61
Testing Torness p3
Britain's Acid Exports CONTENTS COMMENT
Testing Torness 3 At the time of writing, Edinburgh is in the PETE ROCHE gives o round-up of recent middle of the Internat ional Festival •. This events a t our own local nuke. News 4-8 always brings anti-nuclear visitors from groups Chernobyl ond the Media. 9 all over the world, on holiday but not above THOM DIBDIN report$ from the Ecovision a visit to SCRAM to tell of a demonstration '87 Conference. at Wackersdorf (8-10 Oct }, or to discuss views As Safe os Houses? 1·1 PATRICK GREEN discusses the Government's on privatisation. We've also been visited by half-heorted a ttempts to solve the roovn the Greenpeoce boat, Moby Dick, on it s way gos problem. up to Dounreay to collect some samples for Trumpets & Raspbe rries 12-13 radiat ion monitoring. As usual t here is a spate STEYE MARTIN compares the triumphant Dounreay Inquiry Report with the gloomy of anti-nuclear ploys; t heatre groups wanting truth of some UKAEA leaked documents. discounts on their photocopying and demanding The Sleeping Beasts of Wl ndscole 14-15 attendance at their latest product ion which is JOHN LARGE ond PAUL DRAPER explain going to change the world. the problems which led to the notorious 1957 Wlndscale Fire. We always remind visitors that this wlll Breeder Bombs Out 16-17 be the last nuclear- free Festival in these part s MYCLE SCHNEIDER assesses the future if Torness starts up according to the SSEB's of the fast reactor fuel cycle ond latest amended schedule. In fact we said the the European plutonium requirements. Councils' Chernobyl Response 18 same last year but commissioning was delayed FRED BARKER reports on the growing by a few problems they've been having. number of local authorities setting up T orness, as observed by David Fishlock in the their own radiation monitoring. Financial Times in 1983, is involved in several Edinburgh Heat Plans · 19 RICHARD KERLEY gives on up dote of different races: against Heysham, the PWR what's been happening in Edinburgh on and SCRAM. Heysham has caught up - fuel the CHP front. loading began only two days after Torne ss; the Britain's Acid Exports 20-21 AGR has been scrapped now that Sizewell has MIKE TOWNSLEY takes a cynical look at the CEGB's plans to de-sulphurise been given the go-ahead; and SCRAM have their smoke discharges. won the moral argument time and again. Appropriate Technology 22-25 The Festival, like Christmas, tends to Reviews 26-27 delay things for a month or so, while tourists Little Block Robblt 28 and residents alike, cram a year's worth of culture into a few short weeks. Perhaps this goes a long way to explaining why Reporter PATRICK GREEN is FoE's radiation consultant. Bell has decided to extend his deadline fot J OHN LARGE & PAUL DRAPER work with the submission of comment s on his Part 1 Large & Associa tes, independent nuclear report on the Dounreay Planning Inquiry. consul tonts. The Joint Islands Councils had asked for M YCLE SCHNEIDER works with the Paris office an extension from 25 August to 16 October. of World Informat ion Service on Energy. Mr Bell didn 't go as far as this, but he has FRED BARKER works for Manchester's Nuclear extended it until 22 September. The Islands Free Zone Unit. Councils have also requested that the Inquiry RICHAR D KE RLEY choirs Edinburgh District be re-opened to consider new evidence, but Council's Economic Development Committee. no decision has been made on this yet. Judging by the mess that the European Views expressed in articles appearing in this Collabora tion on the Fast Reactor is in at the Journal ore not necessarily those of SCRAM. present time, there is no hurry to come to a This Journal is produced for the British Anti-Nuclear decision. With the licence for Kalkar still and Safe Energy movements by the Scot tish Campaign uncertain, and the problem of the sodium leak to Resist the Atomic Menace. at Superphenix st ill unresolved, the Fast Editor: Steve Martin Reactor has o serious credibilit y problem, if News Editor: Thom Dlbdln nothing else. If I was Mr Bell, I would take Features Editor: Pete Roche some time off to enjoy t he Festival, and the Appropriate Technology: Mike Townsley rare sunshine as well; and try to find an We welcome contributions of art icles, news, honourable way to recommend refusal of graphics and photographs. planning permission.
Deadlines for next Issue: Articles (900 words/poge), 16 Oct. News & Graphics, 23 Oct.
ISSN 0140 7340 Bi-mont hly. Cover photo of Dounreay and the culture it threatens by Greenpeace. 2 SSEB carried on regardless. Because of the delays caused by Testing Torness the control rod problem, SCRAM wrote to the SSEB to ascertain their Work on fuel loading into reactor one at Torness nuclear power new commissioning timetable Jn May station ln East Lothian began on 21 July, almost 9 years after this year. The Board. not surprisingly, refused to answer any of our questions contractors started work. It has been a catalogue of corrorate and claimed that they "hove a very lnsensltlvlty and heavyhandedness, from the demolltlon o Half close liaison with people and Moon Cottage on 14 November 1978, up to the day fuel loading organisations In East Lothian• and "do began. PETE ROCHE reports on recent developments. not accept • • • that there is great concern locally about Torness ." At the end of June 1986, the South of station does not require a discharge The leader of Edinburgh District Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB) certificate before fuel loading begins. Council wrote on 1 July in another odvlsed Lothian Regional Council that Comments on the application for attempt to find out when the Board they Intended to complete fuel loading Heyshom's certificates need to be expected to be granted o licence for of T orness Reactor 1, and carry out a lodged by 4 September. Authorisation flnol fuel loading of reactor one. The fuelled engineering run during October could be granted by late October. Board's reply was dated 22 July - the 1986. They actually began fuel loading The dote the Torness certificates day after fuel loading began. They did, on 21 July this year; the plant Is were Issued, the day before the however, make a 'courtesy' telephone therefore almost a year behind General Election, caused some call to the Chief Executive of the schedule. (Hunterston B holds the AGR speculation that the SSEB were Council on 21 July to let him know record for the closest adherence to attempting to get the commissioning that fuelling hod begun. schedule - and that was four years process as far along the rood to The SSEB claimed they sent a late). completion as possible before the telex to the press on the morning of The main reason for the delay was Election. Observers questioned the fuel loading. However, SCRAM was the discovery lost October of a design need for the certificates to be issued told by the Scotsman, Glasgow Herald weakness in the control rods. During so long before the station was ready and the BBC that they had heard tests, Involving pumping high pressure to make any discharges. The Heyshom nothing from the Board. In their report COi through the channels, the rods timetable emphasises this cvrlous the next day the Scotsman wrote: began to spin and bang about Inside situation. "news that loading of fuel hod begun their steel guide tubes. The Board The actual level of discharge was mode public, not by the Board, announced In May that modifications allowed is also a focus of criticism. but by the anti-nuclear group SCRAM." to rectify the fault hod been The normal practice Is for the plant The SSEB denied they hod tried to completed, at a cost of £3.5m. The operator to discharge far less than keep the development quiet. some fault was also discovered at allowed In the certificate. However, The SSEB hove refused to make Heysham 2, T orness' sister plant being the Environment Committee on concessions on the emergency planning built by the Central Electricity Radioactive Waste attacked present issue. Despite repeated protests from Generating Board near Lancaster. llmlts because they can "too easily Lothian Regional Council, the The modification programme was accommodate unusual events or evacuation zone around T orness is only co-ordinated by the Notional Nuclear accidents." Eire Is pressing for zero 3km and would Involve moving only Corporation (NNC), a consortium of discharge from plants, and the EEC i$ 400 people. The fact that the town of nuclear industry organisations in which urging member countries to agree. Gomel, 125 mlles from Chernobyl, the Government has the largest stoke. Although the EEC has no power to with Its 300,000 Inhabitants had to be They discovered, using a half scale enforce such a policy, lt Is apparent evacuated, has not been lost on the model of the guide tube, that the that the UK government Is involved caunclllors or the Lothian and Borders problem occurred because of the way In hard bargaining with the electricity Fire Board. In which the gas entered the channel, boards to reduce the discharge Lothian Region was the prime and removal of certain castellated nuts dutharisations. mover, along with Shetland Islands cured it. Torness become an im?ortont Council, ln getting nuclear power onto The addition of the nuts was a election Issue, with Labour candidates the agenda of the Nuclear Free Zones change from the Hlnkley/Hunterston promising to mothball t he plant If lt movement (because of Torness plant design to protect the gas inlets was not already on line on the return In Lothian's case, and Dounreay in from cross~flow effects. It was of o Labour Government. The SNP Shetland's), and. they succeeded In apparently not possible to remove the also had a policy of not commissioning making lt port of notional and nuts from the reactors, so Instead the station, but the Alliance were International Nuclear Free Zones holes were drllled further down on the spilt on the Issue. Tories fully policy. guide tubes away from the region of supported Torness - they lost 11 of Although the SSEB hope to begin cross-flow. These modifications appear their 21 seats in Scotland. electricity generation from reactor less than perfect, however - there Is A Systems Three Scotland opinion 1 at Torness before the end of the still some residual movement of the poll, commissioned by Greenpeoce, was year, there ore stlll hurdles to cross: control rods. Alan Turner of the NNC's published at the beginning of June. Of further technical problems are not Risley Laboratories sold: •what we the respondents questioned In six Impossible; their discharge authorisation have done Is to reduce the movement Lothian constituencies, 53% thought may need to be changed; the Important of the rods dramatically so that they that Torness should be dismantled, question of adequate evacuation plans will no longer have any significant mothbolled or temporarily halted. The may yet prove decisive. wear. The rods wlll now last the planned life of the stations.• The Nil approved the modifications and gave the go ahead for both stations to begin fuel loading. Torness began on 21 J uly and Heysham followed on 23 July. On 10 June the SSEB were granted authorisation by the Industrial Pollution Inspectorate to discharge small quantities of liquid and gaseous radioactive wastes. Similar authorisations exist for all nuclear ....0 power stations. Perhaps because of the 0 difference In statutory control between .c: ~ Scotland and England, the Heysham SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 3 News News in brief TUC CONFERENCE LAMB BAN ARGENTINIAN EXPORTS The TUC's Nuclear Energy Review The recent reimposition of Argentina has finally signed a Body has recommended that this restrictions on the movement of contract with Iran to supply 20% year's conference does not tcke sheep because of high caesium enriched uranium for the research any motions on nuclear power. levels has fuelled criticism of reactor at Teheran university (SCRAM The Review Body has produced Government policy on this issue. 59). on interim report for this year' Stewart Boyle of Friends of the The contract comes at a time conference to "set the context within Earth told SCRAM that the new when Argentina is actively seeking which hard decisions about energy restrictions, particularly of farms to increase nuclear exports. The new policy must be considered." They not previously affected, highlights President of the CNEA (Comision have asked for a further year to the "gaping holes in the Government's Nacional de Energia Atomica): Emma complete the review. monitoring scheme" and strengthens Ferreira, said in a press conference, SCRAM understands that some the argument for independent shortly after taking the job, that she Unions are very unhappy with the monitoring. Thirty two farms in is strongly in favour of exporting report, as it does not take their Scotland that were not included last nuclear technology. This includes to representations into account, while year are now subject to restriction. countries with "nondemocratic considering those made by environ Contamination of sheep on some of ideologies" such as Iran and Albania. mental organisations. these farms is over 3000 Bq a kilo. Other countries which are understood to be negotiating with Argentina NAMIBIAN URANIUM ITALIAN REFERENDUM include Mexico, Algeria, Indonesia The United Notions have instituted Gains by environmental candidates and Morocco. legal proceedings against the Dutch in the Italian elections are likely to firm of URENCO, for enriching ensure that a referendum on nuclear LOCAL DIFFICULTY Namibian uranium at the Almelo power does take place after all. The Government have announced that plant in Holland. The referendum, originally in future "all nuclear incidents" This is the first legal action to be scheduled for June 14 (SCRAM 58 & will be published, although circulation token by the United Nations Council 59), had to be delayed because of will be limited. for Namibia, under its Decree No.l the election. Normally the referendum While the new arrangements for the protection of the natural would then have to wait two years, appear to allow maximum access to resources of Namibia. The writ but anti-nuclear elements in the new information on accidents at nuclear issued by the UN is against three parliament are reported to be pressing sites, anti-nuclear groups have defendents: Urenco Nederlond VOF; for a legal amendment which would pointed out that the new procedures UCN; and the Dutch Government. allow it to take place in six months. only apply to local news media and They hove been summoned to appear Anti-nuclear feelings run high "interested Departments". Magazines at the civil court in La Hague on in Italy, and a yes vote would put a such as SCRAM will not be eligible 1 September. virtual block on the nuclear industry. to receive this information.
Manchester City Council A NUCLEAR FREE CITY
As a Council which has declared its intention to become a Nuclear Free Zone, the City Council supports the phasing out of nuclear power within the shortest practical period of time.
In the meantime, it is concerned to safeguard the health and safety of local people. The City Council has therefore:
* purchased radiation monitoring equipment to provide local and independent information on radiation levels.
* resolved to study the effects of a range of possible nuclear accidents and the effectiveness of emergency plans.
For more information, contact the NFZ Unit, MANCHESia Town Hall, Manchester M60 2LA (061 234 3244). ----Cfty~--- Del'elldlng Jobs-~ Services
4 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 News· IF..... a __s __t _B_re.-....;e_d...... ,er ...... s___.l IE .D.R.T IISizewell The future of the fast reactor at An application For outline planning The High Court attempt by Friends Kalkar in North Rhine Westfalia permission to build a European of the Earth, to halt the building of remains uncertain. Despite pressure Demonstration Reclining Tower, Sizewell 8 on safety grounds, has from the Chancellor and the Research (EDRT) in Caithness has been mode failed because of a legal technicality. Mini~ter on Klaus Toepfer, Bonn's new to the Highland Regional Council. The legal action was rejected Environment Minister, to force the CADE, who are moking the both in the High Court and by three state to issue a licence, he is refusing application, believe that they will Court of Appeal judges because of a to make any rash moves. hove no problems obtaining consent, technicality involving a time limit Toepfer says that doubts about following the precedents set during for submitting the application. safety cannot just be swept away, and the Dounreay inquiry. The 545m The decision led FoE to describe the he cannot guarantee that Kalkar will high, ten times scale model of the nuclear industry and the government be granted a licence to lood fuel by leaning tower of Pisa, will be used os "effectively above the law". 31 January 1988, when public funding for rented accommodation. This, say FoE's case for a judicial review for the breeder runs out. With the CADE, conforms with Government of the government's decision to delay costing around OM 1Om a month, policy for providing accomodation build Sizewell 8 centred on their the electricity industry is unlikely to in the private sector. The merits claim that the former Secretary of take over the finance of such an of Government policy cannot be State, Mr Peter Walker, had erred in expensive lame duck. Further subject to any review. law by relying on the 1974 Health discussions are due in September when Opponents to EDRT ore outraged and Safety at Work Act, rather than o safety report produced by a Swiss at the whole ideo. Sgnr. Touristi the more exacting safety standards engineering company will be ready. Promozionni of the Campaign Against of the 1965 Nuclear Installations There has been some speculation Pisa Export (CAPE) told SCRAM that Act. (see SCRAM 60 p3) that Bonn would be willing to it will cause untold damage to the Mr Justice Kennedy admitted in sacrifice the fast reactor if Pisa tourist industry. He is also the High Court on 6 July that FoE Germany's Social Democratic Party concerned that, as with EDRP, the had an "arguable point of law". (SPD) dropped its anti-nuclear stance. plans are sketchy, with no However, he refused to allow a The Christian Democrats are believed transport, waste disposal or safety judicial review, on the technicality to think that the fast reactor is not analysis. that there hod been on undue cletay as crucial as the problem of creating CADE ore dismissive of these in submitting the application. This a coal/nuclear generation consensus in objections. They claim that waste was despite its being lodged within the near term. disposal problems will be solved in the specified three months period. On the other hand the Environment time for a detailed planning He claimed that FoE were aware of Ministry may just be gathering application and that there is no the huge sums of money being spent evidence to force North Rhine need for a detailed emergency plan, by the CEGB on Sizewell and should Westfalia to issue the outstanding os EDRT will be much safer than therefore have brought the case licence. This procedure was used by conventional houses. The prototype earlier. Toepfer's predecessor, Welter tower is over 600 years old and has FoE took the case to the Court Wallmann, in 1985 when he ordered not fallen over once, while many of Appeal on 20 July, where the the state of Hesse to issue a non-reclining houses have fallen three judges found that the time licence for the Hanau fuel over in this time. technicality was not an impediment fabrication plant. Although the application is for to hearing the case, but that FoE only one tower, CADE do not rule had no arguable case. FRANCE out the possibility of a Reclining Jonothon Porritt, FoE's director Tower Estate. All the towers in the said after the decision that "Our Novatome, the French breeder reactor estate would lean away from each case was treated in a summary and builders, could go bankrupt if delays other, "thus in the impossible event dismissive fashion, despite the major with Superphenix continue. of one tower failing to stay at the issue of public policy and safety Novatome's books currently carry correct angle, and becoming a at stoke." a loss of FFrlOOm. Framatome, which Horizontal Tower, a chain reaction The case is likely to cost FoE owns 70% of the company, is could not lead to other towers in the region of £250,000. Had it considering declaring it bankrupt. The suffering the same change of been successful not only would description". other alternative would be for Sizewell 8 have been halted, but Framatome to absorb Novatome, but Copies of the planing application all other nuclear plants licenced they are only prepared to do this if are available from CADE, Albert since 1974 including Torness would the government will let them set Buildings, Lerwick, Shetland. have been illegal. Novatome's losses off against their own 1987 profits. The leak in the fuel storage drum lBradwell at Superphenix is still unresolved, The Nil (Nuclear Installations take "risk reducing measures". although fuel in the drum has been Inspectorate) have given the CEGB The 17 key requirements of the removed into the reactor core. A "eight out of ten" in their assessment assessment fall into three brood decision is expected at the end of the of the Boord's safety case for areas: summer on whether Superphenix can continued operation of Brodwell. e The reactor pressure circuit be restarted and run at about 50% The Long Term Safety Review irttegrity; capacity for the next two or three (L TSR) reveals that a person standing e The safety of the plant in years while the storage drum is being at the station fence would receive comparison to modern standards; replaced or repaired in the adjacent "a radiation dose up to three times e The ability of the station to building. the current statutory limit. withstand earthquakes. Whether or not the reactor is The CEGB now have until October Of these, the integrity of the restarted, the leak has seriously to establish that they can bring the pressure circuit, which must retain undermined the future of the fast station up to scratch on this, and 16 the COz coolant circulating around breeder in France. The present other key issues of safety. If this the reactor core at 10 atmospheres, Government has stated that no con be demonstrated to the Nil's is seen as being of greatest decision wil be taken on a follow satisfaction, then they will have to importance. on breeder until Superphenix has carry out improvements by March A full assessment of the L TSR operated at full power for at least 1989, allowing operation until 1992. will appear in the next issue of one year. Otherwise the CEGB will have to SCRAM. SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 5 News ,______Waste Round-u~ SCOTLAND FRANCE be expected if the 7 AGRs perform Rumours that the Island of Jura in to plan. The French government hove selected the Scottish constituency of Argyll Although anti-nuclear groups have Soulaines-Dhuys, some 200kms east of and Bute has been chosen as a high always argued dry storage of spent Paris os the country's future low and level waste dump, circulating before fuel Is preferable to reprocessing, the medium level nuclear waste site. It the General Election, have now been current proposal is not seen as a will replace La Hague when the virtually discounted by the Jura solution. They belleve that permanent latter becomes full in 1991. Community Council. dry stores should be built at the site The site was originally proposed Following an article In the Oban of production, rather than transporting for Saint Priest La Prague, but ran Times on 7 May, the Council set up spent fuel from all power stations to into strong local oposition. ANDRA, an Anti-Nuclear· Waste Committee. one central point. the waste management body had then The article, "Jura fits bill as bin SCRAM will cover the campaign to find a site by the end of 1985. for high level nuclear waste", against the Chapelcross dry store With weak local opposition, Soulaines seems to have been based on a 197 6 plans in more detail in future issues. was seen as being ideal. The site Institute of Geological Sciences report, will hove a capacity of 1.2m cubic used In evidence at the Mullwharcher DRIGG metres. Inquiry, and long since overtaken Lying between three giant by events. The Scottish Development An £8.5m concrete vault has been reservoirs which supply Paris with Department have told the Council that approved by BNFL as port of their drinking water, and next to the "there is no programme to look at measures to upgrade the Drigg vineyards of southern Champagne, Jura or any other site in the UK for low-level waste site near Sellofleld. Souloines might not appear the ideal the disposal of high level waste." Further schemes approved Include site, but geologists claim that the Some observers believe that the the provision of containerization, day formations provide maximum Oban Times report was deliberately compoctlon, and emplacement of safety for the storage of this waste. misleading and was intended to put waste so that by 1989-90, "the pressure on the Tories In the run up current free tipping operation will to the General Election. (In fact the cease." Additional concrete capping Torles lost the seat to the of existing trenches is planned over IBNFL Liberals). However, the Council is now the next two years as part of an fully aware that Jura is a possible ongoing £3-4m programme. BNFL and five leading UK nuclear dump site for low and intermediate In the past BNFL have simply design companies have formed a nuclear waste. The Anti-Nuclear tipped the waste into trenches - they consortium, British Nuclear Waste Committee has, therefore, ore now onto their seventh trench. Technology (BNT), to exploit the decided to remain in existence and These wlll now be lined and capped international market in reprocessing join with other groups affiliated with concrete. The change stems from and waste management. to SAND (Scotland Against Nuclear a growing realisation at BNFL that All five of the companies are Dumping) to make sure that nowhere in the past "the operation has not involved in BNFL's £3.5 billion In Scotland becomes a dump. been as tidy as it should have been." capital investment programme which e Meanwhile, islanders on Raosay is being undertaken at Sellofield, and are worried by reports In the West WEST GERMANY includes construction of the thermal Highland Free Press that their island, oxide reprocessing plant (THORP). just off Skye, may become a nuclear The Gobi Desert Is once again under BNFL will be ordering most of waste dump. A public meeting Is to threat as a dump site for West the second stage of the effluent be arranged for the near future. German nuclear waste (SCRAM 50). treatment plant for Sellofield next Another worry is that the uninhabited Although the West German year. The Enhanced Actinide Removal island of Rona, just north of Raosoy government has consistently denied Plant (EARP) is aimed at reducing and owned by the MoD, may be ear such plans, in July this year the discharges to the environment. marked as a dump for decommlssioned German nuclear power plant builders, The first stage of work to submarine reactors. Kraftwerk Union, announced a deal decrease discharges involved a Site Nicholas Ridley said in his reply to bury waste in the Gobi Desert in Ion Exchange Effluent Plant (SIXEP) to NIREX, after the abandonment of return for giving West German and a Salt Evaporator Plant. These the English dump sites, that "we nuclear technology to the Chinese. started operating in 1985, and may need to give seperate thought according to BNFL, halved the to the disposal of bulky, lightly USA amount of radioactivity discharged radioactive decommissionlng items." compared to the previous year. The budget requested for. the US Site preparation is now in CHAPEL CROSS nuclear waste programme has been progress for EARP, which is slashed from $725m to $500m by the expected to cost around £500m. Informed opinion suggests that House of Representatives. There will also be a £50m solvent Chapelcross in SW Scotland will be The House approved a recommenda treatment plant, a £50m segregated chosen from the two contending sites tion from the Appropriations effluent treatment plant, a £5m for a buffer store for spent AGR fuel. Committee to ban spending on THORP effluent system, a £45m The other potential site is at Heysham exploratory shafts at potential sites packaging plant, a £35m effluent In Lancashire. (see Waste Row: for the first repository; halt funds plant maintenance facility, a £30m SCRAM 59) for a monitored retrievable storage services building, and another £50m A campaign against the proposed facility because it has yet to be for miscellaneous plant. plant at Chapelcross has already authorized; and limit funds for a Three plants for solid waste started. District Councils have passed second waste repository to non encapsulation ore already under motions against the plant, and a local site-specific work. construction. There is also a opposition group is expected to be The move reflects a lack of vitrification plant being built. formed. Their main argument centres confidence in the Department of THORP's 6,000 tonne capacity on transportation. There is no roll link Energy who run the programme. over the first 10 years of operation to the slte, so highly radioactive spent Congressmen believe that before any has recently been upped to 7,000 fuel rods will have to continue from more money Is spent, the whole tonnes, which means that BNFL are Annan railway station by road; as policy should be reviewed and a now looking for an extra 1,000 many as two transports a day could consensus re-establlshed. tonnes of business. 6 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 News Accidents Will HaQQe n... ] TRAWSFYNYDD SELLA FIELD HUNTERS TON e Two recent accidents at the e An accident in the notorious e A fuel leak was discovered in Trawsfynydd Mognox station hove building 8205 halted reprocessing at reactor 1 of the Hunterston A Mognox fuelled criticism of the CEG8's so Sellafield, less than one week after station just before midnight on 9 July. called "open information" policy. it had restarted following a three The SSE8 told SCRAM that the The first occured on 1 August, month break. leak was discovered when levels of when 100 gallons of liquid waste The incident occurred on Sunday 2 a "short lived noble gas fission spilled from a pipe carrying it to August, when a magazine containing product" rose inside one of the fuel a storage tank. Local MP, Doffyd 36 spent fuel pins fell ten feet to channels. The fuel stringer was Ellis Thomas, has complained to the the floor. The decanned fuel was removed from the reactor and placed CEG8 that he was not informed of being winched into the top of a fuel in the cooling pond, where there is the accident until five days later. dissolver during the initial stages of "no detectable leakage". The "tiny On 10 August, on explosion in reprocessing. A spokesman for 8NFL hole" was apparently caused by a the turbine hall put two gas told SCRAM that no radiation was "random defect", and the fuel will circulators in one of the reactors released and that no worker would now be treated as normal. out of action. The CEG8 originally be exposed to radiation during the denied that there had been an clear up operation. The incident was, NORTH ANNA-USA explosion, although they later however, serious enough to halt confirmed that the blast had blown reprocessing for over a week. e One of the Virginia Electric and a door off its hinges and caused Last year's Nil safety audit of Power Co's two 947MW PWR reactors £20,000 worth of damage. Sellafield was highly critical of 8205 at North Anna, suffered a radioactive The loss of the circulators has which is central to 8NFL's water leak in early July. The reactor meant that the reactor has been reprocessing philosophy. It is in this was shut down and a small amount of shut down, halving output from the plant that spent fuel is dissolved radioactive gas was released into station to 210Mw. before reprocessing can begin. the atmosphere. Particular reference was made tc HEY SHAM handling of irradiated fuel. TRANSPORT-USA e The Nil investigation into HARWELL e A freight train carrying radio allegations of poor working practices active materials was derailed in the at the Heysham 2 AGR (SCRAM 60), e In June, a worker ingested some Columbia Gorge in Washington state has given the station a clean bill plutonium at the UKAEA 's Hcrwell on 12 May. Two wagons plunged into of health, despite continuing research laboratory in Oxfordshire. the Columbia river and thirteen criticism. The incident occurred when the others caught fire. Mr J Elliot, who made the original worker was dismantling a glove box Although the train was carrying allegations is, however, unhappy with containing plutonium 238. Although only 192 pounds of low-level radio the outcome, particularly because no radioactive intake was observed active materials, for use in smoke the Nil did not carry out a full during the work, follow-up tests detectors and fire extinguishers, it is investigation themselves, but just showed that he had received a believed that in the future, high level examined documents provided by the radioactive dose in excess of the waste will travel by the same route CEG8 and 8abcocks. He regards it as annual limit for radiation workers. on the way to the proposed HL W a case of "cutting the paperwork to waste site at the Hanford nuclear suit the pipework". TOR NESS complex. While Mr Elliot accepts some of the Nil's findings, he still maintains e The AGR at Torness has already that several of his original alleg had its first accident, before Whilst we would like this list of ations hold. These mostly concern the completion of fuel loading. "incidents" to be comprehensive, we witnessing of tests on welded gas Ten tonnes of carbon dioxide do not hear of every accident. circuits by official inspectors. The escaped from a storage tank when a Any information and press cuttings CEG8 maintained to the Nil that safety release valve foiled. Although will be gratefully received. inspectors were always present when the gas was not radioactive, *********************************** these tests were going on, but Mr operatives had to wear breathing Elliot disputes this. apparatus to close the valve. IU .S. Corru~t ion Trouble Is brewing in Washington cross examined Roberts during a All this is bad news for the NRC for the Nuclear Regulatory congressional hearing. He asked and the Reagan administration. They Commission (NRC), the government's Roberts what he had done with the have just got rid of the one NRC nuclear safety agency, over illicit papers. Roberts replied that they commissioner, J K Asselstine who had links with the privately owned U.S. "were all torn up and thrown in the described his government's nuclear nuclear power industry. waste basket", because he felt that safety policy as "pretty feeble". He The controversy centres around it was the "appropriate thing to was alone in the NRC in feeling that Commissioner Thomas Roberts of the do". He admitted to being "somewhat the US nuclear industry should be NRC and internal NRC papers from paranoid". pushed to meet higher standards. his office. The papers turned up Asselstine's departure leaves a gap during an inspection of the files Oddly enough the papers have in the NRC which Congress is of a private nuclear power company turned up again, this time in unlikely to fill whilst the controversy where one of the executives is a Rt'!berts' desk. The re-appearance about Roberts continues. friend of Roberts. The papers were coincided with Roberts having to The power companies were glad marked for restricted circulation in testify before a Senate environment to see Asselstine's departure. No the company "to protect the source committee on nuclear regulation. The doubt they would like to see the within the NRC". The inspector who Chairman of this committee has back of Roberts, as he has become found the files was made to pass joined other senior senators in on embarrassment to them. Roberts them back to Roberts. calling on Roberts to resign. So for however shows no sign of budging, Ex-astronaut, Senator John Glenn, there is no sign of his doing so. neither, it seems, does Congress. SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 7 Privatisation Notes
want a "substantial nuclear content On the one hand to increase component in the UK's future energy competition you must have more, IThe Plans provisions." smaller generating companies. On the Meanwhile, John Collier, chairman other hand the more you fragment the Just before the summer recess, the of the UKAEA has warned that CEGB the more you expose the Government introduced a bill to privatisation could make nuclear safety nuclear power stations to the prepare the electricity industry for "more difficult to organise". He would attentions of sceptical investors. If privatisation. The exact procedure is prefer the generating side of the privatised as a single unit the expected to be decided by the end of industry to be sold off as a single monopoly profits would distract the year. entity, because it would be easier to attention from the low return on The Department of Energy have implement a safety framework. nuclear power stations. appointed Kleinwort Benson, as advisers while the CEGB have appointed Lazard Brothers. The scene I The Coal Industry is set for a battle between Whitehall and the CEGB. In Scotland the The ultra right Centre for Policy tonne. Large imports by the CEGB are Secretary of State has appointed Studies hove published a booklet which bound to push up world prices, but if Barclays de Zoete Wedd and the argues the case for privatising coal, they don't rise os much as CPS expect, British Linen Bank leading to a furious at the same time as electricity. British many more domestic mines would be reaction from the Scottish financial Coal have had very large subsidies, under threat. community about the use of English and these should not continue: the This begs the question should our advisers. authors call for the market to be coal industry be forced to compete Although Cecil Parkinson is opened to foreign competition, and with countries like Colombia and South committed to introducing further suggest that the CEGB should build Africa anyway? The human rights competition (selling off electricity as a terminal capable of accepting imports situation in Colombia has a package like British Gas has been of up to 15mt (million tonnes) a year. deteriorated rapidly over the last few discounted), he has hinted that This would act os a bargaining counter years: Amnesty International estimates because they want to sell it off by in negotiations with home coal that there are more political killings 1990, the scope for change may be producers. going on in Colombia than in Chile or limited: the radical plan to split the The cost of home produced coal the whole of Central America. Over CEGB into ten separate companies is will hove to be reduced considerably for 50% of Latin America's coal resources also likely to be rejected. The other it to remain competitive. "Fortunately" are in Colombia, but it's not the area of argument is whether the according to the authors, "there is Colombian people who benefit, but the national transmission grid should be considerable scope for such reductions multinationals. An Exxon subsidiary severed from the generating part of under a liberal scheme of privatisation has exclusive rights to exploit the the CEGB. It could become a separate which would provide competitive most important mine at El Cerrejon. company or remain in public ownership. pressures to bring down the costs of One possible compromise is to sell producing cool in Britain." They argue the CEGB os a single entity, and the for an increase in opencast production Area Boards as 12 separate companies. from the present 14mt or so to around Competition could then be introduced 20mt a year. gradually by encouraging the Area Under privatisation the authors Boards to build their own power conclude that cost reductions of stations. Since Britain is expected to between 25&35% are possible. If so, require between I 0 and 12 new large then home produced coal would not be power stations before the end of the drastically reduced and replaced by century, the privatised Area Boards imports. Although 20mt of existing would become significant competitors deep mined capacity in high cost pits fairly quickly. is likely to close, (out of a total of The encouragement of private 70mt) it would be replaced by 10mt consortia is another possibility: from new pits, 3 or 4mt from opencast discussions are already going on and only about Bmt from new imports. between British Petroleum, British Gas All this would lead to a total of and the CEGB about building a 300M W 75,000 redundancies over the next 5 station on the south coast fuelled by years in addition to the 80,000 natural gas, mostly from Wytch Form. redundancies in the last two years. They assume that coal imports would not be stepped up in the next five years, thus giving home producers I Nuclear Power a breathing space to reduce their The Government's decision may be price to around £35 per tonne and £30 influenced by evidence that existing per tonne a few years later. nuclear power stations may be difficult In their evidence to the Select to sell to investors, and by warnings Committee on Energy recently, the that future nuclear expansion could be CEGB argued that on the basis of jeopardised by any radical restructuring existing port facilities alone, it could of the industry. The CEGB believe that import 10mt a year, and 15mt a year only a state-owned utility would be if the Thames Estuary stations were _ Despite all the coal being in oble to afford to build new nuclear run on baseload. (Compared with foreign hands, Colombia is committed power stations: the 5% real rate of imports in 1986 of 8mt). With some to providing 50% of the finance return which is the minimum additional port investment, total CEGB necessary to produce it, causing investment criterion set by the import potential could be raised to Colombia's foreign debt to rise by $1 Treasury for state industries was 30mt. billion. Some estimates state that crucial to the CEGB's case for Another dangerous assumption Colombia stands to lose $166m a year Sizewell; private sector firms typically made by the CPS report is that, if annual production is 15m tons. So if look for a 10% ra.te of return at least. although world coal prices are low privatisation does lead to an increase This would almost certainly have made presently, by the time new port in coal imports it's not just miners in Sizewell too risky for them to facilities are built they will be higher. this country that will lose out. Do undertake. But Cecil Parkinson has The recent Colombian imports arrived we really want to involve ourselves in made it clear that the Government at a delivered price of £23.50 per yet another Third World rip-off? 8 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 Chernobyl & the Media The fourth European Environmental Film Festival took place in Birmingham in July. A seminar on Chernobyl and the Media provided some interesting insights into how the nuclear power is reported in different parts of Europe. THOM DIBDIN was at the conference. A media event is a strange calm? The resolution of this dilemma phenomenon, and a media disaster is illustrated individual countries attitudes even stranger. It takes on a life of to nuclear power. its own, involving hundreds of Jay Tuck of ARD TV in West journalists who have suddenly to Germany was Editor on the evening become immensely knowledgable in a news of 29 May, and was strongly single subject on which they will aware of the dilemma. His main report and comment for a relatively short concerns then were the condition of period. More often than not, the event the reactor and the health threat reporter showed a lettuce grown on itself becomes lost behind the posed by the fallout. the French-Belgium border, one half hyperbole of the coverage. The problem was that with no of which was legally edible, having 'Challenger' and the 'Herald of source material, rumours got repeated been grown in France where there Free Enterprise' are excellent and given credence. Notorious Qmong were no food restrictions, and the examples of media disasters. They these was one, originating from the other half inedible. represent a type which the mass CIA and repeated through News Although government influence on media are particularly adept at Agency reports, that the accident reporting was worst in France, it was covering. Chernobyl, however, despite had killed thousands of people and also obvious in other countries; most containing all the necessary spread to a second reactor. The CIA commonly in the "it can't happen here" ingredients, (and more) was all wrong. had read what they wanted to see syndrome epitomised by Lord Morshall, The disaster did not become an into a MIDAS satellite photograph of who said on TV that Chernobyl is "not event until days after it had happened. Chernobyl. More careful examination comparable to anything we have in the There was no real 'human interest' of· the photo, with cross reference West." As Lawrence McGinty of because we are not conditioned to to maps of the site, showed the Channel 4 pointed out, even if the feel pity for Russians, even if rumour to be unfounded. But many TV same accident could not happen here, thousands have to be evacuated. The stations, working under very tight other things could well go wrong. media circus had no gripping central deadlines repeated the agency report. Government influence in Finland image to present. But most important ARD treated the MIDAS photograph was highlighted by the comments of of all, the journalists were largely in the same way as all other Ari Jarvinen, head of news in the unable to become even moderate information: they did not withold it, state-run YLE TV. He was happy with experts in the complex web of issues but broadcast it with qualification. YLE's reporting of the disaster, involved, having to rely on scientists This allowed viewers to form their believing that the Finnish audience who nearly all had a vested interest own views and ARD managed to was "informed quite well". This in manipulating the available provide some of the best and most attitude was contradicted by Pekka information. balanced reporting in the early stages Haavisto, a journalist and Green Party of the disaster. member of the Finnish parliament, GLASNOST, WHAT GLASNOST? By comparison, in France, where who pointed out that the Finnish nuclear power is a source of national independent station, consistently led How the media coped with the pride, TV reporting played down the the reporting. What little YLE did disaster makes a fascinating and often accident for almost a week. Unlike cover, was only after it had been revealing study. One year on, West Germany, where opposition is reported elsewhere. Ecovision 87 organised a day seminar vociferous, French journalists have a Nor was the UK immune, as the in Birmingham on this subject. strong faith in the nuclear industry. original reporting of sheep restrictions People from such diverse backgrounds This was compounded by government compared to the current reimposition as Forsmark nuclear power station, denials that any fallout problem of restrictions has clearly shown. It is in Sweden where the disaster was existed. At the time it was said that something that, as an anti-nuclear first noticed, the International just as the F-111 bombers bound for journalist, I have come to know all Atomic Energy Agency, the Russian Libya were banned from French too well; the most common response film industry, French TV and SCRAM, airspace, so was the Chernobyl cloud. when contacting nuclear organisations debated and discussed their personal It was not until 7 May that a French is "why do you want the information". experiences and opinions of Chernobyl "Glasnost" is not known to the nuclear and The Media. industry. While background What soon became apparent from a information, such as how much revealing presentation of TV footage electricity is generated by nuclear gathered from all over Europe, power is readily available, the facts between 28 April and I 0 May 1986, that lie behind the truth are not. was that the real media disaster was Nick Ross, who ably chaired the not the accident itself, but the whole seminar, asked me what right radioactive cloud. It could not be I have to question the industry? My presented as a far away happening on reply was that it is the same right as the TV screen, but became a real life the right of the public to know - a disaster, waiting on the front door central tenet of all journalism. step in a pint bottle. A repeated question during the Looking back, it is hard to seminar was "what lessons can remember the panic and lack of basic journalists learn from Chernobyl?" One information during the first few days. answer is not to depend so heavily on These problems combined to give industry information, also to understand journalists a very real moral dilemma, that Chernobyl was not an isolated not a common event: should they event. As our regular "Accidents will broadcast the possible effects of the Happen" column sadly shows, the world fallout and risk mass panic, or should is full of potential nuclear disasters. information be witheld for the sake of just waiting to happen. SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 9 DUMBARTON DISTRICT COUNCIL
congratulates SCRAM on their campaign for a NUCLEAR FREE SCOTLAND
10 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 As Safe as Houses? The Government are very fond of comparing radiation hazards, ore aware, official radiation risk such as eating lamb contaminated after Chernobyl, with back figures underestimate the risk by at ground radiation in Cornwall. The implication being that if it's least 2 to 5 times. The action level should at the very natural radiation it must be safe. PATRICK GREEN has been least be equal to the current public looking at the Government's plans to deal with the radon gas dose limit (5mSv). This means that problem, and is not surprised to find that they are ducking the around 200,000 existing houses may be affected and 4000 new homes ore issue. currently built each year which exceed this level. There is no logical Radiation hazards ore frequently time - continued smoking will add to reason why the action level for new associated with the nuclear industry. their risk. Equally, continued exposure 1-touses should not be equal to the Yet even natural background radiation to high levels of radon gas will add NRPB's recommended public dose can be a health hazard. Radon is a to a person's risk. If this risk con be limit, or lower. Some scientists would natural radioactive gas formed from reduced now by stopping smoking or argue that the levels should be set the decoy of uranium in the ground. by reducing radon exposure, then lower still because of new information It can enter houses through the floor appropriate action should be taken. which shows radiation to be more and in some areas of the country it hazardous than previously thought (See can accumulate to extremely high and SCRAM 60). hazardous levels. Radon decays to NO ADVICE GIVEN Radon is potentially a very large solid radioactive products (radon Since radon enters a house problem. What is needed is a proper daughters) which adhere to dust primarily through the floor, the most strategy for dealing with the situation; particles and, if breathed in, will appropriate action is to stop its entry one would be more prepared to accept expose the lungs and increase the risk by making the floor a more efficient a ZOmSv action level if the intention of developing lung cancer. barrier. Costs may range from £100 was to deal with houses in order of The United States Environmental for sealing crocks in the floor, through priority os they were identified, ie the Protection Agency estimate that radon £1000 for underfloor extraction up to most exposed first. There ore no is the second biggest cause of lung £10,000 for a new floor. The exact indications that this is the case. cancer next to smoking. In Britain the action required depends on the extent Government estimates that it kills of the problem. around 900 people per year. A figure Whilst the Government states that that is likely to be an underestimate. immediate action is not required, they do not even intend to pay for HOUSES OVER THE LIMIT corrective action in the long term. It will be the householder who foots the In January this year the National bill. No advice has been given to Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) pdvate landlords or councils about published the results of a survey of who is responsible for ensuring that 2300 homes in areas likely to produce action is token in rented property and high radon gas levels. This was who will pay for it. Radon is, followed in February by a Government therefore, another public health announcement of action levels to deal problem that overstretched and with radon gas. These are the annual underfunded local authorities will not _S;~~ ~\\,~' doses from radon at which action be able to afford to deal with, and should be taken to reduce a person's which many private landlords will ll\\~,~ .~\\, ,, exposure: 20 millisieverts (mSv) for probably ignore. ~ D ;a old houses and 5mSv for new. Even those members of the public Cl The 20mSv level may be exceeded who live in areas likely to be » in around 20,000 houses, the majority affected, and who would be prepared ,«c\~ ~Sll in Cornwall and Devon. In about 2000 to pay for corrective action, find it houses the occupants are likely to very difficult to get information about ,~\',~ ~~~ receive an annual dose greater than the exact nature and extent of the -:::; lD~~ 50mSv. This is the maximum dose problem, and most importantly what x~z allowed for workers in the nuclear they can do about it. The NRPB hove ~~{j\ industry! Even the industry admit it is produced some information along with tJ not a safe level. the Deportment of the Environment's iol However, areas affected by high leaflet; however these are not widely radon levels are not just confined to available. Information gaps such os ! Cornwall and Devon. They have been these only serve to breed fear, a ~ found in North Wales, the Midlands situation that will benefit no one. .. and Peak District, and in areas like The action levels for old properties Gloucester. suggest that it is safe to do nothing Whilst action levels have been until one's annual dose reaches a level proposed, no strategy exists for 20 times the NRPB's recommended dealing with those houses identified as dose limit for members of the public! Furthermore the government should containing high levels of radon gas. In In countries like the USA, action is make a commitment to pay for the fact the Government maintains that proposed at dose levels of SmSv; and necessary action required In the houses corrective action is not required in Sweden has proposed action at dose already identified by the NRPB survey. the short term and that no risk to levels above lOmSv. Their occupants should not hove to health is posed by waiting several wait the results of further surveys or years for a further survey of Cornwall ACTION LEVEL TOO HIGH pay for the action themselves. and Devon to be completed. If one However, os with most public health lives in other areas which may be A single 20mSv dose in a year, problems the government continues to affected then you have to pay to have produces a fatal cancer risk which is duck the issue. your house surveyed. Statements such roughly comparable, using official O!. these are both illogical and radiation risk figures, to the annual An earlier form of this acticle unscientific, one doesn't tell smokers risk of a fatal accident in the coal appeared in the Apcil issue of they should give up in a few years mining industry! As SCRAM. readers "Roof", the magazine of Shelter. SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 11 Trumpets & Raspberries Documents leaked, Dounreay Inquiry report published, and an and not "in en effort to onng pressure International Conference in Shetland. All in all it has been a to bear on the government." However, os Welt Patterson obs&ved in his reply frenzied summer on the EDRP front. STEVE MARTIN takes a of 11 August: "after 13 years operation look at what's been happening, and looks forward to another the PFR's best performance is less kind of European collaboraticm - against fast reactors. than 44% of its capacity. If this is what the AEA considers • • • 'well on course for technical and commercial You could be excused for thinking that always been helpful." This translates, viability', they ere easily satisfied." nuclear industry managers live on a in the Chairman's letter of the .Annuci It is advisable to bear these different planet to the rest of us. The Report, into: "The announcement by documents in mind when one reads the "outstandingly safe, environmentally the Government of the increased first part of the Dounreay report. This clean( increasingly economic" fast financial support by the electricity document is meant to include reactor is a good example. The UK supply industry in the UK to fast information pre$ented to the inquiry Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) are reactor development is a welcome step which the Reporter, Mr A G Bell, trying to convince themselves that all forward." regards as factually indisputable. In is going well as the fast reactor One claimed virtue of the fast fact, the report does little more than development programme is falling reactor, repeated in the Dounreay reiterate the case for the applicants. apart about their ears. glossy, is that it is "an inherently safe It is therefore jolly hard luck for reactor". This claim was described as ALL IS NOT WELL them that a ream of confidential a "political minefield" by David Evans, documents were leaked from their the Fast Reactor Programme Director, From the second sentence of the Winfrith establishment at a time of during remarks at the FRDCC meeting introduction one gets the feeling that maximum sensitivity for the Authority. of 31 July. A note of that meeting this report is not going to be the The first part of the Dounreay inquiry states: "by labelling these hypothetical objective document it should be: "The report was about to be released, and systems inherently safe, there was a plant will be built as part of a the UKAEA Annual Report was soon risk that existing systems would be collaboration with European to be published. seen as 'inherently unsafe'." Therefore, organisations jointly participating in The documents, which include the whoever drafted the glossy supplement the development of fast reactors" agenda and background papers for the had either not been informed of these (emphasis added). The following 199 2 October 1986 meeting of the Fast fears, or had gone ahead regardless. pages somehow seem irrelevant after Reactor Development Co-ordination that - Mr Bell could have done his bit Committee (FRDCC) and numerous for tree conservation and issue only internal memos from 1986, describe that one page. the political problems facing the fast Apart from the insensitive use of reactor development programme. The the word "will", the reference to the concerns expressed in the documents joint participation of the European are acknowledged in neither the collaborators is optimistic. The leaked UKAEA Annual Report nor the inquiry documents clearly give the impression report. that all is not well on that front. In the cover note to a document, "DIMINISHING ENTHUSIASM" "Review of Safety Developments for CDFR: January - June 1986", The Annual Report includes an 8 presented to the 3 September FRDCC page glossy pull-out on Dounreay, from meeting the authors begin: "(this cover where the above quote comes. This is note) contains forthright remarks and the first time such o supplement has policy points for the information of been included and, with the benefit of the FRDCC which are unsuitable for the leaked documents, it can be seen inclvsion in the main text." Some of os port of the "overriding need to these remarks focus on "difficulties convince the generating boards end the previously mentioned within the Government that the fast reactor European collaboration in the Safety programme is worth the money being area (which) are still present", in spent on it." ("Note for the record" of particular "there is on unchangeable o fast reactor programme review mismatch between the internal meeting at Risley, 30.4.86.) org!lnisation established in France and The front page of the supplement that in the other countries", although states: "Fast reactors are the next the "climate is changing slowly" and generation of nuclear electricity "faltering steps11 ar~t being made. Why .stations." However, a Winfrith memo John Collier, UKAEA Chalcman can these remarks not be included in of 9 April warns that, because "well the main text? Who are they keeping informed questions are being asked, In a letter to the Guardian on 1 secrets from? Some collaboration! with the aim of identifying items that August complaining about their front could. be cut • • • the possible page story en the documents, John BELL "LA YFIELDED" implications for the Authority's future Collier, the UKAEA chairman, fast reactor programme were dismissed their importance because The inquiry report attempts to potentially very serious." It is difficult they were a year old. He also claimed justify its narrow remit: "the siting of to see how the glossy optimism of the they had been "reported stolen late in EDRP at an appropriate location iri supplement can be reconciled with the 1986" from the overnight bag of a the UK" accords with Government harsh political realities of Government UKAEA employee. But surely their age policy and that policy is "not cuts as expressed in the memo. does not invalidate their contents; and appropriate for debate at the planning The same memo also states: "On just because they were "reported inquiry." The objectors knew this at the political front there was a stolen• does not mean that fhey the outset, which is why they called diminishing enthusiasm for the fast actually were stolen. for a Planning Inquiry Commission reactor in Whitehall and, apparently, Mr Collier also asserted that the which would have had a wider remit. little support in the Cabinet. Neither supplement was included in the Annual The Reporter could assume the had advice to Government from other Report "as a fitting way of highlighting Secretory of State is conversant with parts of the UK nuclear industry Dounreay's praiseworthy achievements" Government policy; instead he takes 12 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 17 pages to explain it. The section is .the surface this is a victory for the littered with such terms os "it is local campaign against those proposals. hoped", "they would expect", "it is However, it leaves the option of entry envisaged" and "it may be sensible". It port wide open. seems that the policy exists, but there At the outset, the applicants were is no firm understanding of bow, or urged to produce a short list from even if, it will be implemented. which the entry port would be chosen. Nuclear waste is perhaps the most This list included three ports on the ridiculous policy area. Mr Bell has Cromarty Firth, and Scrabster in been "Loyfielded": just as Sir Frank Caithness. Logically, Scrabster must had to publish the Sizewell report now be the choice. But, Mr Bell without taking account of the single concluded that the options now most important event in the history of "narrow down to the use of Scrabster nuclear power - the Cbernobyl accident national rail network permitting access - then Mr Bell had to prepare his to a wider range of ports." report without considering the vagaries of political expediency. TRANSPORT UNRESOLVED The report states: "The expectation is that o notional repository for low Central Regional Council had level waste would be developed on one suspected this result, and hod have emerged by chance." This turning of the (Elstow, Fulbeck, Bradwell and presented a statement to the inquiry the evidence on its head has angered South Killingholme) sites." These sites when it began to appear that the the objectors. were abandoned on 1 May os on short list was not exhaustive. Their And, while all this was going on, election gambit by the Government. solicitor claimed "the opportunity to the forces of opposition were grouping Mr Bell did get one thing right: dump put forward such vigorous opposition at the Shetland international site selection is "not so much a (to rail haulage of materials bound for conference organised by the Campaign problem of technical feasibility as Dounreay through Central region) has Against Dounreay Expansion (CADE). political acceptability." been denied by the way in which the A great deal of work has been done by the opposition groups to raise awareness of the issue, both in Britain · SHETLANrJ CONFERE~CE; AGREED STRATEGIES OJld in ·Europe. The CADE conference ·:-·. : ,·· ,.,·.. · -: :··· .. :_ ·. was o direct result of that ·: : . - .'. - : - · .. - /::·.. : .; ... _:;: Tc> be representE!d at ~he 21"'2? Novehiber North Seo Environment international campaign; nearly 200 M.lnisters' meeting ond ~o prom~te a resolution coiling for the delegates from 9 countries were cessation of oU reprocessint:.~ to stop further radioactive discharges attracted to Shetland. The event was a huge success, and showed what can int() the' marine environment~ .• 1 be achieved with the full support of 2 To be represented at the J~M $8
The existence of links between the since Mr Gorbochev."(Le Monde, weapons-grade plutonium {97% Pu-239) civil and military wings of the 17.3.87) Furthermore, West Germany within their core blankets, ond Phenix nuclear establishment has been widely "is, os o country, o sort of hostage to has for years provided the military demonstrated in a great number of the Soviets, and having said that 1 why with plutonium. The French government publications. Rather than return to a should we regard the resulting have never ruled out the possibility of description of the technical and 'notionol-neutrolism' os better than using Superphenlx In the some fashion. political interplay of military and notionol-sociolism?"(Le Monde, 18.3.87) In the long-term industrial context, civilian nuclear power applications, it the breeder reactor Is already dead. seems -more worthwhile today to "CIVILITARY" PLUTONIUM There hos not been the slightest sign review the current position, and that it might one doy operate examine it within o political context The neutron bomb, equipping Hades commercially, and the nuclear lobby Is which has been strongly coloured by missiles based in West Germorw and well owore of the fact. The German two events: first, the o.rrival in office due to go into service In 1992, is Kalkar breeder reactor will never be of Mr Gorbochev and second, the currently on integro! port of the commissioned, unless the federal Chernobyl accident. strategic thinking of both the military government risks the use of political This article will be restricted to and politicians In France and Germany. muscle which would be unpopular and recent developments in Europe. This The neutron .bomb would represent therefore rather harmful to it. in no way means that 1 decline to on apotheosis for France's "civilitory" attribute suitable importance to recent establishment. Its moss production DEATH OF EDRP? events in developing countries, would require the massive espec!olly Pakistan and Bro~il (recent "clandestine" use of civil reactors for In my opinion no plant for the statements on the acquisition of the military purposes. Chinon A3 industrial reprocessing of breeder relevant knowledge for bomb reactor fuel, such os hod been planned construction) or Japan (o contract for for Dounreay in the north of Scotland the provision of o French reprocessing (EDRP) or Morcoule in the south of plant). A number of topics, however, France (MAR 600), will ever be built, coli for detailed consideration and a os there are insufficient breeder rapid response by the people of reactors to . make such on operation Europe_. economically viable. The CEA Is currently looking at the possibility of EUROPEAN DEFENCE reprocessing Superphenix fuel diluted with Light Water Reactor (LWR) Firstly, o decision is imminent on fuel, ot Lo Hague, or with graphite moss production of the French neutron gas fuel at Marcoule. This amounts to bomb. Prime Minister Chlrac has on admission of the failure of declared himself in favour of Its negotiations for the construction of o introduction; Defence Minister Giraud second-generation Superphenix (SPX-2) has intimated that the decision might ond matching reprocessing plant. be token In secret; and the chairman The recent leak of sodium from of the detence committee of the RPR the fuel storage chamber at Greys-. (Chiroc's Party) Is calling openly for Malville - 5-600kgs hove been pouring deployment of the weapon. The into the containment vessel each day Socialist Party (PS) has adopted a since 8 Mal'ch - has also released fuel broadly similar position: its candidate for the heating of emotions. The for the 1988 presidential elections, M medlo ore calUng into question the Rocord, has coiled for "neither o desirability of the reactor system, and bUnkered nor o nolve attitude" to the therefore the safety of nuclear energy neutron weapon. "While ruling out Itself. This ls doubtless o side-effect nothing arbitrarily", we should embark of Chernobyl. It Is very regrettable on "extremely careful dlscussionsM Superphenlx that the substance of the debate with our German neighbours.(Le Matln, within France has not been felt and 10.4.87) echoed abroad, especially ln view of The advocates of a European (originally designated EDF-1), o gas the fact that Superphenlx in particular defence system based on the Poris cooled, graphite-moderated reactor - does not concern France alone. Bonn axis hove extended their shut down for the lost three years for Given the complete absence of any activities. Mr Gorbochev' s indisputably complex, costly and harmful repairs to likelihood of commercial operation of serious disarmament proposals hove the Internal structure; the Phenlx breeder reactors, who con justify the played some port in this. The breeder reactor, run jointly by the expenditure of hundreds of millions· of European nuclear and military lobby Electricite de France utility (EdF) francs to repair Superphenix, exposing hove attempted to sway public opinion and the Commissariat o l'Energie the public to pointless dangers? with o special propaganda effort. Ex Atomique (CEA); and lastly Certainly, the military and plutonium Defence Minister Hernu (PS) is among Superphenix, the successor to lobby would then find themselves In its champions: "France and Germany Phenix which was built and run by on even more £:mborrosslng situation. provide the cornerstone on which NERSA (51% EdF; 33% Italy; 16% SBK Secondly, the growth of · defence Is bvilt. We should reinforce - 68.85% FRG, 14.75% Netherlands, programmes dealing with mixed it whlle there is still time. But we 14.75% Belgium and 1.65% UK) - uranium-plutonium oxide fuels (MOX), must act quickly because there hove would obviously all be required~ for use In L WRs, Is o. cause of been new developments In the East Breeder reactors produce excellent considerable concern. In autumn 1987 16 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 the first French 900MW reactor will to reply to questions on the reasons forgotten myth of USSR conventional be looded with 16 MOX fuel for its covert storage of quantities of weapons superiority has bee.n token assemblies. MOX is olreody being used plutonium in the Honou bunker. The out and dusted off. According to in West Germany, Switzerland ond German anti-nuclear movement has Giroud, the acceptance of the "zero Belgium. The plutonium lobby ore succeeded in making the ALKEM option" on missiles in Europe would be attempting to bring about o large affair into o notional political issue, o second Munich, and Rocord has Increase in production capacity of this whtle ot the some time exposing its stressed "the dangers of creating o type of fuel: COMMOX (60% COGEMA, military potentia'. nuclear-free Europe.• Mitterond 40% Belgonucleolre) ot Dessel ln appears totally unconce rned by current Belgium and Codoroche in the south LASER ENRICHMENT negotiations. West Germany Is no of France, and ALKEM at Honou in different. Splegel ran the story on Its West Germany. A third reason for concern is the front cover on 27 April 1987: "Dread The problems encountered with accelerated development of loser of Disarmament. Bonn fears breeder reactors hove necessitated o isotopic separation technology. superpower poet. • change of strategy for arguments in Feverish efforts ore being mode in Quite apart from the fact that favour of plutonium reprocessing and this field, especially In the USA and Euromisslle disarmament would leave production. Why build reprocessing France, but also in West Germany, strategic arsenals untouched, one plants such os UP-3 ond UP2-800 at Britain and Japan. Fronce and the small detail tends to be overlooked: La Hague, THORP in Cumbria and ot USA hove from the start favoured the given the number of nuclear plants in Wockersdorf in Bavaria, when AVLIS process (A tomic Vapour Loser both western and eastern Europe~ we plutonium Is not used separately? Thank goodness that MOX con fill the gap! Yet all this ls but o pretext. MOX, quite apart from being on economic absurdity, poses severe management problems In Its spent state, and ls particularly favourable to proliferation. ltJ large-scale production would inevitably entail widespread movements of plutonium ln o form which would be directly or indirectly suitable for use in weapon fobrlcotton. REPROCESSING DOUBTS
UP-3 ot La Hague, the only plant among those mentioned to hove reached on advanced stage of construction, wiU go ahead for the simple reason that the project Is entirely financed by foreign electricity companies. To dote, less that 30% of L WR fuel reprocessed ot UP-2 comes BNFL 's enrichment plant at Capennurst from EdF, who have always hod o sceptical attitude towards reprocessing Isotopic Separation), which con be used con make the continent uninhabitable costs. UP2-800, which ls Intended to for either uranium or plutonium. The without the hosts of nuclear bombs, meet EdF's reprocessing requirement, Americans hove recently published not to mention chemical factories and wlll perhaps never be bullt. THORP, results with enrichment levels beyond other such filth • • • part-financed through foreign all expectations. Production plants contracts, Is currently ne more than could be In service by the beginning CIVIL CONTRIBUTION o shell of o building. of the 1990s ln the USA, and o few Wockersdorf has encountered years later In France. The nuclear lobby was deeply strong locxJI and notional resistance. The Introduction of loser shaken by the Chernobyl disaster. The Its potentially military role is In enrichment wUl bring about a order books for nuclear power st ations accord with the hardllne right wing fundamental change in perspective. in most European countries ore empty. logic: of the •Bavarian Bull•, F J Although reactor grade plutonium Efforts ore now being directed towards Strouu, and Defence Minister (about 60% Pu-239) con in theory be maintaining existing plants, or adopting Woerner. The simple addition ot the used in weapons, the military favour them os required. MO X is on example Wockersdorf plant of o cell for enrichment leve ls of more than 90% for both civilian and miltory plutonium dismantling fertile (radial blanket) fuel Pu-239. The critical moss then lobbies. None of the world's nuclear assemblies from the Kolkor breeder becomes smaller and the weapon yield weapons states aim to replace first reoc:tor, would provide excellent more flexible, both of which generation reactors designed weapons-grade plutonium. The some chorteristlc:s ore required in today's specifically for the production of result c:ould be obtained by Increasingly miniaturised armaments. plutonium for military use. This ls reprocessing slightly (o few reactor- A VLJS plants would provide the obviously not on Indication of the weeks} lrrodloted LWR fuel. military with Impressive quontltities of military's resolve to content In my opinion West Germany, in plutonium from the reprccessing of themselves with existing bomb stocks, contrast to the developing countries, "civilian• fuel. but rather a further sign that hos no need to move Into oetuol Little 1s known about the exoc:t increollng weight ls being placed upon production of nuclear weaponry in state of the Industry In the various the contribution of civil programmes. order to derive polJticol capitol from countries, and it Is time that such Today, breeder reactors provide the Its nuclear potential. Its present Information was procured. Our task greatest hope; tommorow lt will be theoretical c:QPObiUtes con hardly foU now Is to ooll for o halt to the turn of laser enrichment. to impress the Fret"Ch and British Superphenlx, the non-commissioning of Reprocessing will remain the essential negotiators (In so far as the concept Kolkar and the abandonment of link between the civil and military of European defence 1n c:oncerned, for construction work at Woc:kersdorf, wings of t he nuclear establishment. example), the Americans (regarding the THORP and La Hague. Perhaps we Supporters of the bomb give f irst role of the USA In West Germany) con even forestall the felling of priority to safeguarding the tools of and the Soviets (as regards the trees foe: the site of A VLJS. • • plutonium handling and production. lt dismantling of medium and short-range French and German reactions to remains to be seen whether the missiles based in Europe, for example). the Gorbochev disarmament proposals economic and political price will be The German Government hos yet speak volumes. The old and almost too high. We must rolse the ante • • SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 17 Councils' Cherno Following the article in SCRAM 60 about Somerset's establish an independent radiation monitoring scheme, BARKER reports o'1 the growing number of local Jthloiilti~~i:/\••·•::}: who are setting up their own radiation monitoring
When it become clear that the Staffordshire; Dorset/Hampshire; radiation cloud from Chernobyl was Lancashire; Lothian; Manchester; spreading across Britain, local Severnside; Tyne & Wear; West authorities started to receive hundreds Midlands and Yorkshire and of calls from a very concerned public. Humberside. The schemes ore based o~~:·:~:··i·;::·.·~~ii:!·ll:~;ij.. i;!~i-:!.J:·:'::·;·;: Should we drink milk? Should we go a variety of organisational forms: out in the rain? I'm pregnant, what either across a county or region and effect will it hove? And so on. with the involvement of various In the immediate aftermath, most combinations of Environmental Health local authorities were os much in the Officers, County Analysts and dark as their public. But if it happens Emergency Planning Officers. again, a larger number of local authorities will now be able to utilise NATIONAL RESPONSE their own radiation monitoring Local authorities who participate facilities. in the monitoring network and set up The Notional Steering Committee The recently proposed 'Notional the required electronic mail systems of Nuclear Free Zones has been in Response Plan' for dealing with the could be informed when an accident the forefront of the promotion of consequences in Britain of major has occurred, be alerted to the need radiation monitoring by local nuclear accidents overseas, envisages to initiate emergency monitoring, feed authorities. In December 1986 they a role for local authorities (3). The local monitoring information back to organised a well attended conference key features of the plan ore: the CDF, and receive up-to-date which discussed the type of monitoring • The Deportment of Environment information about the radiological that could be carried out, and the sort (DoE) will act os co-ordinating threat and decisions about counter of equipment that could be purchased. deportment. measures. This was followed up in April of this • Britain is to be covered by a They would be in a good position year with a conference for local network of monitoring stations based regarding the provision of information government officers, which considered on existing facilities - information to the public. various case studies of local authority from these stations will be radiation monitoring facilities and supplemented by that from mobile ACCIDENTS IN BRITAIN began to tackle the question of co moni taring teams, local authorities, ordination between authorities ( 1). hospitols and universities. * Data from all monitoring sources Plans to cope with a nuclear LOCAL DEVELOPMENTS will be stored on a Central Data accident in Britain ore currently under Base Facility (CDF) and be available review (see "Planning for Disasters", to government departments and SCRAM 60). Mrs Thatcher has The main reasons why local orgonlsotions responsible for making acknowledged that any accident in councils hove become involved in assessments about radiological hazards Britain would "almost certainly require establishing monitoring facilities ore: and counter-measures. implementation of parts" of the to provide local information (most * Commercial electronic mail systems 'Notional Response Plan' (4). This notional monitoring is undertaken on will be used to transmit monitoring could give local authorities a a limited regional basis at or around information and disseminate significant role in relation to nuclear installations or at a small radiological assessments and advice. radiation monitoring arising from a number of Notional Radiological • Information and advice to the public nuclear accident in Britain. Local Protection Board - NRPB sites); and will be routed through DoE 'hotlines', authorities need to watch closely for to provide prompt results (there can local authorities and health authorities. the results of the current review, so be large delays in obtaining results A local authority role is envisaged that they con press for the widest from the established monitoring in the monitoring network and In the possible improvements to current plans agencies). provision of information and advice to and procedures. Most schemes being established ore the public. following the recommendations of the Institute of Environmental Health LOCAL AUTHORITY ROLE REFERENCES Officers (2), and ore geared around use in the routine situations. By and ( 1) 'Local Authority Radiation .large, they ore being used to establish The potential for local authority Monitoring', Conference Documents, background radiation levels, detect involvement in the monitoring network Manchester NFZ Unit, April 1987 changes, and to compare levels and is substantial. Although most ·local (2) 'Interim Report', Institute of EHO's, trends with Government published data. authority schemes are not designed 1987. Most of the schemes involve land for use in emergencies, they con be (3) see Honsord, ·10 June 1987 for the gamma monitoring to provide adapted to provide a quick response. PM's announcement, and the DoE integrated gamma dose rotes over The information local authorities gain discussion document 'An Outline periods of 1000 seconds at various from gamma dose rote measurements National Response Plan' far further sites, and gamma spectrometry for a ond gamma spectrometry could be a details. limited programme of monitoring very useful contribution to the data (4) Honsord 30 June 1987. foodstuffs. A number of schemes stored on the CDF during on emergency involve arrangements for more emergency. detailed analyses of foodstuffs to be mode at Universities, including alpha and beta contamination if necessary. Contact: Nuclear Free Zone Unit, At the time of writing, schemes NUCLEAR FREE Manchester City Council, Town Hall, exist or are being set up in the LOCAL AUTHORITIES Manchester M60 2LA (061 234 3244). following ports of Britain; Cleveland; Derbyshire/Cheshire/Shropshire/ 18 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 Edinburgh Heat Plans The Edinburgh Combined Heat and Power consortium ore about and Manchester at the turn of the to start serious negotiations with the Deportment of Energy. century! What has always been o Councillor RICHARD KERLEY, convener of the Joint Advisory problem - and may continue to be so Committee on CHP, reports on progress so for. wlth this present government - is that the establishment of a CHP scheme The consortium was formed in 1984 hove been carried out look may well present a classic opportunity and received a limited amount of grant encouraging. The kind of target set for public investment and, at least aid from the government (along with was to try and aim at an effective in this country, o not very appealing Leicester and Belfast) to carry out a heat price 10% or so below the one for private Investment. The feosibillty study of creating a CHP equivalent of gas as fuel, and to do financial culture that governs the scheme within the city. Its members so taking account of connection costs; decision making of major investment include Edinburgh and Lothian Councils; malnfenonce and other related institutions in the UK looks for a the South of Scotland Electricity Board; customer costs. Experience in most relatively short term return at a Northern Engineering Industries and countries that have well established relative high yield. That is why the a number of other private sector CHP schemes makes it abundantly smart money from Japan - os opposed construction and energy Interests clear that the cost to the customer is to Britain - is In o majority in, say, along with support from the Scottish a fundamental factor in determining the Channel Tunnel Investment where Development Agency. whether it is popular and whether its yield Is low; steady and long term. By now, we ore all aware thot penetration into households Is at a A project which requires a great deal there is nothing particularly high enough level to justify a scheme. of up front investment and a good technically exciting about CHP. It Is Of course, In many Scandinavlan and few years before any Income starts to a very efficient way of utilising the other North European countries, come through, represents a classic waste heat lost by any electricity only combined heat and power supported public spending commitment, but generating power station and it Is a district heating Is commonplace doesn't provide the kind of rote of porticularly sensible way of ensuring reaching into residential areas with return that will be sought by a private that scarce fossil fuels are used to densities of housing much the some as investor - at least not from this their most effective capacity. some of the villages and small towns country. From the early stages Cif the initial which surround Edinburgh. However, The Government, therefore, has a Atkins Study which looked at a the general perception Is that major port to ploy In supporting the number of cities in Britain, it was In and around the city it will be the establishment of a CHP scheme, not clear thot a major opportunity for central area that will be most suitable Just in Edinburgh but probably Edinburgh/Lothian was presented by for the initial launch of any such elsewhere in the UK where similar the proximity of Cockenzie Power scheme, though the local authorities financial calculations are producing Station and the opportunity to link will certainly be pr-essing for the similar results. that Into a CHP/Distl'ict Heating extension of o scheme Into other What we'll be looking for in seheme for the eity. areas partieulady those where Edinburgh and Lothian when the The work of the study has residential levels are high and fuel report ls publicly launched is some confirmed the practicality of using costs present a problem. recognition by the Government of the Cockenzie, following turbine port it must ploy in this exercise and conversion and that this provides a GOVERNMENT SUPPORT NEEDED some commitment from it to discuss more cost effective solution to with us what con be done and how it providing hot water into the system We shouldn't, of course, hove any can be done in order to implement than would be the case for a purpose doubts about the technical feasibility the kind of major energy beneficial built plant. Even though it requires of a CHP scheme. After all, such investment which o CHP scheme for the Installation of a trunk main that projects were developed In Clydebank Edinburgh/Lothian represents. is nearly 18 kilometres long, lt still makes better finonclol and economic sense and wlll be particularly good news both for Cockenzie and the surrounding coalfield. The ideo behind the scheme is thot reliance on Cockenzle would be supported by a heat only boiler within the city itself for stand by and peak demand; the possiblllty remains in the longer term of using refuse disposal for heat generation.
CONSUMER COSTS IMPORTANT A major weakness of earlier district heating schemes in Britain, and a source of much criticism from the consumers of thot heating, has been the quality of pipe work and the bosis on which lt has been installed - for example in Midlothian where tenants and the local authority ore discussing at present the future of a large district heating scheme in Penicuik. The Edinburgh team hove worked wlth Danish consultants in developing a computer modelled system for defining the best arrangement for heat distribution pipe work round the city. The market survey studies which Cockenzle power station: the main source of the heat SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 19 Britain's Acid Exports The CEGB have finally agreed to do something about acid rain. for the boards. However, many environmentalists think that it is too little, too The Government announced lost September that they had authorized late. There are worries about which method should be used, and the CEGB to "retrofit" 6000MW of whether they could adversely effect other environmental factors. coal-fired capacity with FGD units, at MIKE TOWNSLEY describes the history of the problem, and how a cost of £600m. The plan is for 3 of the CEGB intend to solve it. the Board's 12 largest coal-fired power stations. The CEGB say "It will help to The problem of air pollution from the concentration of pollutants is the halt the build up of sulphur in the combustion of coal is not a new one - main reason why the CEGB have not soils of Scandanavia which research in Britain awareness stems from 1306 installed any FGD plants since the has shown to be a contributing factor and Edward l's royal decree one at Bankside." (Bankside B was in the increased acidity of the lakes " ••• compelling all but smiths to eschew commissioned in 1962). Yet, as a and rivers." the obnoxious material (coal) and condition of planning permission for The programme is intended to cut return to the fuel they used of old." power stations since the late 1940's, the level of SOz emmissions to 70% However in more recent times the land should be set aside to build FGD of their 1980 level over a 10 year London Power Company (LPC) were if necessary. period. The CEGB ore currently the first to incorporate Flue Gas emitting around 75% of their 1980 Desulphurisation (FGD) into a power INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE level. So despite their grandiose station in 1933, "at least 20 years statements, it's not a very before anyone else." This was Now, after more than ten yenrs of ambitious programme. They also intend instigated by a 1924 court action international protest the CEGB 'have to install FGD in all new coal-fired brought by a formeT who claimed that conceded some responsibility for the power stations. his crops were damaged by pollutants acid rain over Europe. Previously they A great deal of scepticism has emitted from nearby Borton power had claimed that scientific evidence surrounded the announcement, which station. The former lost the case in linking their power stations to the environmentalists consider as "too 1929, after a House of Lords judgement, problem was not strong enough to little too late". The decision but there was no going back to the justify expenditure on the clean up coincided with Mrs Thatcher's visit to days of polluting power stations - the programme, estimated at £2.5bn, Norway, who are vehement objectors public were now aware of the dangers. which could mean a 6% increase in to Britain's acid exports. Many people The proposed Bottersea power station the Area Board's electricity bills. feel it was a political decision rather became the focus of this concern. In reality, now the money is going to than a genuine environmental concern. When the Electricity Commission be spent, their estimate has fallen to The first plant scheduled for granted consent for Batterseo it was £1.5bn with a knock-on of only 1.5% retro-fit is Drax B in Yorkshire's Aire provisional on the London Power Company (LPC) using the best available technology for the elimination of smoke and decreasing as far as practicable the production of oxides of sulphur from the plant's flue gases. The LPC had either to find a new site or develop a sulphur removal process - economics precluded the first option and hence FGD was born. Battersea A was commissioned in 1933 - the first power station with FGD. The Electricity Commission's conditions were interpreted as 90% sulphur removal - a target the plant came close to throughout most of its life. DILUTE AND DISPERSE
Several other methods of FGD were also developed and installed in coal-fired power staions between 1935 and 1962. During this time the CEGB were also actively investigating "alternative avenues" of solving the emissions problem - or rather how to cheat the local ground level sensors. They came up with a very simple solution - that stalwart of pollution control, dilute and disperse. Their research led to "design methods which gave the dimensions of chimneys to achieve acceptably low ground level concentrations of S0 2 and other components of the flue gases." These .::W? stacks are up to 300m high. No other FGD units have been ill&~! 1tfu, 1ti'UitJIV Wit/.. H&.P 10 SII!Ft VOUfl PClJJJ1/0JI Incorporated into CEGB power stations I since this amazing discovery - "~o&.E/VIs -- -to SG4ND.4tNifV-"t • "The proven effectiveness of high level dispersion in achieving safe level 20 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 technologies could be considerable. Or Kyte argues "the much reduced level of imports and exports from a regenerative system may outweigh the increased processing and energy costs." Even if sulphur from this process did need to be dumped/stockpiled the problem would be much less severe than with gypsum stockpiling. It is hard to believe the CEGB are seriously considering the Spray/Dry process as a third possibility. This is the most crude of the three methods being considered. It requires 250,000 tonnes of lime per annum with a by product of 400,000 tonnes of a "mixed product" solid - recovered with the fly-ash. The by-product is totally useless, and londfill sites will be required for its disposal. The conventional approach to FGD is to buy one system for SO 2 emissions and another for NOx (nitrogen oxides}. In West Germany, however, a technique known as the Wolther process is being developed to remove both using one system. The by products of the Wolther system ore ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate, both of which con be used to valley; an ironic selection! The of the L/G method Into the CEGB's make fertiliser. The first plant to construction of Drax B, completed coal-fired plant will flood the UK incorporate this process, o 440MW unit, last summer, began at a time when gypsum market and put a great strain is now being constructed in Mannheim. Scandinavians first complained about on the jobs of the people working in In Bavaria a plant now coming on British sulphur exports. The cost ot the gypsum mining industry. stream incorporates a new technique retro-fitting FGD in Drax B is The world market is currently called BF Nhde which also tackles the estimated at a minimum of £40m: flooded with gypsum produced by the problems of SOz and NOx in the some planning permission application is German FGD programme - 27 German unit. The by-products here ore sulphur expected later this year. Fiddlers coal-fired power stations have L/G and sulphuric acid. After dealing with Ferry, on Merseyside, looks likely to FGD installed. Environmentalists there the sulphur, the flue gases pass on up be the next candidate. It already has ore worried about the growing number the stock to where ammonia is added an experimental process to reduce of gypsum tips and its subsequent which eliminates NOx turning them into NOx emissions, another main ingredient leaching into the water supplies. The nitrogen and water vapour which pass in the acid rain cocktail. CEGB, who assure us the gypsum from harmlessly out through the chimney ' Drax B con be sold, have been making stacks. GYPSUM MOUNTAINS enquiries into possible landfill sites, such os land exploited for open cast The CEGB seem to favour the coal mining, and have spoken with the "throwaway" Limestone/Gypsum (L/G) Yorkshire Water Authority about the method. Unfortunately this is the most dangers of gypsum leaching. environmentally unacceptable! Drox B The CEGB see the Wellman-Lord is almost certainly going to (W/L) process as the main alternative incorporate this method, subject to to the L/G method. It is for less planning permission. environmentally damaging. Their expert The limestone requirements for the in the field of emission control, Or Bill L/G process ore huge, and pose a very Kyte of the Central Electricity serious threat to Britain's national Research Laboratories, has this to say: If th'e CEGB decided instead to parks and many other beauty spots. "Due to environmental considerations, fit Fiddlers Ferry first, which they This threat prompted the Council for such os space limitations and waste admit would incorporate the W/L National Parks (CNP} to enter the disposal, an FGD plant on a CEGB system, there would be no time lost debate in defence of two potential inland power station would probably in reaching their 1997 emissions target, limestone sources for Drax: Ribblehead, have to be of the regenerative type." and it would allow time for more in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, suitable techniques to be found for and Tunstead/Old Moor, which is partly SULPHUR BY -PRODUCTS Drox B and other stations. in the Peak Distrct National Pork. The CEGB have pioneered a The battle was fought, and won by W/L is regenerative and uses 12 revolutionary concept in pollution. the CNP, in the Press, using public times less limestone than the L/G They first incorporated Flue Gas opinion as a weapon against the process. The limestone is only used Desulphurisotion into a coal-fired CEGB's already battered public image. to clean the waste stream rather than power station in the late 1920's, and The CEGB raised a white flag ·in the in the main process of sulphur removal. then abandoned it in the early 1960s. form of a press release: "FGD The predominant by-products of the They now propose to go back to the Limestone not to be taken from process are S02 and sulphur. There is same tired techniques, proven national parks." (5.8.87) a ready market for these by-products: unsatisfactory in other countries for The other main disadvantage of fertilisers, points, detergents, fibre, film more advanced in their clean up this process is the ·amount of Gypsum plastics, dyestuffs, steel, oil, and programmes. Perhaps it's time they it produces. Drax B will require petrol. used some of that great British 340,000 tonnes of limestone a year and A small amount of the UK's need resource - the "pioneering spirit". produce 500,000 tonnes of gypsum; the for sulphur is supplied os a by-product There exists today a huge world current annual UK requirement for of smelting ferrous metals, but 90% of market for FGD, which, had they gypsum is only 3 million tonnes. our requirements, at a cost of £57 m pursued the technology past the mere Gypsum is used in plaster-board for a year, ore imported. The benefit to research stage, could have provided the building industry, bag plaster, Britain's balance of payments from Britain with a very lucrative export and cement. Large scale incorporation adopting sulphur-generating FGD market. SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 21 Appropriate Technology
(Oscillating Water Coloumn) the site has enabled the team to I Wave Power ] demonstrated near Tofestallen. optimise the structure's shape and Only Japan and Norway have built characteristics. It is intended that lt is estimated that the wove power and tested prototype wave power as much of the structure as possible station currently under construction generators, during the last ten years. shall incorporate local materials, and on the island of Islay (LBR, SCRAM The three phase Islay project, is use local workers to minimise the 60) in the Inner Hebrides, will now at the beginning of the second civil engineering costs. Unfortunately, produce electricity at 4-Sp/kWh. phose - building and testing the owing to the shortage of locally The Department of Energy have prototype in a small gully near the available materials, a great deal of contributed £230,000 towards the first village of Portnahaven. the structure will hove to be precast. 2 phases of the project, run by a The site was chosen following an One of the beauties of this system team from Queen's University, Belfast aerial survey of the north of Ireland is its simplicity. lt is situated at the - the feasibility study, and the and the Western Isles of Scotland. end of o naturally tapering gully which building and testing of the 200kW Islay alone contains over 50 potential focuses the waves before they enter demonstration plant - representing sites for the demonstration project, the column; the amplified wave is then around 90% of the project's costs. The with potential peak power ranging reflected off the back wall to combine third and final phase - installation of from 50kw to 2MW, giving a combined with the next incoming wove creating the turbine - is expected to take output potential of JOMW. The other a large rush of air out through the place in the spring of next year. criteria were: wave climate, sea bed turbine, mounted at the rear of the Queen's intend to apply to the topography, geology of the coast, structure. The air is sucked back when Government for extra funding towards the water level falls. The Wells the £25,000 costs to complete their "bi-plane" turbine has 2 tiers of blades project. which improves operating efficiency In 1982, ACORD (Advisory Council and was also developed at Queen's on Research and Development) University. recommended the abandonment of The problem of noise pollution - a Government wave energy funding, loud moaning was encounterd at the based on findings that current Norwegian plant - should not occur in technologies would not permit the Islay project as the Belfast team generation at below 9p/kWh. The have benefitted from the Norwegian new estimates of generating costs, experience. accepted by the Government, negate Although not yet competitive with the ban, although some may say the conventional generating plant, 4-5p/kWh Government have been embarrassed makes it extremely attractive to island into action by the success of two access to the device site and communities currently serviced by Norwegian projects. The Norwegians proximity to the consumer. sub-sea cables, or very much more have orders from Indonesia, Portugal The protoype is being tailor made expensive diesel plant, at around and Puerto Rico for their OWC for the site - extensive monitoring of 20p/kWh.
and Technology Assessment
For 10 years NATTA have provided a channel of communication about renewable energy and allied technology amongst activists in the UK. NATTA produce a 30 page bimonthly Newslet ter. Its prime aim is to provide members with •hard information on soft technology.• - short up to the minute accounts of deve lopments and issues, rather than extensive analysis or discussion. NATTA also issue occasional technical re ports and general discussion papers which provide in-depth analysis. With renewable energy becoming increasingly SUBSCRIPTION RATES relevant to the UK, NATTA are expanding their role as a major information source. Unwaged •••••••••••••• £6 Contributions, articles and comments are Waged ••••••••••••••••• £8 always welcome as are requests for advi.ce or information. Institutional •••••••• £20 NATTA, c/o Energy and Environment Research Unit, Faculty of Technology, The Open University, Walton Ball, Milton Keynes, Bucks.
22 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 Appropriate Technology
have taken the lead in the area of ornithological research. ITidal Barrage Since 1970 they have been carrying ' out an ongoing survey, the Birds of The British Trust for Ornithology the Estuaries Enquiry (BoEE). The BTO (BTO) have been awarded a major hove built up extensive data banks contract to conduct studies into the since the inception of this project. implications of a barrage on the 70,000 Both ringing and the BoEE counts or so waders who winter on the Severn will contribute to the Severn r.esearch estuary. programme. The two main ambitions The contract has been awarded by of the research are to determine the the Energy Technology Support Unit on importance of the estuary to breeding behalf of the Deportment of Energy, populations wintering there, and to and will be officially amounced in explore the possibility that other September. estuaries may be able to accommodate The BTO are specifically worried birds displaced from the Severn. about 7 species of birds - 5 species This autumn and winter the BTO of international importance ond 2 of have ambitious plans for field work on tide and current patterns; the national importance. involving their members. They require migration of shore-birds; and the There is concern about the effect complete high tide counts of each balance between wild fowl and the of the barrage on the area of area within the estuary for comparison wintering wader population. intertidal mudflots, vital to many with existing BoEE counts. The STPG hope to submit a draft waders. The mudflats ore used by a Counts will also be made of report of their findings to the DoEn diverse array of birds, from breeding waders on individual mud flats at low in September next year, leading to areas as for apart as Greenland and tide - it will then be possible to rank publication coincidently in early 1989. Siberia. There are some possible the mudflats in the order of The DoEn will also be issuing a benefits. For example, the twenty preference for each species. Studies series of information pamphlets about million tonnes of sediment currently have shown it is the dominant birds the proposed Severn Barrage over the suspended in the water would settle which U$e the preferred feeding areas; next two years. out leading to on increased density of so if the barrage destroys these areas Mr Wardle of the STPG sees these invertebrate prey in the remaining the effect on the wintering waders studies as "the first stage" in the intertidal areas. could be catastrophic. Severn project - leading to more It is against the backdrop of a The BTO hope to submit an initial precise analysis of specific factors highly complex estuarine system that report to the DoEn in September of outlined by the current programme. the BTO will be carrying out their next year, for publication early the Even if all goes well they don't expect research programme, which involves following year. to begin construction of the barrage both analysis o~ existing data and The Severn Tidal Power Group for at least another 5 or 6 years. collection of information in the field. (STPG) are also conducting studies It is in the collection of the new into the ecological effect of the If you live within reach of the Severn field data that the BTO becomes the barrage including studies on the and would like to help, please contact obvio~s choice to carry out the correlation between intertidal Nlgel Clark at the BTO. research - over the years the BTO sediments and invertebrates; the effect Tel: 0114 282 3461 I Energy Strategy The Department of Energy have technologies are vulnerable to energy management, industrial CHP, published a new report, researched and pressures on cost and availability of and energy efficient lighting and presented by the Energy Technology supply." And "Such considerations may appliances are likely to be very "cost Support Unit (ETSU). It is a greatly enhance the value of certain effective". comprehensive assessment of energy technologies in terms of the UK's A package of passive solar energy technologies 0 considered relevent for security of supply." and energy efficiency measures, the UK". Section 3.31 identifies the incorporated during construction, can The £1 million research programme following possible pressures: typically reduce heating bills by 40% was conducted at the request of two compared to a conventional house. The Parliamentary groups: ACORD (the e a freeze on further nuclear fission report points out there are "no government's Advisory Council on power development resulting from significant commercial incentives for Research and Development) and the public perceptions of the the building industry to promote Energy Select Committee. associated risks; measures which do not significantly ACORD are quick to point out • extremely severe restrictions on increase profits." "the document is neither a statement SO z one{ NOx emissions, Wind power is the most favoured of strategy or policy. It is a constraining the combustion of coal of the electricity producing technological review - a source book." and oil; renewables, closely followed by tidal Central features of the study were e drastic reductions on fossil fuel power. Biofuels are also seen as a the economic assesssment of: burning, due to fears of carbon good investment, with energy crops dioxide build-up in the atmosphere; becoming economically attractive in e the prospects for deploying the e cessation of Middle East oil the near future as a result of various technologyies in the supplies, with obvious consequences increased oil prices. appropriate market in which they for world prices and availability; Among the technologies now seen may be expected to compete; e cessation of Soviet supplies of as "unpromising" are the once favoured e the cost-effectiveness of the natural gas, with obvious off-shore wave power, active solar associated R&D programmes. consequences for European gas energy, and geothermal aquifers. prices and availability; Publication of this volume seems to Energy Paper 54 (the companion e restriction on the production herald a major reappraisal of paper to the ETSU report) provides and/or export of uranium. Government energy strategy; and could a very convincing argument for deter Cecil Parkinson from cutting immediate exploitation, and increased The report comes down very back the energy efficiency programme R&D of renewable energy souces in strongly in favour of increased set up by Peter Walker, his the UK: "It is clear that some investment in "end-use technologies" - predecessor. SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 23 Appropriate Technology
[~ H_e_at_P.....;..u_m-=--_ps ______..l I Wind Power
the system will become out of balance Rumour has it that the Government - when either the heating or cooling ore about to announce the site of the load is greater. For example, if the first British Wind Farm. It is thought heating lood is greater, the excess that the announcement will be mode cooling water is rejected through the by Michael Spicer, the Government heat exchangers into the dockwater. Minister responsible for renewable The costs of installation and energy (and nuclear power!) in mid maintainance of this system are no August - when he will connect greater than those of a conventional Orkney's massive 3MW oerogenerotor, system incorporating an electric chiller LS1, to the Notional Grid. with a fossil fuel heating plant. It is thought that the Farm will John Wilson highlights energy consist of around 30 large machines; London Docklands is ideal for district efficiency os being "crucially important giving it a capacity of between 20MW heating schemes and other energy jn the Docklonds." Electricity demand and 30MW. saving systems said John Wilson, the in the area is expected to exceed High on the list of potential sites chairman of the London Electricity 450M W in the next ten years, bui that are Cornwall and "Scotland" according Board (LEB), at a reception - Dockland: figure could rise to 550MW if energy to the Financial Times (24:7:87). seeing is Believing" - to promote saving techniques are not employed. The Hydro Board told SCRAM, that development of the area. they are interested in the proposal, LEB are working with the London but as yet hove no details. Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) to advance the benefits of using the vast expanse of dockwater for commercial sector heating. The Wind Energy Group* (WEG) hove•* John Wilson proposed the system as * * completed the installation of twenty being "... pollution free, space saving 250kW wind turbines - based on the and above all economic." prototype at lllfracombe - in Alotmont The large volume of water forms Pass, California. an inexhaustible supply of energy for This Is the second US wind form heat pumps which could be used as the to be built by a British company. WEG basis for air-conditioning systems in ore a consortium involving several the commercial buildings scheduled for British companys including Toylor construction as the Docklands extensive Woodrow and Br'itish Aerospace. development scheme gets underway. The farm is now contributing 5MW Heat can either be "dumped" into to the Californian grid, continuing the the docks or retrieved using a series British wind industry's success story of heat exchangers and heat pumps - in the Californian wind rush. such as in the "test bed" trial system installed in the LDDC's Royal Docks Area Office. It is expected that the * heating costs for the whole building The Hydro Board hove *token over* will be only £1,400 a year, compared * ownership of the 50kW WEG wind to the LEB's estimate of £2,350 for a turbine on Burgor Hill, in Orkney, and conventional system. ore negotiating· for ownership ot the The energy absorbed by the chilled 300kW Howden machine. A problem with water from the zones requiring cooling, LEB ore also promoting high standard the blades on the Howden machine is is recovered within the heat pump and insulation - to Scandinavian and holding up negotiations. recycled for use in heating the other Canadian specifications - to help The Hydro Board hove token over zones. During sorne periods of operation reduce the demand for electricity. each of the wind turbines for operational purposes from their dote of synchronisation with the grid. They also expect to purchase the Rates 3MW machine on Burgor Hill, although the actual details of the contract will not be discussed with the Department The Government are soon expected to declare their membership, "so the of Energy until the end of a 2 year make a statement about reducing the Government con assess how much the monitoring period. rotes levelled on private power AIEP represents private generators." generators to bring them in line with This is presumably so they con decide the ESI (Electricity Supply Industry). whether or not to include them in The new rotes ore intended to come the working parties. The* CEGB and* two other * major * into operation in 1990. Although the formula for rates was generating boards, in Spain and A Government spokesman said that altered in 1984 to allow private Denmark, hove signed contracts with working parties will be set up before generators to be charged a comparable the European Commission for the the end of this summmer to calculate rate with the ESI, this did not occur. development of 1-2M W wind turbines. new rotes for industry, including the A Government spokesman said that the It is the Commission's intention ESI. The working parties will consist amendment has been in operation since that electricity should be generated for of representatives from the Deportment 1984 but it is impossible to apply the European grid using the proven of Energy, the Deportment of the to the private producers. technology of aerogenerotors in this Environment, industry and (possibly) He promoted the new rating range. local government. formula os being applicable to past The 1MW plant at Richborough, The Government hove also privatisation of the ESI - "We don't which is due on line next year, will approached the recently-formed want to go through the whole process be the CEGB's contribution. The Association of Independent Electricity again" - but was unable to explain Spanish and Dutch contributions are Producers (AIEP) asking them to how the new formula would work. also due on line next year. 24 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 Appropriate Technolo y IGeothermal Southampton City Council have signed Steve Forrest. is also quick to paint a deal with Utilicom bringing back out that the contract for supplying to life their plans for a geothermal the pumps for the scheme is going to group heating scheme in the city the Weir Group of Scotland, designer's centre. of the revolutionary hydraulic pump Utilicom, a wholly owned UK for geothermol extraction (see SCRAM ;;ll·t~ subsiduary of the French Idex Group, 11*) - showing not all the financial ~· already run three such schemes in the benefit from this project is going \I Paris basin. Steve Forrest, Utillcom's abroad. general manager, told SCRAM, that Southampton is at the edge of a their French experience is one of the geothermal reservoir which deepens main reasons for their interest in the towards Bournemovth - the Wessex project - a scheme that both the basin. The results from the first bore CEGB and the Department of Energy hole drilled in the basin, at Marchwood have previously abandoned. Low rent power station near Southampton for the site and an EEC grant have revealed an estimated potential of provided the additional incentive. 2.5MW and much enthusiasm. Or John DrJJJJng for geothermaJ hot water at Garnish of the Energy Technology the Marchwood power station site Support Unit estimated that 15% of hole has been drilled in the city British electricity could come from centre, with government backing. geothermal schemes "if the British Unfortunately this one proved to nuclear programme failed to be a disappointment, revealing an materialise." estimated potential of only 2MW The announcement of success in capacity, at a flow rate of 10 this project came in 1980, when the litres/second of water at 74°C, and then junior Energy Minister said that an expected life time of 15-20 the £ 1.8m well at Marchwood hit an years. Previously it was expected aquifier at 5,500ft, giving rise to that the flow rote would be 20 water with a surface temperature of litres/second, giving 4MW capacity, 65-67°C, sufficient to heat homes and with o life span of 25 years. offices for several decades. Yet for Steve Forrest feels that their some reason this potential has not scheme has a potential of 9MW, 1!>11i111 Sedimentary been exploited and the £ 1.8m costs promoting it into the league of a lllllli!d!llbasins of that scheme have been literally full scale district heating scheme. poured into a hole in the ground. Utilicom ore currently putting the Based on the "very successful" finishing touches to a report which results at Marchwood, a second bore is expected to be published soon. ISub-sea Link Iceland's National Power Council (NPC), If the scheme proves successful, Areas of potential geothermaJ interest have declared plans for transmitting it could pave the way for similar power to the North of Scotland, via schemes delivering power to Norway a £500m submarine cable. and the rest of mainland Europe. I CHP I This is not the first time plans for Although the benefits of this project The Government are funding a £728,000 the 600 mile link have been tabled by for Iceland ore obvious - the creation project to demonstrate a micro CHP the NPC. Past studies - the most of a major new export industry - (Combined Heot and Power) system - recent was in 1985 - have shown that Halldor Jonatansson, NPC's general developed by Combined Power Systems the scheme is not economically manager points out, not to use the (CPS). attractive. Recent developments in resources available "... is a waste - CPS are to choose 15 test sites in power transmission, including super especially at a time when there ore Manchester, the company's home, to conductors, ore thought to be the main so many worries about pollution from demonstrate their system. Sam reason for resurrecting the proposals. oil, coal and in particular nuclear." Almozaffar, the managing Director The project would make use of But it is difficult to see how commments "we wlll choose sites which Iceland's vast hydro-electric and foreign governments will allow the lure will give CHP high exposure and will geothermal potential. Currently of cheap and pollution-free electricity show what can be saved - in some they use only around 13% of their to overcome their paranoia to hand cases cuts of 50% are possible." He hydro-electric capacity and a tiny responsibility for their power cites local government buildings, fraction of their geothermal potential. generation over to Iceland. British Telecom offices and swimming pools as examples. Manchester University's Institute of Science and Technology hove shown that 300,000 buildings in the UK are compatoble with this system, involving some 12GW of capacity. The market for this device is said to be any building capable of using a 40kW generator. With only 2,500 to 3,500 hours use each year, Almozaffer expects a payback period of 2-3 years. Or Julian Packer, technical advisor to CPS, thinks that production costs could be halved if the level of production is geared to account for the systems potential. SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 25 Reviews
continent" to cause the death of Acid Raln, What is it, and PIHCUIN SS'tCI.U. •I"£Ht:UIH Sl'tCIAL • PEiiCUIN SPECI.U. forests, lead and aluminium poisoning, what is it doing to us? corroding gases, the disappearance of Penguin, 1987, Fred Pearce, fish from lakes and so on. The list is 162pp, £3.95. endtess. Little attempt is mode In the book to be non-partisan, dnd often opinions Anyone with Interests In atmospheric: ore expressed for which as yet pollution and its effect on soil, trees, 1nsufflclent scientific •proor• Is offered, lakes and rivers, architecture and for Instance, the role of ozone In the human health will welcome this book. death of trees, and the actual role of In the rest of Europe, many more sulphur dioxide in the acidification of people, it seems to me, are aware of lake$. Sometimes as well, the quest for the ecological disaster which Is readability and simplicity leads to happening all round us and feelings are statements like "Concentrations of running high. Yet there seems little to nitrogen in the air hove increased parallel this in Britain where the fourfold in Britain since the 1880's." damage to the health of people, trees Nevertheless this should not put you and lakes Is os bad as In other off. Peorce Is able to put countries. The British public has yet sophisticated scientific argument Into to realise what is going on. lt has to accessible prose to reveal a story be hoped that this book will make a which Is both frightening and absorbing big contribution to increased awareness to read. of acid rain on this side of the His views, shared by many Channel. scientists and others throughout Europe Starting with the, by now ore gaining wider and wider currency. obligatory historical overview of Even the CEGB who hove sought to British air pollution from 1273, block obscure the acid rain debate, finally rain showers In Peterheod In 1862 and admitted in September 1986 that the the devastating London smogs of 194$ British sulphur dioxide (for which it ls and 1952, Peorce moves on quickly to responsible fo.r two thirds) are portly describe the ecological disaster of our environment. He describes the origins to blame for the crpalling destruction modem less smoky but more pollution of these compounds from fossU fuel of Scandlnavlan Ecosystems. Pehops laden air. power stations and c:ar exhaust and this book will help the rest of us to Pearce analyses the roles of sulphur then re.lates the latest Ideas about how take an even more positive stance. dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ozone In they Interact in the •complex cocktail the origins of acidification in the of chemicals in the air over the TIM PUNTIS
Forevermore: Nuclear Waste in political complications which have summed up in the following quote: "If occurred in the past ·couple of years: the politicians and scientists in charge America by Donald L Bartlett the waste problem has not been of nuclear waste had been running the and James B Steele; Norton. solved in the meantime. space program, John Glenn (the first 352pp, £15.1 o. The foresight of the nuclear waste US astronaut) would still be orbiting management programme can be the earth todqy.• The authors describe a catalogue If you think the UK nuclear waste of Inter- state politics, federal management programme Is In tatters mistakes and changing policies. State you hove just gat to reod this book. law makers hove schemed and lobbied The US hove been producing nuclear to introduce legislation which rules waste for longer, and In much greater out their own state for earmarking as quantities, than we have; and if a dump site. The Federal agencies and anything they hove less idea of what government departments have allowed to do with it than us! facllities to be constructed and The book has been written by two operated without proper surveys or journalists on the Philadelphia Inquirer consideration of their consequences, whose investigative work has won often because of short term private them 18 national journalism prizes. It profit making. And policy has changed grew out of a series of articles they from shallow dumps to deep dumps; wrote during November 1983. There reprocessing was abandoned by Carter was such o large response to the In 1977 only to be revived by Reogan series - over 25,000 reprints were to augment the plutonium stocks for sent out to individuals and his planned mUitary build-up; and a organisations from 40 states and few national repositories became several foreign countries - and many regional state "compacts" to take core requests to expond the se.ries Into a of waste produced In those states. book, that the authors continued their What the book says, very clearly, researches and produced what amounts is that forty years on we ore no to a power:ful indictment of nuc:Jear closer to finding a solution to the Industry politics which can equally waste problem than we were when the well be translated to any other first atom was split. And the country. lt rivals the excellent pollticians and scientists are still "Nuclear Barons" book, published by telling us, os they have for the past Sphere books in 1982, in Its exhaustive forty years, that the problems ore coverage ot an issue, solved - the solutions have only to be Although this book was published implemented. in 1985, it is stll1 useful today - the only omissions are further errors and STEVE MARTIN 26 SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 Reviews
Pacific Women Speak. From A guide to small wind energy provides o wide list of valuable contact Green Line, 34 Cowley Rd. conversion systems. C.U.P, addresses including local electricity boards, and o list of UK Oxford. £2.15 incl. p&p. 1987, Twidell (Ed), 155pp, £15 Meteorological Wind Recording Stations Judging by oil the requests I receive Pacific Women Speak is definitely not An Invaluable volume to anyone with from school children "doing projects on cheerful bedtime reading, but lt does on interest in small wind energy hove its lighter and more hopeful conversion systems (SWEC's). moments. The women visited Britain Written by the members of the over the lost few years to publicise British Wind Energy Group (BWEA) it the pUght of Pacific bcmb test provides vital insight to all aspect of ·. victims around the Bikini and French SWEC's: choosing o machine; •"' ., 0 test sites os well os those threatened regulations and Institutional support; by Japanese nuclear waste dumping and installing and ope rot ing o system - just US and French Imperialism. some of the chapter titles. "We ore the people of the land and lt was BWEA's intention to produce the ocean ond we ore struggling for o small volume providing, In non .·· survival. Because our water is killing technical terms o reference text, In us slowly. After four months the Bravo on a ttempt to "give straight forward fallout went oil over Micronesia" sold answers to the questions commonly Choilony Poloclos. Lijon Eknllong asked by potential users of these describes the day of the Bravo test: machines". "Late in the afternoon I become very The emphasis here Is on exploring sick... our eyes Itched terribly and oil eventualities before going ahead towards the evening our skin began to and buying your SWEC. It gives burn." The Pacific Women speak os Information on Electricity Board's ..... people who hove lived through World buy-back tariffs, possible Interference t War 3, while we sot secure. They ask and the effect of Inflation - to help ·. ~ "Why haven't you known?". you calculate the value of your investment relative to other possible investments. -1 I • ~ It contains on Interesting chapter . lt" .. -~, on case studies, and "since this . . ,, . .... \· . Guide Book Is intended to encourage . ·. . r/~J '. . the application of wind energy in ~- ...:...... -'...:..~ -l the UK, o chapter de5criblng o --- I selection of operational Installations Is I important." The inclusion of these case studies will give potent iol purchasers o little added confidence, and knowledge when purchasing their SWEC, the chapter excludes any mention of machines greater than IOOkW os they fRO installation on Lundy Island ore too large to be considered os SWEC's. This book Is for everyone Interested Wind Energy", I suggest this would be In wind energy, but speclftcolly for on excellent addition to the school potential users of SWEC's, the library. comprehensive Index will ease the constant use this book will get. lt also MIKE TOWNSLEY
~~...,...... ,~~ You don't have to continue working on tngs you t believe in, with people who'd want you locked up if they knew what you really thought ... Perhaps we haven't known because most world mops divide the Pacific in Promot1ng Equality of Opportunity. For businesses and two, because people In the West people who want a say in how their technology is used. assume that the South Sea Islands ore still o paradise to escape to. They ore EfP Lld ~ 28 Milsom St, BATH BAl 1DP(0225) 69671 not. Ebeye Island, for example, Is the 'slum of the Pacific' where 8,000 EXCHANGE RESOURCES people evacuated from other islands exist on 66 acres, suffering from leprosy. RECRUITMENT AGENCY The Austrollo section concentrates & BUSINESS CONSULTANCY on the loss of Aboriginal land rights to uranium mining and os Tltewhoi Horowiro from Aoteoroo says "We don't see the white notions os our friends any more - you're going to hove to earn our trust." LINDA HENDRY SCRAM Journal September/October 1987 Little Black Rabbit
American cousins of Little Block surprise when LBR heard that, In on him the experience Rabbit ore causing great problems for attempt to show that the estuary Is he has gained from nuclear ... oste management authorities. not really radioactive at all, the his "independent" The 26 June issue of Science this year powers that be ore trying to encourage advisory roles. carried four and o quarter page "news the birds to return. Wooden "decoys" If Or Berry does & comment" feature on the 44 year hove been placed in the area in the not resign, then old US Honford military nuclear hope that the birds ore daft enough the whole facility. to think that some other birds hove "Independence" of According to the feature o badger been daft enough to take up residence these bodies, broke through the security fence in there. criticised os it 1959 and, ignoring all the warnings, Rumour has it, and it must be hos been in the dug o hole In one of the woste pits. stressed that it is only rumour, that post, will go out Subsequently, rabbits which stopped BNFL and the local tourist Industry of the window to lick salt from the exposed material ore thinking about erecting and for all. deposited 200 curies of caesium 137 strategically placed wooden tourists in ond strontium 90 in their droppings Cumbria to attract tourists back to the e over 2500 acres of the reserve. area. • • • • • • • Rabbits ore not the only problem: Little Block Rabbit has been wondering ground squirrels, burrowing owls, mice if the- harmonic convergence Is ond Insects a lso spread radioactive • • • • • • • • beginning tu hove o strange affect material; os do some plants, such os How independent Is Independent? 1t on some of the people who work for tumbleweeds. A former employee ot appears that Or Berry of Middlesex the electricit y boards. the site, now o state radiological Hospital Medical School will t ake up A senior execut ive who has worked safety officer, Is concerned that o the post of Director of Health and for the CEGB for 40 years, wos quoted range fire "may produce airborne Safety at Sellofield in December when recently os saying "Its a marvellous contamination." Dr Mummery retires. job. I just wish ot times the public As the article points out: "The task Nothing so odd about that you may were more sodding grateful. We keep of chasing hot tumbleweeds does not think. But Or Berry hos other strings the lights on and all they do is moon fit with the image of a seamless to his bow. about nuclear power ond a few dead engineered environment that Honford Or Berry is o board member of trees." lt almost makes you feel sorry folk aim to create." ICRP, NRPB, RWMAC ond COMARE. for him. Little Block Rabbit is wondering All of these organisations ore described What he should do is take some about Drigg and Sellofield? by government and the nuclear inspiration from the SSEB's chairman, industry os "independent" bodies, ond Donold Miller. He says that working offer advice to government• for the SSEB "is a bit like being a • • • • • • • • We naturally presume that Or Berry doctor or a social worker. People tend SCRAM readers may remember the will be resigning from oil of these to tell you all their problems and story about the exodus of nesting seo committees os soon os he takes up his their worries." He toJks about the need birds from the Rovenglou estuary over new job at Sellafield. If he does for all the Board's staff to be "kept the post few years. Little Block then we may expect the introduction Informed about ... our involvement in Rabbit Is understandably very of o new broom Into what must surely nuclear power" and "Your friends' concerned about the Issue. be one of the most important jobs in perceptions of the SSEB •.. ore You con therefore imagine the the UK nuclear industry, bringing with Influenced in port by what you soy." Little Block Rabbit is sure that if our CEGB executive friend were to take the trouble to explain the Board's policies to his staff ond the public, then worries about nuclear power would disappear in a puff of logic ond the trees would miraculously start to SUB FORM WAGES FORM grow again. Please fill out the standing order • • • • • • • • I would like to subscribe to SCRAM. form below and send it to us. I enclose cheque/postal order, payable As well os the interesting stuff about to SCRAM for: To the Manager: the fast reactor's future the leaked .• Bank UKAEA documents also contain some funny bits. Address .. Here's another acronym for your collection - MASSENET (Massive Concessionary . £5 Assembly of Sodium, Steel and Ordinary .. £10 Enrichment for Novel Engineering Supporting • • •• £15 Please pay on ... (1st payment) Trends - on incredibly tortuous Inst it utional . £25 the sum of • • . from my account concept). It's something to do with number • • • • . to the Royal Bank of the fast reactor programme. Life sub...... £50 Scotland, 142 Princes Street, Edinburgh The name was chosen, according (83-51 -00) for the credit of SCRAM to one of the documents, to continue Name number 2 account 258597 and make the ZEBRA (sorry - Zero-Energy similar payments monthly/yearly until Breeder Reactor Assembly) tradition Address. cancelled. of using composer names for programmes. Both Mozort (1756-91) • Tel Signed • • • • • • • ••• Dote • • . •• and Blzet (1838-75) "died ot tragically early oges" whereas Mossenet ( 1842- 1912) lived to the ripe old oge of 70.
Thm ...... """""""]) Return t his form to: music ;he , , Germo t:p:;:, . ·. , i~.c ... ~K. h -~nd'. SCRAM, 11 Forth Street, Edinburgh us wh · t"--'~ EH1 3LE. Tel: 031 557 4283/4. o