Wylfa Reopening - High Stakes, High Risks? Searching Questions

Friends of the Earth Cymru have expressed continued concern following the announcement of the restarting of Wylfa nuclear power station yesterday (1). The environmentalists say that the reactors are ageing, despite the recent modifications, and pose an increasing and unnecessary risk to public health and safety. They call again for station's decommissioning.

FOE Cymru point out that there is a great deal at stake for the nuclear industry's profitability to keep the Wylfa station running, which adds to groups concern. Wylfa is a major part of the BNFL Magnox business, if Wylfa had to close then the viability of the wider Magnox business would collapse. This is the reason why BNFL have spent over fifteen months and tens of millions of taxpayers pounds strengthening the defective welds (2) say the environmentalists.

Serious technical questions need to be asked of BNFL and the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate about the weld bracing and other aspects of the reactors' function particularly the corrosion of the graphite core. The graphite in the magnox reactor cores decay due to the intense radiation, this is part of the ageing process (radiolytic corrosion). Previously confidential nuclear industry documents reveal that areas in the graphite block structure in the Wylfa reactor cores are predicted to fail by 2006. Such decay could adversely effect the operation of the control mechanisms particularly if there is a physical shock to the system. A shock could be caused by a failure of a weld and it is not clear that the recent retrospective bracing could resolve that problem or the potentially very serious knock-on problems.

Neil Crumpton, energy spokesperson for FOE Cymru said:

"The stakes are high for nuclear industry to keep Wylfa open, its their biggest station which makes it critical for the overall viability of the BNFL Magnox business. Yet despite tens of millions of pounds and 15 months of repair work to minimise problems with one part of the design, there are still major questions hanging over this and other aspects of the reactor's structure and systems. We trust that BNFL and the NII will be more forthcoming to such questions and public concerns than they have been in the past."

As regards future local employment on Anglesey, including the aluminium smelter which is often linked confusingly with the continued operation of Wylfa, FOE Cymru look to the future.
There is potentially great employment in the installation and possibly manufacture of large numbers of marine current turbines for deployment just off the Wylfa headland where there is a very strong marine current flow. The renewable energy harnessed by such underwater turbines could rival the output of the Wylfa station which to date averages about 660 MW, much less than its nameplate rating of 1180 MW due to various operational factors and outages (3).

Neil Crumpton continued:

"It is quite evident that the aluminium smelter AAM (Anglesey Aluminium Metals Ltd) can operate perfectly well from the National Grid supply as it has done for the past 15 months during Wylfa's absence. In future much of the smelter supply could be generated renewably from the fast flowing marine currents around the Wylfa headland."

Notes

1) BNFL Magnox Generation announcement 1.8.01

2) BNFL Magnox (state owned) stated '£10s of millions' on bracing the 'suspicious welds'. The station has not generated electricity since mid-April 2000.

3) Construction of large Wylfa nuclear power station started around 1966 and the reactors started commercial generation in 1972. The station has been shutdown since April 2000 pending repair after 28 years of commercial operation. The overall output to April 2000 was 162,222,445 MW hours at a load factor of about 56%. The installed capacity of the station is 1,180MW and due to routine maintenance, unplanned shutdowns and other operational factors the average output has been 660MW over the 28 years. The overall load factor is about 50% due to commissioning delays, it was due to operate from 1969.