Nuclear weapons are designed to kill. Nuclear power plants are designed to produce power for society at large. But talk to a nuclear specialist, and the line separating a military weapon from a civilian-use reactor can quickly blur. Whenever the words "nuclear" and "Middle East" are uttered in the same sentence, a discussion about proliferation risks is almost surely bound to follow because nuclear technology is dual-use.
"There's an old saying, which is a nuclear power plant in a country is like a pre-deployed nuclear weapon for the enemy," Mycle Schneider, convening lead author and the publisher of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR), told Al Jazeera. "People don't realise, but the radioactive inventory in a nuclear power plant is much, much larger than what is in a nuclear weapon."
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is going nuclear. In March, the UAE finished loading fuel rods into one of four brand-new nuclear reactors at the Barakah (Arabic for "divine blessing") nuclear power station - the first on the Arabian Peninsula.
Nuclear energy specialists are sounding the alarm over the potential fallout the UAE reactors could visit upon the Gulf, an ecologically fragile and geopolitically volatile patch of planet Earth.
What they describe is not one potential risk, but layers of them - from an environmental disaster, to theft of radioactive materials, to a nuclear arms race between regional rivals.
Paul Dorfman, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Energy Institute, University College London and founder and chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group. Dorfman advises governments on nuclear radiation risks. And governments take his advice.
His verdict on Barakah: "This is the wrong reactor, in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Radioactive release does not have to stem from human error. It could also result from a deliberate attack on a nuclear reactor. And the Middle East has witnessed more of those than any other region on Earth.
"This is not a place that allows for mere academic speculation about the possibility of someone else taking a whack at a reactor," Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, told Al Jazeera. "If you go back just even a few years, you can get to 13 aerial strikes against reactors in the region."
"It's concerning that in a volatile area, these reactors are being built in what seems to be a relatively cheap and cheerful kind of way," said Dorfman. "The Barakah reactor, although it is a relatively modern reactor, it does not have what is known as 'Generation III+ [three plus] Defense-in-Depth'. In other words, it doesn't have added-on protection from an airplane crash or missile attack." Those missing defence features include what Dorfman describes as "a load of concrete with a load of reinforced steel" for extra protection from an aerial attack and a "core catcher" that literally catches the reactor core if it melts down. "Both of these engineering groups would normally be expected in any new nuclear reactor in Europe," he said.
Beyond the spectre of a deliberate attack or theft of radioactive materials, experts also worry that Barakah could witness an accident caused by human error.
Every country needs a nuclear regulatory body to ensure the safe operations of reactors. In the UAE, that job falls to the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR). Established in 2009, FANR boasts on its website that it has "achieved remarkable success in the UAE's peaceful nuclear programme through transparency in its operations". But Barakah has a troubling record of less-than-timely disclosures of problems. Cracks in Barakah's number-three containment building were detected in 2017, but the Director General of FANR, Christer Viktorsson, only publicly disclosed this in November 2018 when it further admitted that cracks had also been found in Barakah's number-two containment building. Cracks were eventually detected in all four Barakah containment buildings.
"ENEC's reluctance to reveal any details speaks volumes about the transparency of the Barakah new build," said Dorfman.
Schneider said, "It seems to be particularly problematic to access information in this country [the UAE], which is somewhat worrying when it comes to high-risk technologies."
Sokolski also has questions about Middle East nuclear energy ambitions. "If they want electricity, this is a very poor way to do it," he said, noting the abundance of alternative energy sources the UAE and other countries in the region with nuclear power plants under development could harness including natural gas, sun and wind. "Building a nuclear power plant would be like number 58 on your top five things to do, and that they've chosen to focus on this [nuclear] is suspect."
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/nuclear-gulf-experts-sound-alarm-uae-nuclear-reactors-200628194524692.html
No comments:
Post a Comment