Forward View
populace opposed to new nuclear build. Tis is partly attributable to the memories of the earthquake which struck the city of L’Aquila in April 2009, killing more than 300 people and flattening whole towns.
Spain
According to Spanish finance minister Elena Salgado, Spain has not made any new decisions regarding nuclear energy after the accidents in Japan. Spain does not have plans to build any new nuclear capacity but the government and regulatory agencies had been taking an increasingly soft approach to the sector: license renewal for Almaraz 1 and 2 came up for review in 2010, and in April the Spanish authorities recommended that a 10-year extension be granted to 2020. Te government concurred and in January 2011
approved 70MWe uprates for both reactors, with 68MWe for Unit 1 being imminent, the engineering work having been already done. Furthermore, in February 2011
parliament removed a
legal provision limiting NPP operating lives to 40 years. At the
time, a government minister proclaimed that although still opposed to new build, “almost all nuclear power units will be open, operating and even repowering” until 2021. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ordered a review of his country’s NPPs in light of the crisis unfolding in Japan but has urged calm, describing the policy as an ‘extra precaution’. Protests against NPPs this week have so far been relatively small, amounting to only a few hundred.
United Kingdom Nuclear power in the United Kingdom is not considered as controversial as in other parts of Europe. Te hiatus in nuclear development came more as a result of cheap gas and advances in combined-cycle gas turbine generating technology in the 1990s than public opposition to reliance on nuclear power. Since the Labour government’s white paper in 2005, however, the country has been planning a revival of the sector. Tus far the government’s response to the crisis in Japan has been relatively muted: the energy secretary Chris Huhne has asked the chief nuclear inspector Mike Weightman to report on Britain’s nuclear safety by mid-May. Indeed, the energy minister Charles Hendry has sought to downplay the review stating, “I think a delay is the wrong word, and certainly not a moratorium”. Te UK’s situation is unique in that it is the only country in the world which plans to see new NPPs constructed and operated entirely by the private sector. Tis lack of state involvement meant that the economics of new plants were already tight, hence any new regulatory costs could very easily make
Generation .2 Electric actuators – Advance information
Currently, plant operators only receive fault signals when a malfunction has occurred. Generation .2 actuators help to avoid these malfunctions using a system of temperature, torque and vibration sensors with intelligent evaluation and a standardised signal system based on NAMUR recommendations. Deviations from the defi ned operation conditions are signalled to the control room.
■ Time-stamped setting, operation process and fault history
■ Status signals in accordance with NAMUR NE 107
■ Wireless access to all actuator data ■
Memorisation of all actuator data via AUMA Tool Suite
www.generation2.auma.com
AUMA Riester GmbH & Co. KG | P.O. Box 1362 79373 Muellheim, Germany Tel. +49 7631 809-0 |
www.auma.com
Circle 11 or ✔ at
www.engineerlive.com/ipe generation_2_anzeige_halbe_seite_ohne_beschnitt.indd 2 11.03.2011 08:36:21
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