Antinuclear

In Finland, France, UK, nuclear resuscitation is stalling

Generation III nuclear reactors: late again, Greenpeace International, by jmckeati – June 25, 2010T he continuing and farcical story of the state of the art European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) being built by AREVA at Olkiluoto in Finland. The many, many diverse delays incompetence in the project have led to it being (at the time of writing) four years behind schedule and 2.3 billion euros over-budget. It’s not just in Finland, however, where the reactor that was supposed to relaunch the nuclear ‘renaissance’ is struggling. In the UK, where the EPR – along with the Westinghouse AP1000 – is being evaluated for possible construction there, the government’s Health and Safety Executive has said its design assessment process will miss its June 2011 deadline.

More information is required from the reactor vendors in a number of areas: fault studies, fuel design and electrical systems for AP1000; and mechanical engineering, environment and fuel design for the EPR. For both reactors the HSE wants more information on structural integrity as well as higher active waste and used fuel management.

Nuclear industry spin doctors at the World Nuclear News say ‘none of this implies known deficiencies in the reactors’. Instead what it does imply is great big holes in the designs for both reactors. More information is required about structural integrity and waste management? Those are pretty large pieces to be missing from this particular jigsaw.

Generation III nuclear reactors: late again | Greenpeace International

June 28, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | uranium | antinuclear, nuclear costs, uranium