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BRIT NUKE SAFETY BODY SAYS PLANNED PLANTS AREN'T SAFE
Guardian, UK - Britain's main safety regulator threw the government's energy plans into chaos 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. . .
The HSE's public report expresses "significant concerns" about the lack of separation between the safety protection and control systems on the EPR reactor design promoted by Areva and EDF of France. The safety body says another part of the reactor is "not entirely in alignment with international good practice".
The report says it has raised a number of issues with EDF and Areva relating to the structural integrity of the EPR and it concludes: "It is too early to say whether they can be resolved solely with additional safety case changes or whether they may result in design modifications being necessary."
The design put forward by Westinghouse, the American firm now owned by Toshiba of Japan, is also criticized, with the HSE saying the safety case on internal hazards has "significant shortfalls".
It criticizes the company for a "lack of detailed claims and arguments" to support various assertions, while questioning aspects of the civil and mechanical engineering plans as well as the structural integrity and "human factors".
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. . .
The HSE's public report expresses "significant concerns" about the lack of separation between the safety protection and control systems on the EPR reactor design promoted by Areva and EDF of France. The safety body says another part of the reactor is "not entirely in alignment with international good practice".
The report says it has raised a number of issues with EDF and Areva relating to the structural integrity of the EPR and it concludes: "It is too early to say whether they can be resolved solely with additional safety case changes or whether they may result in design modifications being necessary."
The design put forward by Westinghouse, the American firm now owned by Toshiba of Japan, is also criticized, with the HSE saying the safety case on internal hazards has "significant shortfalls".
It criticizes the company for a "lack of detailed claims and arguments" to support various assertions, while questioning aspects of the civil and mechanical engineering plans as well as the structural integrity and "human factors".
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