You may have seen in the media that the Office for Nuclear Regulation is considering the safety limit for the degradation of graphite bricks which protect the nuclear core of a power station. The proposal from EDF is to raise the limit from 6.2% to 8%.
What concerns me is that already anti-nuclear lobbyists are jumping on this as the government putting power generation ahead of public safety, but this is simply not the case. The ONR has a good track record of imposing good safety measures based on actual science (you know - that thing that doesn’t give a shit about public opinion, it just is) so I would urge anyone thinking of getting up in arms about this to at least wait for the science to come in.
The ONR has told EDF to commission independent scientific consultation, as it is believed that 6.2% was extremely conservative. If this is true then raising the limit is just common sense - and it's not putting anyone at risk.
The thing is - if we rush too quickly to condemn this raise based on our misguided opinion of nuclear safety we will shut down our power stations 10 years earlier than we need to, and that would just be bad for power. We have a real power generation problem looming, so turning off our stations needlessly would be a bad thing. We are looking at rolling blackouts towards the end of this decade, and I love my internet connection way too much to not get vocal when I see that coming!
Also, a quick reminder, in terms of critical illness and deaths per megawatt nuclear power is just about the safest form of power generation - including solar (making the panels is a very toxic business and people die in their manufacture).
And now I leave you to your weekend… Enjoy the sun.
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