UK push for big nuclear expansion

The Prime Minister will tomorrow announce an agreement with France's Nicholas Sarkozy for the two countries to build new nuclear power stations and export the technology around the world.

The deal is aimed at giving Britain access to the skilled French nuclear engineers and technicians that will be needed to implement Government plans for a new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK.

Building those new power stations will be a huge task that will offer significant opportunities to industry, Mr Hutton said, likening the possible benefits to those delivered by the discovery of North Sea Oil in the 1970s.
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Business secretary John Hutton is to call for a "significant expansion" in Britain's nuclear power industry.

In a speech to the Unite trade union, he argues the industry should go beyond replacing its 23 ageing reactors, which provide 20% of the UK's electricity.

He will call for the creation of a £20bn industry with 100,000 new jobs - making the UK "the gateway to a new nuclear renaissance across Europe".

It comes as the President of France - a world nuclear leader - visits the UK.

Mr Sarkozy is due to discuss nuclear cooperation when he meets Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Nuclear energy provides about 79% of France's energy.

French energy giant EDF is among the private firms poised to build a new generation of reactors in the UK after the government came out in favour of nuclear energy in January.

Ministers have streamlined the planning process and approved a new generation of reactor designs in a bid to boost private investment.

'Energy independent'

Mr Hutton has refused to put a figure on the amount of energy he wants to see generated by nuclear plants in the future - but he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it should be "significantly more" than the current level.

Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, is calling on the government and the UK’s nuclear regulator to licence global designs for the new generation of UK power stations.

Unite, which has more than 26,000 energy sector members, says that a standard design is vital to encourage the largest number of bids for the new build nuclear contracts and to give UK industry the opportunity to supply the construction and manufacturing requirements.

The union says that as well as securing thousands of existing jobs, 10,000 additional jobs could be created if the UK regulator licence designs that could be used throughout the world.

Dougie Rooney, Unite’s National Officer, said: “The licensing of a new generation of UK nuclear reactors provides UK industry with a fantastic opportunity to say to the world and to UK population that we are applying the highest possible global standards.

“It also sends a powerful message to the commercial world and to UK industry that it is safe for it to invest in new facilities, new product designs, training and jobs. If international standards are applied there’s also a massive export potential here for UK industry to exploit but industry needs the certainty that this licensing will provide.”

Unite wants a maximum of three designs to be licensed by the UK nuclear regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), to give UK business and potential vendors the opportunity to invest in long term product development.

The union says companies such as Sheffield Forgemasters, BAE SYSTEMS, facilities such as Toshiba’s Springfield Plant near Preston and engineering fabrication facilities across the country could expand and diversify as a long term planning opportunities that standard model licensing for new nuclear power stations would provide.….

Unite is hosting an international nuclear conference in London today (Wednesday, 26th March 2008) at which the Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise, John Hutton MP, Nils Diaz, the former Chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the UK Rail Regulator, Chris Bolt, and Mike Weightman head of UK Nuclear Regulator will give presentations together with speakers from the vendors i.e. AREVA, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Westinghouse and GE. British Energy Chief Executive Officer Bill Coley will also give a presentation.

The new build nuclear power stations are expected to be started to be built in just three years time with the new plants operational by 2017.
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The"Chernobyl disaster", reactor accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, or simply "Chernobyl", was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and the only instance so far of level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, resulting in a severe nuclear meltdown. On 26 April 1986 at 01:23:40 a.m. (UTC+3) reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant located in the Soviet Union near Pripyat in Ukraine exploded. Further explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area.

The plume drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and eastern North America. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people. According to official post-Soviet data,[1] about 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus.

The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, slowing its expansion for a number of years, while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive. The now-independent countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. It is difficult to accurately tell the number of deaths caused by the events at Chernobyl, as the Soviet-era cover-up made it difficult to track down victims. Lists were incomplete, and Soviet authorities later forbade doctors to cite "radiation" on death certificates.[2]
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