Memorandum submitted by Mr B Gerrard
My understanding is that the inquiry is assuming
that at least eight AP 1000 reactors would be built, if the nuclear
option is chosen.
I also understand that an AP 1000 is an advanced
Pressurised Water Reactor, which has been developed by a subsidiary
of BNFL; and that none have been built or sold.
Regarding the Generation Gap Question:
Our local power station, Fiddlers Ferry, is a
coal fired station. It did not meet the "2002 Renewable Obligation
Order" requirements to burn renewable fuel. It was too old,
and hadn't had all its old boilers replaced with new ones. The
Government changed its rules, and now the power station is burning
renewable fuels, and has recently been given the go ahead, by
the Government to install a "Flue Gas Desulphurisation Plant".
The power station's new owners "Scottish and Southern",
are developing clean coal technology. At a recent visit to the
power station, staff told me that the station could be updated,
with this clean coal technology, and this would extent its life,
past the 2015 decommissioning date announced in the press.
If other "Old" coal power stations
were updated like ours, then the Generation Gap would not be so
great. This would allow the lights to stay on in Britain, while
Renewable Energy Schemes have more time to come on line.
Financial Costs and Investments consideration:
This is an interesting question. Liverpool, a
city near me, planned and costed a Tramway system. Steel prices
have risen so much, that now the Tramway will not go ahead, unless
the Government, increases its grant to the project. This example
shows that electricity generators, which contain a lot of steel,
such as Wind Turbines, would be less competitive now, than when
Liverpool first planned its Tramway system.
If concrete prices were to rocket, then large
users such as Nuclear Power Stations could become too expensive
to build. So, what a power station is made of, can be more economically
important than what technology is used.
We were told that nuclear power would produce
electricity too cheap to monitor, how wrong they were.
Previous Governments have tried to get companies
to invest in Nuclear Power Stations, but this was a disaster.
Only two Aluminium Companies—one in Anglesey and the other
in Scotland—invested in Nuclear Power Stations, to keep
their huge electricity bills down.
ICI Runcorn, a company near me, is a large electricity
user, but it, like all the Steel Manufacturers in Britain, did
not get involved in building Nuclear Power Stations. I can not
see Large electricity users such as Aluminium Companies, steel
Manufacturers, or the Chlorine Industry, getting involved in any
future Nuclear Power Programmes.
The Nuclear Industry has been on a life support
system for nearly 50 years; they kept telling us that Nuclear
Fusion was just around the corner. Its time the Government switched
off the nuclear life support machine, and invested the money saved,
into a National Water Pipeline System. This pipeline could supply
water to all Britain in times of drought, brought about by Global
Warming.
Strategic Benefits:
Nuclear Power should be kept as the last option,
in case the other options fail. We do not have economically mineable
quantities of Uranium, which means importing the material. A previous
British Government ignored a UN ban on Namibian exports, and exported
Uranium from Namibia to Britain, to keep British lights on. We
should not rely on Uranium imports, when some of the countries,
are politically unstable.
If any new Nuclear Power Stations were to be
built, they should come under the UN Atoms For Peace Programme.
They should not have online refuelling, or sections in the reactor,
which have the necessary Neutron Flux Density, for weapons grade
Plutonium to be made.
Finally, I live close to the only Nuclear Enrichment
Plant in the Country. The wagons that transport the Uranium Hexafluoride
material, pass through my town, they do not have police escort
or armed guards, accompanying them.
I have seen these radioactive wagons pass along
Birchfield road. This is in an area with high density housing,
several schools, a Technical College, and a large superstore.
The area would be devastated by radioactivity, if terrorists attacked
these unaccompanied wagons, with rocket propelled grenades.
The Enrichment factory contains large amounts
of Uranium Hexafluoride, which would make Merseyside a radioactive
wasteland, if terrorists attacked the factory directly, or attacked
the power lines that supply electricity to the centrifuges.
15 September 2005
|
