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Too hot to handle: the future of civil nuclear power
Posted by bex on 6 July 2007.
We've been arguing for a long time that nuclear power can't stop climate change - because replacing our whole fleet of nuclear power stations would only reduce our carbon emissions by four per cent, some time after 2024 (far too little, far too late).
The Oxford Research Group has just published an interesting study on the subject. It says that, for nuclear power to make any significant contribution to a reduction in global carbon emissions in the next two generations, the industry would have to construct nearly 3,000 new reactors globally - about one a week for 60 years.
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Your local nuclear waste trains: a timetable
Posted by bex on 21 July 2006.
Timetable of nuclear waste transports in the UK
Greenpeace publishes a timetable of the UK's nuclear waste trains
Unless you live near a Sellafield or a Dungeness, the dangers of radioactive waste probably seem a world away.
They're not.
Hundreds of thousands of us are unwittingly exposed to the dangers of nuclear waste. Every week, trains carrying nuclear waste trundle along the UK's outdated rail network through our villages, towns and cities - often at peak times and only metres away from ordinary passenger trains.
Assessment of the operational risks and hazards of the EPR when subject to aircraft crash
A brief review of a confidential leaked EdF document
Publication date: 19th May 2006
Summary
This is a brief review of a confidential EdF document that has been leaked to the public domain in France.
The EdF document relates to the projected performance of the AREVA designed Generation III EPR reactor. The first of this reactor type is presently being built at Olkiluoto in Finland and construction of a second EPR is expected to commence shortly at the established nuclear power station site at Flamanville in France.
In or about 2003 it seems that EdF prepared a statement to the Direction Générale de la Sureté Nucléaire et de la Radioprotection in response to its request to demonstrate the safety of the EPR design against the deliberate crashing of a large civil aircraft onto the nuclear island. The resulting EdF document endeavours to prove the ability of the plant to withstand such attack and it claims to do so by comparing the footprint and time sequencing of the impact of a small military (fighter) aircraft to that of a large, fully fuelled commercial airliner.
However, this leaked EdF document shows the claim to be flawed in a number of important respects: First, in that the impact signatures of the small military fighter and very much larger commercial passenger aircraft are unlikely, contrary to the reckoning of EdF, to be sufficiently similar in both time span and magnitude for the design resistance of the EPR to an accidental military aircraft strike to equally apply to a passenger airliner intentionally targeted the nuclear island of the plant - indeed, the basis of reckoning the resistance of the built structures is so grossly simplified that it is inapplicable to a real impact situation. Second, the EdF assumption that the 100 or more tonnes of aviation fuel spilt during the moment of impact would ignite and burn itself out within 2 minutes or so is entirely without justification and unproven, with there being a good possibility that highly explosive vapour would be formed within and around the structures, the deflagration of which could be severely damaging to the EPR building structures and nuclear equipment within. And, quite incredibly, one line of mitigation proposed by EdF is that the terrorist would have insufficient skills to pilot the aircraft onto the intended target, this being quite contrary to the dedicated training undertaken by the terrorists who masterminded the 9/11 attacks.
The future for nuclear power?
Posted by bex on 19 May 2006.
A secret document has revealed that the new breed of nuclear reactor Blair is considering building is highly vulnerable to terrorist attack.
The Electricite de France (EDF) document looks at the vulnerability to terrorist attack of the new European Pressurised Reactors (EPR). These reactors are already under construction in France and Finland and may be built in the UK if Tony Blair has his way.
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Terrorist targets on wheels
Posted by bex on 24 April 2006.
Nuclear waste train at Kensington Olympia station in London
A terrorist attack on a train carrying waste nuclear materials across Britain could spread lethal radioactivity across an area of 100 sq kilometres, and result in the deaths of up to 8000 people.
Spent nuclear fuel is routinely transported by train from nine nuclear power stations around the country for reprocessing or storage at Sellafield in Cumbria. Typically these journeys take place once a week from each reactor - at the same time and on the same lines as regular passenger and freight trains.
Nuclear waste trains: terror targets on wheels
Posted by bex on 29 March 2006.
A terrorist attack on a train carrying waste nuclear materials across Britain could spread lethal radioactivity across an area of 100 sq kilometres, and result in the deaths of up to 8,000 people, according to a new report released this week.
Spent nuclear fuel is routinely transported by train from nine nuclear power stations around the country to the Sellafield storage facility in Cumbria. Typically these journeys take place once a week from each reactor - at the same time and on the same lines as regular passenger and freight trains.
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Nuclear power: boom or bust?
Posted by bex on 7 March 2006.
Over the past fortnight an enormous projection reading "KAPOW!" has materialised on several of the UK's nuclear power stations, highlighting the risk of terrorist attack to nuclear sites.
Greenpeace volunteers drove up to the perimeter fences of Dungeness, Sizewell, Wylfa, Oldbury, Heysham and Torness nuclear power stations and projected the cartoon-style image onto the walls.
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Greenpeace Anti-Nuclear Action Hits Torness
Torness nuclear power station
24th February 2006
An enormous 'KAPOW!' was projected onto Torness nuclear site earlier this morning by Greenpeace volunteers - to highlight the risk of a terrorist attack on Britain's nuclear power stations.
The Greenpeace projection comes at a time when the government is conducting an Energy Review to decide whether or not a new generation of nuclear reactors should be built in the UK. Yet just last month Greenpeace released a dossier of expert evidence which outlined the vulnerability of the UK's current nuclear sites to terrorist attack. It details:
- How UK nuclear power stations are not built to withstand a deliberate crash by a jumbo jet full of highly explosive aviation fuel.
- How terrorist groups are known to be targeting nuclear sites. For instance detailed plans of UK nuclear sites were found in a car linked to the July 2005 London bombings.
- How the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a confidential memo to all US nuclear power plants warning of plans for a terrorist attack in which hijackers 'fly a commercial aircraft into a nuclear power plant'.
Greenpeace has also recently released a film via the internet highlighting the risks of nuclear power. The short film shows a family enjoying a day on a beach, filmed for posterity by the father. An ever-louder roar breaks the tranquillity, and the hand-held camera pans to the sky to track a jumbo jet heading directly towards a nuclear facility just a few hundred metres away.
Sarah North, head of Greenpeace's nuclear campaign, said: "Millions of people could die as a result of a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant. Yet Tony Blair has put the prospect of building these extremely dangerous facilities back on the agenda, seemingly without a thought for the safety of the public. Nuclear power is simply the wrong answer to climate change."
Download the Greenpeace dossier
Watch the Greenpeace film
The image was projected at 5am from outside the fences surrounding the site.
For more information contact Nathan Argent on 07799 790542 or call the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
For photos call the picture desk on 0207 865 8118.
Greenpeace Anti-Nuclear Action Hits Wylfa
Greenpeace volunteers project onto Wylfa nuclear powerstation to highlight the vulnerability of a terrorist attack
An enormous 'KAPOW!' was projected onto Wylfa nuclear site earlier this morning (Thursday 23rd February 2006) by Greenpeace volunteers - to highlight the risk of a terrorist attack on Britain's nuclear power stations.
The Greenpeace projection comes at a time when the Government is conducting an Energy Review to decide whether or not a new generation of nuclear reactors should be built in the UK. Yet just last month Greenpeace released a dossier of expert evidence which outlined the vulnerability of the UK's current nuclear sites to terrorist attack. It details:
- How UK nuclear power stations are not built to withstand a deliberate crash by a jumbo jet full of highly explosive aviation fuel.
- How terrorist groups are known to be targeting nuclear sites. For instance detailed plans of UK nuclear sites were found in a car linked to the July 2005 London bombings.
- How the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a confidential memo to all US nuclear power plants warning of plans for a terrorist attack in which hijackers 'fly a commercial aircraft into a nuclear power plant'.
Greenpeace has also recently released a short film via the internet highlighting the risks of nuclear power. The film shows a family enjoying a day on a beach, filmed for posterity by the father. An ever-louder roar breaks the tranquillity, and the hand-held camera pans to the sky to track a jumbo jet heading directly towards a nuclear facility just a few hundred metres away.
Sarah North, head of Greenpeace's nuclear campaign, said: "Millions of people could die as a result of a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant. Yet Tony Blair has put the prospect of building these extremely dangerous facilities back on the agenda, seemingly without a thought for the safety of the public. Nuclear power is simply the wrong answer to climate change."
Download the Greenpeace dossier here. The Greenpeace film can be seen here.
ENDS
The image was projected at 6am from outside the fences surrounding the site.
For more information contact Nathan Argent on 07799 790542 or call the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
For photos call the picture desk on 0207 865 8118.