Designs for new UK nuclear reactors are unsafe – claim

[IndianaGreen]

Designs for new UK nuclear reactors are unsafe – claim

Major setback for energy plans as report finds flaws in US and French models

Terry Macalister
The Guardian, Friday 27 November 2009

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.

Kevin Allars, director of new build at the HSE, admitted frustration that the design assessment process was already behind schedule owing to insufficient information from the companies promoting the reactors and a lack of enough trained staff in his own directorate.

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."

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

[caraher]

1. I see Westinghouse is working hard to land the sale...

"It also complains that the reactor design was submitted in feet and inches rather than metric figures."

How hard can it be to change the units to reflect what the entire rest of the world uses? Give you a lot of confidence in their attention to detail...