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MEP goes nuclear in Finland
East Midlands Conservative MEP Roger Helmer travelled to the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in Finland last week as part of a high-powered delegation from the European parliament, the EU Commission and the Council of Europe. This nuclear power station is remarkable in that it is funded and owned entirely by the commercial sector, without involving any support from the tax-payer. Its shareholders are large energy-intensive businesses in Finland, especially in the wood, paper and metals industries. Along with the delegation, Mr Helmer visited the interim storage facility for spent fuel rods, where spent fuel from three decades is kept pending permanent disposal. He also ventured down 300 feet in lifts deep beneath the Finnish bed-rock, and saw massive silos permanently storing low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. A deeper facility is currently also under construction and this will allow permanent disposal of spent fuel 1000 feet deep in crystalline bed-rock, igneous and impermeable. There is a third and larger reactor currently being built on the site, with the full support of the local municipality and the local community, who see the huge benefits in terms of investment, infrastructure and jobs, as well as a large and reliable source of local business taxes for decades to come. For comparison, while the two existing nuclear stations were each producing 860 megawatts (Mw) at the time of the visit, a single, large wind turbine which also exists on the site was producing 0.65 Mw. That's less than a thousandth of the output of a single smallish nuclear reactor, and even that's only available when the wind blows. Speaking after his visit, Mr. Helmer said: “Two reactors have been operating at Olkiluoto for up to three decades, quietly, steadily and safely. They are now delivering reliable, predictable, carbon-free, low-cost energy to the shareholders, at sustainable prices well below those of gas-fired power stations. With concerns about energy security, and President Putin's gas-tap diplomacy, moving up the agenda, access to a secure and predictable power supply is a huge advantage for Finnish industry. “The anti-nuclear brigade are always banging on about nuclear waste. But as this visit demonstrates, disposal of nuclear waste is simply a technical problem that has already been solved. The good news is that even with waste disposal and eventual decommissioning costs factored-in, nuclear is still very much cheaper than electricity from other sources. I am concerned that Britain will be at a serious competitive disadvantage unless we too develop more nuclear capacity to provide low-cost power to British industry”. |
