UK nuclear regulator changes safety limits...

A key safety limit at one of Britain's nuclear power stations is being raised to allow the life of the reactor to be extended, the BBC has learned.

The regulator has agreed to increase the amount of weight graphite bricks at the core of the reactor at Dungeness B in Kent will be allowed to lose.

The bricks, which degrade over time due to radiation, are vital for safety.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation said it was a "robust" body but one expert accused it of "moving the goalposts".

The nuclear reactor at Dungeness B would have breached the safety margin within months which could have forced the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to prosecute or even shut it down.

The safety margins cover thousands of graphite bricks at the core of Britain's 14 elderly Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs).

I thought this was relevant as it reflects what the Jap govt did when they changed the safety limits for workers. Also it shows that regulators will bend when big business has its interests threatened. Fact is the operator knew the degradation rate of the bricks and should have planned to replace them in a timely fashion. But I guess that would have been too expensive so they took the easier option of lobbying to have the limit changed.

BBC news report

a reply to: UltraMind

It does sound like 'they've' moved the goalposts. Question is: Were they in the wrong place to begin with?

Nuclear power plants seem to be a greater danger than nuclear bombs. I've always believed TEOTWAWKI would come from a lack of maintenance on these power plants.

The problem is you can't just replace them, once they're gone, they're gone.

It does seem like a cost cutting motif, they would need to build new reactors or move the crap somewhere else....probably on my doorstep at Sellafield.

a reply to: UltraMind

Doesn't changing the safety limit whenever it's reached just make the whole thing completely arbitrary?

If they can't fix it, then shut it down for good. Nuclear plants are a bad place to cut corners.

Well, from the sound of it, it looks like Goodbye Yellow Brick UK. That island cannot afford a nuclear disaster. What are they doing with a nuclear reactor anyway?

Has not the world learned from Fukushima? Shame on the UK, Chernobyl is a stone's throw from their backyard. If this reactor goes the Atlantic ocean is toast. Goodbye oceans of the world.

The whole nuclear energy business put the cart before the horse with their nuclear waste which cannot be disposed of, and is growing to immense stockpiles that cannot be safely stored either....
Its a death equation that keeps on giving for thousands of centuries

a reply to: ArchPlayer

Problem is that if you shut down the nuclear power stations, what exactly do you replace them with immediately?

Nuclear has provided us with a reliable service for power for a long time and it would be interesting to see an Order of Merit list of how much power is produced by these stations and how much from coal, oil, gas etc.

When the industry was privatised it had had the government syphon off a considerable amount of money that should have been put back into the industry for things like maintenance etc so privatisation took over and then madly invested in gas power stations which ar4e phenomenally expensive to run and were mostly used in emergency circumstances. I suspect we have nothing in the pipeline that could take over producing the power our nuclear stations do.

Amazingly we seen very reticent to use the tides and wave power, which is something I would like an answer from the Government's Cepartment on, they only look at wind and solar for renewable power sources, both of which are not forecastable with reliability and - England and Solar is a laugh - its raining and grey outside which it is for a lot of the year - our Government seems to think we are in a desert with 20 hour sun a day by the enthusiasm they demonstrate over it but they are so out of touch on everything. I suspect we have the technology but the public won't pay huge pennies to the engery firms for something free such as our predictable tidal resource which is all around our coastline. Wave power would not make so much revenue for the government to syphon off. Also why do the power companies each have actually two companies which cost the consumer considerable expense that is not necessary - that's a fiddle for starters - unnecessary admin!

Lets just all pray that the head of reactor safety is not a certain Mr Homer J. Simpson. or things may get a little iffy on the small island

Peace

M.

a reply to: Shiloh7
Solar is more than energy from the sun. There has been a lot of technology created and developed shelved by GE and other power companies that could produce that much energy for the isle. There was an inventor that was on one of the Canadian shows that invented a small box device that could feed energy back 800% going out than coming in and the power companies up there "invested" in him and then shelved it, keeping him in court over patents.

This is hearsay conspiracy: In the underground bunkers of Colorado under the Denver Airport there have been unconfirmed reports that the energy of the underground railroad system is ran on the power system of Quartz Crystals. Apparently this was tech from the Atlantian days but still, there have been articles on ATS about underground power trains being ran on quartz. That may be a clean renewable solution.

Population control, japan ,china , usa, europe. India will be next.

It will melt down and europe will be poisoned again.

I say hang the bastards

originally posted by: Shiloh7
a reply to: ArchPlayer


Nuclear has provided us with a reliable service for power for a long time...

This may be true... but for how long will it hold true?

You have an aging and declining White population, the brainy demographic group originally behind the study of Physics and, of course, things of a nuclear nature.

Then you have the reputation of Chernobyl with untold numbers of dead.

You have the story of 90 percent of the Fukushima Daiichi personnel violating orders and taking off as the calamity there unfolded. You have the rumors of those heroic ones who remained behind having all died by now.

Bottom line is this: how do you recruit future, capable workers for nuclear power plants especially when so many of those plants are close to or have already gone beyond their life expectancy?

P.M.

originally posted by: theworldisnotenough

Bottom line is this: how do you recruit future, capable workers for nuclear power plants especially when so many of those plants are close to or have already gone beyond their life expectancy?

I'd like to add that quite some time ago I worked for several years at the headquarters of one of the largest electric companies in the world which, at that time, operated one or more nuclear power plants. I decline to get more specific.

What I witnessed there was beyond deplorable.

It was the company's culture there to hire, retain, and promote – and I will soft-peddle this –the lowest unemployable subhuman garbage.

I am not one to call others moronic simply to build myself up. When I call someone else "moronic," then this is exactly what I mean, and the company in question had oh, so, many submorons in its managerial ranks. It was really beyond description and belief.

What I saw among the ranks at the company headquarters had me really wondering who was operating the company's nuclear power plane(s). Who? Who? Homer Simpson??

P.M.

a reply to: theworldisnotenough
Africans were the first to create the idea of Physics, amongst other subjects that the Moors and other African groups like the Egyptians studied and passed on to cousins, like the Mayans.

Yes white population is aging and dying out and there seems to be a push to eradicate the part of the population race mixing.

How do we recruit future capable workers? We allow brainiacs from all cultures and races to explore different cleaner technologies and make it illegal for corporations to suppress it. Look at the cat back in the 70s that could get 1000MPG on a vehicle; shell got his patent, shelved it and he was later killed. If we as people force the government to disclose tech and make the environment of development more productive and less lethal to human life that would be a start.

The way to recycle nuclear waste must be allowed but only if the people that are ingenous enough to invent the method wont be targeted for extermination.