million and 1.5 million tons seep into the ground.”

Gordon Edwards, nuclear expert (at 39:45 in): This underground river that we talked about flowing thorough — the problem with this is they don’t really know how to stop it. […] They really don’t know how to stop this flow because it’s a major aquifer. One of the plans that they are talking about is… a wall of ice a mile long to act as a barrier to prevent the groundwater from going in to the cores of these damaged reactors, in order to try and solve the problem… And nobody knows if it’s actually going to work. In fact, some of the experts in Japan have said that by diverting the groundwater around the sides of the building, you may weaken the soil to the point where the buildings themselves topple — and that could be a far worse problem. So, they really don’t know what they’re going. They literally don’t know what they’re doing.

From Yesterday: Gundersen: Fukushima reactor buildings essentially now sitting in mud — Soil could ‘disappear’ during quake and bring structures down with it; That can result from what Tepco’s doing to groundwater (AUDIO)

Russia’s Nuclear Reactors Could Take over the World, Safe or Not [Preview]

The federation is aggressively selling reactors to countries with little nuclear experience, raising safety concerns

By Eve Conant

 

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EXPORT: Russia's new VVER reactors, under construction in Novovoronezh, are being ordered worldwide.Image: STRIHAVKA JAKUB AP Photo

In Brief

• Russia is preparing to sell unconventional reactors to developing countries that have little nuclear power experience.
• The models include breeder reactors that make plutonium, mini reactors meant to float on the ocean and pressurized-water reactors equipped with passive safety features intended to stop a reactor meltdown without human intervention.
• Western experts say some of the models may not be as safe as Russian officials maintain and could increase the chance that weapons-grade material would spread worldwide.

More In This Article

• Sidebar

  See Russia's Reactors on Your Smartphone

For any country that may be considering acquiring its first nuclear reactor, Russia's annual ATOMEXPO offers a seemingly simple solution. At a recent event, thousands of people from around the world flocked to a giant, czarist-era exhibition hall. A visitor could hear vendors such as Rolls-Royce talk about steam generators, watch reporters interview experts for a Russian nuclear-themed television program or pick up a “Miss Atom” calendar featuring the year's prettiest Russian nuclear workers.

The real action, though, was at a multilevel booth for Rosatom, Russia's state-owned nuclear company, which exuded a Steve Jobs vibe of pure whiteness and know-how. That was where “newcomers,” as the Russians fondly call them, from nations that do not have nuclear power plants heard about options and signed cooperation agreements for Rosatom to build or even operate reactors for them. At one point, photographers snapped shots of Nigerian nuclear officials as they clinked champagne flutes with Rosatom chief Sergey Kirienko, celebrating their baby steps toward joining Russia's growing roster of clients, including Turkey and Vietnam. Rosatom has already finished reactors in China and India. In July, Finland chose the company over French and Japanese competitors for its next reactor.

This article was originally published with the title Russia's New Empire: Nuclear Power.

Chinese oppose uranium processing plant in China

“OPPOSE nuclear pollution”; “Give us back our green homeland”. So declared
banners raised by some of the hundreds of protesters who took to the
streets of Jiangmen city in the southern province of Guangdong on July
12th. In a remarkable concession, the local government announced that it
would heed their demands and abandon plans to build a uranium-processing
facility. For officials in Beijing, keen to develop nuclear power and keep
activism in check, the demonstration was an unsettling sign of potential
trouble.
http://www.economist.com/news/china/21582016-rare-protest-prompts-government-scrap-plans-build-uranium-processing-plant
http://rt.com/news/china-protest-nuclear-plant-058/

When authorities finally lifted the moratorium on approvals in October
2012, it was with the stipulation that going forward only “Generation-III”
models that meet stricter safety standards would be approved. China has no
experience in operating these more advanced models; several of the
Generation-III reactors it has currently under construction are already
facing delays due to post-Fukushima design changes or supply chain issues.
http://climatecrocks.com/2013/03/01/sign-of-things-to-come-in-china-wind-surpasses-nuclear-in-energy-production/

CHINA’S state nuclear technology developer is in talks to buy land
earmarked for new
atomic reactors in Sellafield, Cumbria.
It is understood that State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC) will
go ahead
only if it receives assurances from Whitehall that it will one day be able
to build Chinese-designed nuclear
stations in Britain. The deal was raised in talks last week with Ed Davey,
the e