Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Bad News:

Arms Control Association: IAEA-Indian Nuclear Safeguards Agreement: A Critical Analysis
‘On July 9, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) distributed the text of a proposed "umbrella" safeguards agreement between the Government of India and the IAEA that would cover a finite number of facilities that India will at some later point declare as "civilian." The proposed agreement Gov. 2008/3 dated 9 July 2008 is scheduled to be considered by the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors August 1st.’

Middle East Online: Libya in talks with Russia for arms, nuclear deal
‘Libya is negotiating with Moscow to buy Russian weapons and for the construction of a nuclear power station, the countries' prime ministers said on Thursday.’

CNN: Brazil revives nuclear power plant
‘The Brazilian government has authorized the company, Electronuclear, to go back to work on the nation's third nuclear power plant. Work on the Angra 3 reactor, near Rio de Janeiro, has been stalled for 22 years by a lack of money and political issues. But the administration of President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva is turning to nuclear power to meet electricity needs that are growing with the country's booming economy.’

Maryland Community Newspapers Online: Nuclear plant financing scarce
‘The Maryland Public Interest Research Group released a report recently saying a new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant would lead to higher electric costs for Maryland ratepayers. The new plant’s cost continues to escalate, and the project would likely receive substantial federal subsidies, the Baltimore organization says.’

Good News:

The Scotsman: Turbine marks advance for wave power
‘A MAJOR step was taken yesterday towards establishing a wave power station off Lewis. Jim Mather, the energy minister, started a 100-kilowatt wave turbine at Wavegen's Limpet facility on Islay, the world's first commercial-scale, grid-connected wave energy plant.’

Reuters: EDF walks away from British Energy bid
‘French power giant EDF walked away from a 12 billion pound ($23.8 billion) deal to buy British Energy early on Friday in a dramatic U-turn that could delay Britain's plans to relaunch its nuclear programme.’

Here’s David Maclean, the English Conservative MP for Penrith and The Border constituency in Cumbria in the north of the country:

Cumbria is a nuclear county. It has Sellafield, the only centre of excellence in this country for nuclear technology.

We couldn’t agree more with Mr Maclean that Cumbria is a nuclear county. We’d like to quibble, however, about his use of the word ‘excellence’.

Sellafield has seen a long series of nuclear leaks and accidents. It sits on the coast of the Irish Sea which, thanks to the plant, is one of the most radioactive stretches of water in the world. That’s a definition of ‘excellence’ that’s new to us.

This ‘excellence’ led the Irish government to take legal action to stop a new reprocessing facility at Sellafield. The action was unsuccessful and the facility went to operation, but at least the Irish police and nuclear watchdog have been granted access to the site.

Mr Maclean went on:

We are willing to have a nuclear reactor in Cumbria. We will take that technology, provided we are not afflicted with more ghastly wind farms.

Oh, those ghastly clean and safe windfarms. Mr Maclean is, of course, making an aesthetic judgement here. We invite you to do the same. Here is a windfarm:

© Greenpeace/ Hu Wei

…and here is the THORP reprocessing plant at Sellafield:

© Greenpeace/Robert Morris

Might David Maclean have confused his ‘excellence’ with his ‘ghastly’?

(Thanks to No 2 Nuclear Power for the link)

‘Italians have not been able to protect Renaissance art treasures for even as long as one thousand years. Egyptians have not been able to protect the tombs of the Pharaohs for even as long as four thousand years, and some of the graves were looted within centuries. Yet, we in this generation have an obligation to protect our nuclear wastes for more than ten thousand years—a period longer than recorded history.

’It is ironic that we have been civilized for only about 10,000 years, yet we face the task of protecting high-level radwastes, a dangerous and "massive source of potentially valuable energy," in perpetuity. We face the task of storing radionuclides such as plutonium, which has a half-life of 24,000 years, but remains dangerous for more than 250,000 years. We have been separated from the apes for only about 5 million years, yet we face the task of safeguarding iodine-129, which has a half-life of 16 million years but remains dangerous for more than 160 million years. We in the United States have been a nation for only about 200 years, yet we face the task of storing technetium-99 having a half-life of 200,000 years. Given the short span of our experience in handling these materials, how can we deal adequately with long-lived radioactive waste?’

From ‘Burying Uncertainty: Risk and the Case Against Geological Disposal of Nuclear Waste’ by K. S. Shrader-Frechette.

Greenpeace activists protesting in front of the Tricastin Nuclear Power Station
(© Greenpeace/Matthieu Barret)

With France looking to put itself at the centre of the so-called ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ across the world, it’s worth taking a look at just what’s being going on inside France’s own nuclear industry recently. All is not well.

The latest troubles for the Tricastin nuclear power plant in southern France began in early July when a solution containing unprocessed uranium was allowed to leak into two rivers. Areva, the company running the plant, said that although 30,000 litres had been spilled, ‘only’ 18,000 litres had reached the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers. That’s a strange use of the word ‘only’, isn’t it?

France’s nuclear watchdog, ASN, issued the reassurance that, while the leak was toxic, it was only ‘slightly’ radioactive. A funny kind of reassurance, when you think about it and not one likely to comfort local residents who were ordered not to swim or fish in the rivers, drink well water or irrigate their crops with river water.

Despite that use of the word ‘slightly’, the radioactivity released in that single day constituted 130 times the level of radioactivity the Tricastin site is permitted to release in an entire year. It was found that a faulty valve had caused the leak. A leak the previous week had been ignored. Lovely, safe and clean nuclear energy.

Traces of uranium in the two contaminated rivers were then found to be from an earlier leak. The French authorities immediately ordered tests of ground water at all French nuclear sites.

Less than two weeks later, on July 21, another leak occurred, this time at Areva’s Romans-sur-Isère site. The ASN said the fault in the pipe may have been several years old which makes you wonder just how rigorous safety inspections have been at Areva sites in recent times. ‘Only’ a few hundred grammes of uranium were leaked.

Three days later, Tricastin was in the news again. This time 100 plant workers were exposed to uranium particles from another leaking pipe. Again the workers were described by a spokesperson for Electricite de France (EDF) as ‘slightly’ contaminated as if that detracted at all from the fact that they shouldn’t have been contaminated at all. Like pregnancy, if you don’t want to be contaminated, you really should take the proper precautions.

And the stories just keep coming. Tricastin just can’t keep itself out of the news. If it was a celebrity it would be Britney Spears, a person for whom there were once high hopes but now, despite her best efforts, can’t help but find herself in very public compromising and embarrassing situations as the rest of us look on in horror.

Six days later, on July 30, over 120 workers had to be evacuated from Tricastin when a false alarm was sounded. At least EDF say it was a false alarm. ASN, having seemingly learned to take nothing coming out of the mouths of nuclear PR spokespeople at face value, are awaiting the results of an independent examination of the site. Forty-five employees were found to have small traces of radiation on them said to be remaining from the previous leak.

These incidences of leaks, incompetence, leaks, cover-ups, leaks, spin and leaks came to a head today when Greenpeace announced that it has filed two complaints against Areva with French prosecutors. The first complaint concerned the leak of 18,000 litres of uranium solution. The second is concerning nuclear waste being buried in a hill and covered with earth which then also leaked.

Tricastin is starting to resemble one of those circus clown’s cars, with its belching tailpipe, its doors falling off, and its alarming honking noises. We dread to think what might happen next. A clown’s car traditionally collapses with a bang. We hope there'll be a full national debate on nukes in France soon to avoid any crash.

It's usually poor form to laugh at another's misfortunes, but in this case I feel a slight chortle is more than justified. EDF's
bid to takeover British Energy - the semi-state owned company charged with looking after the UK's nuclear power stations - has been kicked out, throwing a spanner of cosmic proportions into our government's plans for a new atomic age. Oops, butterfingers.

The French state-owned power company was expected to announce this morning that the ink was drying on the deal, worth over £12 billion, but early this morning it released a statement saying it was pulling out. Although the government was apparently more than happy to accept the offer on the table, it only owns 35 per cent of British Energy, some other stakeholders were not so keen. Given the ongoing hikes in energy prices, they think their assets are worth far more and so thumbed a collective raspberry at EDF's bid.

So why is there reason to be cheerful? If the deal had gone ahead, it would have dealt a hammer blow to our chances of meeting the legally binding Renewables Obligations, which must see at least 15 per cent of our total energy coming from renewables by 2020. Why? Because EDF have gone on record saying that if there is significant growth in renewable energy, the case for nuclear falls apart.

And considering that we were about to hand over a large chuck of the UK energy industry to a French company, this would have meant any decisions about closing our energy gap or investing in renewables would have been made in Paris rather than Westminster.

So where does that leave everyone? EDF won't now get their hands on the eight existing nuclear power stations it was after. It wasn't after the reactors themselves: these sites are prime candidates for any future nuclear development, so the company would have had a key stake in the government's plans. Speaking of which, ministers lose the chance to deal with one company to get their power stations built - dealing with several will make the process much more complicated. And that's not to mention the cash they were hoping would line the Treasury's coffers.

Business secretary John Hutton appeared on the Today programme this morning, putting a brave face on the matter, peddling the nonsense that we still need new nuclear power stations. Even reporter Robert Peston got himself in a lather about how we now risk "the lights going out".

This is really just a shameful attempt to scare everyone into accepting nuclear power. A new report by clever energy people Pöyry demonstrates that if the government actually does fulfil its commitments to meet EU renewable energy targets (and doesn't keep trying to stitch them up again and again) and its own ambitions to increase energy efficiency and reduce demand, then we won't need any more nuclear power stations. Or any new coal or gas ones, either. And that's true even by the government's own reckoning. So a little less scaremongering from the likes of Hutton and from a media that really should know better wouldn't go amiss. Instead, I'd like to see a bit more effort put into delivering the real energy solutions which will help us beat climate change.

Meanwhile, across the Channel our French colleagues have filed complaints against Areva about the leak last month at the Tricastin plant in Provence which saw uranium entering groundwater supplies. If you're not convinced that nuclear power is a terrible idea, this very disturbing report from the area will change your mind.

(This is a guest post by Jamie from Greenpeace UK where you can find more UK nuclear news.)

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

iStockAnalyst: China Able to Produce Forgings for Million-Kilowatt Nuclear Reactors
‘The China First Heavy Industries singed a contract with the China National Nuclear Corporation in Beijing on 1 August, in which the former agrees to supply four million- kilowatt nuclear reactor pressure vessels to the latter. At the contract signing ceremony, Zhang Guobao, who was recently appointed as the director of the National Energy Bureau, said that China is able to produce independently forge pieces for million-kilowatt nuclear reactors.’

Bangkok Post: The Rockefeller of nuclear power
‘A former salesman is seeking to turn Kazakhstan into the biggest atomic fuel supplier.’

The London Times: Tide turns for wave power
‘Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) is one of four companies whose hardware is to be tried out in a wave-power project off the coast of Cornwall. Electricity should start coming ashore in 2010.’

Kuwait Times: Submarine radiation leak raises concern in Japan
‘Water containing a small amount of radiation leaked from a US nuclear-powered submarine that stopped by Japan earlier this year, the US Navy and Japanese government said yesterday, prompting calls by civic groups for full disclosure. The leak, which was too small to have any impact on the environment, was found during an inspection of the nuclear-powered Houston in Hawaii, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, citing information provided by the US government. "The amounts were very, very, very small and were not of the sort that would affect the human body or the environment," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference.’

TribStar: Debating the oil crisis — Reducing consumption key to lowering energy costs
‘According to proponents of nuclear power, environmentalists have manipulated science and engaged in fear mongering in order to demonize nuclear power. Well, environmentalists have never needed to demonize nuclear power in order for most people to oppose it because it is fraught with serious problems that have never been adequately addressed. Advocates of nuclear power somehow always forget to mention that the radioactive waste generated by nuclear power plants remains highly toxic for many thousands of years — well beyond the life expectancy of any known natural or engineered containment structure.’

Guampdm.com: Sub leak worries residents: Timing of release of information questioned
‘Sen. Frank Blas Jr., chairman of the Legislature's Health, Human Services and Homeland Security Committee was upset about when Guam was informed. "I'm pretty disturbed that this is an incident that has been going on for five months, and Hawaii gets informed a week ago and we just got informed," Blas said. "When I was (Guam) Homeland Security advisor, I was told that we would be informed as soon as (an incident) occurs. What happened?"’

The Independent: Sellafield has public 'blank cheque'
‘The consortium with a £20bn contract to clean up Britain's Sellafield nuclear plant has been handed a blank cheque by the Government to pay for future accidents there. Taxpayers would pick up a tab for hundreds of millions of pounds in the event of a serious security breach at the Cumbria facility. One estimate puts the cost of Britain's previous nuclear clean-ups at around £83bn.’

Press TV: Plutonium leak at Austrian plant
‘The International Atomic Energy Agency says plutonium has leaked in one of its laboratories but no radiation escaped the building.’

The Guardian: Nuclear Options
‘Even the economically uninterested must be aware by now that the world is in the middle of a commodity crunch in which fast-developing countries such as China and India want more energy and food than suppliers have been accustomed to selling them. Well, the next big crisis may well be an engineering crunch, in which countries compete for people and kit to provide much-needed infrastructure (not just nuclear plants, but wind turbines and roads and airports). This will inevitably mean that costs rocket and deadlines slide. Is business as usual the best way of meeting that challenge?’

The Daily Telegraph: Centrica plots £22bn British Energy deal
‘Centrica, Britain's biggest gas and electricity supplier, is to sound out institutional shareholders about reviving plans for a £22.5bn all-share merger with British Energy, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. Centrica, which owns British Gas, will gauge the appetite of City investors for a paper deal following the last-minute hitch in British Energy's takeover by EDF, the French government-controlled energy group, last week.’

(Additional links courtesy of No 2 Nuclear Power)

We had a comment on the blog from a ColinG making some specific points. You can read his comment here. Responding to his comment allows us to repeat Greenpeace’s stance on nuclear energy and offer examples of why this is the case. Instead of burying the response in the comments, we thought it deserved a post of its own.

Greenpeace is ‘historically’ opposed to nuclear energy for several reasons.

1. Nuclear power is a very real and dangerous distraction to providing safer, cleaner and cheaper means of energy production.

In Finland, for instance, the building of the Olkiluoto Reactor represents a massive 85 per cent of the country’s energy investment for 2006-10. The reactor won’t even contribute to Finland’s Kyoto commitments.

There are 439 operational civilian reactors around the world, providing 15 per cent of the world’s electricity but only 6.5 per cent of overall energy supply. If we want to address climate change, CO2 emissions need to be declining by 2015 at the latest. Even if we were to double the number of reactors worldwide, we would only see a 5 per cent fall in emissions – with us needing to halve emissions by 2050.

The Oxford Research Group has shown that if nuclear energy is going to meet projected global demand for energy, we’re going to need between 2000 and 2500 new reactors by 2075. That’s construction starting on four new reactors every month, with all the planning, cost and schedule overruns involved. The UK has never brought a nuclear reactor online on time or on budget. The last ten reactors built in India were, on average, three times over budget. The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada is 20 years late and $32 billion over budget.

We believe that that time and money could be much more wisely spent elsewhere, on safer and cleaner alternatives. Greenpeace does not support coal power tacitly or otherwise. You say that people ‘end up using a little renewable power’ which is not the case – investment in renewables is growing, and fast. The Scottish government have just declared their intention to build Europe’s biggest wind farm. Wind energy production in the Bayan Nur province in China will shortly be outstripping state of the art nuclear reactors. Plans have recently been announced to use the Sahara desert as a solar farm that will help power Europe. The first results from new wave power technologies are expected before the end of the decade.

2. The industry is extremely accident prone.

The number of nuclear incidents and accidents over the last 50 years are countless. You say ‘each nuclear power station kills nobody’ but that just isn’t the case. Remember Chernobyl? That accident will continue to kill people for some time to come, with more and more people having to deal with the consequences.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimates there have been almost 200 ‘near miss’ reactor meltdowns in the US since Chernobyl. The law of averages surely dictates that our luck is going to run out some day. (The new generation of nuclear reactors also give cause for concern – EPR reactors being built in France, Finland and China have all shown the same construction defects and safety faults).

The World Health Organisation says:

‘The statistics show that between 1944 and 1999 in 405 accidents worldwide, approximately 3000 persons were injured, with 120 fatalities (including the 28 Chernobyl victims). During the last few years the number of accidents and incidents involving radiation sources has increased. Often the victims of such occurrences are unaware that they may have been exposed to radiation.’

Quantifying the risk to health from leaks can be difficult. The effects of long term exposure to radiation may not manifest for years whereas the acute symptoms of short-term exposure can be alarming but (hopefully) cause no long term damage. This simply adds to the uncertainty that surrounds nuclear energy.

Specifically on the French leaks, the actual radiation leaked is secondary to the fact that these incidents should not be occurring at all if we are to have any confidence in the industry promises of nuclear being clean and safe. Regardless of whether the 18,000 litres of uranium solution spilled at Tricastin were radioactive, the chemicals were toxic enough for local residents to be told not to drink well water, swim or fish in the contaminated rivers, or irrigate crops. Uranium found in the water was found to be from a previous leak.

Radioactive isotopes are already out there and accumulating in our bodies. A 1997 UK study into teenager’s teeth showed that they contained plutonium. Those young people living close to the Sellafield nuclear plant had twice the amount. A 2001 report showed that there is an increased incidence of Leukamia amongst under 25 year-olds living within 10 kilometres of France’s La Hague reprocessing plant. Those living close to Japan’s Rokkasho reprocessing plant will receive a collective dose of radiation in the next 40 years half that from the Chernobyl disaster.

3. The very nature of nuclear waste means we lack the data and expertise for disposing of it safely.

The planet is now littered with sites that are going to be radioactive for a very long time. The human race simply has no experience supervising a legacy as long as the one nuclear waste presents. It will take hundreds of thousands of years before nuclear waste could be considered safe. Geological changes over the timescales we’re talking about cannot be estimated or modelled making deep burial of radioactive materials an extremely uncertain ‘science’. US government measures attempting to communicate the dangers to future generations have failed. Nuclear power may give us mere decades of energy but leave a legacy far, far longer than that.

The world is not the same place when Greenpeace has started to campaign on nuclear energy, it has changed; so has Greenpeace. The nuclear industry however has hardly changed other than in some improvement in reactor design. It still has the problems that we have outlined above and furthermore it is now distracting us from solutions for climate change. This is why we continue to oppose nuclear power, campaigning for clean, safe solutions instead.

Update 6/8: The numbers by WHO and IAEA respectively are incorrect and
misleading on the effects of Chernobyl. Taking into consideration the
increase in cancer and fatal cancers in long term, 52 respected
scientists agreed that the number will be close to 100,000.

‘Friday's announcement that French state owned utility Electricite de France (EDF) had pulled out of a takeover bid for British Energy has left Gordon Brown's nuclear aspirations in disarray. […] So where does it leave us? Well, firstly, if the deal had gone ahead, it could have dealt a hammer blow to the renewable energy sector in the UK and any chance of us meeting our legally binding targets under the EU Renewables Obligation. Why? Well, even EDF admit that renewable energy and nuclear power cannot work together. They've even said that if there is significant growth in the renewables sector, the economic case for nuclear falls apart.’

Read the rest

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Kansas City InfoZine: Weapons Plutonium Fuel Test Fails
‘Citing the recent failure of an experimental plutonium fuel assembly test at a South Carolina nuclear plant, two watchdog groups today called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to suspend a risky, multibillion dollar program that would use 37 tons of surplus nuclear weapons plutonium for U.S. nuclear reactor fuel.’

AFP: Centrica says in talks over British Energy takeover
‘"Centrica confirms that it is in discussions with a third party with a view to Centrica taking a minority ownership position in British Energy, subject to various conditions, including this third party successfully acquiring British Energy," said a statement.’

World Nuclear News: Key nuclear bodies in the works for UAE
‘The five-year deals, which come with a $17 million prepayment for the first six months' work, were announced by Thorium Power on 1 August. The US-based firm said it would provide strategic advice on the development and launch of an independent nuclear safety regulator, to be called the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation. More advice will be given on the structuring and launch of a company called Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec), which will be a vehicle of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.’

The Daily Telegraph: US spin sparked nuclear crisis – book
‘HARDLINERS in the Bush Administration spun intelligence that triggered a nuclear crisis with North Korea and led to Pyongyang testing a bomb, says a new book to be released this week.’

Spiegel Online: 'The Nuclear Industry Has Invented the Energy Shortfall'
‘Bärbel Höhn, 56, deputy leader of the German Green Party's parliamentary group, discusses her party's opposition to nuclear energy, the market power of the major energy companies, and why she rejects warnings of a shortfall in energy supplies.’

The London Times: Ultra Electronics in nuclear talks with British Energy
‘The company’s reactor control systems are being fitted to the Royal Navy’s Vanguard Trident nuclear submarines and will also go into the next generation of Astute subs. Douglas Caster, Ultra’s chief executive, said yesterday that he was in talks with British Energy, which owns eight nuclear power stations in the UK, to provide similar technology for the civil market.’

The Financial Times: Tehran poised to restart nuclear talks
‘The world’s big powers have been told to expect a formal response as soon as Tuesday from the Tehran government that sets out an initiative designed to restart negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme. The letter follows a conversation on Monday between Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy head, and Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, that was described by Mr Solana’s office as inconclusive. Further talks “were not ruled out”, a spokesman said.’

(Thanks to No 2 Nuclear Power for The Times and Financial Times links)

As we saw with both Bulgaria’s and Canada’s nuclear industries, the nuclear industry uses the same tactics across the world to get what it wants. In the case of Belene in Bulgaria and nuclear plants in Ontario, Canada it was a case of poorly drawn up Environmental Impact Assessments that failed to adequately address accident response and decommissioning.

Another feature of the planning of the Belene plant was that the public consultation was a sham. Local people were prevented from speaking at public hearings. Some villages surrounding the plant weren’t even made aware that a consultation was being carried out.

Thousands of miles away in Cumbria in northern England, exactly the same is happening. Sita UK want to build a facility to dispose of low level radioactive waste near Whitehaven. Here’s local government councillor, Willis Metherell:

‘What effect is this going to have on the environment? […] There are villages half a mile from this site and there has been a lack of consultation. We have not been involved in any discussions.’

Bulgaria and Canada. Bulgaria and England. The tactics are the same. Do nuclear companies across the world share the same book of dirty tricks?

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Stuff: NZ heading to nuke clash with India
‘New Zealand's hardline anti-nuclear policy is threatening to create a diplomatic storm with India. Wellington later this month will determine whether India can sign it's much yearned for nuclear technology deal with the United States. In a meeting in Vienna on Friday night New Zealand warned India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) not to take its support for granted.’

The Guardian: EDF has other cards to play without British Energy
‘If EDF fails to persuade British Energy shareholders to accept its bid, the French group will not be short of options or cash to build on its global nuclear leadership and develop new businesses such as gas.’

Bloomberg: German Nuclear Exit Should Be Reversed, Ministry Taskforce Says
‘The German government should abandon its planned phase-out of nuclear energy to help rein in surging electricity prices and protect the environment, according to proposals drawn up by an energy taskforce under Economy Minister Michael Glos.’

Greenville Online: Failed MOX test at Catawba may have implications for Oconee
‘Officials have interrupted the multiyear test of converted plutonium fuel at a South Carolina nuclear reactor after the discovery of "excessive growth" in the fuel assemblies, two nuclear watchdog groups said Monday. Officials with the two groups said the discovery has implications for other reactors, including Oconee Nuclear Station, where similar types of fuel assemblies using different fuel have produced "the same flaw."’

Reuters: Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump cost soars 67 pct
‘The planned U.S. nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada will cost billions more than previously estimated due to a hike in the amount of waste it will have to dispose of and inflation, the Energy Department said on Tuesday.
The Yucca Mountain program, which began in 1983 and is expected to close in 2133, is expected to cost $96.2 billion in 2007 dollars over its 150-year life cycle, up 67 percent from a 2001 estimate of $57.5 billion.’

PR-inside: Brazil wants US help managing nuclear waste
‘Brazil asked the United States for help managing waste from its nuclear reactors during a visit Tuesday from American Deputy Secretary of Energy Jeffery Kupfer.
Brazilian Mines and Energy Secretary Edson Lobao said the United States has made significant advances in the storage of residue from reactors.’

South Africa is looking for a nuclear ‘renaissance’ of its own. Whereas the original Renaissance had artists and philosophers as its foot soldiers, this modern renaissance has troops of a different calibre in the front line: PR spokespeople. It seems like whenever a new nuclear initiative is planned, the first phone call made is to the marketing men.

Take a look at this:

A recent [South African Press Association] report said [South African electricity public utility] Eskom and the departments of public enterprises and minerals and energy had enlisted the help of a brand consulting firm to boost the image of nuclear power. They apparently hope to employ prominent "nuclear ambassadors" ahead of Eskom's massive nuclear programme, which aims to generate a quarter of electricity from nuclear by 2025.

Sometimes, when examining the various spin, ‘boosting’ and PR of the nuclear industry, it’s not what is being said but what’s not being said that matters. In this case, the unspoken question is why does the nuclear industry need a ‘boost’

Why does it need ‘nuclear ambassadors’? (Someone should tell these people they sound like something from a bad science fiction movie.) Why does it need to give millions to the Public Relations industry? It wouldn’t be anything to do with nuclear’s terrible reputation and track record would it? Surely those millions could be spent more wisely elsewhere?

In 1998, the Sellafield nuclear facility in northern England had to employ sharpshooters to cull seagulls when it was found that the birds’ droppings were radioactive. Ten years later the seagulls are still a problem.

The bodies of these unfortunate creatures are now stored in freezers in the depths of the plant to prevent them decaying in the open air. ‘We are adding to the store all the time so we do not count them. But given the size I'd say it was in the hundreds,’ said a spokesman.

Wait until we tell you about the atomic lobsters…

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

World Nuclear News: Areva: no need to repeat MOX trials
‘A recent statement from Friends of the Earth and the Union of Concerned Scientists contended that the in-core test had been a failure which would derail the program to use MOX fuel while being carried out again. An Areva spokesman today said "there's no reason to expect the test would have to be repeated."’

World Nuclear News: New uranium mining approaches in Hungary
‘Australia's WildHorse Energy has joined with state-owned Mecsekérc to assess the feasibility of restarting uranium mining in the Mecsek Hills near Pécs in southern Hungary.’

BBC News: Nuclear walk-out talks break down
‘Workers at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria are to be balloted for strike action after talks aimed at solving a pay dispute broke down.’

Yahoo! News: France: Iran reply on nuclear offer insufficient
‘France joined the United States on Wednesday in rejecting Iran's response to an incentives package aimed at defusing a dispute over its nuclear program as insufficient as negotiators from six major world powers plotted their next move.’

Reuters: High emissions reported at French nuclear plant
‘Radioactive gas emissions from a nuclear plant in southeast France were higher than normal in June and July but there was no threat to public safety, nuclear authorities said on Wednesday.[…] The authorities said an inspection last month showed that, since Jan. 1, the plant had emitted more radioactive carbon-14 gas than was permitted for the whole year.’

Reuters: U.S. lawmaker urges India nuclear deal be delayed
‘The chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee has urged the Bush administration to shelve a nuclear trade deal with India unless it can guarantee compliance with a U.S. law that would suspend trade if India tested a nuclear weapon again.’

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: U.S.-India Nuclear Energy Deal: What's Next?
‘Even in the unlikely event that Congress does take up the 123 agreement immediately upon returning from its August recess on September 8, there does not appear to be enough time left on the legislative calendar for Congress to take up the agreement before it adjourns on September 26. This is due to the fact that the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 requires that the President consult with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee for no less than 30 days (counted as days of continuous session of Congress) concerning the terms of the proposed agreement. If the President begins consulting with the Committees on September 8, only 18 days will elapse by the time Congress is scheduled to adjourn, not the requisite 30’

YLE News: Greenpeace Objects To "Super Waste" Storage
‘According to Greenpeace, once the underground repository [at Finland’s Olkiluoto site] is sealed in a hundred years, nearly 90% of its radioactive contents will be comprised of waste from new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) facilities. The group says that the spent fuel from these plants is hotter and more contains more radioactive materials than waste from older plant types. In addition, it is more brittle and would dissolve more easily into the groundwater supply in the event of a leak.’

Nuclear Reaction regular Tricastin is in back in the news. Again. The French nuclear watchdog ASN has found that…

…an inspection last month showed that, since Jan. 1, the plant had emitted more radioactive carbon-14 gas than was permitted for the whole year.

It is difficult to quantify the danger to health and the environment from these leaks. The ASN say the impact is ‘very weak’ although this judgement is based on ‘first estimates’.

It is worth noting, however, that carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope with a half life of 6000 years. Although naturally-occurring and already present in the environment, it can accumulate in plants, animals and humans, and pose long-term dangers that are also difficult to predict and quantify.

Following the news in late July that there had been a ‘small’ fire at the construction site of Finland’s state of the art Olkiluoto 3 reactor, it looks as if things were worse than first thought. From Finnish State Broadcasting YLE News we hear:

A fire at the construction site of Olkiluoto's third nuclear reactor caused extensive damage. The outer wall structures as well as those of the inner wall were affected.

Major concreting operations will be needed to repair the damage, Satakunnan Kansa, a regional newspaper has learned. The reactor building that is currently under construction was ravaged by a fire last Wednesday, and repair work is believed to take months.

The head of the department responsible for the oversight of new nuclear power plant projects in Finnish nuclear safety authority STUK, Petteri Tiippana told that preliminary inspections have revealed damage in the structures of both the inner and the outer wall. STUK has not yet been able to determine whether the fire caused deeper damage or even cracks to the wall structures, in addition to harming the surface of the concrete.

Except for the reactor building, construction work has proceeded normally despite the fire. There is no certainty yet on what caused the accident.

(©Greenpeace/Vinai Dithajohn)

It’s been a very busy week for Greenpeace South East Asia. The energy ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] met in Bangkok this week to discuss energy issues.

Unfortunately, nuclear power looms large in SE Asia’s energy future despite the region being rich in renewable energy resources. Greenpeace hit the streets of Bangkok with a visually stunning march and laid down the challenge to SE Asia’s governments to set binding renewable energy and energy efficiency targets, and explore CO2 emission reduction technologies.

For more photos and information, visit Greenpeace South East Asia’s website.

Yesterday Greenpeace activists took action in Istanbul against the Sabanci Corporation who are preparing to participate in the nuclear power plant tender in Turkey. Sabanci is one of the biggest companies in Turkey with a very good reputation especially in supporting energy efficiency and renewables. Therefore the decision to take the action was difficult but correct.

Before telling you the details of the action let me give you some background about the history of nuclear power in Turkey. Well, thank God (actually thank the anti-nuclear movement in Turkey) there is no nuclear power plant in Turkey. There has been quite a few times when it was discussed, however, the most serious attempt to build a nuclear power plant being cancelled at the tender stage by the government in 2000. Once again we are here to get the current government's and company's plans cancelled.

Here is the story: Two weeks ago the Sabanci Corporation announced that they had started talks with GE-Hitachi (US) and Spain's Iberdrola as partners to tender for the nuclear power plant in Akkuyu. According to the Energy Minister Hilmi Guler, the nuclear tender is planned to be held on the 24th September 2008. Yesterday Greenpeace volunteers opened a banner saying “Go Solar” in front of the Sabanci Headquarters and announced the HQ Towers as a “Nuclear Free Zone” with the metal boards they've placed on the fence. Volunteers asked Sabanci Corporation to withdraw from the tender and to invest in renewable energies like solar which is the true solution to Turkey's energy demand and security.

The media took the story very well. We were on the first page of many newspapers and the main TV channels were talking about our action in prime time.

In the meantime Greenpeace is calling for all companies to ignore the calls from Energy Minister Hilmi Guler to enter the nuclear tendering process and instead invest in renewable energies and energy efficiency.

Be sure that we are following the tender process closely and we'll be updating you accordingly.

For more information in Turkish, visit the Greenpeace Turkey website.

This post if by Erhan Çokkececi of Greenpeace Turkey.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Sify News: NSG to meet twice to decide Indian waiver
‘The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group is likely to have two meetings — one on August 21 and another in early September — to decide whether to lift the ban to trade with India on civil nuclear energy.’

USA Today: U.S. tells Japan submarine leaked radiation over 2 years
‘U.S. officials have found that an American nuclear submarine leaked radiation for more than two years and may have affected Japanese ports more extensively than initially thought, Japan's government said Thursday.’

Reuters: Canada nuclear firms seek Ottawa financing –report
‘Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and partner SNC-Lavalin Group want the Canadian government to provide billions of dollars in financing for their bid to build two nuclear reactors in the Canadian province of Ontario, a newspaper said on Thursday.’

The National: UAE joins global nuclear fuel bank
‘The Government has contributed US$10 million (Dh36.7m) to a global nuclear fuel bank, strengthening the UAE’s credentials to become the first Arab nation to exploit atomic power.’

FOCUS Information Agency: Romanian police ‘escorts’ Bulgarian nuclear fuel along the Danube River
‘The Gandul daily notes that every year the Bulgarian ship Vasil Drumev and the boat Nautilus transport 60 tons of nuclear fuel from Kozloduy to the Ukrainian port of Ismail. The nuclear fuel used in Kozloduy is transported as waste to the Ukrainian port, from where the ship turns back loaded with fresh fuel. According to the article the ‘tourist’ boats, used by the Romanian police to escort the cargo, often malfunction.’

Gallup: Nuclear Power Less Popular Than Other Energy Strategies
‘According to a July USA Today/Gallup poll, the impact of a candidate's favoring greater use of nuclear power is mixed. Forty-seven percent of Americans say they are more likely to back a candidate who favors expanding nuclear power, while 41% say they are less likely to back such a candidate. But on a relative basis, the nuclear option is near the bottom of a list of possible solutions to the energy situation.’

The London Times: Nuclear share of electricity output falls to 15 per cent
‘The share of electricity generated by Britain's nuclear power stations has fallen to 15 per cent of total demand - its lowest level in 21 years - government figures indicate. The decline from a peak of about 30 per cent in 1996 has resulted from a string of technical problems with British Energy's ageing reactors and the scheduled closure of plants.’

And finally, Tricastin is in the news yet again.

World Nuclear News: ASN suspends some Socatri operations at Tricastin
‘France's nuclear regulator, the ASN, has been informed by Areva NC subsidiary Socatri that it has exceeded its annual limit for releases of carbon-14 (C-14). ASN has ordered the company to suspend all its activities that generate the long-lived radionuclide until the end of 2008.’

We’ve noted before the industry spin that refers to the push for new nuclear power stations as a nuclear ‘renaissance’.

The original Renaissance saw a huge transformation in art, philosophy, politics and society as whole. It was the time when humans stepped out of the Middle Ages and into modern times. The nuclear ‘renaissance’, however, is the complete opposite of its cultural counterpart. It is backward-looking, seeking a return to old and failed methods. It stands in the way of true progress towards the development of renewable energy technology.

Whereas the original Renaissance left a hugely beneficial legacy that we still feel hundreds of years later, the nuclear ‘renaissance’ will leave nothing but danger and the threat of death and disease to future generations.

To compare a resurgent nuclear industry with a movement in human history that produced the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, and Shakespeare is to insult all concerned. The Renaissance was a vital step in human development. A report released by energy consultants Poyry this week shows that a nuclear ‘renaissance’ is anything but vital. If only politicians would show the drive and imagination of their historical forebears and declare it unnecessary and redundant.

The report shows that if the British government were to meet its renewable energy targets and its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, no new nuclear power stations (or gas or coal like the one being opposed by the Climate Camp at Kingsnorth in the UK this week) would be needed for the UK to meet its power requirements until at least 2020. The report also says that a drive for energy efficiency and renewables will also help to ensure energy security and reduce emissions. The ‘energy gap’ that politicians and industry insiders like to frighten us with simply does not exist.

The Poyry report is an important, landmark one and it’s nothing short of a scandal that it has not received the attention it deserves from the media. It signals a safe and clean way forward for power generation and CO2 emissions reduction not offered by methods generally regarded as ‘conventional’. It doesn’t present a fantasy or a pipe-dream but a feasible, practical solution to the huge problems we face.

And if the UK could do this, why not other countries around the world. It’s not just in the UK where this thinking has taken hold. Here’s an interview in Der Spiegel with Bärbel Höhn, the deputy leader of the German Green Party's parliamentary group:

‘SPIEGEL ONLINE: The German energy agency DENA warns of a possible power shortfall if we stick to the current plans for a nuclear phase-out. In that case, only three nuclear reactors will still be in operation in 2020, and we will lack the output of 15 major power plants.

Höhn: I took a very close look at that study. This isn't quite right. To arrive at its conclusions, DENA used significantly shorter operating lives for its coal power plants than those reported to the Federal Network Agency. And if you take the second set of numbers, the power shortfall is substantially reduced. Besides, DENA came up with a lower estimate for the share coming from renewable forms of energy than the federal government. Combine all of these factors and the shortfall doesn't even exist.’

Who does this nuclear ‘renaissance’ benefit? In the face of research that shows we don’t need the nuclear industry, the answer has to be: it benefits the nuclear industry. Greenpeace and other environmentalists are often accused of scaremongering and yet here we have the evidence that powerful business lobbies are guilty of using fear as a means of securing contracts and profits.

It also benefits politicians for whom the quick and easy answer is always better than the right one in the face of the pressure of lobbying, scare tactics and vested interest from big business. And yet these politicians could be at the forefront of a renewables ‘renaissance’ and go down in history for the right, instead of the wrong, reasons. Where is someone with the vision of da Vinci when we need them?

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Reuters: EDF finalises deal to run two China nuclear plants
‘EDF, the world's biggest single producer of nuclear energy, signed a formal agreement on Sunday to invest in and operate two new-generation reactors in the southern province of Guangdong.’

The Daily Telegraph: Centrica dangles £4bn cash to clinch stake in British Energy
‘Centrica is planning to offer a cash sweetener for the Government's stake in British Energy in an effort to secure its backing for a £22.5bn merger with the nuclear power generator. The owner of British Gas is galvanising up to £4bn to cover the cost of part or all of the stake in the hope that cash will persuade the Government to allow it a place in the deal.’

The Malta Independent: Solar energy comes free and it’s safe
‘Other Mediterranean countries such as Portugal and Spain have invested heavily in solar technology. On 13 June, the Jerusalem Post reported the launching of an American-Israeli experimental solar technology plant in Israel’s Negev desert. Described as the “highest performance, lowest cost thermal solar system in the world”, this technology makes use of computer-guided flat mirrors known as heliostats to track the sun and focus its rays on a boiler at the top of a 200-foot tower. The water inside the boiler turns to steam, powering a turbine and subsequently producing electricity. The project is at a final testing stage and is planned to complete full-sized facilities in California’s Mojave Desert by 2011. It is estimated that this technology could cut costs associated with solar energy by 30 to 50 per cent.’

Gulf Daily News: Nuclear power threats to be reviewed at key talks
‘THREATS posed by nuclear power in the Middle East will be top of the agenda at a major security conference in Bahrain later this year.’

redOrbit: Lightning Shuts Down South Korea's Oldest Nuclear Reactor
‘Lightning shut down a major South Korean nuclear power plant Saturday but there was no radiation leak from the facility, a regional unit of the reactor's operator said.’

The London Times: Monday manifesto: Energy expert plans for nuclear renaissance
‘In a few weeks, Samir Brikho hopes, his company will be starting work on one of the highest-profile energy projects in Britain. A consortium involving Amec is the preferred bidder to run Sellafield, one of the world’s biggest nuclear reprocessing and decommissioning facilities. It is the jewel in the crown of the state-owned nuclear operations, all of which are being sold in a long privatisation.’

iStockAnalyst: Unit 1 Down; TVA Nuclear Plants Power at 50%
‘The Tennessee Valley Authority shut down Browns Ferry Unit 1 on Friday after reducing it and the other two units to half power Thursday. TVA also shut down Watts Bar Nuclear Plant on Thursday after dropping it to half power Wednesday. Of six nuclear plants in the TVA system, only two -- both at Sequoyah -- are operating at full power. Systemwide, TVA's nuclear power generation is at half-mast. TVA took Browns Ferry Unit 1 offline Friday at 5:30 a.m. because of a steam leak in the thermal well, one of the devices that tracks the temperature of steam in the main steam tunnel.’

You might remember us profiling the Philippine nuclear power station in Bataan, which took eight years and $2.3 billion to build, 32 years to pay off, and never produced a single watt of electricity.

The Philippine government are considering attempting to finally put the reactor to work but, unusually (considering how a side-effect of nuclear energy is to make governments deaf to protest), they are paying attention to local concerns about the plan.

The government are consulting city mayors in the country’s mountainous Cordillera region who have rejected the idea of nuclear in favour of pursuing hydroelectric and geothermal projects. And the government seem content with that decision. ‘[W]e are not trying to convince mayors to accept nuclear energy,” said Energy Undersecretary Ramon Santos, who added that the Bataan plan would be dropped in the event of strong objections.

The Philippine government seem fully aware of the issues with nuclear power – the shortage of experts, the dangers, and the clean and safe alternatives – and are fully prepared to admit to them. A rare jewel indeed, we hope you’ll agree. Let see if they can keep their heads and their promises…

As we said last week with the news of the fire at the construction site of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor in Finland, when following the news about the nuclear industry, it is a mistake to take initial reports at face value. Always look for the follow-up stories – that’s where the bad news is buried.

In the case of Olkiluoto 3, the initial report spoke of a ‘small’ fire which, in subsequent reports, was revealed to be serious enough to cause ‘extensive damage’ with ‘major concreting operations’ required to repair the damage.

It was the same with the spill of 18,000 litres of uranium solution at Tricastin in France in July. Reports to the initial news of the leak showed that it had been lax safety standards had allowed the leak and uranium from a previous leak was also found in the contaminated rivers.

And so we come to the US military’s nuclear submarine, the USS Houston. Early last week first reports stated that ‘a gallon of water that contained a small amount of radioactivity spilled out from a pipe onto a crew member of the Houston’. Five days later it was revealed that the Houston’s reactor had been leaking for two years.

On this occasion, it seems that the US military were fortunate and no major contamination took place. (Don’t think we’re taking the second reports at face value either – further worse news may yet dribble out, like water from the Houston’s reactor). But once again, this all serves to fuel the mistrust of the nuclear industry. We can’t trust the technology. We can’t trust the safety procedures. We can’t trust the news in the event of an accident.

(Photo of Lyle Thurston © Greenpeace/Robert Keziere)

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

ReportonBusiness.com: AECL's future hinges on Ontario deal, sources say
‘Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is fighting for its survival, as industry supporters say the federal government is preparing to pull the plug on the heavily subsidized Crown corporation if it loses a bid to build two nuclear reactors in Ontario.’

The Daily Telegraph: We must entrust France with our nuclear energy
‘The Government seems almost embarrassingly keen to sell British Energy to state-controlled Eléctricité de France (EDF). Now imagine that scenario in reverse… Exactly. The Elysée's attitude to foreign interest in its power companies is very much "Ne touchez pas, si'l vous plaît" - only without the s'il vous plaît. It has just orchestrated an all-French merger of Gaz de France and Suez to create a national champion and Europe's largest gas distributor.’

Associated Press: Mining activity called a toxic threat to Southwest's Colorado River supply
‘Environmental groups are warning that threats of toxic pollution from future mining activity lurk on the Colorado River. The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group compiled a database of mining claims on public lands and found more than 5,500 hard-rock mining claims within 10 miles of the river and nearly 1,200 within five miles. Environmental groups say mines too close to a river could contaminate the water and damage fragile ecosystems. The Colorado River supplies water for drinking and irrigation to more than 25 million people in Arizona and six other states.’

The Hindu: India firm on “unconditional” exemption
‘The former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), M.R. Srinivasan, has said that if the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) does not give a “clean and unconditional” exemption from its guidelines for nuclear commerce with India, “there is a risk that India may pull out of the process.”’

Guampdn.com: New law appropriates $250K to independently investigate Navy's Apra Harbor findings
‘A new law will pay for the government of Guam to independently test Apra Harbor. Acting Gov. Mike Cruz signed Bill 349, creating Public Law 29-104. It appropriates $250,000 for an independent investigation into the Navy’s findings regarding the USS Houston’s radioactive leak into Apra Harbor, according to a news release from the governor’s office. Cruz met with Commander Naval Forces Marianas Adm. William French and other military officials yesterday to discuss the Navy’s results, the news release stated.’

redOrbit: Chinese Company Wants to Build Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant
‘China's Guangdong Nuclear Power Group has expressed its intention to participate in the construction of Belarus's first-ever nuclear power plant, Belarusian Deputy Energy Minster Mikhail Mikhadzyuk told reporters in Minsk on Monday [11 August]. "China has 20 years of experience in the construction and maintenance of nuclear power plants, and that is why we will consider this proposal of the Chinese side for possible cooperation in the development of a nuclear power industry in Belarus," Mikhadzyuk said.’

George Monbiot: Old King Coal is a brave old soul, but he is talking utter nonsense
‘I feel I need to point out that I have not become an advocate for nuclear power. My position is that environmentalists should stop trying to pick technologies for electricity generation. Instead we should demand a maximum level for the carbon dioxide produced per megawatt-hour, impose a number of other public safety measures, then allow the energy companies to find the cheapest means of delivering it. Otherwise we are in danger of backing the solutions we find aesthetically appealing and delaying the massive carbon cuts that need to be made. If nuclear power meets the very tough conditions I proposed last week, we should no longer oppose it - though that remains a big if. This is too subtle a point for Arthur and other commentators, who are shrieking that Monbiot has gone nuclear.’

After leak upon leak and insult upon injury, France’s nuclear power facility at Tricastin has had yet another humiliation heaped upon it this week. Tired of the terrible publicity that the facility has attracted to the region, winegrowers are no longer to call their vintage Côteaux du Tricastin.

In a glorious masterpiece of Gallic understatement, Henri Bour, president of the local Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) wine association, told Der Speigel: ‘Nuclear energy and food don't really go so well together in the minds of consumers.’ Like nuclear energy and safety or nuclear energy and competence, you could say.

The wine is now apparently to be labelled Grignan. Advertising the new name in advance was possibly a mistake alerting, as it might, the discerning wine drinker who are not known for their appreciation of overtones of uranium in their glasses.

With French officials now analysing groundwater at all of France’s nuclear sites, we’re reminded of the story from a couple of years ago when it was found that low-level nuclear waste was leaking from the Soulaine radioactive waste dump and into the groundwater in the Champagne region. The French nuclear industry threatens to continue adding a certain je ne sais quoi to the country’s most famous export for some time to come.

Cheers!

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Knoxville News Sentinel: Nuclear fuel maker sold
‘Babcock & Wilcox Co., which designs, supplies, and services power generation systems and equipment like nuclear generators, has entered a definitive agreement to purchase Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. in Erwin, Tenn.’

Yahoo! News: Australia to back US-India nuclear pact with suppliers: Rudd
‘Australia will support a civilian atomic energy deal between India and the United States at a meeting of key nuclear supplier states, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said here Tuesday. Rudd's statement comes ahead of an August 21 meeting in Vienna of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group on the deal, under which the United States will provide energy-starved India with nuclear fuel and technology.’

World Nuclear News: Russian civil nuclear reorganisation proceeds
‘Russia has announced that its nuclear power generation organisation has been reconstituted and renamed. Rosenergoatom becomes simply Energoatom.’

World Nuclear News: Resource boost at Namibian deposit
‘Bannerman Resources, based in Perth, Western Australia, has announced a fivefold boost in indicated resources at its Goanikontes deposit in Namibia. The overall resource estimate increased by 48%.’

Bloomberg: Tokyo Electric Burns More Fuel on Nuclear Shutdown, Summer Heat
‘Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it burned more fossil fuel in July after an earthquake forced the utility to shut the world's biggest nuclear station and summer heat boosted demand. Asia's biggest utility burned 87 percent more crude, or 299,000 kiloliters, compared with a year earlier, it said on its Web site today. Tokyo Electric's Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear plant has been shut since July 16, 2007, after being damaged by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8, according to Japan's meteorological agency.’

Public Servant Daily: Skills threat to nuclear expansion
‘Skill shortages in the nuclear industry due to the industry’s ageing workforce could lead to government plans for new power stations being delayed, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned, writes Dean Carroll’

Straight.com: How Scheer determination transformed Germany
‘In 2005, I attended an international conference in Montreal on the Kyoto Protocol. There, I heard a speech by German parliamentarian Dr. Hermann Scheer. I knew nothing about him, but as I listened to him talk about how Germany had become the world’s leading exporter of wind technology and was on its way to phasing out its nuclear reactors, I was blown away.’

Reactor construction at Olkiluoto 3
(© Greenpeace/Nick Cobbing)

Documents seen by Greenpeace show that French company Areva is failing to implement vital safety procedures in the troubled construction of its prototype European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in Olkiluoto, Finland. As well as being 2-3 years behind schedule, 70 per cent over budget, and experiencing 1,500 construction defects along with a damaging fire, the reactor’s safety cannot be guaranteed.

The documents show that, during the construction of the steel framework in the base of the the world's largest nuclear reactor, welders had no specifications as to how the welding should be properly performed for an entire year and, furthermore, tests to ensure the quality of the welding have not been carried out.

Bouygues, an Areva sub-contractor, has had no qualified welding supervisors at the site for over a year and still does not have any. Staff are given a mere two weeks’ training instead of having the international standard university degree. The company also listed people who had not worked in the role as welding supervisors.

Areva, the Finnish nuclear safety authority STUK, and the country’s electricity generator TVO have all been aware of these problems and yet the necessary vital safeguards have not been implemented. Poor welding could cause or exacerbate a nuclear accident – both the reactor cooling system and the reactor itself are mounted on the steel framework. If this is how the construction has proceeded so far, what can we expect when it comes to the installation of reactor components or electronic safety systems?

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Yahoo! News: Iran confident over talks on disputed nuclear programme
‘Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday sounded an upbeat note on talks with Western powers on Tehran's contested nuclear programme, saying they were going in the "right direction."’

The London Times: British Energy profits hit by nuclear plant shutdown
‘The creaking state of Britain’s nuclear power stations was laid bare yesterday when British Energy revealed a sharp drop in first-quarter profit as a year-long outage at two of its biggest reactors reduced its power output. The nuclear generator, which is looking for a buyer, was unable to take advantage of soaring power prices because of the shutdown of its Hartlepool and Heysham 1 reactors. The group, which has eight reactors and provides 15 per cent of Britain’s electricity, said that profits in the three months to June fell by 65 per cent to £62 million, compared with £179 million in the same period last year. The group produced 9.5 terawatt hours (tWh) of power in the period, down from 13 tWh a year earlier.’

Yahoo! News: US dispatches envoy in bid to break NKorea nuclear deadlock
‘Sung Kim, the State Department's top Korea expert, "is going to consult with the Chinese regarding efforts to secure a strong verification regime and additional progress in the six party talks," a department official told AFP.’

Scoop: Brazil’s Nuclear Ambitions: Worrisome?
‘On Thursday, July 31, Brazilian authorities gave the final go ahead to the civilian nuclear power company, Electronuclear, to continue construction of the country’s third nuclear power plant. Though the decision to revitalize the 22-year-old nuclear reactor, Angra 3, came late last year, plans were finalized in July by the government’s environmental regulatory agency. Electronuclear, a subsidiary of the state-owned energy firm Electrobras, plans to begin construction in February.’

Fox 12: Nuclear Power Plant to Continue Despite Negative Audit
‘It was about a year-and-a-half ago when we first heard about a nuclear power plant being proposed at a site near C.J. Strike Reservoir. From the get go, the idea met with controversy with the latest involving a recent audit of the company involved with the plant. […] That's because the company proposing to build a nuclear power plant in the Gem State is losing money. According to a recent audit, Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., lost $4.9 million in 2007.’

MSNBC: How moon rocks could power the future
‘The moon is once again a popular destination, as several space-faring nations are talking about setting up bases there. One reason would be to mine fuel for future fusion reactors. The fuel in this case is helium-3, a lighter isotope of the helium used in balloons. In high energy collisions, helium-3 fuses with other nuclei to release more energy and less waste than the reactions in traditional nuclear reactors.’

The industry reaction to yesterday’s news of safety standard violations at the construction site of Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor wasn’t entirely unexpected. What we got was the same old denial and spin.

Finnish nuclear safety watchdog STUK has only ordered an inquiry into welding on non-load bearing parts of the reactor. This is despite six of the 11 welding procedure specifications seen by Greenpeace - only finalized after welding had started - being concerned with load bearing welds. That’s welding, which Greenpeace Nordic Nuclear Campaigner Lauri Myllyvirta says, ‘is included in the estimated total strength of the resulting structure and that consequently has to be able to withstand a specified load for the entire lifetime of the structure’

Significantly, Bouygues, the sub-contractor thought responsible for the welding and the threats made to potential whistleblowers, has denied any association with the welding work at the reactor. This directly contradicts the statement from reactor builders Areva which said that ‘last winter, the consortium took note of remarks made by STUK about the welding’, and that, ‘the subject was raised with the subcontractor concerned, Bouygues’. Areva and Bouygues can’t both be right so what is going on here: confusion or cover-up? Neither are desirable traits in companies building nuclear reactors.

The industry reaction to Greenpeace’s revelations has focussed almost entirely on the actual steel framework of the reactor. This distracts from the fact that quality control and supervision of vital work in one of the most important parts of the reactor have been ignored, poorly implemented, or non-existent. This is despite all the parties, Areva, STUK, and Finnish electricity generator TVO having been well aware of the problems for some time.

STUK are now looking at ‘welding at non-load bearing welds’ and are investigating the qualifications of welding coordinators. All of which should have been carefully and thoroughly verified long before construction began. Whatever happened to prevention being better than cure?

This isn’t just about the state of the steel framework of the world’s largest nuclear reactor (as if that isn’t concerning enough) but about the frightening culture of complacency, cover-up and incompetence that has sprung up around the construction of these potentially highly-dangerous projects. It’s not just the welding that needs inspecting and fixing but also the attitudes of those responsible. Something must change and fast. All work must stop and the whole project should be thoroughly investigated – not just this one steel framework.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Proactive Investors Australia: Aura Energy sharpens focus on Sweden’s highly prospective uranium basin
‘Uranium may not generate the same excitement as it did 12 months ago, but for mineral exploration minnows like Aura Energy, the prize of finding a substantial uranium deposit still offers plenty of rewards for shareholders.’

BBC News: EDF could complete UK nuclear line-up
‘Two weeks after the collapse of a £12bn takeover by the French state-controlled nuclear giant EDF, British Energy has revealed that it is still engaged in talks.’

Petroleum World: EDF says to raise stake in US Constellation Energy in nuclear field
‘French electricity group EDF said on Wednesday its board had given approval for the company to raise its interest in US firm Constellation Energy from 4.97 percent to 9.9 percent.’

Bloomberg: Eskom Says Nuclear Power Unit Resumes Operations After Shutdown
‘Eskom Holdings Ltd., South Africa's state-owned power utility, said one of two units at the Koeberg nuclear plant that was shut last month is back in operation.’

Mlive.com: DTE Energy's Michigan nuclear plan faces heavy cost
‘DTE Energy in the next dozen years aims to do something no American utility has managed in a generation: bring a new nuclear plant online. It's the only one planned today for Michigan, yet DTE will jostle with utilities around the country to meet federal tax credit eligibility - starting with an application deadline this year - and to mobilize a supplier base to a large extent now gone or located overseas.’

Irish Times: Ireland can become the world leader in ocean energy
‘'Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity!" This often-used phrase for promoting questionable commercial deals applies to a very real opportunity today in Ireland - and there is nothing questionable about it. A unique opportunity stands before Ireland of a scale and fit almost too good to be true. If I came up to you and said I knew how to get Ireland 20 per cent of the way toward its alternative energy goals, make it a world leader in an important emerging technology and create 10,000 or more new, high-value added jobs, you would probably be sceptical. But if I convinced you it was
true, you would say "Let's get started!"’

Christian Science Monitor: Georgia-Russia conflict shows EU's energy vulnerability
‘Russia's invasion of Georgian territory last week, in addition to reasserting Moscow's military strength, has complicated Europe's effort to diversify its oil and gas supplies away from the growing dominance of Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom.’

And so Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 reactor continues to grow and along with it, the budget (70 percent over) and time (2-3 years late) until the reactor is complete.

Another thing that’s growing is the number of quality control and safety issues detected during construction. The number we usually quote is 1,500. This week it was revealed that 2,100 quality control and safety issues have been detected.

Finland’s nuclear ambitions continue to grow as well. Despite this week’s news of shortcomings and failures in the construction of Olkiluoto 3, Finnish finance minister Jyrki Katainen said this week that the country should build an additional two nuclear power plants. Don’t try running until you can walk, Jyrki!

Somebody who seems to be growing up the hard way is Areva, the French company building Olkiluoto 3. In an interview with a Swedish news programme, Petteri Tiippana, Assistant Director of Finnish nuclear watchdog STUK, had this to say:

Lack of training, control and guidance of the subcontractors. Each time they [Areva] start something new, there are some sort of challenges that they have not been prepared for. It has taken some time to educate Areva on how things have to be managed in Finland.

‘It has taken some time to educate Areva.’ Imagine having to tell a company that boast of its expertise in building nuclear reactors, ‘no, you don’t do it like that, you do it like this’, like teaching a child to ride a bicycle. With STUK planning to investigate safety at the construction site, it’s a good bet that Areva has more hard lessons to learn.

Still, we’ve all been educated this week, haven’t we? Most notably, we’ve learned that building nuclear power plants is a risky business and we don’t want any more of this nonsense anywhere else in the world.

In a measured and reasoned article for Fox News’ website, journalist Steven Milloy accuses Greenpeace of leading an ‘anti-nuclear jihad’:

‘Greenpeace has taken its anti-nuclear jihad to Flamanville, Finland, where a private utility company is currently building a European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) — a safer, more reliable and cheaper next-generation reactor. But Greenpeace has alleged technical and safety problems with the EPR and misconduct in the Finns' safety approval process.’

Now, it’s tempting to simply dismiss an article from someone who thinks Flamanville in Finland (it’s in France, Steve – Google would have told you if you’d taken the time). How can we then trust him when he says EPRs are ‘safer, more reliable and cheaper’ – particularly when there isn’t one operating in the world yet - is anyone’s guess.

But we can’t help but feel a little bit flattered by accusations of jihad. Steve, of course, is using the word to make a not-at-all over the top rhetorical connection between Greenpeace and murderers and suicide bombers. However, jihad in its true sense means ‘to struggle to improve one's self and society’.Now that sounds more like Greenpeace’s mission.

Fox News’s mission is to be ‘Fair and Balanced’. What could be fairer or more balanced than comparing Greenpeace to terrorists? Fox’s other slogan is ‘We report, you decide’. Well, Steve, you reported and we decided…

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Space War: Japan pressured to oppose US-India nuclear deal
‘Anti-nuclear campaigners launched a campaign Friday to press nuclear energy suppliers to stop an accord between India and the United States, saying it would shatter anti-proliferation efforts. A loose coalition including activists and scholars focused efforts on Japan, which has been non-committal on the deal that would give India access to nuclear technology without signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).’

The London Times: Britain holds £160bn stockpile of nuclear fuel
‘Britain has a stockpile of plutonium and uranium that, if converted to fuel, could be worth nearly £160 billion and power three nuclear reactors for 60 years, scientists say.
The future of the stockpile - largely left over from burning fuel - will be decided by ministers over the next year, The Times has learnt. Its value is estimated as the equivalent of 2.6 billion barrels of oil.’

redOrbit: Wind Sector Believes 20 Percent Goal "Achievable"
‘The United States wind energy sector continues to believe it is possible to produce 20 percent of the nation's electricity with wind by 2030. But the 20 percent number is not a prediction, guarantee or projection. Instead, according to Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the "20 Percent Vision" is "achievable but not inevitable." He made his comments at AWEA's 2008 conference in Houston. Wind presently provides less than 1 percent of the electricity in the United States. Foremost among the obstacles to achieving the "20 Percent Vision," he said, is breaking away from the federal wind energy production tax credit's on-and-ofF nature. The credit offers wind energy producers a two cent production tax credit (PTC) on every kilowatt-hour of power produced. Swisher said broad political support exists for the PTC, but that disagreement remains over how it should be paid and by whom.’

The National: The global search for uranium
‘The [United Arab Emirates]’s economy has long been tied to the price of oil. Now, it could be tied to the cost of uranium as well. Worried that shortages of natural gas could limit energy supplies and hold back economic growth, the Government has decided instead to develop nuclear power, a strategy which would unlock vast new sources of energy but also link the country’s energy future in part to the price and availability of imported uranium.’

The Hindu Business Line: Nuclear Power short-lists 4 suppliers for reactors
‘With the prospects of India’s access to global nuclear reactor technology brightening, Westinghouse Electric Company (AP1000 series of reactors), GE-Hitachi (ABWR reactor series) , Areva (1,000 MW European pressurised reactors) and the Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom (VVER 1,000 reactors) are among the frontrunners for new projects planned across the country.’

Washington Post: Potential for Conflict Grows With Government's Use of Contractors
‘For years, Science Applications International Corp. served as an adviser to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the development of rules for when radioactive materials could be released from nuclear facilities for recycling. At the same time, SAIC worked as a contractor on just such a recycling project at a Department of Energy facility, but it did not disclose the conflict as required by federal regulations, according to evidence gathered by the Justice Department. A company executive also helped run an association that advocated for favorable recycling standards, and the firm was planning a business that could have been affected by rules it was helping to write, Justice documents show.’

After twelve years of nuclear weapons testing on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean the US built a radioactive dump in a bomb crater on Runit, one of the islands that hadn’t been vaporised.

The site was built in 1979 and Runit has been designated as off limits for the next 24,000 years which is the half life of the plutonium contained under the structure’s flying saucer-like dome. Despite the structure being less that 30 years old, according to WA Today…

…while the views from the top are stunning, it is a sobering experience to climb. Cracks riddle the surface, many water-stained at the edges and crumbling. Some spalls are so large, birds have laid eggs in them. The concrete cap - 45 centimetres thick and peppered with plutonium waste - contains at least two holes 15 centimetres deep. Below lie thousands more cubic metres of radioactive waste.

It’s 85,000 cubic metres to be exact, the by-product of 67 US nuclear weapons tests. And yet the US Department of Energy has declared ‘the US has no formal custodial responsibilities for the site’. The inhabitants of the surrounding islands have already had to deal with the legacy of the nuclear testing – cancers and birth defects.

The US government offered $400 million between 1964 and 2004 ‘in full and final settlement of all past and future claims deriving from the nuclear tests.’ In other words, the US has washed its hands of the islanders and the dome on Runit.

The dome is, of course, remote enough that it doesn’t threaten the health of American citizens which was why the islands were chosen in the first place. There's no danger of pictures of people with thyroid cancer or deformities upsetting American newspaper readers over their breakfast. There’s no footage of the US’s nuclear legacy on Fox News.

One would expect that nuclear waste dumps built in the US will be to a better standard. But this case demonstrates once again that burying nuclear waste demands binding commitments, both financially and morally, from future governments. These are commitments that we cannot, by their very nature, ask for and they extend into a distant future we cannot predict. As the Marshall Islanders have discovered, such commitments can be very short lived indeed. If only plutonium had a half life as short.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Reuters: Vattenfall sees ease in German nuclear opposition
‘German opposition to nuclear energy is starting to ease but the debate is still too emotional, the chief executive of Swedish power company Vattenfall said in an interview published on Monday.’

Associated Press: Spain seeks big fines over leak at nuclear plant
‘Spain's nuclear watchdog agency proposed a fine of up to 22.5 million euros ($33 million) over a leak at a power plant, accusing operators Monday of waiting three weeks to report it and downplaying the amount of contamination released.’

News.com.au: Liberals still powered by nuclear ambition
‘AUSTRALIA must embrace nuclear power to cut greenhouse gases, argues a senior Liberal frontbencher who warns coal-fired power generation is deadlier. In the strongest pro-nuclear remarks since former prime minister John Howard left politics, Coalition trade spokesman Ian Macfarlane says Australia "must get real" on nuclear energy to tackle climate change.’

World Nuclear News: A plan to license NGNP
‘The Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) project took another step forward on 15 August when the US Department of Energy (DoE) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) submitted a joint licensing plan for the advanced reactor.’

Wall Street Journal: Let's Invest in Clean Energy
‘Three weeks ago The Wall Street Journal kicked off a debate on how best to allocate scarce resources to solve the world's problems. Bjorn Lomborg offered a summary of the latest findings from his Copenhagen Consensus project, where he has enlisted some of the world's top economists to address the issue. Now we're offering views on the subject from top political and business leaders. How would you spend $10 billion of American resources (either directly or through regulation) over the next four years to help improve the state of the world?’

The Guardian: France says no decision on Areva-Alston tie-up
‘The French Finance Ministry said on Monday no decision had been made on the future of nuclear energy producer Areva in regard to a possible tie-up with Alstom. A ministry spokesman clarified comments by Economy Minister Christine Lagarde, who earlier on Monday said such a tie-up was not being included in the elaboration of the 2009 budget.’

Buzzle.com: What a Waste: Dream of Free Energy Turns Into £3bn-a-year Public Bill
‘Britain's nuclear complex at Sellafield is Europe's biggest single industrial site and home to what was meant to be a huge fuel reprocessing system that would produce power while reducing the legacy of radioactive waste. It was built amid enthusiasm that atomic power would be "too cheap to meter" and yet, 52 years on, its catalog of failures has left it with one of the world's largest stockpiles of plutonium and a bill to the taxpayer of about £3bn a year, a new report says.’

ABC News: Uranium mining, nuclear power and 'ethical' investment
‘A recent Corporate Watch Australia survey reveals that many so-called ethical investment funds invest in uranium mining. The number has risen significantly in recent years. Some fund managers justify investment in uranium with questionable arguments about nuclear power and climate change, but the primary reason for the shift is probably BHP Billiton's entry into the uranium industry with its 2005 acquisition of WMC Resources, which owns the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia.’

Yesterday, after commenting on the state of US nuclear weapons waste storage on the Marshall Islands, we said, ‘one would expect that nuclear waste dumps built in the US will be to a better standard’. We take it back – we were wrong:

In the arid land of southeastern Washington State lies a remote area along the Columbia River that serves as a reminder of the Cold War standoff between the US and the Soviet Union. This 586-square foot relic is the Hanford site—a retired plutonium production complex that the Department of Energy (DOE) considers to be “the world’s largest environmental cleanup project.”

Some 525 million gallons of radioactive waste were generated by Hanford between 1944 and 1988, according to a Government Accountability Office report, and at least 56 million gallons of the stuff remains on site in leaky tanks. Already a million gallons of it has seeped into the ground and contaminated the Columbia River.

…

Approximately 450 billion gallons of waste has already been discharged into the soil during production at the Hanford site—an amount equal to about five days flow of the Columbia River.

Hanford is the most radioactive site in the US. The numbers involved in the country’s radioactive Cold War legacy are truly staggering, truly chilling:

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

The Boston Globe: Georgia chaos halts nuclear security effort
‘The chaos in Georgia has forced the United States to halt a high-priority program that was helping the former Soviet republic to identify possible smugglers of nuclear bomb components across its borders, long considered a transit point for terrorists seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction, according to US officials.’

Yahoo! News: Japan signals approval of India-US nuclear deal
‘Japan on Tuesday signalled it would approve a nuclear energy deal between India and the United States, raising the chances that the controversial pact will come into force. The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls the global flow of civilian atomic exports, is expected to meet Thursday in Vienna on the nuclear deal. Objections by any nation would scuttle the pact.’

Los Angeles Times: San Onofre nuclear power plant feeling regulatory pressure
‘San Onofre nuclear plant managers are scrambling to avoid stepped-up oversight from regulators and to resolve worker safety and operational problems that have put the facility's industry ratings significantly below its peers.’

Reuters: Niger rebel says Saharan Tuaregs to set down guns
‘Niger's Tuareg rebel leader Aghaly ag Alambo said his fighters would lay down their guns from Monday and, together with neighbouring Mali's Tuareg rebellion, submit to mediation by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

[…]

Alambo, of the Niger Justice Movement (MNJ), has previously demanded up to 30 percent of uranium revenue be allocated to Niger's mainly Tuareg north, where French state-controlled nuclear group Areva mines the radioactive metal.’

The Economic Times: Switzerland hails India's economic power, backs nuclear energy: Envoy
‘Switzerland sees India as "a rising economic power" and backs its efforts to develop civil nuclear energy, Swiss envoy Dominique Dreyer said here, days before a key meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Vienna Aug 21.’

The Times of India: India may run into New Zealand block at NSG
‘Just two days before the crucial NSG meet on the Indo-US nuclear deal, New Zealand sounded an alarm bell for India by stating that it has reservations about the contents of the NSG draft and that it is also contemplating certain conditions which could be weaved into the draft in the form of extra assurances. Replying to a queries from The Times of India, New Zealand minister for disarmament and arms control Phil Goff said that some of the conditions New Zealand is looking at include the end of the deal in case of any further nuclear test by India which is in keeping with the Hyde Act.’

PRWEB: The Economist Hosts Online Debate About Energy Security
‘The Economist Debate Series announces its eleventh online debate (www.economist.com/debate) focused on the current issue of energy security. The proposition for this debate is: "This house believes that we can solve our energy problems with existing technologies today, without the need for breakthrough innovations."’

Following last week’s news of serious doubts about safety and inspection standards at the construction of Finland’s ‘state of the art’ Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor, another scandal has emerged involving threats to potential whistleblowers on the site.

As reported by Finnish broadcasting company YLE, Reactor builders Areva and sub-contractor Bouygues have banned employees from speaking out about the ongoing construction. The rules about confidentiality that bind workers cover workers’ rights and safety issues. Bouygues employees have been specifically and repeatedly warned about report safety concerns about the reactor’s construction to Areva or inspectors from TVO, Finland’s electricity generator.

This all this makes us want to ask one big question: if everything is fine with the reactor’s construction, if there are no problems and no dangers, why threaten workers with disciplinary action for speaking out about it? Why the need for a cover up if nothing is wrong? Would an employee face losing their job if he or she were to go to the media and declare ‘everything is going well at Olkiluoto 3’? We’re sure that if Areva or Bouygues were asked if everything was well at the site, their answer would be ‘yes’ (they certainly protested vehemently against last week’s news). So why gag workers?

We can understand Areva wanting to protect its intellectual properties such as reactor designs but openness about safety issues and worker’s rights are fundamental to public confidence in any large building project. We have a right to know about any risks or dangers or if companies are exploiting their workers.

Bullying, threats and shabby attempts at cover-ups make the likes of Areva and sub-contractor Bouygues look paranoid, incompetent and contemptuous of the public interest. In case they’d forgotten, power stations are built to fulfil a public need. These companies serve the public good, not the other way around. If they can’t even build projects in a safe, honest and transparent manner then they should not be building at all..

Construction at Olkiluoto 3 must stop while safety concerns are thoroughly investigated by an independent group. Threats to workers jobs and livelihoods must stop. Whistleblowing should be positively encouraged. We need a culture of openness in which we have much more accountability, more competence, more public confidence and less danger.

Take a look at the photograph on the front page of the website belonging to STUK, Finland’s nuclear watchdog.

Lovely, isn’t it?

We don’t know about you, but the first thing that comes into our minds when we think about nuclear power isn’t…

Chernobyl
(© Greenpeace/Steve Morgan)

...or…

The Olkiluoto 3 reactor, Finland
(© Greenpeace/Nick Cobbing)

…it is, of course, pretty flowers, green fields and blue skies. Isn’t that nice?

And all thanks to the so-called independent STUK.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

New York Times: Don’t Loosen Nuclear Rules for India
‘IN the next day or so, an obscure organization will meet to decide the fate of an Indian nuclear deal that threatens to rapidly accelerate New Delhi’s arms race with Pakistan — a rivalry made all the more precarious by the resignation on Tuesday of the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf. Nonetheless, President Bush is lobbying the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs international nuclear commerce, to waive its most crucial rules in order to allow the trade of reactors, fuel and technology to India. If the president gets his way, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — for 50 years, the bulwark against the spread of nuclear weapons — would be shredded and India’s yearly nuclear weapons production capability would likely increase from 7 bombs to 40 or 50.’

Business New Europe: Kazatomprom aims for top nuclear spot
‘As the nuclear industry enjoys a global revival, Kazatomprom is positioning itself to overtake Cameco as the world's largest producer of uranium. It said in July that it expects to achieve this as early as next year, rather than in 2010 as originally planned.’

The Australian: No need for nuclear, Government says
‘NUCLEAR power is important for other countries, but not for energy rich Australia, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says. Encouraging the development of geothermal energy, however, was exceptionally important, he said.’

The London Times: British Energy profits plunge on falling output
‘British Energy profits dropped more than 60 per cent in the three months
to June from £179 million to £62 million, the nuclear operator said today. The group, which had a £12 billion takeover bid from France's EDF rejected by its shareholders at the beginning of the month, said the fall was due to lower output. It has been struck by a string of technical problems with its ageing reactors and the scheduled closure of
plants.’

Helsingin Sanomat: Pekkarinen: Export of nuclear electricity could compel Finland to accept waste from abroad
‘Minister of Economic Affairs Mauri Pekkarinen (Centre) warns that producing electricity for export in nuclear power plants could oblige Finland to accept imports of nuclear waste from abroad for storage in this country. Last week, Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen, who is also the chairman of the conservative National Coalition Party, called for a decision to authorise the construction of two new commercial nuclear reactors during the current Parliamentary term.’

China View: Brazil to build another 4 nuclear power plants
‘Brazil is to build a further four nuclear power plants in addition to finishing the halted Angra III plant, local media said Tuesday. Two plants will be built in the northeast and the other two will be built in the southeast, where three Angra plants are already located, local media said, adding that the four plants are expected to begin operating by 2014.’

Hot News Turkey: Iran launches an initiative to build new nuclear power plants
‘Iran's Atomic Energy Agency has launched an initiative to look for potential sites to build new nuclear power plants throughout the country. Director of Iran's nuclear energy production, Ahmad Fayaz-Bakhsh, said Monday that the agency had tasked six domestic companies with the hunt, the official news agency IRNA reported late on Tuesday. "The six companies have been given 13 months to find appropriate locations to build new atomic power plants. Construction of the plants will start after deciding their locations," he added without mentioning the number of plants to be built.’

Bloomberg: German Ministry Considers Digging Up Nuclear Waste, FAZ Reports
‘Germany's Environment Ministry is considering digging up radioactive waste, rather than leaving it buried for ever, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing a government document. Storage sites would need to be labeled and accessible for 1,000 years, so that future generations can retrieve the waste to neutralize or employ it as an energy source, the Frankfurt-based newspaper said, citing the document.’

Imagine your average nuclear power operator was a cat breeder. You want a cat so you go to see him. Yes, he says, I can offer you the finest pedigree cat. The best you’ve ever seen from a long line of fine cats. I can provide with you one for just $100 and it’ll be ready for collection in a month.

You go along in a month to collect your cat. Very sorry, says the cat breeder, it’s going to be another couple of weeks before you can take your cat. Oh, and by the way, the price is now $150. It can be an expensive business breeding cats, you know.

You go back two weeks later. Wouldn’t you know it? The breeder says the cat’s still not ready to leave its mother and what with unforeseen costs, it’s now $200 you owe him.

Two weeks later you return and collect the cat. You pay $250. The cat’s a sickly, shivery, little thing. It leaves a mess all over the place and makes terrible smells. It will only eat one kind of food but you’re not sure how much longer they’re going to make it and you have to buy it from that nasty man across town who you’re sure beats his family. The vet’s bills are astronomical and the pet insurance companies refuse to cover an animal that looks like it’s going to cost a fortune to keep alive.

You decide to go on holiday and take the cat back to the breeder as he also runs a pet hotel. He looks after lots of cats. You’ve heard terrible rumours to the contrary but he says he runs a super cheap, safe and secure service. It’s $50 to look after the cat.

You come back after your two week holiday to find chaos at the pet hotel. All the cats’ litter trays are overflowing and the breeder isn’t quite sure what to do with all the poop. It’s piled up in a corner of the garden and the smell is annoying his neighbours. He’s thinking of burying the poop – though he says that might take a long time and need a special and really expensive shovel - or maybe breeding a new kind of cat that can eat it. He’s full of ideas. Don’t worry, says the cat breeder as he hands you your cat (who looks thinner and sicker than ever), everything’s absolutely fine. He charges you $100.

Concerned, you contact the animal welfare services who say they’ll investigate. They write to you a few days later assuring you that everything is absolutely fine. They asked the cat breeder if there were any problems with his cats and he said no. That’s good enough for the animal welfare people. Case closed.

Your cat limps on for a few more years before having to be put out of its misery. You wish you’d bought hamster – they run all day and cause hardly any mess.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Palm Beach Post: Flooding prompts FPL to shut St. Lucie nuclear unit
‘Flooding from tropical Storm Fay triggered the shutdown of an 839-megawatt nuclear reactor unit at FPL Group's St. Lucie plant, but power supplies are still adequate, the company said today. Due to flooding in an area that holds equipment and pumps, the St. Lucie 1 reactor was taken offline around 6 a.m. Wednesday, said FPL spokeswoman Leslie Cifelli.’

Stuff.co.nz: NZ holding up India-US nuke pact
‘New Zealand diplomats last night played a major role inside a secretive international group to block a nuclear deal between India and the United States. The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) - which includes New Zealand - was meant to have approved the deal in Vienna, Austria, but consensus was not reached.’

World Nuclear News: Areva to 'decaffeinate' ash to recover uranium
‘Areva and the University of Idaho have signed an agreement to develop technology for recovering uranium from incinerator ash at Areva's uranium fuel plant in Richland, Washington state. The process also reduces the amount of ash classified as radioactive waste.’

World Nuclear News: First look at damaged Windscale pile
‘The first visual inspection of the damaged areas of the Windscale 1 reactor core has been carried out, over 50 years since a fire ruined the military unit. The extra information should help workers dismantle it more quickly. The Windscale reactors were plutonium production units built in the pioneering days of nuclear energy. Their graphite cores were found to suffer from build-ups of Wigner energy and although a process was developed to release this energy, it was not fully understood. On 10 October 1957 a runaway Wigner release led to a fire that damaged unit 1 beyond repair.’

Associated Press: Researchers try veggie oil to clean up toxic spill
‘Researchers at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site last year injected 5,000 gallons of molasses into the soil to try to clean up toxic groundwater near the Pacific Northwest's largest waterway. This week, they're trying vegetable oil.’

Indian Country: Indian activists assert priorities before DNC Email this page
‘On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, some Indian activists are attacking perceived weaknesses in the mainstream political system on several issues of Native importance, including energy development and sovereignty.’

Take a look at this campaign video from Barack Obama:

It’s a message for Nevada, home of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility. The facility, yet to be completed, is currently 20 years behind schedule and $32 billion over budget.

The thing is, while ‘If you don’t want nuclear waste here, you don’t want John McCain here’ is being put to Nevadans, what about everybody else? If Nevada doesn’t want the waste, why should anybody else take it? The message of that video is surely ‘If you don't want nuclear waste here, you don't want it anywhere...’.

McCain, who doesn’t want nuclear waste passing through his home state of Arizona but is fine with the idea of it going to Nevada. Does he think Nevadans have a resistance to radiation that Arizonans don’t have?

Obama, doesn’t want the waste going to Nevada. He’s written of wanting to abandon the Yucca Mountain project. He’s also against his own state, Illinois, become a nuclear waste depository. He says in the short-term the waste needs to be stored on-site where it is being produced, and then research needed to find a better solution. More wishful thinking. As there is no better solution on the horizon would not it be smarter to just ’stop’ producing more waste?

Aren’t those nuclear states entitled to say, ‘If you don’t want nuclear waste here, you don’t want Barack Obama here’?

A week ago, Greenpeace published leaked internal documents from the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear construction site that proved basic construction standards had been violated. A week later, a Finnish TV news programme used more leaked documents and interviews with insiders to show that workers had been coerced not to discuss safety violations with outsiders - not even to inspectors. It took a week for the Finnish nuclear watchdog to clear the companies of the allegations and establish that even if the alleged violations had taken place they would not have compromised safety. Impressive! How did they do it?

They called the construction companies themselves and asked.

Just imagine the situation in another context - the police receive a call about a shoplifter. Monitoring tapes clearly show stuff was stolen and they are able to identify the bad guy. They then give the suspect a call, he explains that he was watching TV and even if had taken something it wouldn't have been anything expensive. The police reports that a crime did not happen and even if it had happened it would not have caused notable economic damage. Why bother with fingerprints or leaked technical documents when we have cellphones and email?

Of course the problem, as the quick of brain may have figured out by now, is that a suspect might not voluntarily report the crimes he has committed even if politely asked to. For this to happen it is important to have cordial and confidential relations between the authorities and the companies they are keeping a watch over. Evidence of such cordiality was published yesterday, when a letter from the head of the Finnish nuclear watchdog, Jukka Laaksonen to the CEO of the French nuclear giant Areva was leaked to Finnish media. The letter from Laaksonen assures that "we will do our best to avoid unnecessary delays in Olkiluoto" and that he has "no doubts about the acceptability of the final product."

In his letter, Laaksonen goes on to proclaim that:

"You can be assured, that unfriendly writings in papers have had no effect on me and I will not let them have any impact on the good co-operation we have with the experts and managers of your organization.

"I fully recognize Areva's role as the company that is re-establishing the nuclear construction capacity of Western Europe and the US and I don't believe any company could have done it better in the current circumstances. I also appreciate your personal dedication and the fact that you have sent competent people to run the project."

And in an interview to MTV3 TV news yesterday:

"Areva and the companies behind it are still the world's strongest nuclear supplier. They still have the world's best and safest product. We have no reason to doubt that or doubt their sincerity."

The last statement is an exceptional display of trust - a sign of true friendship - as it was made two days after clear evidence of secrecy at Olkiluoto was published. Although other nuclear suppliers might not be too happy to hear the official regulator’s views on their performance respective to Areva, they can be assured that if they ever were to visit Finland during their nuclear adventures, they would also quickly make good friends with our lovable little nuclear watchdog.

(This a guest post by Lauri Myllyvirta, nuclear campaigner based in Finland for Greenpeace Nordic. You can find out more about Olkiluoto 3 at olkiluoto.info.)

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

The Peninsula: Iran designs new nuclear power plant
‘Iran has chosen the site and started designing a new 360-megawatt nuclear power plant, a senior atomic official said in remarks published yesterday. Iran has yet to complete construction of its first nuclear power plant and has previously sent conflicting signals about the state of work on a planned second plant. An Iranian official said this year construction work had already begun.’

New York Times: Chief Cleric of Iran Defends President
‘Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme religious leader, responded to mounting domestic criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a strong statement of support, praising his internal policies and his dogged defense of the country’s nuclear program, Iranian news media reported Sunday.’

Typically Spanish: Generator fire closes the Vandellós Nuclear Power Station
‘It happened at 8,49am and was extinguished by 10,30am, and has resulted in the plant being shut down. They say that workers in the plant were not affected and there was no incident involving radiation. The plant is now said to be 'stopped and stable', but the CNS made the recommendation that the Tarragona Nuclear Emergency Plan be activated.’

Angus Reid: Spaniards Oppose Revamping Nuclear Power
‘Almost half of adults in Spain are opposed to ending their country’s nuclear energy moratorium, according to a poll by Sigma Dos published in El Mundo. 48.3 per cent of respondents share this opinion, while 39.7 per cent support ending the ban.’

AFP: Britain still backs British Energy-EDF tie-up: minister
‘Britain continues to favour a tie-up between British Energy and French energy group EDF, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said in an interview published Monday. Speaking to the Financial Times last week while on a visit to Lagos, Wicks said a deal with EDF was "the most sensible option" and added that the government thought "that's the natural link".’

Herald Sun: Nuclear lobby can't see the light
‘It seems, though, that the nation's most high profile promoter of nuclear energy cannot locate the studies that would add weight to his argument. Ziggy Switkowski claimed this week that if it was allowed to develop, nuclear energy would be the lowest cost, cleanest and safest source of available energy in Australia by 2020. By 2020, renewable energy technology would have advanced to the point where it is reliable for peak needs, can store excess power and does not upset the electricity grid. All these aspects are being researched today and if stronger incentives are in place, their development would be fast tracked by eager investors. All new energy technologies will need this welfare, including clean coal and nuclear. Dr Switkowski told BNW yesterday he could not quote from a study that compared nuclear energy to other types of power in terms of cost and safety because none had been done.’

The Australian: India rebuffed on nuke sale pact
‘ATTEMPTS were under way last night to rescue the radical nuclear pact between Delhi and Washington after the key 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group refused to lift a 34-year-old embargo on nuclear trade with India.’

Energy Daily: Analysis: Energy crisis in the Caucasus
‘The war in Georgia was not mainly about energy, as some have said, but it highlights the vulnerability of energy deliveries through the Caucasus and threatens future projects in the region.’

What kind of Vice President would Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s nely announced running mate, make? We just don’t know at this stage. But one thing we do know is that Biden is all too aware of the dangers of nuclear proliferation. From the report. The Permanent Nth Country Experiment: Nuclear Weapons Proliferation in a Rapidly Changing World, here’s Biden in his own words…

When I was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee […] I gathered the heads of all the national laboratories and some of their subordinates in [the Capitol]. I asked them a simple question. I said I would like you to go back to your laboratory and try to assume for a moment you are a relatively informed terrorist group with access to some nuclear scientists. Could you build, off-the-shelf, a nuclear device? Not a dirty bomb, but something that would start a nuclear reaction—an atomic bomb. Could you build one? They came back several months later and said: “We built one.” I got together all of my colleagues and only a few showed up. Then I figured, well, they weren’t paying much attention so I literally asked the laboratories to physically take this device into the Senate. Not a joke. As we used to say when I was a kid, it was bigger than a breadbox and smaller than a dump truck but they were able to get it in. They literally put it in a room and showed and explained how —literally off-the-shelf, without doing anything illegal l— they actually constructed this device.

Amazing stuff. Let’s hope he remember this if he find himself in the West Wing next January.

In comic books and movies nuclear energy is our friend and can gives us amazing powers. Look at Peter Parker, bitten by a radioactive spider, he becomes Spiderman. Bruce Banner becomes the Incredible Hulk when exposed to gamma rays. Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, and Jonny and Sue Storm return to Earth as the Fantastic Four after being bombarded with cosmic radiation while on a space mission.

It’s all fantasy, right? Wrong. Research conducted by this blog has already shown that nuclear power in India has allowed convicted criminals to break out of prison and enabled the critically ill to rise up and walk.

We can now exclusively reveal that nuclear energy has given a man in Finland the uncanny ability to predict the future. That man is Jukka Laaksonen, head of Finnish nuclear safety authority, STUK. This spring, in letter to Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of Areva who are building Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor, Laaksonen said this:

‘I have no doubts about the acceptability of the final product.’

Isn’t that fantastic? Despite Olkiluoto 3 being two to three years behind schedule and not due to go online unto 2011, Laaksonen has looked into the future and has seen that everything’s going to be ok.

As well as developing powers of precognition, Laaksonen has also developed a shield that makes him impervious to his and his friends’ enemies. In the same letter to Areva, he says:

‘You can be assured, that unfriendly writings in papers have had no effect on me and I will not let them have any impact on the good co-operation we have with the experts and managers of your organization.’

When they come to make the movie of Laaksonen’s life, it’s going to be spectacular.

This all follows unconfirmed reports that STUK safety inspectors have developed x-ray vision. After concerns over the state of the welding and inspection procedures in Olkiluoto 3’s steel framework were revealed, STUK declared that everything at the site is fine. How could they have done that if they don’t have x-ray vision? The idea that they would have taken the word of Bouygues, the scandal-prone company responsible for the welding and safety procedures, is just unbelievable.

All this must be true. The alternative theory to STUK’s representatives developing superpowers is that STUK aren’t doing their vital job properly and snuggling up to the very people they should be scrutinising. But that would be complete fantasy. Wouldn’t it?

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Reuters: Spain nuclear plants halted, watchdog calls meeting
‘Spain's nuclear watchdog on Monday called for a meeting of plant operators following the second unscheduled disconnection of a reactor in as many days. The Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) confirmed earlier reports by industry sources that the 500-megawatt Garona plant was off line, due to an error in work on high-voltage installations which automatically halted the plant. On Sunday, the 1,000 MW Vandellos II plant was halted automatically when one of its generators caught fire.’

CNN: New York state says nuke plant kills too many fish
‘The huge numbers of fish sucked to their death by the cooling system at the Indian Point nuclear plant prove that the system harms the Hudson River environment, a New York state official has ruled.’

AFP: CIA used Swiss to thwart foreign nuclear programs: report
‘The CIA recruited a family of Swiss engineers to help it thwart the Libyan and Iranian nuclear programs as well as an underground network of Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, The New York Times reported Monday.’

Interactive Investor: EDF stopped 900-MW Cruas 2 nuclear reactor on Aug 15
‘EDF said on Monday that it had stopped its 900-megawatt nuclear reactor 2 at its Cruas nuclear plant on Aug. 15 for refuelling and works.’

Reuters: Slovak generator launches nuclear plant tender
‘Slovak power firm Slovenske Elektrarne (SE) has launched a tender to find a builder to finish two new blocks at the Mochovce nuclear power plant, it said in the Official Journal of the European Union on Monday.’

Bellona: AMEC to Begin Operations With Russia's Pacific Fleet
‘It is one of the most heated issues concerning the world's nuclear and environmental security — the disposition of the Russian Pacific Fleet's rusting and polluting retired nuclear submarines.’

Greenville Online: Feds ease off terms of plutonium deal
‘A 2003 law that required the federal government to begin producing nuclear fuel from weapons-grade plutonium at the Savannah River Site near Aiken by 2011 or pay South Carolina up to $100 million a year has been changed to make it less likely the state will be compensated for the long-delayed project, critics say.’

The British nuclear industry currently finds itself in the teeth of a moral dilemma. All choices are poor which goes to show – again - how nuclear energy is, in itself, a poor choice.

A report by the UK’s Environment Agency, as covered by The Independent newspaper, says ‘thousands of containers of lethal nuclear waste are likely to fail before being safely sealed away underground’.

This is the first half of the dilemma. Can nuclear waste be ‘safely sealed away underground’? That seems rather an optimistic statement from The Independent’s Environment Editor. At the time of writing, nobody has done it successfully. The proof that it can be done successfully won’t be available until the nuclear waste stored in underground storage facilities is deemed safe. With the likes of Iodine-129, a by product of nuclear energy, having a half life of 16 million years, that won’t be for a long time.

Claims that all is well with the construction of Areva's flagship EPR reactor at Flamanville have fallen apart today. French newspaper Le Canard Enchaine and AFP are reporting that construction has been delayed by at least nine months following problems with the concrete and reactor liner.

More as we get it.

The European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) is the flagship of France's nuclear policy. Only two projects are under construction and neither has been completed. Both are suffering from budget over-runs, safety problems and extensive delays.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Easy Bourse: Finnish Union Threatens Strike At Olkiluoto Nuclear Site
‘As many as 1,000 workers at a Finnish nuclear reactor construction site will go on strike next month if no explanation is given for large-scale wage deductions from Polish workers there, a trade union threatened Tuesday.’

International Herald Tribune: New Zealand wants more nuke controls on India
‘New Zealand will continue to press for nonproliferation of nuclear weapons when it resumes talks on an deal to allow India access to supplies of nuclear materials and technology, a senior government minister said Tuesday.’

The London Times: Pakistan’s Dr Nuke bids for the presidency
‘After the resignation of Pervez Musharraf, who will be the next president of Pakistan? A controversial politician such as Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, or a nonpolitical figure? If the latter, it might, just might, be the detained nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.’

Shanghai Daily: Miffed at Washington, DPRK halts nuke deal
‘THE Democratic People's Republic of Korea said yesterday it had stopped disabling its nuclear reactor and would consider restoring the plutonium-producing facility in anger over Washington's failure to remove it from the US list of terror sponsors.’

CNN: Nuclear plant damage covered up, jury says
‘Jurors on Tuesday convicted a former nuclear plant engineer of hiding information from government regulators about the worst corrosion ever found at a U.S. reactor. Prosecutors said Andrew Siemaszko and two other workers lied in 2001 so the Davis-Besse plant along Lake Erie could delay a shutdown for a safety inspection. Months later, inspectors found an acid leak that nearly ate through the reactor's 6-inch-thick steel cap.’

The Punch: Nigeria, Iran negotiate MoU on nuclear power, BASA
‘The Nigerian-Iran Joint Commission has listed for discussion nuclear power for peaceful purposes, oil and transportation, as the third session of the commission opened in Abuja on Tuesday.’

ABC News: Premier promises laws to ban uranium mining
‘The Premier has maintained until now that legislation is not necessary because of the Labor Party's stance against it. Mr Carpenter now says he will introduce legislation before the end of the year to ensure uranium is not mined in Western Australia.’

Last week we drew your attention to the ridiculous picture on the website of STUK, the Finnish nuclear watchdog (flowers, green fields, etc).

Today, let us introduce you to a uranium exploration company whose name is comforting, fresh, and environmentally friendly.

Meet Blue Sky Uranium Corp.

‘Why Blue Sky?’ you’re probably asking yourself. Does uranium come from blue skies? Does it create blue skies? Does looking at a blue sky make you think of uranium mining?

This wouldn’t be spin to detract from the fact that uranium mining is dangerous and dirty, would it?

French newspapers today revealed that the new French EPR reactor being built in Flamanville is at least nine months behind schedule. Problems can surely occur on big projects, but the bad news for EPR is that its construction started only last December… exactly nine months ago! They have not only delayed in delivering the project, they had so many failures that they have created extra work adding up to nine months. Back to square one, Areva!

It is always frustrating to find yourself back at the starting point after trying hard to advance, but this is what the French nuclear industry may only dream of now. Because they already spent so much money many things cannot be undone meaning the chronic troubles with poor concrete and bad welds will jeopardize the project. If it continues of course.

This is not the first time we have seen situations like this. Actually the very same – a nine-month delay announced after nine months of construction – happened two years ago at the first EPR reactor construction in Olkiluoto, Finland. Since then, the delays have grown to more than two years and the budget inflated by more than 2 billion Euros (and construction is even halfway completed yet).

The EPR design is being promoted by industry and President Sarkozy as a flagship of the ‘nuclear renaissance’ with promises of an improved, safer, cheaper and more reliable reactor for the next generation. You would have thought that after its fiasco in Finland, Areva would be doing its best to improve its reputation and avoiding repeating the same mistakes while building a second EPR in its homeland.

Despite knowing its dark record in the past, I thought so. But I was mistaken. On both EPR sites in Finland and France, there is growing pile of identical problems with poor and cracking concrete, bad welding violating required standards, and poor containment handling. On both sides, we can observe incompetent management unable to improve things.

We have only two explanations for this. Either the nuclear industry arrogantly believes that the standards are just formalities and reactors are safe enough and that it has sufficient political backing to sell the reactors across the world. Perhaps Ann Lauvergnon, the CEO of Areva that builds the EPR reactor, thinks that, as in the movie Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind, she can just hire company like Lacuna Inc. to wipe Joel’s and our memories of the past accidents and failures – and honestly, the massive PR campaign is doing its best to do this job.

The second possibility is that the nuclear industry is simply impotent and lacks the expertise to do things properly, orderly and according to safety regulations. The situations in France and Finland show that it’s trapped at the bottom learning curve. Maybe the memory wiping machine screwed up again and deleted the brains of the French nuclear builders so they have to repeat their lives once again.

Both options scare me. Either way, the nuclear industry remains as hazardous, deceiving and costly as it has been in past five decades. It therefore has no role to play in future. And as the Energy Revolution scenario developed by leading experts shows, there are proven and clean solutions to world’s energy needs and climate protection, based on renewable energy and energy efficiency. All we need is to make the right and informed choice with our memories intact.

(This is a guest post by Jan Beránek, nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace International.)

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Prospect: The future will not be nuclear
‘Gordon Brown does not dither about nuclear power. His commitment to it is emphatic, advancing since the start of the year from a policy of simply replacing Britain's existing nuclear capacity to one of doubling it, and now to there being no upper limit to its share of electricity generation. Brown has undertaken a radical reform of the nuclear regulatory and planning processes, aimed at clearing the path for new reactors. It is therefore particularly poignant that this is a policy doomed to fail.’

Bernama: Asean Okays Plan By Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam To Build Nuclear Power Plant
‘Asean members expressed no objections to the plan by three of its members -- Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam -- to develop nuclear power plants, an official here said. Chairman of the Asean Technical Working Group on the Establishment of Nuclear Power Plants Ad Hoc committee, Prof Carunia Firdausy, said the nuclear power plant development for Indonesia was part of an effort to reduce the country's dependence on oil and coal.’

Bloomberg: Japan Plans 27% Increase in Budget to Cut Emissions
‘The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to spend 433 billion yen ($4 billion) on measures to slow climate change in the year starting April 2009, compared with 342 billion yen for the current year, it said in a statement distributed in Tokyo today. Policies include the development of advanced nuclear plants, electric vehicles and a system to capture and store carbon dioxide, a gas blamed for global warming.’

Arms Control Work: What to do with British Pu?
‘Here’s an interesting factoid. The UK and US each possess about 100 MT of separated plutonium. However, the UK stockpile is largely civilian, whereas the US stockpile is almost entirely military. The UK is currently engaged in a debate about what to do with this plutonium. Last year the Royal Society published a report on the subject and last week the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (the UK public body charged with cleaning up Britain’s messy nuclear legacy) published draft options for public comment.’

Daily Dispatch Online: South Africa’s nuclear waste to be sent overseas
‘GOVERNMENT planned to send highly-radioactive spent fuel rods stored at the Koeberg nuclear power station overseas for reprocessing, Parliament’s minerals and energy portfolio committee heard yesterday. This was a short-term solution to disposing of it, in terms of policy approved by Cabinet “but not announced yet”, Minerals and Energy Department nuclear safety director Schalk de Waal told MPs. “In the longer term, Necsa (the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa) will investigate the possibility of developing an indigenous reprocessing facility,” he said.’

Christian Science Monitor: Will lasers brighten nuclear’s future?
‘Inside a bland industrial building in Wilmington, N.C., an experiment is in the works that could vastly reduce the cost, time, and space needed to make fuel for nuclear power plants and, some nonproliferation experts say, for nuclear bombs as well. In that building, secret uranium-enrichment technology licensed by GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is nearing a pilot test. If successful, the new technology will enable the company to supply low-cost nuclear fuel to power reactors worldwide, officials say. […] But it would not take much – just a signal from Wilmington of SILEX’s success in the months ahead – to unleash a global push by companies and nations to develop similar laser-based technology, nonproliferation experts, scientists, and US government studies warn.’

The Moscow Times: Surprise Nuclear Plant in Kaliningrad
‘Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko has signed a decree for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region, the country's atomic energy company announced Wednesday. Design of the two-reactor plant is to be completed by the end of 2009, and the first of the two 1,200-megawatt reactors is to come on line in 2015, Rosatom said in a statement.’

And the bad news just keeps on coming for Areva and its construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor in Finland.

Firstly and most critical, a former welding coordinator for Areva sub-contractor Bouygues told Finnish TV yesterday that load-bearing welding in the reactor’s steel structure have not been done properly. The international EN ISO 17660-1 standards require a 120mm weld seam on both sides of such welding. Alternative welding guidelines used at Olkiluoto 3 stipulated only a 20mm seam on one side - a huge difference.

How the welding should have been done (click to enlarge)

...and...

How the welding was acturally done (click to enlarge)

Outrageously, Bouygues have two different sets of welding guidelines which have been seen by Greenpeace: a proper one to given to the authorities for approval and a corner-cutting one for the welders in the reactor. Both sets of guidelines were only drawn up after work had started and hundred of safety-critical welds made. Basically, Bouygues lied and as a result these vital welds have not been inspected by Finland’s nuclear watchdog STUK.

These weld seams connect piping and other safety critical components to the steel reinforced concrete of the Olkiluoto 3 reactor building. Therefore it’s vital the structure is built to the strictest and highest standards as possible. The reactor has been built without the proper safety provision and quality assurances. Employees also told Finnish TV of safety violations, the lack of language skills on such an international project and, shockingly, demands to forge documents.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

The Economist: There should be no exemption for India from the world’s nuclear rules
‘IN A dangerous and unstable world, isn’t cementing friendship with an up-and-coming power such as India worth breaking a few rules for? That is the reasoning behind the Bush administration’s championing of a controversial civilian nuclear deal with India, which George Bush and India’s Manmohan Singh struck in 2005. To take effect it now needs only an India-sized hole to be punched next week in the global rules on nuclear trade and then a final nod from America’s Congress.‘

International Herald Tribune: France and Jordan sign civilian nuclear deal
‘The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy says France and Jordan have signed an accord on civilian nuclear cooperation. Sarkozy's office says the deal will "reinforce and institutionalize" nuclear cooperation between the two countries. In a parallel agreement, French nuclear giant Areva says it has signed a uranium mining deal with Jordan's Atomic Energy Commission.’

Reuters: Iran offers nuclear help to Nigeria's power sector
‘Delegates from the two countries promised to cooperate on nuclear energy, but provided few details on the agreement reached after a four-day meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja. "We not only consider it (nuclear energy) an Iranian inalienable right, but also Nigeria's right to use this clean source of energy," said Mohammadali Zeyghami, deputy head of trade relations in Iran's Ministry of Commerce’

The Guardian: China's lead in race for new nuclear plants could create UK skills famine
‘Britain's plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations will face a fierce challenge for skills and resources from countries keen to build their own, according to research published today. China has plans for 24 nuclear plants and outline proposals for another 76, according to the Economic Research Council, using figures from the International Energy Agency and the IAEA.‘

The Whitehaven News: Is Sellafield handover under threat?
‘SELLAFIELD has been thrown into turmoil by the effects of the strike threat hanging over the UK’s biggest nuclear site. On top of the split between the industrial and staff unions over the management’s pay offer, speculation has swept the site that the planned hand-over to the new parent body (Nuclear Management Partners) will not take place on time if the site is hit by a strike.’

The Guardian: Generators accused of putting profit before safety
‘Iberdrola and Endesa, two of Spain's leading electricity companies, have been accused of cutting costs at nuclear power stations at the expense of safety. The Catalan regional government said that failure to invest had caused several incidents at two nuclear stations including a leak which led to thousands of people having to undergo radiation tests.’

Interactive Investor: US mulls scrapping nuclear pact with Russia
‘The White House said Thursday that it was considering scrapping a US-Russia civilian nuclear cooperation pact in response to Moscow's actions in Georgia. "I don't think there's anything to announce yet, but I know that that is under discussion," spokeswoman Dana Perino said when asked whether Washington might drop the May 6 accord over the conflict in the former Soviet republic.’

(Additional links courtesy of No 2 Nuclear Power)

Claims that Areva sub-contractor Bouygues are responsible for safety violations at the construction site of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor in Finland seem to have touched a nerve:

‘Claims of substandard welding at the construction site of Finland's third commercial nuclear reactor have led to a request for a police investigation. An engineer serving as deputy project chief for the construction company Bouygues feels that a current affairs programme on YLE TV-2 libelled his company with claims of substandard welding at the site.’

Given that Finnish nuclear watchdog STUK are due to report back later today after an extraordinary three-day inspection of the site, and in the light of further revelations this week, this ain’t an open and shut case. Watch this space.

The leak at Belgium’s Fleurus nuclear reactor this week followed the same old familiar and disgraceful pattern we see after leaks all over the world: cover up and denial followed by admission that things are worse than first admitted.

The accident at Fleurus took place when liquid radioactive waste was transferred from one tank to another releasing the isotope iodine-131. The public was told there was no health risk . As is usual in these cases, it was soon revealed that this was not true.

Today we find that the Belgian authorities have restricted the consumption of vegetables and milk produced within five kilometres Fleurus. The announcement was made an incredible five days after the leak took place. The incident has been graded as 3 (serious incident) on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) scale. Production of medical radioisotopes at the facility, run by Institut des Radioelements (IRE) has now been halted.

Unbelievably, Belgium’s nuclear watchdog Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) has been complicit in the cover-up and hiding the danger from the public. Even though it advised the public that there was ‘no risk to the population’ it knew even as it made the statement that this was not true and communicated this to the IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Picture by Greenpeace Nordic's Virpi Oinonen

Well, the preliminary findings of STUK’s extraordinary inspection of the construction of the Olkiluoto 3. The Finland’s nuclear watchdog conducted the inspection after it was revealed by Greenpeace published evidence that basic construction and safety standards had been violated in welding of the reactor building by Areva’s sub-contractor Bouygues. So, how do the findings look?

STUK have today admitted that the mandatory welding guidelines that Bouygues were supposed to supply were not finalised until after construction on the reactor building had started. This means that STUK cannot guarantee the safety and quality of the welding in Olkiluoto 3’s steel structure.

This admission comes after previous assurances from STUK and Bouygues that there were no problems at the construction site. STUK’s method of investigation was merely to ask Bouygues if there were any problems at the site. Bouygues said no and STUK proclaimed itself satisfied. In the meantime Bouygues had been warning its employees not to speak out about safety issues. Today STUK had finally admitted that contractor has on some occasions told workers not to report on the quality problems to the inspectors.

These problems with the construction at Olkiluoto 3 only came to light when they were revealed by Greenpeace. STUK said today that welding, guidelines should be available for welders and they should know how to use them. Also workers should be allowed to voice concern without fear of punishment. With much of the welding now complete, however, and it now sealed in concrete, this is far too little and far too late. It’s clear that STUK’s inspection and scrutiny processes are not adequate to detect failings in procedures at the site.

With its inability to detect failings, its willingness to take contractors at their word, and its cosy relationship with Olkiluoto 3’s builder Areva, STUK’s judgement can no longer be trusted. An independent inspection to ensure the safety of the reactor building and conducted by outside experts is now urgently needed.