Update on Oldbury

Just got some notes from Angela Paine who attended the Oldbury SSG on Wednesday 27 April regarding the nuclear plant. Here are her comments:

Small mercy number one  - Oldbury have finally finished trucking radwaste to the railhead at Berkley and thence through Cheltenham and numerous other cities to Sellafield.
 
Small mercy number two  - The last Magnox nuke has shut down.

When asked whether Wylfa was still going ahead we were told that Horizon is still committed but Horizon and EDF are running in parallel, though Hinkley is running to a different time frame from Horizon - whether faster or slower was not specified (they mean Horizon is intended to  be after Hinkley).

Oldbury are still talking about building a new nuke beside the old one, but it’s no longer imminent. They are now talking about building work maybe, possibly starting in ten years time. My guess is that EDF is holding up Hinkley, which is holding up Wylfa, which is holding up Oldbury.

Points to be concerned about: The NDA are about to start a ‘mentoring scheme’, pairing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises with larger organisations to share skills, experience and contacts with the aim of helping small and medium enterprises to navigate through the maze of nuclear decommissioning opportunities. All UK-based small and medium enterprises are eligible to apply, regardless of industrial background. So there is a very real prospect of radwaste being spread out all over the country in ways that cannot be monitored. The government is trying to make nuclear more popular by sharing out the proceeds from dealing with the low and intermediate level waste. In view of the fact that they classify the graphite cores of the old reactors as low level waste I think there is serious cause for concern.

The NDA has published an updated overview of Higher Activity Waste containing details about where waste arises and how it is being dealt with....weblink: Waste overview

Meanwhile see Molly Scott Cato MEP and her comments in Friday's Independent about Belguim planning to give everyone in their country iodine tablets due to increased likelihood of a nuclear disaster - perhaps creating a completely false sense of security for some? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/belgium-to-give-iodine-pills-to-entire-country-in-case-of-nuclear-fallout-radiation-terrorist-attack-a7006651.html 

And here's 30th Anniversary video of Chernobyl here.