SMRs pose special radioactive waste problems

Dear Ms Heylings

 

I read with interest your effusive welcome from the Lib Dem front  bench for the Energy Secretary’s announcement of an SMR fleet yesterday in Parliament.

 

I am not a constituent, but I write to you as the front bench energy spokeswoman.

 

 

Mr Miliband repeatedly calls nuclear “clean”

 

But nuclear plants are not clean, as they all produce very dirty radioactive waste and emit significant quantities of CO2 in the uranium fuel production chain, especially in the very energy intensive  uranium enrichment.

 

Moreover, it should be noted SMRs produce the dirtiest type of radioactive waste, according to a detailed academic paper by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, first published three years ago, and since revised.

(https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2111833119

The authors conclude SMR waste is “more voluminous and chemically reactive” than from large GW plants like Hinkley C.

 

Miliband also claims nuclear will bring the U.K. “home grown” energy. And hence enhances energy security.

 

Sizewell C is designed by Electricite de France, with most of its major components manufactured in France.

 

30% of the workforce at Hinkley C are foreign.

 

And 100% of the uranium for Britain’s nuclear fuel is imported, as the U.K. has no economically-recoverable uranium reserves.

 

The final irony is Sizewell B, the biggest and newest existing nuclear plant, imports all its uranium fuel from Russia!

 

Hardly secure or home grown.

 

I would be happy to talk with yourself or your staff on these or related nuclear matters if you might find that helpful.

 

I am a retired research consultant who worked with MPs on energy environment and security issues for some forty years at Westminster.

 

Dr David Lowry

Co-author, The International Politics of Nuclear Waste,

Former member of the independent advisory panel for the Chief Nuclear Inspector at the Office for Nuclear Regulation.

 

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