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U.K. Inspector: No Need to Curtail Nuclear Plants

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U.K. Inspector: No Need to Curtail Nuclear Plants
Source: https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509104576330732368469792.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

By SELINA WILLIAMS
LONDON—There is no need to curtail the operations of U.K. nuclear-power plants following the crisis at Japan's Fukushima atomic complex, but 25 areas need to be reviewed to see if safety can be improved, the U.K.'s chief nuclear inspector Mike Weightman said in an interim report published Wednesday.
The 25 areas recommended for review include the layout of U.K. power plants, emergency-response arrangements, dealing with prolonged loss of power supplies, and the risks associated with flooding, the report said.
"The extreme natural events that preceded the accident at Fukushima are not credible in the U.K.," Mr. Weightman said in the report. "But we are not complacent. No matter what the differences are, and how high the standard of design and subsequent operation of the nuclear facilities here in the U.K., the quest for improvement must never stop."
The report calls for plans to be published by the middle of June that will detail how each of the 25 matters will be addressed.
In March, U.K. energy and climate-change secretary Chris Huhne commissioned the report to see if the Fukushima crisis had immediate lessons that could be applied to the U.K. nuclear industry, where many of the nation's 10 existing nuclear-power stations are of similar age to the Fukushima complex.
The report is also important for European utilities that have plans to spend billions of pounds to build new nuclear power plants in the U.K., and they will be looking for any indications of new requirements that could potentially delay those plans.
Électricité de France SA, which operates eight of the U.K.'s existing nuclear power stations—all but one of which were built in the 1970s and 1980s—will also be scrutinizing the report. The French nuclear giant is leading the nuclear revival in the U.K. and plans to have its first new nuclear reactor in commercial operation in 2018.
The U.K. has one of the most advanced programs in Europe to build a fleet of new nuclear power plants, with utility companies planning 16 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by 2025.
Mr. Huhne said he wanted regulators and industry to work together to improve the safety regime.
"Dr. Weightman's interim report is authoritative and detailed and I thank him for his work. It provides us with the basis to continue to remove the barriers to nuclear new build in the U.K. We want to see new nuclear as part of a low carbon energy mix," Mr. Huhne said.
Currently, the U.K.'s 10 nuclear-power plants have a total generating capacity of between six and seven gigawatts, representing around 18% of the U.K.'s electricity supply.
Mr. Weightman's final and more comprehensive report on the "lessons learned" from the Fukushima crisis will be published in September.