THE HANDSTAND

NOVEMBER 2007
 

Brussels pushes atomic safety amid pro-nuclear talk

12.10.2007 - 17:43 CET | By Helena Spongenberg
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission is making a concerted push for harmonising nuclear safety requirements across the European Union, saying that nuclear energy is here to stay.

EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs made the comments after the first meeting of an experts group on nuclear safety and waste management.

The experts group is made up of senior officials from the 27 member states' national regulatory or nuclear safety authorities and is to advise the EU executive on how to progressively develop EU rules in nuclear safety and waste management.

"Nuclear energy is in Europe and it is here to stay," Mr Piebalgs said, adding that it should be under the condition of "high safety standards and sound management."

"It is up to each member state to decide whether to have nuclear power or not. But the question of nuclear safety and waste management concerns everybody," he added.

Nuclear energy currently counts for over 30 percent of electricity use and around 15 percent of total energy consumption across the 27 member bloc, according to the commission.

Pro-nuclear commission?
Mr Piebalgs' predecessor Loyola de Palacio proposed in November 2002 rules for the management of nuclear safety and nuclear waste across the EU, following safety risks at the Sellafield nuclear plant in the UK.

However, Ms de Palacio's plan met huge opposition from both anti-and pro-nuclear states with France and the UK saying it was purely a national matter.

But the current commission is arguing increasingly openly in favour of nuclear energy.

Last week, commission president Jose Manuel Barroso called on EU states to consider greater use of nuclear energy in order to avoid increasing dependence on oil and gas imports and to improve the bloc's energy security.

"Member states cannot avoid the question of nuclear energy. There needs to be a total and frank debate regarding this problem", commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said at a high-level conference on energy in Madrid.

In addition, competition commissioner Neelie Kroes, who also took part in the conference, said she was personally "completely in favour of nuclear power".

© 2007 EUobserver

European nuclear safety group meets

The high level group on nuclear safety and radioactive waste management established by the European Commission (EC) in July to develop a common understanding and reinforce common approaches in the safety of nuclear installations held its first meeting on 12 October. Opening the meeting, EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs said, "It is up to each Member State to decide whether to have nuclear power or not. But the question of nuclear safety and waste management concerns everybody. The high level group, with experts from all Member States, will be essential in helping us achieve our common goals in this field." The group is composed of senior officials from national regulatory or nuclear safety authorities. During its initial meeting, the group discussed its working methods and purpose. In principle the group will meet several times per year to discuss and follow up the agreed work program. Expert groups may be established in 2008 to provide technical support for the realization of the work program. The group will issue regular reports on its activities to the European Parliament and other interested parties. "Nuclear energy is in Europe and it is here to stay," said Piebalgs, adding that it should be under the condition of "high safety standards and sound management."http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/industry/index.shtml


UK Nuclear inspectors shortage threatens plan for new reactors

The government is so short of nuclear inspectors that the programme of new reactors being planned may have to be put on hold, leaked papers show. The business secretary, John Hutton, yesterday warned Gordon Brown that the government has only five inspectors working on the design assessments of the three types of reactors being considered for Britain.

The papers show an additional 35 inspectors are needed to be in place within 16 months. But despite offering 15% more money, the government is finding it hard to recruit more because the Treasury refuses to offer a better pay package.

"We understand that the Health and Safety Executive and Nuclear Installations Inspectorate [are] unable to recruit new inspectors and are vulnerable to losing staff through retirement, as around 50% of their inspectors are over 57," say the papers which are understood to have formed the basis of Mr Hutton's presentation to the prime minister.

Nuclear Recycling :Thorp expected to restart in early 2008

[Financial Times, 23 October] The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) at Sellafield, UK, is reportedly set to restart full commercial operations in the new year. The used nuclear fuel recycling facility has been shut down since April 2005 after the discovery of a tube break in a highly radioactive part of the facility. It was found that some 83 cubic metres of radioactive nitric acid had leaked from a holding tank into the surrounding concrete containment shell. The leak had gone undetected for several months. The plant operator was given regulatory approval to restart Thorp in January 2007, but problems with equipment that evaporates moisture at the end of the reprocessing cycle led to delays. Thorp recently completed the reprocessing of 30 tonnes of fuel that was in the system when it was shut down. Sellafield Ltd said that it was hopeful that the problems with the evaporators would be solved soon and that Thorp could resume commercial operations in early 2008. The company said, "We are hoping to start the next batch of fuel in the new year." The plant's owner, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), said that the plant's shutdown meant it had lost GBP112 million ($227 million) in income in the 2006-07 financial year.

France:Areva, OCP agreement on Moroccan phosphates

[Areva, 23 October] Areva of France has signed an agreement with Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP) of Morocco covering the extraction of uranium from Moroccan phosphate ore. Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of Areva, and Mustafa Terrab, CEO of OCP, a mining and chemical industries conglomerate, signed the agreement to develop "cooperation and research initiatives in the field of natural uranium" during a state visit to Morocco by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The companies have been involved in scientific cooperation since 2005. The new agreement adds an industrial dimension, with the companies planning to launch a joint feasibility study into an industrial site to produce uranium from phosphoric acid. Morocco's phosphate deposits contain around 6 million tonnes of uranium, according to IAEA figures quoted by Areva.


..Joost Van Steenis writes in:

I participated in the eighties in the Anti Nuclear Movement that reacted against a Dutch nuclear plant. Thousands of masspeople blockaded the plant. I took part but also proposed the slogan "The nuclear plant is everywhere!" Directors do not live in the plant, neither do scientists that make nuclear energy possible. Many firms supply the plant with food, drink and materials, dispose the nuclear waste or distribute and use nuclear energy. There is a multitude of targets that are not as well guarded as the nuclear plant.

Only sometimes "other targets" were attacked for example by sabotaging electricity supply lines or by a demonstration in front of the house of a atom physicist. Most political energy was concentrated on the nuclear plant. The result was a clash with the police and not the closing down of the plant.