Antinuclear

Nuclear slowdown – Finland, France, China, Belgium, Japan ..

Nuclear Problems, Environmental Research Web, 12 Feb 12, The European Pressurised-water Reactor (EPR) being built at Olkiluoto in Finland is now unlikely to be completed until 2014- five years late- and $3bn or more over-budget. Similar problems face the EPR being built at Flammanville in France.

And similar problems have emerged at the two 1.7GW EPRs being built at Taishan in China, 140km west of Hong Kong: variable concrete quality, unqualified or inexperienced subcontractors, poor documentation, language issues.
Unit 1 is meant to be ready in 2013, Unit 2 in 2014, followed by two more. China has also had some problems with rapidly deploying its re-engineered version of the Westinghouse AP1000, but there are reports that it may be interested in a revised version of the EPR.
Indeed some reports say that EDF may ditch the current EPR design for
future EU plants and go for a cheaper, smaller, simpler franco-chinese
design. All this has not helped the industries finances: French
nuclear company Areva has operating losses of between €1.4bn and
€1.6bn, the first loss for the 10-year-old group.
Matters were not improved by the report in January from the French
nuclear power watchdog ASN, which, in its post-Fukushima review, said
that EDF must install flood- proof diesel generators and bunkered
remote back-up control rooms at its 19 plants across the country, at a
cost of perhaps €10 bn,. Overall EDF estimated the cost of extending
the lifespan of its nuclear plants from 40 to 60 years at €40-50 bn
over the next 30 years. ANS didn’t call for any plant closures and EDF
was bullish, claiming that it invested ‘more than €11 bn a year across
the world.’ However it has decided to diversify its nuclear-dominated
portfolio by building strong businesses in gas and coal, as well as
hydropower and renewables. But its shares fell a further 4.06% after
the ANS review.
However nuclear faces more than just technical and economic problems,
but also significant political shifts. In addition to the German,
Swiss and Italian decisions to abandon nuclear, in France the
Socialist candidate in the presidential election wants to cut nuclear
by 50% by 2025 -the party has secured agreement with the greens to
campaign for the closure of 24 nuclear reactors by 2025 in the
election, though the Greens would prefer a 100% shut down. And in
Belgium political parties seeking to form a government (it did not
have one for over a year!) conditionally agreed to revert to the
original 2003 plan to shut Belgiums three oldest plants in 2015 and
the remaining two by 2025. Meanwhile a new tax has been imposed on
nuclear operators. They currently supply 55% of Belgium’s power.

In Japan, only five plants are still operating, out of the original
54, and three of them are scheduled to shut for annual maintenance and
safety checks in April. With local opposition very strong and growing,
it may be hard to restart them, or any of the others- they need the
local municipalities to agree to that. So Japan may end up becoming
nuclear free by default. Certainly long term nuclear looks like to be
very constrained. In January, Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihiko
Noda, said that Japan’s dependence on nuclear power must be reduced to
the ‘maximum extent.’
The UK keeps going…..

http://environmentalresearchweb.org/blog/2012/02/nuclear-problems.html

February 14, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized