The Engineering EcoWarrior

Earlier this week EdF Energy announced the preferred bidder for the £100 million contract for site preparation works at one of the first sites for a new nuclear power station: Hinkley Point C in Somerset. The work is subject to satisfying planning conditions but includes site preparation, excavation and installation of construction site infrastructure to allow main construction to begin. They also announced an agreement with AREVA in relation to the early design work for the main reactor systems, which will allow AREVA to begin the work in January. The following day they welcomed decisions by the Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to issue an Interim Design Acceptance Confirmation, and the Environment Agency to issue an Interim Statement of Design Acceptability, for the EPR Pressurised Water Reactor. This is the same basic reactor design that has proven problematic at Flamanville in France.The new reactor at Flamanville is estimated to be about 4 years late and almost double the o...

After a relaxing weekend by the seaside, away from television and internet, I have returned to find a busy News weekend and here is a round up of the stories catching my attention: BBC News - Global carbon emissions reach record, says IEA  - disappointing, but if the global economy is to grow using the established economic models, it is inevitable. This highlights the enormity of the changes that are required to decouple our economy and prosperity from carbon. BBC News - Germany: Nuclear power plants to close by 2022  - bold decision, but how will the industrial bedrock of Germany's economy cope with increasing reliance on renewable energy? The country has limited coastline for marine renewables so will be limited to wind energy, or solar in the south.  Will fossil fuel use increase as nuclear is phased out, or will the German grid simply import nuclear base load from France? BBC News - France expands nuclear power plans despite Fukushima  -...

I read a paper recently which examined the possible UK electricity generation  mix by 2030 and whether it could achieve the required carbon reduction targets.  The aim of the paper was to consider the extreme conditions faced by the electricity grid with different energy mixes. The target for carbon reduction for the UK is 80% of 1990 levels by 2050.  In order to meet this it is necessary to reduce carbon emissions arising from electricity generation from the current value of 560 gCO2/kWh (CCC, 2008) to 70 gCO2/kWh by 2030.   Two scenarios were modeled to assess whether this could be achieved: one with a high penetration of renewable energy, predominantly wind power, and the other with a high proportion of renewable energy, tidal energy from a Severn Barrage, Carbon Capture and Storage schemes on 80% of coal and gas power stations and an increase of approximately 20% in nuclear generation. The authors found that only the latter option cou...

There have been no fatalities yet as a result of the explosions and resulting radiation leaks at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant, although some of the heroic workers have been injured. Compare this with he death toll from the 11th March 2011 earthquake and tsunami which is sitting at over 14,000, with a further 13,000 still listed as missing; it is likely that the final death toll will exceed 25,000. Even so, this is only a tenth of the number killed in the earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck in the Indian Ocean on the 26th of December 2004. Why then are we so obsessed by the fate of the nuclear plant rather than about all those others who perished from a nasty trick of nature, or all those displaced and struggling to scratch an existence? On the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, in which 56 people died as a direct result of radiation exposure, the anti-nuclear lobby has hit fever pitch. Official estimates by the Chernobyl Forum, a group which includes ...