The Taishan death blow
China’s EPR reactor accident should end French reactor projects
The Taishan death blow — Beyond Nuclear International Radioactive leak at Chinese reactor could finish French nuclear exports https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/72759838/posts/3403922693
By Stéphane Lhomme, Nuclear Observatory
If the opacity maintained by the Chinese regime prevents us, for the time being, from knowing the exact consequences of the radioactive leak involving the EPR no.1 reactor at Taishan, revealed on June 14 by CNN, it is, on the other hand, already possible to see how this unfolded and to recommend some next steps.
The fault in the fuel duct seals inside the Taishan EPR dates back to October 2020, that is to say, it had already been going on for more than eight months: the operators of the reactor — the Chinese and the French company Framatome — were perfectly well aware of the gravity of the situation and had jointly decided to hide the existence of the problem from not only the surrounding population but also from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Luckily, the information ended up seeping out via the American subsidiary of Framatome (Areva NP Inc.). This latter, likely after discussions with the CIA and the White House, happily informed CNN.
Indeed, now that the situation at the EPR at Taishan is known around the world, it will be difficult for the Chinese to continue to operate the reactor under conditions that are most likely beyond its “scope of authorized operational safety” — contrary to what Framatome claims in order not to offend the Chinese.
It is widely known publicly that China and the USA, the two biggest global powers, are huge geopolitical and economic rivals. It is clear that if the Taishan 1 EPR, and perhaps its twin, Taishan 2, must be shut down for an extended period, this will be an inconvenience for China, which occasionally lacks electricity in this region. Hence the guilty pleasure felt by the Americans in revealing the problem.
But this will still remain only a limited problem for China where, contrary to what one sometimes reads or hears, nuclear power is a marginal energy source, consisting of less than 1% of the country’s energy consumption.
On the other hand, it is quite possible that the French nuclear industry will be the big loser in this affair, one that could represent a fatal blow for EDF’s EPR construction projects in France and overseas. Indeed, given that the EPR construction sites managed by the French — Areva in Finland, EDF in France and Great Britain — are veritable industrial and financial disasters, the promoters of the EPR reactor have been desperately clinging to the “good Chinese example”.
That is because the two EPRs at Taishan were built and brought on line (in December 2018 and September 2019 respectively) with “only” a few years delay and the cost overruns were officially limited to a few billion (according to China which, one must remember, is a dictatorship where “information” is totally controlled).
The situation currently unfolding in China demonstrates that, despite the alleged prowess of the Chinese nucleocrats, the Taishan EPRs are not going any better than those the French are trying desperately to build. This event will certainly sow enormous doubt among the few foreign leaders who are still considering ordering EPR reactors, despite all their setbacks. It is surely the straw that broke the camel’s back, or rather the radioactive leak that caused the (defective) EPR containment to overflow.
Likewise, this incident should motivate French political leaders (but also Finnish and British ones) to finally take responsibility and definitively halt EPR construction at Olkiluoto (Finland), Flamanville (France) and Hinkley Point (Great Britain), and to stop announcing future EPR projects in India and elsewhere.
Barnaby Joyce returns as deputy PM as Nationals implode over net-zero targets — RenewEconomy
Barnaby Joyce re-installed as Deputy PM after conflict erupts within the Nationals over climate targets. The post Barnaby Joyce returns as deputy PM as Nationals implode over net-zero targets appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Barnaby Joyce returns as deputy PM as Nationals implode over net-zero targets — RenewEconomy
Australia’s policy recipe for expensive and unreliable electricity — RenewEconomy
In 2021 we are learning that relying on a few old coal generators, owned by an oligopoly, makes electricity expensive and unreliable – and how AEMO and China aren’t helping. The post Australia’s policy recipe for expensive and unreliable electricity appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia’s policy recipe for expensive and unreliable electricity — RenewEconomy
“Clearly unacceptable:” Morrison government blocks massive Pilbara renewable hydrogen hub — RenewEconomy
Plans to build a massive renewable hydrogen hub including up to 26GW of wind and solar in WA Pilbara rejected by federal Morrison government on environmental grounds. The post “Clearly unacceptable:” Morrison government blocks massive Pilbara renewable hydrogen hub appeared first on RenewEconomy.
“Clearly unacceptable:” Morrison government blocks massive Pilbara renewable hydrogen hub — RenewEconomy
Australia will likely adopt a net-zero target by COP26. It will be a bad target — RenewEconomy
It doesn’t matter who’s leader of the Nationals – the Morrison government’s net-zero greenwashing narrative is already written and is very, very easy to predict. The post Australia will likely adopt a net-zero target by COP26. It will be a bad target appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia will likely adopt a net-zero target by COP26. It will be a bad target — RenewEconomy
NSW unveils $490 million support package for electric vehicles, waives stamp duty on new sales — RenewEconomy
NSW government aims for 50 per cent EVs for new vehicle sales by 2030 as part of an ambitious $490m incentive package that will abolish stamp duty. The post NSW unveils $490 million support package for electric vehicles, waives stamp duty on new sales appeared first on RenewEconomy.
NSW unveils $490 million support package for electric vehicles, waives stamp duty on new sales — RenewEconomy
June 20 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “American West is drying out. Things will get ugly” • A depleted Lake Mead illustrates the effects of a drought brought on by climate change. Stories are popping up across the West of possible rationing, coming restrictions and looming standoffs between farmers and the government over the most precious natural resource. [CNN] Drought […]
June 20 Energy News — geoharvey
THIS WEEK’S SPECIAL THEME. Australian government headed to impose a nuclear waste dump on Kimba, South Australia
Never mind that South Australia has clear laws prohibiting a nuclear waste dump, the Australian Senate has passed a law enabling the Resources Minister, Keith Pitt, to impose a nuclear waste dump on any site apptroved by the government – but they mean Kimba. Far far away from the source of the nuclear waste (ANSTO’s OPAL nuclear in Sydney) the Napandee farm will be the dump for ANSTO’s toxic wastes. The plan is simply to shove the responsibility for these stranded wastes over to South Australia. The government cons the locals that this will be an economic boon for them
It’s just the latest in the long saga of the nuclear lobby’s attempt to get a nuclear waste dump. It has never been a goal that would make sense – ethically and environmentally . – (an ethical goal would be a complete clean-up drive, permanently getting rid of Australia’s nuclear reactor and its radioactive trash).
But no, this latest push is just part of ANSTO’s grandiose goal of expanding its operations, to produce more toxic trash.
And that may not be all. The Australian saga follows decadesof efforts by the nuclear lobby to make South Australia the nuclear waste dump for the world. That goal, spelt out clearly in 1999 by the company Pangea (now reborn as Arius), was pushed again in the 2016 South Australian Nuclear Fuel Chain Commission
The Napandee dump is1700 km from Lucas Heights. The dump will house the same ”interim” waste conatainers as at ANSTO. They could stay at ANSTO, more safely, for many years. As for a permanent repositary, there are many geolocally more suitable sites much closer to the reactor.
I have no doubt that some who push for the Napandee dump see it as a foot in the door for the old dream of importing the world’s muclear trash.
The Federal government is pulling a nuclear waste confidence trick on South Australia.
Well, that’s a relief to South Australians.
But aw shucks, that was 2017. Is Premier Marshall now going to do a backflip, and let the Federal government send ANSTO’s radioactive trash to a small rural community in South Australia?
On Monday 21 June at 12.20 pm, the Australian Senate will debate, and may vote on, the revised National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020 .
South Australia has clear laws prohibiting the establishment of a nuclear waste dump in that State. Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000
There is a strange and hypocritical silence from the State’s Liberal leaders, and Labor Opposition. Only the Greens have spoken out against this Federal plan to establish a nuclear waste dump in a rural area.
Why the silence from the rest? It could be because they sort of support the plan, even though it contravenes the State’s law. Or, just as likely, they know that even if this Bill is passed, it’s not really going anywhere, anyway.
The idea of toting ANSTO’s ”intermediate level” nuclear waste from temporary storage at Lucas Heights, to way across the continent to another temporary storage in some little rural agricultural area in South Australia, is fraught with problems, and unanswered questions.
If this Bill becomes law, three previously short-listed locations Lyndhurst in New South Wales, Napandee near Kimba, and Wallerberdina in the Flinders Ranges are nominated as suitable sites, and Minister Keith Pitt will be required to formally declare a site. Correction. I am informed that the New South Wales site is not included, and that Federal Labor have put up an amendment to remove that Wallerberdina site in theFlinders Ranges.
From then on, the rot will really set in, and I don’t like Minister Pitt’s chances of imposing a facility on any of these communities. For a start, the Wallerberdina site has already been rejected. via a community ballot, and that location was scrapped by the previous Minister Matt Canavan.
The obvious target is the Kimba site, where in a fairly restricted vote, a community vote did favour this ”interim” waste dump, accompanied as it was by financial incentives for the town.. But there is strong opposition from the Barngarla people, traditional owners who were excluded from the vote. There are also farmers most unhappy with the choice of this agricultural area: they have formed a group – No Radioactive Waste on Agricultural Land in Kimba or SA.
The newly amended Bill opens the matter up for legal challenge, which is sure to come about. There are serious objections to the plan, not least of which is the problem of transport, involving numerous communities whose residents are likely to object to having radioactive waste transported through their area. There certainly is the question of placing nuclear waste in an agricultural area. Nuclear enthusiasts claim that this is acceptable overseas. They cite France ignoring the protest continuing in the village of Bure where the French government has tried to set up a waste facility.
There are serious doubts on the soundness of the proposal, especially as it relates to the Napandee site . Is it geologically suitable, seismically safe?Meanwhile the interim storage at Lucas Heights has room for years more storage, and has the staff, the security, and the expertise to safely manage the wastes on site.
Above all – the Napandee site has been promoted to the local community, with enthusiastic information from ANSTO and Industry Department experts, and promises of economic benefits. What has not been provided, but in fact, actively discouraged, is the other side of the story. Kimba residents have not had access to the misgivings of other experts about this proposal – economic disadvantages, environmental considerations, water problems, and the long-term probability for the community to be stuck with stranded wastes
A pity that Australia’s that National Medical Cyclotron was snuffed out after only 20 years.
Greg Phillips Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch, 18 June 21,
Not sure why our National Medical Cyclotron was snuffed out after only 20 years. It was the only cyclotron in Australia that could make Iodine123. But good news, here is another new cyclotron – and it can make Iodine123. Much cleaner than reactors.”…It is more compact and versatile than ever and is capable of working over a large energy span (13 to 30MeV) …”https://www.iba-radiopharmasolutions.com/iba-launches…
Kalbar’s exotic minerals mine a toxic risk to Victoria’s food bowl
Kalbar’s exotic minerals mine a toxic risk to Victoria’s food bowl, Michael West Media by Elizabeth Minter | Jun 18, 2021 | A hearing into the Environment Effects Statement for Kalbar’s mineral sands project on rich Victorian farmland has been told about competition for billions of litres of water, high levels of uranium, untested technologies and a strange backflip by the project’s “independent experts”. Elizabeth Minter investigates.
For exactly 100 years, Kane Busch’s family have farmed the fertile soils of the Lindenow Valley in East Gippsland, Victoria. After leaving Denmark in 1913, Kane’s great-grandfather Eiler Busch settled in the Valley, buying in 1921 the land that is now the home of Busch Organics.
Kane’s grandfather, also called Eiler, was behind the push for more environmentally friendly farming while experiencing the devastating droughts of the 1990s. The farm gained official organic certification in 2000. Grandson Kane is following in those footsteps, and was recently a finalist for a national award for “Young Grower of the Year”.
The Lindenow Valley produces the salad greens and vegetables – broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, celery, beetroot, cabbage and carrots – that help feed the nation. The Valley produces nearly one-third of the state’s vegetables; employs up to 2000 people at peak times; and is worth more than $150 million to the local economy.
The area also has huge environmental significance, with the heritage-listed Mitchell River, the Ramsar-protected Gippsland Lakes wetlands, and the Perry River’s unique Chain of Ponds, which is home to many threatened plant and animal species. Once ubiquitous across south-eastern Australia, “chain of ponds” systems are now rare.
But this is all now in jeopardy thanks to a mineral sands mining proposal from Kalbar Operations Pty Ltd (Kalbar), a company that was established as an investment vehicle and that has never operated a mine. It would be almost comical were it not for the potentially deadly consequences.
There’s monazite, which contains rare earth metals plus radioactive uranium and thorium and is thus potentially dangerous to residents, the waterways and the vegetables growing by the mine’s boundary; the competition for billions of litres of water; and the untried technology being proposed to tackle the mining waste. Nowhere in Australia is a mineral sands mine located so closely to, and upwind of, a major vegetable growing industry.
Kalbar is proposing a 1,675-hectare open-cut mine just 350 metres from the Mitchell River, which flows into the Gippsland Lakes wetlands. The mine will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for 15 years. A public hearing is under way as part of the inquiry into the Environment Effects Statement (EES). The following information has been revealed during the hearing.
Big miners walk away, lack of water the key risk
The multinational miner Rio Tinto originally owned the mining exploration licences. In 2011 Oresome, a subsidiary of Metallica Minerals, entered into a right to explore and option to purchase agreement with Rio for the licences.
A scoping study it commissioned showed a mine could be viable only if there was a dependable water supply. The risk of not finding a reliable source of up to 6.2 billion litres annually for an acceptable price received a Category F rating, defined as a problem with possibly “no viable solution” and a “fatal flaw”.
Water supplies
Kalbar’s proposed mine will sit on the plateau high above the Mitchell River with the vegetables growing just metresfrom the river.
The mine is 3.5 kilometres from the main source of the region’s drinking water (other than tank water). The mine and the horticultural industry will be in direct competition for water, with both relying on the Mitchell River and the same groundwater………….
Treatment of mine waste
Also controversial is access to how mine waste will be managed. The mine’s original design included a 90-hectare tailings dam.
But when government agencies and others highlighted the extreme danger such a dam posed to the Perry River and the Chain of Ponds, Kalbar changed its proposal.
The mine now plans to use giant centrifuge machines to remove water from the tailings waste, and then reuse that water.
The East Gippsland Shire Council, which unanimously opposes the mine, was not convinced of the viability of centrifuges, which are untested in mineral sands mining. The council commissioned a report from an independent mining industry consultancy, Ausenco.
Ausenco’s report raised concerns and advised that many more centrifuges would be required than Kalbar proposed. Then just weeks later, of its own volition, Ausenco issued a new report …………..
Radioactive dust a hazard
Kalbar plans to mine for and partially refine zircon, titanium-bearing rutile, ilmenite and rare earths minerals.
Airborne dust generated from mineral sands mines not only contains toxic heavy metals and radioactive monazite, thorium and uranium but also respirable crystalline silica, which leads to the deadly lung disease silicosis……………
Reputational damage to growers…… https://www.michaelwest.com.au/kalbars-exotic-minerals-mine-a-toxic-risk-to-victorias-food-bowl/
Australia’s government feels no duty of care towards young people on climate — RenewEconomy
Australia’s environment minister has rejected a court finding that she has a duty of care towards young Australians on climate. It’s unsurprising. The post Australia’s government feels no duty of care towards young people on climate appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia’s government feels no duty of care towards young people on climate — RenewEconomy
Nationals say no to net zero in extraordinary assault on climate and renewables — RenewEconomy
The Nationals have said no to net zero targets of any sort in an extraordinary assault on climate action and renewables, and their own electorates. The post Nationals say no to net zero in extraordinary assault on climate and renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Nationals say no to net zero in extraordinary assault on climate and renewables — RenewEconomy
EnergyAustralia has three options to avert Yallourn mine collapse — RenewEconomy
Company hopes to repair cracks in the embankment next to the Yallourn mine by the middle of next week, but didn’t reveal plans for river diversion. The post EnergyAustralia has three options to avert Yallourn mine collapse appeared first on RenewEconomy.
EnergyAustralia has three options to avert Yallourn mine collapse — RenewEconomy
Earth is now trapping an ‘unprecedented’ amount of heat, NASA says — limitless life
Climate and Environment New research shows that the amount of heat the planet traps has roughly doubled since 2005, contributing to more rapidly warming oceans, air and land The International Space Station orbits over the Atlantic Ocean southwest of South Africa. (NASA) By Tik Root June 16, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. CDT 893 The amount […]
Earth is now trapping an ‘unprecedented’ amount of heat, NASA says — limitless life
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
.
Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 