Section:GDN 1N PaGe:29 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 19:33 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019 The Guardian •
FinancialFinancial^29
Nuclear watchdog says reactor
with core cracks is safe to restart
Jillian Ambrose
Britain’s nuclear watchdog has agreed
to allow one of the country’s oldest
nuclear reactors to restart, one year
after it was shut down to investigate
cracks in its graphite core.
EDF Energy is expected to restart
reactor 4 at its 40-year-old Hunterston
B nuclear plant within weeks after the
Offi ce for Nuclear Regulation (ONR)
said the plant was safe.
The regulator will allow the reac-
tor to run for four months after
proving that the reactor cores can
still fulfi l their fundamental safety
requirements, despite the cracks in
the graphite bricks.
Donald Urquhart, ONR’s deputy
chief inspector, said the regulator
made the decision to give Hunterston
B’s reactor 4 the greenlight after a
“long and detailed assessment of the
safety case” submitted by EDF Energy.
“Nuclear safety remains our utmost
priority. We would only allow a reactor
to re-start with clear evidence that it
remains safe for workers and the pub-
lic,” he said.
EDF said it had spent more than
£125m completing the “most extensiveinvestigation of the reactor core ever
undertaken” to prove the safety of
Hunterston , which is in North Ayr-
shire, Scotland.
Investigators discovered more than
expected cracks in the core of the
power plant’s reactor 4, which was
shut down in 2018. Its application to
restart reactor 3, also closed in 2018
and found to have over 350 hairline
cracks in its graphite core , is pending.
EDF Energy had expected to restart
the reactors in November but was
forced to delay until the end of April
2019 , and now hopes to being power-
ing homes by the end of August.
The company said it had proved that
“even in the most extreme conditions”
its reactors would continue to operate
“within large safety margins”.
EDF, a French state-owned energy
company, owns and operates all of the
UK’s existing nuclear power plants,
which provide about a fi fth of the UK’s
electricity. It is hoping to extend the
plants’ operational life and build new
nuclear plants at the Hinkley Point C
and Sizewell B nuclear sites. It hopes
to run Hunterston until 2023.UK’s shale gas
reserves may
be exaggerated,
study fi nds
Jillian AmbroseThe UK’s underground shale gas
reserves may deliver only a fraction
of the gas promised by fracking fi rms
and government ministers, according
to a new study.
The research by the University of
Nottingham found that early estimates
may have hugely exaggerated the UK’s
shale reserves.
The paper comes less than a week
after the government hinted that min-
isters may consider opening a review
into loosening the UK’s fracking limits.
Nottingham University said it
used a new technique to measure
the shale gas trapped in the Bowland
shale basin, and found signifi cantly
lower levels of gas than suggested by
a widely quoted study six years ago.
In 2013, the British Geological Sur-
vey found there were likely to be
1,300 tn cubic feet of gas buried in the
ground , or enough to meet UK gas
demand for 50 years. The new study
found there may be 200 tn cubic feet ,
which would last about a decade.
Prof Colin Snape at Nottingham
University said: “We have made great
strides in developing a laboratory
test procedure to determine shale
gas potential. This can only serve to
improve people’s understanding and
government decisions around the
future of what role shale gas can make
to the UK’s energy demands .”
A BEIS spokesperson said: “The UK
has potentially signifi cant shale gas
reserves, but exploration is necessary
to understand whether it will be possi-
ble to safely and economically extract
them. The Government is supportive
of shale gas exploration in order to
understand the size of the opportu-
nity here in the UK.”States
interfering
in markets
a threat
to global
economy
- BHP boss
Martin Farrer
The rise of nationalism and govern-
ments that interfere in markets pose a
threat to the global economic system,
the boss of BHP , the world’s biggest
mining company, has warned.
Despite announcing profi ts that had
more than doubl ed to $ 8.3 bn (£6.8 bn),
helped by booming iron ore sales to
China, Andrew Mackenzie said yes-
terday there were “a number of things
abroad” that were causing concern for
the giant Anglo- Australian business.
The standoff between the US and
China was one , he said, warning it
could threaten the company’s bottom
line and the wider global economy.
“The US-China relationship is a con-
sideration for us,” Mackenzie said in
Melbourne. “We continue to enjoy
strong sales to China. But no doubt
this [trade standoff ] will put a damp-
ener on world economic growth.
“More generally there are num-
ber of things abroad ... increased
nationalism, increased assertion by
governments to interfere in global sup-
ply chains and capitalism ... that is a
consideration.”
The chief executive’s thinly veiled
reference to Donald Trump’s decision
to impose tariff s on Chinese imports
into the US refl ects BHP’s delicate posi-
tion in the global economy.
The group’s huge profi ts come from
operations around the world. BHP
and its shareholders have benefi ted
enormously as it has fuelled China’s
expansion with raw materials such
as iron ore, coking coal and copper. A
fi nal payout of $4bn to shareholders
announced yesterday makes a record
total of $17bn for the year, with a fi nal
dividend of 78 cents a share.
But as the US-China trade standoff
develops into a broader clash over cur-
rencies and regulation, it appears to
threaten the rules-based order that has
allowed emerging economies to grow
rapidly in the past 30 years.
Mackenzie said that BHP enjoyed
a healthy and balanced relationship
with Beijing, but that he “completely
gets” the need for countries such as
Australia, where BHP has its opera-
tional headquarters, to respect the
traditional alliances that had “under-
pinned and given rise to the liberal
approach” enjoyed in the west. “It’snot an easy balance to manage,” he
said, adding that he thought poli-
ticians in Australia, whose biggest
trading partner is China, were doing
a “reasonable” job.
Mackenzie also faces a confl ict over
the need to develop resources while
taking what he called a “responsible
approach to global warming”.
In July he said the impact of the
climate crisis was “indisputable” and
although the company is planning to
wind down its thermal coal business- coal used for power generation – he
would not be drawn on a timetable.
“We don’t intend to invest and grow
the business,” he said.
Mackenzie’s remarks about China
came as Scott Morrison, the Austral-
ian prime minister, yesterday called
for a new set of rules to manage world
trade. The Australian government
faces the same balancing act as BHP in
its approach to China, especially since
the mounting political crisis in Hong
Kong brings the possibility that Beijing
could intervene to quell the protests.
Having taken millions out of pov-
erty, China needed to enter a new
phase, Morrison said. “Having
achieved that critical mass of eco-
nomic performance, the rules that
apply to all of us – the US – have got
to apply in China as well,” he told the
Australian TV network Channel Seven.
Morrison said there was “no doubt
that the economic rise of China has
had a profound impact for process-
ing and manufacturing in the US ”. He
added: “The US has made some very
legitimate points about the nature of
trading relationship. ”▼ BHP’s iron ore operations in Port
Hedland, Western Australia. The
group has reported profi ts of $8.3bn
PHOTOGRAPH: AFP/GETTY‘US-China is a
consideration for
us ... it will put a
dampener on growth’Andrew Mackenzie
Chief executive, BHP▲ Hunterston B nuclear power plant,
which EDF assures is safe to runRELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws