Category: Nukiller Power

Renting Just Like SMRs

Rent to Buy

Mention housing to anyone who lives in Britain, and you will get to hear a very worrying list of anecdotal stories.

All of which show that everything to do with buying, selling, and renting housing is a legal or financial mess.

Not only a mess, but a very controversial one at that.

Take for example: –

Rent to Buy, which is refereed to as Buy to Rent, and gives no housing security to tenants If the landlord defaults on their mortgage.

Then there are landlords who complain about bad tenants,and tenants who complain about bad landlords. Both of which [ may ] have some very good reasons for doing so.

As I say – It’s a mess.

Now enter the Developers

Of course much of this mess comes down to how housing is regarded as a way in which to make a quick profit, rather than a source of long term housing, or long term income.

It all comes down to making a profit by any means, rather than looking at what might be achieved in the long term.

That’s why there are so many houses being built, or which have been built, in the middle of high risk flood plains.

Then comes all of the flooding which will result from Rising tides.

As with Housing the same with the Nukiller industry.

Many of the existing reactors are by the coast, and will be effected by rising tides within the next 20 to 30 years.

Yet the nukiller industry keep playing down this danger, as with everything else they do.

A modular exercise.

The current fashion is for the nukiller industry to talk about how all our problems will be solved by the construction of Small Modular Reactors.

Yet these Small Modular Reactors are like those flats which are being sold by developers way before the foundation work is done.

They are sold on the illustrations of what these flats might look like, but no one has any idea of the quality of the materials used, or just what the standard of construction work might be.

Then when they all go wrong, those who buy them as an investment will cry out that ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’.

Meanwhile – The tenants get to suffer within these badly constructed slums of the future, and pay for the privilege of doing so.

While we the tax payers will be expected to pay for the long term clean up costs.

Sounds familiar ?

What We Need Right Now – Campaigning Workaholics.

With just so few anti-nukilller power activists and groups there is always a very large amount of campaigning work which needs to be done.

Here is an account of just one aspect of this work, and why we need more people campaigning right now.

Field Notes from the”Delegated Decision” to Sweep Ever More Nuclear Waste Under the West Coast at Drigg

On the 15th of July the County’s Development Control and Regulatory Committee took the “delegated decision” to approve a plan on behalf of Cumbria  to stack shipping containers of nuclear wastes ever higher and then to cap them and walk away.

Now for the follow up campaigning work, for which we will need much more help in the coming months, years, and decades.

As Was Or As Predicted.

The way in which the nukiller power industry views any potential future ‘accidents’ or potential natural disasters, is based upon some very short term thinking.

Much of what forms such risk assessments is based upon the Historical Record.

Yet people have short memories, or think ‘it will never happen here’.

That would seem to be the line which is taken by the nukiller power industry.

Yet consider the following historical events.

– The East Midlands earthquake – 1185

– The Dover Straits earthquake – 1580

– The Great English earthquake – 1884

– The Swansea earthquake – 1906

&

– The Dogger Bank earthquake – 1931

For the nukiller industry it comes down to some very shaky thinking.

Flooding

Now consider the risk of flooding & rising tides at the Sizewell, Dungeness, Hinkley, and Heysham reactor sites. This is going to be a major problem to deal with over the next few years,

So lets go back to the Historical record, and the risk of Flooding on Romney Marsh.

400 BC the Dungeness area was under the sea.

It could well happen again.

Yet the Nukiller industry continues to take very short term view of such dangers, even thought the waste they produce will last thousands of years.

Sellafield

The thinking about what might happen to nukiller reactors is scary enough, but the prospects of what might happen to all of the radioactive waste make for a much more frightening scenario.

Here is just one industry report which illustrates what might happen at at sellafield, and how they plan to deal with it.

The Final Report to ONR on the application of the ENSREG Stress Tests to the Sellafield Site.

In this report there is a lot written about the various safeguards which have been, or will be put in place, but just look at the condition of the plant right now: –

Leaked Sellafield photos reveal “massive radioactive release” threat

Not Good !

Though the reality of what might happen can be seen by looking a the flood map for the area.

I might well be accused on banging on & on & on & on & on about these issues, but there are a very good set of reasons for doing so.

EDF & Unrealistic Fiscal Dreams

If anyone thinks EDF will find the money to build a new nukiller reactor at Hinkley, then they should start to look at the companies financial situation.

In last decade the share price has fallen from around 85 Euro to that of between 9 & 10 Euro.

Meanwhile the guestimated costs of the plant continue to rise.

It is because of these costs that the nukiller industry is now starting to push for smaller and what they say are cheaper reactors.

In the meanwhile UK energy consumption has dropped, and 25% of it is produced by wind turbines and other renewables.

 

To quote the quote: –

Just Do The Maths.

Dealing with Difficult Problems.

I keep reading about just how we need to prioritise various aspects of our campaigning to stop nukiller power, but it is not as simple as that.

The nukiller industry presents us with a series of related issues, and that’s why we do need to engage in some joined-up-campaigning.

Old ones in place of new build

Much of the current anti-nukiller-power campaigning work centres round stopping new build.

All the delays in stopping EDF building a new reactor at Hinkley might be considered something of a success, but it comes at a cost.

Now they want to extend the working life of their existing plants, such as the one at Heysham, by another five years.

This is on top of the previous operating extensions.

That could be very dangerous as these plants are already in a very unsound condition.

Nukiller Waste: – A Catch 22 problem.

Nukiller waste is one of the most difficult of issues which the industry faces, and thus one of the greatest arguments in terms of closing down all reactors now, and stopping new build.

It also presents something of a catch 22 situation.

Waste can not be kept at any of the coastal plants which are going to be subject to rising tides, and that’s something which we have as an immediate problem. Neither should it go to Sellafield which is highly polluted, and also has a potential flooding problem within the next few years.

What we don’t want is for any of this waste to be stored in any area which is geologically unstable, The industry talks about what to do with the waste in the short term, or at least until all they have to deal with is long term radioactive waste.

They are now looking for an ‘engineering solution’ by which the waste is isolated from the area in which it is stored. Though that would be very costly to do. It is of note that the guestimated cost of just cleaning up Sellafield will be circa £110 Billion over the next 100 year.

All of which makes for a series of complicated issues which we also need to consider.

I don’t have any solution to offer.

Though I do know that we do have to consider all of the above in terms of any campaigning we might be doing.

 

Next Problem – No thanks !

What the nukiller industry now is considering to do is build a lot of small scale, off the shelves, and therefore cheaper nukiller reactors.

They have still be be designed, will still produce a lot of radioactive waste, and take money away from sounder ecologically sounder methods of producing energy.

Currently Questioning.

The job of a political activist is to keep raising questions and alerting others to the various dangerous we all face.

After that it is on to the next question, and then the next question, until there are no more questions which need asking.

That’s fine for most issues,

but it only works when the issues are very clear,

or when it is very easy to put together all the information that’s to be found.

Yet what if information is being deliberately held back from us all?

Then much of the campaigning will revolve around finding out just what the facts might be.

This is very much so when it comes to campaigning about nukiller power, and undercover policing.

The lines which keep coming up include:-

– Commercial confidentiality.

– The Official secrets act.

&

– Neither confirm or denied.

All of which slow one down in terms of active campaigning.

That is why I am one of the 133 individuals who are calling for a list of all the political groups which were infiltrated by the police spies to be made public.

It’s a good just that the Undercover Research Group keeps working away to find out about the activities of former undercover police.

&

There is a very good network of anti-nukiller activists who share information with each other.

Mapping it out.

One of the most useful tools which I’ve discover in terms of looking at the nukiller issue are OS [ Ordinance survey ] maps, for they clearly show low lying lands near current the nukiller reactors.

After that I cross reference then with the UK flood maps

These maps clearly show what might well take place at these plants within the next 10 to 30 years.

The one for Dungeness is particularly interesting as it shows all the moorland to the north of the reactor site,

Many areas to the north and west are marked as: – Danger Area.

I’ll just keep looking at these maps, and keep asking just how new build can be justified while many of the existing reactors are going to be effected by rising tides.

There is no such thing as a fixed coast line.

No Cause For Alarm – Or Lets Not Worry, As It’s Party Time

Lethargy can cause more harm to the environment than most people ever realise.

In other words, we have so little time to do anything about it, that there is just no time to stop or rest.

Let’s just sum up the situation which faces us all: –

– The Pacific is dying.

– We are at the long predicted stage of tipping over climate change.

&

– The amount of nukiller waste is going to be polluting the planet for many thousand of years,

and still they want to build many new reactors.

As I keep saying: –

We have so much to do in order to stop this mess, that there is no time to party, or take time off during the gloom day period.

If more people were on the ball, then some of the nukiller industry PR propaganda would have been challenged in the way the closure of the Wylfa reactor was reported by the media.

While the other story which would of got more coverage is the one which slipped most people by, as it was announced on December 31st.

‘The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has shelved plans for an inquiry into the culture, pay and behaviour of staff in banking.’

What more can I say ?

Atomic Issues.

A brief list of some of the issues which various campaigning groups are currently working on, or which relate to these concerns.

New Build.

– Moorside.

– Hinkley.

– Wylfa.

– Sizewell.

– Bradwell.

– Oldbury

– EDF.

– NuGen.

– Horizon (now 100% Hitachi owned)

Waste processing and storage.

– Sellafield [ Windscale ].

– New proposals for the medium and long term storage of radioactive waste.

– Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride [ Hex ].

Civil Liberties and Secrecy.

– The Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

– Official Secrecy.

Transport.

– Nukiller Waste trains

– DRS [ Direct Rail Services ] which have depots at Crewe and Carlisle.

– Advance Uranium Asset Management Ltd, which transports Hex by Road & Sea.

Sea Transport.

– James Fisher and Sons – Barrow.

– Bibby – Liverpool.

– ACL – Liverpool.

Uranium Mining.

– RTZ.

– BHP Billiton.

– Indigenous peoples and land rights.

– Mining Pollution.

Uranium Enrichment, and Fuel Fabrication.

– URENCO.

– Capenhurst.

– Springfields.

Rising Tides and the danger of existing plants being flooded.

– Dungeness.

– Hinkley.

– Heysham.

– Sizewell.

Ongoing Safety and Cost Issues.

– All of the above.

– DECC.

Supporting Campaigns in Other Countries.

– Japan.

– India.

– The USA.

– Australia.

– Canada.

– France.

Giving ‘One 2 One’ Background Briefings To Activists.

I’ve recently put together a 200 page binder file of notes, maps, illustrations, graphics, and photos, which cover all the main aspects of the nukiller power industry.

Amongst other things there is a lot of information about nukiller waste transport, URENCO / Capenhurst, Uranium Hex / Uranium Hex transport, etc, etc.

This file also includes some historical information about flood & storms around existing reactors, and the current flood maps which go along with them.

There are also various maps which show the location of various reactors in a number of countries, together with that of Uranium mines.

To back up all this information I also use the OS maps which show Hinkley, Sizewell, & Dungeness.

These are maps show exactly why these reactors are likely to be effected by storms and high tides.

This file is used both for any talks that which I might give, and as a way of giving ‘one 2 one’ background briefings to activists.

I’m very willing to go through it all with any activist who want to know the fuller picture, and has the time to do so.