Read that headline again. Take a deep breath…
Due for completion in 2012 at the earliest, the so-called state of the art and third generation OL3 European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) being built at Olkiluoto, Finland has been under construction since 2005.
Four years later, documents leaked to Finnish YLE television news make for disturbing reading. STUK, the Finnish governmental authority for the nuclear industry overseeing the project, is still yet to receive design documents that would show how the basic principles of nuclear safety are going to be met in the reactor when it is completed.
Don’t take our word for it, here’s Jukka Laaksonen, Director General of STUK, in his letter to the Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of the reactor’s builder Areva...
Without a proper design that meets the basic principles of nuclear safety, and is consistently and transparently derived from the concept presented as an annex to the construction license application, I see no possibility to approve these important systems for installation. This would mean that the construction will come to a halt and it is not possible to start commissioning tests.
[E]vident design errors are not corrected and we are not receiving design documentation with adequate information and verifiable design requirements.
(See the post below this one for the full letter)
Four years after construction began and a year after concerns were raised, the designs for the most vital and fundamental part of this untried and untested nuclear reactor are not yet in place. We’re talking about the safety systems of the world’s largest nuclear reactor – the systems that control everything in a reactor, from power levels to control rods and cooling systems. These designs should have been in place years ago.
How can the construction of a nuclear reactor be approved without these things being done? How has this happened? How has it been allowed to happen? Is it incompetence or cover-up? Which would you rather it was?
And this is just the latest in a long line of incompetence and cover-up in the construction of the OL3. Massive cost and budget overruns. Substandard construction and safety oversight. The gagging of workers from speaking out about concerns. A previously cosy relationship between STUK and Areva.
This project is supposed to be the launch of the world’s flagship nuclear reactor. EPR is supposed to stand at the forefront of an over-hyped nuclear ‘renaissance’. Instead it has degenerated quickly from joke to farce to very really danger – a byword for everything that’s wrong with nuclear power.
And yet this is a reactor design that Areva wants to build all over the world – France, China, UK, United States, India, Italy, Abu Dhabi. Areva are clearly incapable of managing a project of this size and complexity with anything approaching transparency or competence. The company’s construction permit should be cancelled immediately.