SDP2002101202- SAN ONOFRE, California, October 12 (UPI) - A radioactive part of a nuclear reactor is remove from it's protective housing, October 12, 2002 at the San Onofre nuclear power plant north of San Diego, California. Unit One which was built in 1962 is being decommissioned. The steel, cylinder-shaped nuclear fuel storage vessel is 35 feet tall, 15 feet wide and 8 inches thick and weighing over 400 tons will be shipped to Barnwell, South Carolina to be buried with other radioactive waste in a registered facility. This reactor at the San Onofre plant, which has two other reactors, is only the fourth to be decommissioned in the United States since the development of the nuclear energy industry. ec / EARL S. CRYER / UPI . . |
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LONDON, April 5 (UPI) -- The U.K. nuclear industry is being launched, with Germany's Eon and RWE unveiling plans for their first two plants, and France's EDF announcing the hiring of 10,000 new staff to back up its British expansion.
Horizon Nuclear Power, a joint venture formed by Eon and RWE, said it plans to start building a first plant in Wylfa, Wales in 2012. Construction of the second plant, to be located next to the existing Oldbury-on-Severn reactor in South Gloucestershire, will start by 2019, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reports. Horizon will invest an estimated $23 billion in both sites, the paper said.
The announcement came after a similar one by French state-owned nuclear giant Electricite de France.
EDF, which runs 58 nuclear power plants in France that satisfy around 80 percent of the French electricity demand, recently said it would build four nuclear power plants in Britain, with each expected to cost between $7 billion and $8 billion.
Two sites have already been identified: One plant will be built in Somerset, western England, to enter service in 2017; the second one, at Sizewell on the eastern English coast, is due to go online by 2020.
The new plant to be built in Wales by Germany's Horizon Nuclear Power is due to go online by 2020. It replaces an existing reactor that is due to be shut down later this year.
Because the existing plant has provided hundreds of jobs, the new one is being welcomed.
"There is overwhelming support. I would say 90 percent to 95 percent of people in Anglesey support a new nuclear station," Trefor Lloyd-Hughes, a local politician, told The Times of London. "It's going to create a massive economic push and create work while it is being built and for years to come."
The new plant could create up to 1,000 permanent jobs and support up to 3,000 during the construction phase, the newspaper writes.
EDF is also creating new jobs: The French company will hire up to 10,000 scientists, engineers and technicians to support its construction project, The Independent newspaper reports. It writes that EDF has already hired 100 designers and engineers to for its London office.
Most of Britain's aging nuclear power plants will be decommissioned by 2023. In a bid to increase energy security and ensure carbon dioxide-free power generation to combat climate change, London in 2008 decided to encourage the construction of new reactors.
