UK nuclear inspector gives green light to atomic energy
“I remain confident that our UK nuclear facilities have no fundamental safety weaknesses (but) no matter how high our standards, the quest for improvement must never stop,” said Mike Weightman, the head of Britain’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), who also led a U.N. team of nuclear experts on a fact-finding mission to Japan’s Fukushima in May.The report also said there was no need to change the government’s strategy for choosing new sites for nuclear power plants.Weightman’s conclusions on the impact of the Fukushima crisis were welcomed by major nuclear industry players on Tuesday, over two weeks after the sector was overshadowed by news that utility SSE had pulled out of the NuGen nuclear consortium to build 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of new nuclear plants in Britain.The announcement had sparked concerns that investors may see Britain’s nuclear industry as unattractive despite government efforts to provide incentives.”With the findings of the Weightman Report, we can ensure that safety is the very highest priority,” said Volker Beckers, chief executive of RWE npower, which plans to build up to 6 GW of new nuclear plants in Britain with partner E.ON.”New nuclear will be an important part of the UK’s future energy mix and RWE npower intends to be part of that future through our Horizon venture.”Weightman said in his report that nuclear operators and regulators should review 38 areas where lessons can be learned from Japan’s nuclear reactor emergency and radioactive release in March, including reliance on off-site infrastructure, emergency response arrangements and flooding risks.Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, who presented the findings in a written statement to the UK Parliament on Tuesday, said the report will help the nuclear industry remain committed to improving existing and future power stations.Britain has identified eight sites around England and Wales as possible building sites for new nuclear plants, with the first expected to be built by EDF Energy at Hinkley Point on the coast of southwest England.”Nuclear energy is important for our energy security now and we want it to be part of the mix in the future,” he said.Huhne commissioned Weightman in March to assess the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster for Britain’s nuclear industry and presented his final findings on Tuesday.The government is promoting plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants in Britain by 2025 to help meet low-carbon energy targets and analysts said Tuesday’s report helped reassure investors about nuclear industry safety standards.”This report does not introduce any material barriers to the new nuclear build programme and will therefore be seen by industry as another signal that new construction must be committed to soon, if the Government is to realize its energy policy,” said consultancy PwC.NUCLEAR STRESS TEST RESULTSWeightman, a chartered engineer and physicist, also said his report tied in with findings made during EU-wide nuclear stress tests, which are ongoing throughout the region.First results from EU-wide nuclear stress tests showed Britain’s nuclear reactors are reliable and require no structural changes, the ONR said last month.EU states have until the end of October to submit full safety test reports to the EU Commission and a final report consolidating EU-wide stress test results will be presented to the European council in June 2012.Weightman already said in his interim Fukushima report published in mid-May that Britain’s nuclear reactors are safe and an earthquake and tsunami on the scale seen in Japan on March 11 were unlikely to occur in Britain.In an interview at the time he said the human factor was an important aspect to discover to find out what to learn from the Japanese disaster.The ONR will next year publish a report on the progress made in implementing the lessons outlined in Tuesday’s findings.
