Designs for new UK nuclear reactors are unsafe, claims watchdog

[bananas]

Source: The Guardian

Britain's main safety regulator threw the government's energy plans into chaos tonight by damning the nuclear industry's leading designs for new plants. The Health and Safety Executive said it could not recommend plans for new reactors because of wide-ranging concerns about their safety.

The leading French and American reactors are central to plans for a nuclear renaissance aimed at keeping the lights on and helping to cut carbon emissions. The government needs to build a number of nuclear power stations in the next 10 years to replace old atomic and coal plants.

But the HSE has to approve the safety of the designs before they can be built. "We have identified a significant number of issues with the safety features of the design that would first have to be progressed. If these are not progressed satisfactorily then we would not issue a design acceptance confirmation," the agency concluded following a study of the latest French EPR and US AP1000 reactor designs.

<snip>

John Large, a leading nuclear consultant, said: "The HSE as an independent agency will come under tremendous pressure to push through these designs. But if it stands up to government and stops or delays these designs for two or three years until it is satisfied then developers could lose interest and we could fall behind in the queue of countries waiting to build nuclear."

<snip>

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/27/nuclear-power-reactor-design

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You can't trust the nuclear industry.
They're going to try to force approval for these incomplete and unsafe designs.
We now know they can't complete these on schedule or on budget.
Design remediation will be costly both in time and money.
And they still have no realistic plan for disposing the waste.

Britain should have them fix the design problems before approving the projects.
In the meantime, the money will be better spent on efficiency and renewables,
which will start reducing CO2 right away,
instead of waiting ten or twenty years for these reactors to be finished.

[Tikki]

1. Remember...to some global warming isn't real and they will try...

to take down any and all who say otherwise.

To many, some here on DU, they will risk the safety of the environment and
future of living things just so they can take a chance on NUKE ever really being safe.




The Tikkis