Where is Irma headed? Are Florida reactors under threat?

There is no certainty yet about whether Hurricane Irma, which could make landfall as a category 4 or 5, will hit Florida and, if so, which parts. But reactors at Turkey Point, 35 miles south of Miami, and St. Lucie, 25 miles south of Vero Beach, could lie in its path. When Hurricane Harvey was headed to South Texas, we called for the precautionary shutdown of the two South Texas Project reactors there. Harvey's sustained winds never topped the 73 mph threshold for requiring the reactor to shut down. South Texas dodged a bullet. The nuclear power station never lost offsite electric power from the grid that would have automatically shut the reactors down.  The surrounding area in, around and on the South Texas nuclear power plant flooded and emergency personnel already fully stretched or themselves evacuated, the South Texas operators refused to shut down the plant. Beyond Nuclear staff are monitoring the progress of Irma and endeavoring to assess the risk to Florida nuclear plants -- and possibly others in South Carolina depending on Irma's eventual path. Rest assured, we will be making similar calls for public safety first, should communities around any affected nuclear power plants face an imminent danger. (Image of Irma: National Hurricane Center.)f

One year to stop startup of flawed French reactor

As it turns out, ostriches don’t really bury their heads in the sand. But since this is a popular metaphor, its application could never be more appropriate than when applied to the goings-on around the French EPR reactor project in Flamanville on the Normandy coast.

The EPR was once touted as the great white hope of the French nuclear sector. Since it has instead been an abject failure, the nuclear powers that be have plunged into such denial about it that even a therapist would wring her hands and despair of the patient.

The EPR at Flamaville, the flagship site, is years behind schedule. So is its EPR counterpart in Finland. The EPR design is also targeted for the Hinkley-C site in the UK but is not underway there yet. Finland is three times over budget at $10 billion. The Flamanville budget has also more than tripled, to $12.5 billion and counting. It has a flawed vessel head, forged at Areva’s Le Creusot factory, now exposed to have not only manufactured faulty safety parts for numerous other reactors, but falsified its quality control documents as well.

“If the nuclear industry wants to have a future it cannot afford more projects like this,” bemoaned a Finnish utility executive.

But for the French nuclear regulator it’s all “pas de probleme!” The timing, they admit, might be “tight,” the flawed reactor vessel head “is not of the best possible quality”, and there may still be “some difficulties” ahead. But the regulator is planning to switch on Flamanville anyway, possibly by the end of 2018. Never mind the expense, and never mind the fact any severe shaking could rupture the flawed vessel head and lead to a meltdown. People of Normandy be damned!

We have just over one year left to fight Flamanville and prevent what could be a lethal decision to start up this untested reactor. Beyond Nuclear continues to work with our French anti-nuclear colleagues in every capacity available to support their efforts to get this project permanently stopped.

The high price for activism in Africa

In a reminder of how dangerous it is to oppose the nuclear power industry in some countries comes disturbing news from Tanzania. Tundu Lissu, an outspoken lawyer, human rights activist, opposition member of the Tanzanian Parliament, and a critic of extractive industries, was shot and wounded in Dodoma on September 7 when returning home from a session of parliament.

Gunter Wippel, a leading advocate against uranium mining and who administers the international Uranium Network, met Lissu on several occasions. He writes: “Tundu, whom I had met during our first information tour on the issue of uranium mining, attended and spoke out at several occasions at our conferences and supported our partners in Tanzania critical of uranium mining repeatedly. 

“He was supposed to attend next week's conference "Human Rights, Future Generations and Crimes of the Nuclear Age" in Basel, Switzerland.” 

Conflicting reports have Lissu in critical and in stable condition. It is unclear at the moment why he was shot and who by but he is a vocal opponent of Tanzanian president, John Magufuli. 

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