In late 2020, I was commissioned by the UK charity, Children with Cancer, to write a report on current radiation risks and on radiogenic cancer risks in children. This was completed and sent to the charity in May 2021. Recently, during a Zoom meeting held by Glasgow CND I was asked if there were recent … [Continue Reading]
Can Small Modular Reactors and/or Advanced Nuclear Reactors Help Tackle Climate Change?
In recent months, the outpouring of pro-nuclear media stories and newspaper articles has been incessant and increasing in the UK. Not anywhere else in Europe, just the UK. This is partly due to leaks and promptings from UK government officials that BEIS is considering direct government support for nuclear projects. It’s a bit of a … [Continue Reading]
Nuclear Fusion – Not The Answer To Our Energy Needs
The government is proposing a fusion reactor – the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) – for our energy needs. This would be a smaller version of the unsuccessful Tokamak prototype (JET) at Culham in Oxfordshire. Quite why the STEP project would be expected to work when its prototype has failed is unexplained in official … [Continue Reading]
Latest UNSCEAR Report on the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
On March 9, the United Nations Scientific Committee on Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) published an advance copy of its latest (third) report on the health effects from the Fukushima Daichi nuclear accident which commenced on March 11, 2011. UNSCEAR 2020 Report – Annex B – Advance Copy The report shows signs of having been rushed out … [Continue Reading]
French Report ” Nuclear Power Plant Flexibility at EDF”
In early 2019, four French EDF scientists wrote a 22 page report on load following in French nuclear reactors. The English version was first published on April 1 2020 but this has only recently been brought to my attention (ie mid Jan 2021). This report is instructive and worrying, and requires careful reading. In essence, … [Continue Reading]
Concerns over proposed tritium discharges from Fukushima – why no apparent concern about the larger tritium releases from Hunterston B and Torness?
Recent newspaper reports have expressed concern about the apparent decision by the Japanese Government and TEPCO to discharge large volumes of radioactive tritiated water from the stricken Fukukshima nuclear power station in Japan into the Pacific Ocean. I have expressed concern myself about this proposed decision -see here. Instead I recommend that TEPCO and the … [Continue Reading]
Ancient Hunterston B reactors allowed to restart: letters to Newspapers
This letter was sent to the editors of the Scotsman and the Herald on September 25, 2020. Sirs Very recently, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) gave permissions to EDF to re-start for six months two ancient, unsafe reactors at the Hunterston B nuclear power station on the Clyde coast. These reactors are among the … [Continue Reading]
UK Electricity: Renewables and the problem with inflexible nuclear
In recent years, the share of the UK’s electricity supplied by renewable energy (RE) sources has increased substantially to the point that RE is now the second largest source after gas: It now supplies 20% to 25% of our electrical needs. This is greater than the amount supplied by nuclear – about 15% to 18%. … [Continue Reading]
Green New Deals and Nuclear Power: should Nuclear Colonialism be permitted to continue?
The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic and concomitant economic recessions have resulted in many calls for Green New Deals (GNDs) to create jobs and tackle climate change. For example, in November 2019, the European Commission published a series of documents aiming for a Green New Deal see https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en And in April, the climate and environment Ministers in 17 … [Continue Reading]
Why the ancient nuclear reactors at Hunterston B in Scotland should not be restarted
At present (May 2020), the two EdF reactors at the Hunterston Nuclear Station (R3 and R4) on the shore of the Firth of Clyde in Scotland have been shut for about 2 years for safety reasons – pending review by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). Both reactors are 44 years old, ie well past … [Continue Reading]