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Close Wylfa Now Call as Campaigners Highlight Nuclear Unreliability

Following the unpredicted shut down of both reactors at the Wylfa nuclear power station on Anglesey, seventeen reactors in Japan and an ongoing shut-down saga in the United States, environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth Cymru has criticised nuclear apologists for describing renewable energy technologies 'unreliable'. The campaigners also call yet again for the Wylfa station to close following the discovery of defects inside the pressure vessel (1).

The shut down of Wylfa's second reactor last Thursday (July 17th) follows the discovery of weld defects in reactor one's boiler tube support brackets. The brackets are not the ones installed during a sixteen month shutdown three years ago which raised other safety concerns at the time. Cracks in nuclear power plants in Japan coupled with failures to report safety violations have resulted in the recent shut-down of seventeen reactors there threatening residents in Tokyo with electricity blackouts (2). Meanwhile in the United States, corrosion which nearly breached a reactor pressure vessel has resulted in a fifteen month shut-down to date and a loss to the company expected to exceed $500 million dollars. At the time of the corrosion being discovered in March 2002 numerous reactors of the same design were shut down for emergency checks resulting in high market prices for gas generated electricity.

Friends of the Earth Cymru point out that in the recent energy debate, in the run-up to and following the Government's Energy White paper published in February, pro-nuclear academics (3) and some conservation groups were trying to denigrate renewable energy technologies particularly wind turbines by describing them as 'unreliable'. Yet nuclear power is unreliable because if a problem arises a large 1,000 MW station may trip-out with little warning and may remain out for months or years. In addition, many gigawatts of generation from similar reactors may then have to be closed down for safety checks (UK electricity demand requires 44 gigawatts of generating capacity on average). The Wylfa station has only operated at about 56% of its full capacity since it opened, the Trawsfynydd nuclear station managed 60%. So nuclear power requires significant stand-by capacity to cover for a far more unpredictable range of shutdown situations.

Neil Crumpton, energy spokesperson for Friends of the Earth Cymru said:

" We call yet again for the closure of the Wylfa nuclear power station on safety grounds. But there is a wider point here also. Nuclear power is seriously unreliable and unpredictable especially if a problem affects a whole series of similar reactors.

"Yet pro-nuclear academics, in attempts to brand intermittent renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines as unreliable, are putting out remarkably silly stories about the 1974 electricity blackouts and the need to buy candles and share baths, if the wind drops. But the lights will not go out as our reliance on self sufficient renewable energy sources increases, there will always be back-up be it from gas, biomass, pumped storage and or hydrogen storage schemes.

"Intermittent renewable energy technologies are reliable because their output is expected to vary and back-up is used routinely. Also, schemes are widely distributed geographically and their outputs vary incrementally in response to local weather conditions. Contrast this with an unforeseen safety problem in the ten AP1000 reactors proposed for a new nuclear programme, the whole lot could be out for months without prior warning. How do you back that up."

Notes

1) London (Platts)--21st July 2003: Both reactors at the Wylfa nuclear power station on Anglesey have been shut down for safety checks.

The 980-megawatt Wylfa magnox station is being dogged by a new problem. Both reactors are shut down, owner British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) told Platts July 21, so that some weld defects in brackets supporting the boiler tubes in Wylfa-1 can be further checked to define the scope of any repair work. Wylfa-1 has been in a maintenance outage since May 9, during which the weld defects were discovered. Wylfa-2 also was shut down July 17 to have its brackets checked. Wylfa's boilers are inside the concrete reactor vessels. Heat generated in the fuel rods is transferred by carbon dioxide gas to water inside the boiler tubes, which are often referred to as steam generators. The station suffered a 16-month shutdown starting in April 2000 to deal with a number of other problems, including flaws in a number of welds holding the steam pipes--superheater headers--in position.

2) See link:
www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fd20030615pb.htm

3) Professor Philip Stott, London University (article in Sunday Times, 20th July, page 19), Prof Ian Fells, Newcastle University, numerous occasions.