After half a decade of promises to West Cumbrian communities that the first of three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors would be operational by 2024 – a claim repeatedly refuted by CORE – Moorside developer NuGen has today admitted that the first reactor will not be operating until 2026.
New-Build reactor delays put Sellafield’s plutonium decision on the back burner.
As well as dominating the news headlines, the delays to EDF’s Hinkley Point C are also creating waves over 300 miles to the north at Sellafield and the fate of its stockpile of 140 tonnes of separated plutonium recovered from decades of spent fuel reprocessing. A Government decision on how this stockpile is to be dealt … [Continue Reading]
CORE letter to NuGen – Consultees will be short-changed unless Stage 2 consultation period extended to include Moorside’s seawater cooling systems data.
Absent from the Stage 2 public consultation on Moorside, starting on 14th May, will be detailed plans of the exact location and extent of the sub-seabed cooling tunnels and associated marine facilities because the offshore geotechnical survey designed specifically to pinpoint these vital components of the Moorside project will only start in early May and … [Continue Reading]
Regulatory red lights warn of impending delay to NuGen’s Moorside project.
The traffic light warning system used by the nuclear Regulators (ONR and Environment Agency) in their latest quarterly assessment update on the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors proposed for Moorside will make uncomfortable reading for both Westinghouse and NuGen. Covering the period November 2015 to January 2016, the update signals inevitable delays to securing approval for the … [Continue Reading]
NuGen’s Offshore Drilling application for Moorside. Marine life to take pot-luck [No 01/16]
In early December last year NuGen submitted its application to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) for a licence to undertake offshore geotechnical investigations within West Cumbria’s inshore waters. The application is in support of its plans to build three AP1000 reactors at Moorside. The focus of the investigation will be the location for the sub-seabed … [Continue Reading]
NuGen’s Offshore Drilling application for Moorside; Marine life to take pot-luck
In early December last year NuGen submitted its application to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) for a licence to undertake offshore geotechnical investigations within West Cumbria’s inshore waters. The application is in support of its plans to build three AP1000 reactors at Moorside. The focus of the investigation will be the location for the sub-seabed … [Continue Reading]
Moorside Land Grab by NuGen
Moorside Land Grab by NuGen, with compulsory purchase on the cards, sees the “biggest construction project in Europe” more than double in size – from 200 to 552 hectares of farmland adjacent to Sellafield. Consultation documents published by NuGen on its new-build plans suggest a belated realisation by the developer that, given the topography, geology … [Continue Reading]
Years of delay to Moorside’s new-build plans inevitable
An assessment published today by CORE titled ‘All Spin and No Substance’, reveals the extensive threats facing NuGen’s impossibly tight timeline for its Moorside project where the construction and operation of three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors is scheduled to be completed in a period of just six years (2020-2026). In countering the consortium’s spin, CORE’s assessment … [Continue Reading]
Copeland Planning Panel’s Pantomime – Beauty and the Beast
As reported in the Whitehaven News today, Copeland Borough Council’s planning panel, acting against planning officials’ advice, have rejected an application for one 30m high wind turbine for Peterburgh Farm near the village of Beckermet. Whilst regular readers of the newspaper will be familiar with the frequent rejection of wind turbine applications by Copeland Council … [Continue Reading]
NDA’s £13M funding for future nuclear power projects condemned by CORE
For an arm of the Government specifically tasked in 2005 with the clean-up and decommissioning of the UK’s dirty and deteriorating nuclear licensed sites, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s announcement today (E-bulletin, 30th September) that it is to pour £13 Million of taxpayers’ money ‘to help develop innovative technologies for the current and next generation of … [Continue Reading]