Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
My objections to nuclear power plants like Hinckley Point C, is very much like my objections to giant aircraft carriers like HMS Queen Elizabeth,enormous 4×4 Chelsea tractors and massive houses, where one billionaire lives with just his trophy wife.
It’s just that they satisfy the ego of a class of men (and it’s usually men!), who like to show off, that they have more money or power than others.
There are generally much more efficient and affordable ways of achieving the same aims.
As a small example, I remember having a chat with a General in the British Army, who had very low opinions of heavy tanks and felt that there were better ways of spending the money to achieve the same objectives.
I also remember some of the arguments about the aluminium frigates after the Falklands War. A lot of these were amplified, by a friend, who’d gone to the islands as an officer on a British Rail ferry.
This is said about Hinckley Point C in Wikipedia.
Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is a much-delayed proposal to construct a 3,200 MWe nuclear power station with two EPR reactors in Somerset, England. The proposed site is one of eight announced by the British government in 2010,[5] and on 26 November 2012 a nuclear site licence was granted. In October 2014, the European Commission adjusted the “gain-share mechanism” so that the project does not break state-aid rules.[7] Financing for the project will be provided “by the mainly [French] state-owned EDF [and Chinese] state-owned CGN will pay £6bn for one third of it”.[8] EDF may sell up to 15% of their stake. Financing of the project is still to be finalised.
I have a feeling that any sane woman, who’s lived with a man with bad shopping habits, would cancel it tomorrow.
After all, it’s supposed to cost £18billion and there is still no date yet for when it will produce a watt of electricity.
As a reaction to these enormous costs, the Small Modular Nuclear Reactor is being proposed. Wikipedia says this.
Small modular reactors (SMRs) are a type of nuclear fission reactor which are smaller than conventional reactors, and manufactured at a plant and brought to a site to be fully constructed.
Small reactors are defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as those with an electricity output of less than 300 MWe, although general opinion is that anything with an output of less than 500 MWe counts as a small reactor.
Modular reactors allow for less on-site construction, increased containment efficiency, and heightened nuclear materials security.
I recommend reading the full Wikipedia article.
I feel that SMRs have a lot of advantages.
- Much more of the building can be in a factory, not on a bleak remote site.
- They are particularly suited to remote locations, where there is a shortage of construction workers.
- An SMR may be a much less risky project cost-wise than a conventional large plant.
- Containment is more efficient.
- Proliferation concerns are lessened.
- Say you are building a plant that needs a lot of electricity, like say an aluminium smelter. The SMR could be built alongside, so there would be no need for massive transmission lines, between the smelter and its power source.
- They could be built underground, lessening the visual impact.
- High energy use industries like steel-making could be paired with an SMR.
- Large office complexes like Canary Wharf could be linked to an SMR deep underneath for their massive energy use.
- Build time is much less.
I like the concept and think that this type of reactor, perhaps arranged in groups around a country or region, will kill off the traditional large nuclear reactor.
This section on safety features illustrates the innovative thinking behind the reactors.
Since there are several different ideas for SMRs, there are many different safety features that can be involved. Coolant systems can use natural circulation – convection – so there are no pumps, no moving parts that could break down, and they keep removing decay heat after the reactor shuts down, so that the core doesn’t overheat and melt. Negative temperature coefficients in the moderators and the fuels keep the fission reactions under control, causing the fission reactions to slow down as temperature increases.
I suspect we can now design a reliable reactor, that say it received a direct hit from a tsunami or three simultaneous crashes from Jumbo jets, would fail-safe.
There are certainly a lot of groups and companies trying to design the ultimate SMR.
There is even a concept being developed at the Universities of Manchester and Delft in the Netherlands called a u-Battery. That concept may not work, but something like it will produce electricity for a lot of people and industry around the world.
The dinosaurs like Hinckley Point C are hopefully a mistake of the past.
One Side Of A Man’s Kitchen
I’ve now virtually completed one side of my kitchen.
Note.
- The television is on a 270° swivel so it can be watched from outside, when I’m eating or working.
- The worktop will be extended through to continue over storage cupboards and a small deep-freeze on the other side of the hole in the wall.
- The cooker could be replaced by a small AGA-60 City.
- The shelf above the cooker will be moved up a bit and fitted with lights underneath.
- I think a fold-away stool would be better.
- It is currently planned that there will be a low wooden wall between the two sides, that will be topped by a steel beam, so that hot serving dishes can be placed there.
- The flange of the beam could also be used to store condiments, sauces, oils and other things that might be needed both inside and outside the kitchen.
- I haven’t decided where to put the touch-screen pad computer, so I can display my Serial Cooking pages.
- You’ll notice that there isn’t much electrical equipment. The only equipment, that I use is a Delia’s Little Chopper, which I acquired long before she publicised them, a kettle and a microwave .
- You’ll notice the only gas in the kitchen is in the fire extinguisher.
- Gas incidentally, should be banned from inside the inhabited parts of dwellings on health and safety grounds.
Many of the pictures were taken with me sitting on one of my all purpose stools, that I designed over forty years ago and had made by a furniture maker. Incidentally, four were used as saw horses to support the work-top, whilst it was cut to size.
Andrea Leadsom’s Lack Of Judgement
Andrea Leadsom may now have apologised to Theresa May according to this article on the BBC, but I believe the whole affair, shows a remarkable lack of judgement on her part.
In some ways it’s personal to me, as my family has a rather unusual genetic trait.
I have traced me male line back to The Tailor of Bexley in 1800 or so, and I’m certain that is where my coeliac disease came from.
What is curious, is that most women born into the direct male line of the family seem unable to have children, although nieces of the direct line have managed it.
It seems that if you’re the daughter of a coeliac in my family, you can’t have children.
You might say, as I’m a man, who only fathered sons, how am I affected?
Looking back on my family history, it has been riven with arguments and at the bottom of this, there has been the problems of some very strong females, both born in and married to the family.
I’ve also met others, who have similar problems in their families, which leads me to the conclusion, that the significant problem of childless women, should be left to themselves, their family and their doctors.
So to bring it up as an election issue, is just not on. In fact, as Michael Gove was adopted, you can accuse her of other things as well. I lived with an adopted woman for forty years and they are both proud and sensitive about their status.
As a Prime Minister, Leadsom will have to deal with lots of sensitive subjects and I don’t think she has the judgement and tact to handle some of the more difficult problems of this country and the wider world.
Forest Gate Station – 4th July 2016
I took these pictures of the works at Forest Gate station.
Note the little kiosk outside the station.
I think that when this station is finished, it will be one of the best on the Eastern branch of Crossrail.
How To Cook Gluten-Free Fish
As a coeliac, I get fed up with restaurants, who can’t cook fish in a simple gluten-free way.
On my trip to Sufbury, which I wrote about in Marks Tey Station And The Sudbury Branch, I needed to eat something.
I did find my usual stand-by of a Pizza Express, but felt that I might be better to wait until I got back to London and buy a gluten-free wrap or sandwich in Liverpool Street station.
I then came across the Codfather, which had a sign saying they did gluten-free fish and chips on Sunday.
The waitress said they could do me a plain grilled fish with new potatoes and vegetables, which I had.
It was excellent and I can heartily recommend the Codfather in Sudbury.
I can’t understand, why more restaurants, don’t use this simple method to satisfy, those like me, who need gluten-free food.
On BBC Breakfast this morning, there is a story about problems in our seaside resorts.
How many of them have a restaurant that sells gluten-free fish lunches and inners to the standard of the Codfather or Kubicki in Gdansk?
A quick search has found decent places in Brighton, Hastings and Blackpool, but others places don’t seem so well served.
Only In Frinton
A common target of East Anglian humour is Frinton, as over the years the town has acquired a dubious reputation about being anti-fun.
In The First Off Licence In Frinton, I told the story of how C got the town its first Off Licence. Her version of the tale, always ended with Frinton were not amused.
Rumour has it, for years, the sign on Manningtree station, which said something like Harwich For The Continent had been annotated with And Frinton For The Incontinent.
Tonight I found this under Recent Developments in the Wikipedia entry for The Sunshine Coast Line, which is the branch line that serves Clacton and Frinton.
A £104 million engineering project known as the Colchester to Clacton Resignalling Project took place on the line between December 2006 and July 2009. Life-expired signalling equipment was replaced and a new control system was installed; 170 modern LED signals were installed and eight manual level crossings were upgraded to full barrier crossings with security cameras. The line was closed every weekend and on public holidays, with bus replacement services provided.
There was opposition from the town of Frinton to keep the manual gates, which were reportedly removed “under cover of darkness”. Folklore has it that townspeople used to lock the gates to keep out coach-loads of tourists.
It is a typical Frinton story. I have no idea, if it’s true!
A Stray Class 68 Locomotive At Stratford Station
I took these pictures of a Class 68 locomotive.
You don’t see them very often at Stratford station.
But when you see them in a station, as I did here, you realise how much less noisy and smelly they are than the ubiquitous Class 66 locomotive.
This blog post from Reading University entitled EU Emission limits bite for new freight locomotives, gives a few details.
- The Class 66 meets the Stage 3A emission regulations, but the author does not know of any plans to meet Stage 3B.
- The Class 68 meets the Stage 3A regulations, and can be easily modified to meet Stage 3B.
- The Class 70 meets the Stage 3A regulations, but not Stage 3B, although that could be a future option.
You certainly don’t see anything other than a Class 68 pulling a passenger train.
Marks Tey Station And The Sudbury Branch
The Sudbury Branch or the Gainsborough Line, is one of those lines that abound all over the UK, to serve a major town stranded from the main line.
These pictures show my visit.
Note.
- The line is certainly rural.
- The Chappel Viaduct is large and gives good views.
- Bures station is rather quaint.
- Sudbury station is an easy walk to the Town Centre
- Chappel and Wakes Colne station has a railway museum.
- Marks Tey station seems to be being upgraded.
Incidentally, I was able to get to Sudbury from London for just £11.70, using my Freedom Pass to Shenfield and a ticket from there to Sudbury with my Senior Railcard.
The Future Of The Sudbury Branch
With the new franchise being awarded within a few weeks, I wonder what the plans are for Marks Tey station and the Sudbury Branch.
- I can’t find anything about the building works at Marks Tey station.
- The station certainly needs a proper bridge with lifts.
- Marks Tey only has two trains per hour in each direction. Is that enough?
- Trains are hourly between Marks Tey and Sudbury and for a weekday were fairly busy.
- In an ideal world, trains would be twice an hour on the Sudbury Branch and would synchronise with trains on the Great Eastern Main Line.
- The journey takes nineteen minutes between Sudbury and Marks Tey, which probably means that two trains are needed for a doubled frequency.
There is certainly a lot of potential for an improved service.
Two Trains Per Hour To Sudbury
The obvious way to achieve a two trains per hour service on the Sudbury Branch would be to use two trains. Although, this could be expensive as the line probably works currently under rules called One Train Working.
It would also need a passing loop on the single-track branch, two trains and two crews, so I think it could be discounted.
The line has a speed limit of 50 mph and it is not electrified. If the line was upgraded to increase this speed limit, it might be possible for a single train to shuttle twice between Marks Tey and Sudbury in an hour. Time could be saved, by using two drivers and changing them at Marks Tey. But the current time of nineteen minutes for the journey makes four trips in an hour impossible. It probably needs a time in the order of ten to thirteen minutes, which might be possible with a faster train after the track was upgraded to say 75 mph.
Electric trains accelerate faster and generally have shorter station dwell times, than the current Class 156 diesel trains.
So perhaps to electrify the line is an option, that would allow the desired service. But electrification of the line will be expensive and there will be a lot of opposition to having overhead gantries marching through the Suffolk countryside and on top of the Grade II Listed Chappel Viaduct.
An Aventra IPEMU To Sudbury
One solution that would work is to use something like a four-car Class 710 train, that are being built for the London Overground.
It would need to be an IPEMU, fitted with energy storage and there would probably need to be a short length of electrification in Platform 3 at Marks Tey station to charge the train after each trip to Sudbury.
A Suffolk Metro From Sudbury To Felixstowe
An alternative strategy may also be possible, which would require no new track, platforms or electrification.
The Felixstowe branch also needs new trains and could be run using a similar Aventra IPEMU from Ipswich.
So why not link the two services back-to-back to create a half-hourly service from Sudbury to Felixstowe, which called at the following stations?
- Bures
- Chappel and Wakes Colne
- Marks Tey
- Colchester
- Manningtree
- Ipswich
- Westerfield
- Derby Road
- Trimley
The trains would charge their energy storage on the main line and the Felixstowe branch would not need a bay platform at Ipswich station.
The Sudbury and Felixstowe Branches are eleven and twelve miles long respectively, which means that if the trains charged their energy storage on the main line between Ipswich and Marks Tey, they would need to be able to do about twenty-five miles on their on-board energy storage, which is well within all estimates of the train’s range.
Currently, using three trains that would take 72 minutes of train time, but I suspect that time saved on the branches by an Aventra could make the trip in around an hour.
In Could Class 387 Trains Do Norwich In Ninety And Ipswich In Sixty?, I postulated that to achieve the Norwich in Ninety and Ipswich in Sixty targets, all trains North of Colchester, must be capable of running at 110 mph, so they don’t slow the crack East Anglian Expresses down.
This rule would probably have to apply to the Felixstowe to Sudbury trains.
This would be one of those train services where most are winners.
- Passengers on the two branch lines get a two trains per hour direct service to Ipswich, Manningtree and Colchester, run using modern four-car electric trains.
- Passengers using stations between Marks Tey and Ipswich would have extra trains to Ipswich and Colchester.
- The train operator replaces two ageing diesel multiple units, with two brand-new electric multiple units with an IPEMU-capability.
- Network Rail would have no electrification to install and only minimal changes to make to infrastructure, such as some general track improvement and platform lengthening.
- It would probably help time-keeping, if the long-promised dualling of part of the Felixstowe Branch were to be done.
- There might even be a case for reopening disused stations at Bentley, Ardleigh and Orwell and perhaps creating a couple of new ones.
What I have proposed is pure speculation, but it could be the first line of the Suffolk Metro.
Incidentally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see four-car Aventra IPEMUs working the following routes for the new East Anglian Franchise.
- Cambridge to Norwich.
- Ipswich to Bury St. Edmunds, Cambridge, Ely and Peterborough
- March to Wisbech
- Norwich to Cromer, Lowestoft, Sheringham and Yarmouth.
The only line, which would be outside their capability would be Ipswich to Lowestoft, which is just a bit long. But the Aventras would release Class 170 trains to provide a high quality service on this line.
There are several reasons, why I think that IPEMUs might be used in East Anglia.
- The tests of the IPEMU technology were carried out by Abellio Greater Anglia on the Harwich branch. The drivers must know how good the IPEMU technology really is.
- East Anglia has several branch lines for which using IPEMU technology, is an affordable way of introducing electric trains.
- Network Rail have an appalling record, when it comes to electrification.
- What is the state of the electrification on the Braintree, Southminster and Harwich branches? It might be more affordable instead of replacing dodgy wiring to use a train with IPEMU technology.
- Quite a few of these branches have capacity problems, which a four-car electric train would solve.
- The invitation to tender for the franchise included the following – “extra points will be awarded to bidders who include plans to trial new technologies in rolling stock”
- Providing free wi-fi across the franchise is mandated. Does anybody fancy doing this in a Class 153 or Class 156 train?
The new franchise is supposed to be awarded before the 21st of July, this year.
It will be interesting to hear the winner’s plans.
Onward To Cambridge
It is just a pity, that the Stour Valley Railway from Sudbury to Cambridge via Haverhill was closed in the 1960s.
In Sudbury To Cambridge – D-Train, IPEMU Or Tram-Train?, I looked at the various options for reopening the whole line to create a new route from Ipswich and Colchester to Cambridge via Marks Tey, Sudbury and Haverhill.
As trains from Sudbury to Felixstowe will probably be Aventra IPEMUs with a main line capability, these trains would be used through to Cambridge, which is about fifty miles from Marks Tey.
I think this line will eventually be rebuilt.
- This is the sort of project a devolved East Anglian Authority would back.
- It creates alternative routes to London and Cambridge.
- It joins up well with the East West Rail Link and the prtoposed station at Addenbrookes Hospital.
- It provides another commuting route for Cambridge.
- It puts Haverhill back on the rail map.
- It would complete rail links from Suffolk’s County Town of Ipswich to all parts of the county
Who knows what routes will be unlocked by the reopening of the Stour Valley Railway?
I’m Rather Pleased We’ve Now Got Fixed Term Parliaments
On Sunday morning, I usually watch the Andrew Marr Show and then listen to Pienaar’s Politics on the radio.
- Jeremy Corbyn didn’t give the sort of performance one would expect from a future Prime Minister.
- Aaron Banks, who supports UKIP, frightened me, with his support for the party of neck-enders.
- I didn’t like the treatment Angela Eagle says she is getting from Corbyn supporters.
The only sane voices were the two women, who reviewed the papers on the Andrew Marr Show.
One was so disillusioned with the Labour Party, she has decided to be a stand-up comedian. She certainly got plenty of material.
At least because we should wait to 2020 for the next General Election, there is time for everything to calm down.
Whitechapel’s Overground Platform Extensions Are Taking Shape
Whitechapel station has short Overground platforms and it was always said they’d be extended after Crossrail opens.
Judging by these pictures, it would appear that there isn’t much work to do.
The Anonymous Widower 