Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 144 July- Aug 2003

13. Nuclear Developments

Dounreay to go green?

With the prospects for new nuclear plants in the UK now very poor, following the recent White Paper on Energy, decommissioning is seen as one of the main growth areas for the UK nuclear industry. Dounreay, is the site of the UKAEA’s now defunct nuclear fast breeder programme, and it is trying to become a centre for decommisioning, since it is having to clean up its own left over plant and debris. But it could also become a major renewable energy centre, given plans to build wave turbines, a wood-fuelled biomass plant and one of Scotland’s largest wind farms nearby.

According to the Sunday Times Scotland (24/11/02) Geoffrey Minter, who owns the 10,000-acre Sandside estate opposite the nuclear plant, is keen to press ahead with an ambitious renewable energy project on the site, which, it says, already has the backing of Brian Wilson, the energy minister. Part of the attraction is that there is already a grid link- because of the nuclear research lab there. Certainly there is already a lot of corporate interest in renewables in Scotland, and Scottish Southern Energy (SSE), which owns the pylons, cabling and substation at Dounreay, has earmarked £250m for new wind farm projects in Scotland and applied for permission to erect three anemometers, which measure wind speed, in Dounreay.

Minters’ project would utilise wind, wood and wave power systems. He plans to build a jetty in Sandside harbour that will house a number of wave turbines. He is also in talks with local engineering companies to manufacture wind turbines in the area. A biomass power plant, fuelled by wood chips, is also planned. It is still a little speculative at present, but things do seem to be moving. According the the Sunday Times Scotland another key figure in the project is Peter Hovig, a lawyer based near Rotterdam in Holland, who bought 3,000 acres of forestry opposite Dounreay as an investment in 1996, who was now planning to lease the land for about 35 turbines. Colin Punler, spokesman for UK Atomic Energy Authority, welcomed the plan.

Generation IV

Although there will be no new plants just now, the government seems to be making sure that the nuclear option stays open by supporting collaborative work, along with amongst others the USA, Brazil, France, Canada, on the so called Generation IV reactor concept. In a response to a Parliamentray Question last Dec, Energy Minister Brain Wilson noted that the UK, together with eight other countries ‘aims to develop a framework for collaborative R&D to facilitate the deployment of such advanced reactor systems from 2030 and beyond.’

He reported that the UK had ‘signed the Charter of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) in July 2001. The initiative foresaw a need for advanced nuclear energy systems in the future to help meet growing international demands for carbon free energy; and that to meet public concerns, future systems must meet exceptionally high standards of safety, sustainability and proliferation resistance, while operating economically in liberalised markets’. He added ‘The GIF meeting in Tokyo in September 2002 agreed a "Roadmap" for R&D development based on six systems selected as best satisfying these goals’.

However, the DTI noted that ‘UK participation in the Charter is without commitment to a specific nuclear proportion of UK electricity generation sources. The framework for international research agreement under the Generation IV initiative has yet to be put in place and the extent of any UK financial commitment to research has yet to be decided.’

Further information on GIF/Generation IV is available at:

http://energY.gov/HOPress/releases02/scppr/GIFupdate.pdf

Japan loses nuclear power

While consumers are being enticed to use more solar in Germany (see earlier), the same thing can hardly be said of the approach having to be adopted by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) in relation to the electricity it sells from nuclear plants. According the the Guardian Unlimited, in a series of advertisements in the press and on television the company ‘has been forced into an embarrassing electricity conservation campaign because safety scandals are about to force it to close its 17 nuclear power plants. Faced with the serious prospect of being unable to supply the needs of its 27m customers in Tokyo and the surrounding area in the months ahead, Tepco is pleading with its domestic customers to turn down room thermostats, adjust refrigerator settings and switch off the mains power supply to televisions sets and video recorders when they are not in use.’

The Guardian added ‘What the adverts fail to mention is that Tepco was forced to act because its safety inspectors failed for more than 10 years to report cracks at its power plants. When the cover-up was exposed last year the government ordered the operation of its reactors suspended.’

But with summer air conditioning loads mounting its not clear if the system will hold together. Sounds like Japan is heading for a Californian situation.

Meanwhile in the UK, there have been rumours of internal disagreements over safety management inside British Energy, following a critical internal report on standards (Observer Oct 2nd). In parallel, the company has decided to halt public visits to its nuclear sites on the grounds of security.

Belgiums phase out

The proposed phase out of Belgiums nuclear plants has now been confirmed by Belgium’s lower house of parliament. So, if things go the plan, Belgium's seven nuclear power plants will be phased out when they are 40 years old, implying the first closure from February 2015 and the last in 2025.

Belgium is one of five EU states so far planning to phase out nuclear energy. The others are Germany, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. In all, eight EU states have nuclear plants. Denmark does not have any nuclear plants. Italy has already shut its two plants and Austria closed an almost new plant after Chernobyl. France currently has no plans for new plants.

Whoever said UK nuclear reactor designs were not up to scratch? North Korea’s controversial exercise in brinkmanship in allegedly extracting plutonium from reactor fuel for bombs, made use, it seems, of a reactor based on the UK Magnox graphite moderated design. But then that is how we produced our bomb. Pity though they couldn’t follow S. Korea’s move into renewables - see Renew 143.

Meanwhile the UK’s first MAGNOX reactor, Calder Hall at Windscale, has now finally closed. Although sometimes downplayed, the military role of this plant was clearly stated in a book entitled ‘Calder Hall’, by Kenneth Jay, published by the UKAEA to commemorate its commissioning in Oct 1956: ‘Major plants built for military purposes such as Calder Hall are being used as prototypes for civil plants. The plant has been designed as a dual-purpose plant to produce plutonium for military purposes as well as electric power.’