French, UK nuclear sectors say aim to learn from events in Japan

London (Platts)--14Mar2011/625 am EDT/1025 GMT

France will learn from the nuclear events unfolding in Japan following last week's massive earthquake and Tsunami, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said.

A second explosion Monday at the Fukushima nuclear plant on Japan's eastern coast raised concerns over radiation levels. This followed an explosion at reactor-1 Saturday. The plant has six reactors in total, with a capacity of almost 5 GW.

At a meeting Sunday with ministers and heads of the French nuclear sector, Fillon said the country "would draw any useful lessons" from events in Japan.

The comment followed a statement Saturday from Andre-Claude Lacoste, president of ASN, the French nuclear safety authority. Lacoste said lessons would be learned at an appropriate time "and in full clarity."

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France is the world's second-largest nuclear power generator after the US. Around 80% of French electricity demand is supplied from EDF's 58 nuclear reactors, situated alongside rivers and coastlines throughout France.

EDF is currently building its first third-generation nuclear reactor on French soil, at Flamanville, northern France. It plans to build another at Penly, an operational nuclear site, and several in the UK. The French government has been pushing its nuclear sector to perform better in the global market.

Many European countries have been moving towards building new nuclear plants or extending the lifespans of existing plants. The bloc of 27 EU countries aims for an ambitious reduction of carbon emissions and wants a more self-contained energy supply.

Japan supplies around 30% of its power from nuclear plants, but the shutdowns since the earthquake have already led to widespread power cuts.

The incidents at Fukushima were given an official INES safety level of 4, on a risk scale of 1 to 7, the latter being the most dangerous.

UK GOVERNMENT OFFERS ASSISTANCE

The UK government offered at the weekend to help Japan. UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne said late Saturday: "If Japan needs any assistance in terms of nuclear physicists and expertise from the United Kingdom, we would be very willing to help."

Huhne said that an explosion at Fukushima was "a very serious matter" but that it was "much too early to say what the impact and implications are." He said the government would work with the International Atomic Energy Agency and Japan to learn any relevant lessons.

The UK is aiming to push forward its own new nuclear build program over the next decade to replace old reactors going out of service and to boost the share of low carbon power generation in the energy mix as old coal-fired power plants come up for replacement.

The government's consultation into a major energy market reform package closed March 10.

The package proposes measures including long-term auctions for long-term low-carbon power supply contracts intended to boost new nuclear power and renewable energy generation.

--Robin Sayles, newsdesk@platts.com
--Alex Froley, alex_froley@platts.com