Skip to main content

Sovietologist on Climate Progress' Nuclear Critic Joe Romm

This is definitely worth reading!

Comments

David,

This has nothing to do with your post, but are you guys aware of the problems with digital I&C that exist at the Finnish new plant site? I really think that digital I&C, software QA and cyber security are going to be the biggest stumbling blocks in new nuclear build. I am actually surprised that this is a problem in Europe, but our regulator is as paranoid about digital I&C, also.

--THERE IS CURRENTLY NO REASON FOR FINNISH REGULATORS TO THINK CONSTRUCTION OF OLKILUOTO-3 will have to be stopped because of delays related to design documentation of automation systems, the head of the Finnish Radiation & Nuclear Safety Authority, Jukka Laaksonen, said in an interview May 7. Laaksonen's comments followed media reports this week of a December 9, 2008 letter from Laaksonen to Areva Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon. The letter expressed concerns about delays with the systems' design documentation and said that if the problem was not resolved, the project might have to be stopped. Laaksonen said in the interview that the authority "still does not understand the design" of the automation systems, but hopes to have thorough documentation from Areva and Siemens by the end of June. Areva's business unit Areva NP and consortium partner Siemens are building the reactor for utility Teollisuuden Voima Oy. Areva spokeswoman Patricia Marie said May 6 that Areva has already responded to Finnish regulators' concerns about the design delays.

http://newsroom.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=21621&group=General

UPDATE: Finnish nuclear watchdog warns Areva Olkiluoto site may face shutdown -YLE
6.5.2009 at 13:31(Adds comment from Teollisuuden Voima.)
The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) on Tuesday quoted a letter from the Finnish Nuclear and Radiation Safety Authority (STUK) to Areva as saying that the watchdog might order the Olkiluoto power station building site shut down if the French nuclear group failed to address shortfalls in the facility's automation systems.
YLE further quoted STUK as saying that the design of the automation systems fell short of basic nuclear safety requirements and that the authority therefore did not see any possibility of clearing the systems for installation at the Olkiluoto site.
"Areva NP SAS was to have designed very important systems for safety, but unfortunately, the attitude or lack of professional knowledge of certain individuals who represented the organisation in question at meetings of experts prevent progress in solving the concerns," STUK wrote to Areva, according to the public broadcaster.
The Olkiluoto site has suffered from a string of delays, some to do with safety concerns.
YLE added that there had been no immediate comment from Areva.
A number of Finnish environmental groups said in a joint statement Wednesday that work on the site should be stopped "at once and once and for all"
The Association for Nature Conservation, Friends of the Earth and six other groups added that recurrent reports of quality, control and safety lapses showed that the power station could not be operated safely.
Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), the Finnish utility that ordered the power station, said the site was not under threat of shutdown.
TVO added in a statement that while the planning stage of the station's automation systems had not kept to schedule the company had supplied Areva documents on the systems to STUK for approval.

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should