SHUTDOWNS: Heatwave shuts down nuclear power plants

[Oscar]

Heatwave shuts down nuclear power plants

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/st ... 20,00.html

Juliette Jowit and Javier Espinoza
Sunday July 30, 2006

The Observer <http://www.observer.co.uk/

The European heatwave has forced nuclear power plants to reduce or halt production. The weather, blamed for deaths and disruption across much of the continent, has caused dramatic rises in the temperature of rivers used to cool the reactors, raising fears of mass deaths for fish and other wildlife.

Spain shut down the Santa Maria de Garona reactor on the River Ebro, one of the country's eight nuclear plants which generate a fifth of its national electricity. Reactors in Germany are reported to have cut output, and others in Germany and France have been given special permits to dump hot water into rivers to avoid power failures. France, where nuclear power provides more than three quarters of electricity, has also imported power to prevent shortages.

The problems have come to light just weeks after Britain declared it will build a new generation of nuclear power stations, prompting opponents to claim the crisis proved nuclear reactors - although they emit no carbon dioxide greenhouse gases - are not the solution to the problem of global warming.

'The main problem they have is: How are they going to expand nuclear power when they are so vulnerable to such things as global temperature?' said Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace International's nuclear specialist.


But Bruno Comby, president of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, said future power stations could have bigger cooling towers, or be built near the sea. 'The big problem the earth is facing today is global warming, it's not a one-degree local increase in [the temperature of] a river,' he added.

The heatwave in Britain appeared to break last week, with the Met Office forecasting more normal summer weather this week. Today London and south-east England face a repeat of last week's heavy rains; for the rest of the week the country is expected to alternate between sunny spells, with warm temperatures and showers.

However, hotter weather is set to return. 'We could be looking at some very warm weather coming back towards next weekend,' said meteorologist Andrew Sibley.

Last week a series of power cuts in central London prompted fears of regular blackouts as global temperatures are predicted to keep rising, bringing more long, hot summers. EDF, the capital's main electricity supplier, said the problems were caused by a 'very unusual' combination of several faults and huge demand for air-conditioning.

'Over the weekend, our engineers are working round the clock to maintain power supplies to the area and avoid any further interruptions,' a company official said.

Network Rail, the main rail infrastructure operator, said fewer speed restrictions were expected in cooler temperatures, although track temperatures can rise to 20C above the air temperature on hot days.

[Oscar]

Swedish nuclear reactors stopped

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5241780.stm

Four of Sweden's 10 nuclear reactors have been shut down, following an electricity failure.

The Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, SKI, has been holding an emergency meeting, following the incidents at the Oskarshamn and Forsmark plants.

The firm operating Oskarshamn, in southern Sweden, stopped two of its three reactors late on Wednesday, citing safety concerns.

Last week, two reactors were also shut down at Forsmark, north of Stockholm.

Safety checks

The two reactors in Oskarshamn - about 250km (150 miles) south of Stockholm - were shut down after the operator said their safety could not be guaranteed.

Last week's shutdown in Forsmark - some 75km (46 miles) north of Stockholm - came after a short-circuit in a unit supplying power to the reactors.

SKI spokesman Anders Bredfell told the BBC News website that the Forsmark incident ranked as a number two on the 0-7 scale used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to classify nuclear incidents.

"We can't say how long the reactors will remain shut down," he said.

He stressed there was "no danger of a meltdown" at Forsmark. He said two of the four backup generators had failed to start there, but two were sufficient to run the plant's cooling system. In addition, the plant has gas turbines that can be used to supply power in an emergency, he said.

On Friday SKI asked all of Sweden's other nuclear plants to prove that the same failure could not happen to them, Mr Bredfell explained.

"The Oskarshamn reactors were shut down because they couldn't prove that the same thing couldn't happen there," he said.

The IAEA was automatically informed about the Forsmark incident, and Sweden's response showed that the procedures for such incidents were working, he added.

The environmental group Greenpeace in Sweden has urged the government to stop all nuclear reactors in the country.

Sweden plans to phase out all of its reactors in the next few years.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/e ... 241780.stm

Published: 2006/08/03 12:55:31 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[Oscar]

Sweden closes nuclear plants over safety fears

http://www.greenpeace.ca/e/feature/0806_sweden.php

August 2006

Sweden has shut down four of its 10 nuclear plants after faults were discovered. A major fault was discovered after a serious incident at the Forsmark nuclear power station, a former director of the plant later said: "it was pure luck there wasn't a meltdown.

The closure of the Swedish plants has removed at a stroke roughly 20 percent of Sweden's electricity supply. Emergency power systems to the Forsmark plant failed for 20 minutes during a power cut. If power was not restored there could have been a major incident within hours.

A former director of the Forsmark plant said, "It was pure luck that there was not a meltdown. Since the electricity supply from the network didn't work as it should have, it could have been a catastrophe."

It appears that the fault in the backup power systems originates from new equipment installed in 1993. Not exactly reassuring that faulty equipment, vital for preventing a meltdown, went undetected for 13 years. The same equipment now uncovered to be faulty is also installed on other nuclear power plants in other countries. Germany is already investigating if the same fault affects its nuclear plants.

Power cuts

Nuclear industry propaganda has been saying that we need nuclear power to prevent future power cuts. But actually current nuclear plants are vulnerable to power cuts. All nuclear plants need power to control them. If mains power is lost, back up power is required to control the reactor. This power is supplied by back up generators but there have been many instances where these generators have been found to be faulty or susceptible to storms or floods. This has caused the temporary closures of nuclear plants in the US and elsewhere.

Cut the power to a single wind or solar farm and while they will stop generating electricity for the grid at least it won't threaten to melt down. Nuclear power relies on old, inefficient centralised power grids that are vulnerable to power cuts. Clean renewable energy sources help create more efficient decentralised power where it is generated much closer to where it is used.

When the going gets hot, nuclear plants stop running

The problems with Swedish nuclear plants come hot on the heels of problems with nuclear power plants in Europe due to the hot dry summer. Two nuclear plants in Germany recently had to reduce output due to the lack of sufficient water for cooling in rivers. If the drought continues many nuclear plants that rely on rivers for cooling water will have to reduce output or shut down.

Luckily Sweden plans to phase out its nuclear power plants in the coming years. Unfortunately a small minority of other European countries like France, Finland and the UK seem determined to rely on dangerous, dirty and expensive nuclear power that can fail dangerously during a power cut and be shut down by droughts.

Recent events expose industry lies about nuclear being a reliable energy source.

A combination of safe, renewable energy and energy efficiency measures are the only sane solution for power generation - in Europe and in Canada. Read our report on clean energy solutions for Ontario.