SHUT IT DOWN before it MELTS DOWN!!!

585 cracks at Scotland's last remaining nuclear reactor

Published in the July 6th, 2025 edition of The National.

Cracks in the graphite core of the Torness nuclear reactor in East Lothian, Scotland’s last remaining nuclear power station, have risen to 585, the highest number ever, igniting fears of a nuclear meltdown and calls to shut it down.

During a March inspection, the 585 cracks were found in the bricks in Reactor 1’s central core area, which are key components for cooling and keeping the reactor from melting down.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25260633.shut-down-demands-scotlands-last-nuclear-plant-breaches/

Torness is run by EDF, France’s national energy company, and was scheduled to shut down in 2023 but in 2016, EDF extended its life to 2030.

The Ferret obtained documents released under FOIA from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), that the parlous state of the graphite core posed a “significant challenge” to keep the ageing plant operating safely over the next five years.

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25979577/foi202504006-response-letter.pdf

EDF insists that Torness is safe (and ONR seems to trust EDF) but it would, wouldn’t it? It has every incentive to keep the plant humming along, generating profits for the French national energy company, at the expense of the safety of its Scottish customers. What do they care if there’s a nuclear meltdown in faraway East Lothian?

Scotland’s other nuclear power station at Hunterston B in North Ayrshire was shut down in January 2022, more than a year earlier than planned, following the discovery of 586 cracks in its two reactors. If Hunterston B was deemed too dangerous to continue operating, why isn’t Torness?

Hunterston B

I’ve previously covered the nuclear industry’s campaign through its lobby group, Britain Remade, to reverse Scotland’s ban on new nuclear power. It’s getting help from English Labour MPs in Scotland. The scandal-ridden Douglas Alexander, Lothian East MP, is pimping for the nuclear industry as seen below in the June 26th edition of The Herald.

One need only look at the problems France is having with nuclear power, which provides 70% of its energy. Last month, European power prices soared due to corrosion in the Civaux 2 reactor.

In 2022, a record number of France’s 56 reactors, 57% of its nuclear capacity, were offline because of corrosion problems. In addition, some reactors have had to cut production during the increasingly hot summers to prevent rivers used to cool reactors from overheating, a problem that will only worsen as the climate heats up.

Scotland isn’t France. Because we possess enormous renewable energy resources, as well as oil and gas, we don’t want or need uneconomic and unsafe nuclear and should strongly resist English Labour’s attempts to force it onto us.

That’s another reason why we need as many signatures as possible for PE2135 (6,960 people have signed), to implement the UN ICCPR into Scots law, so the Scottish People have the right to launch public referendums to stop corrupt politicians dead in their tracks if they dare to go against them.

Below is a letter my friend, Frances McKie, submitted to The Herald following its shameful pro-nuclear coverage in its June 26th edition. It chose not to publish it so I’m delighted to do so here.

Dear Sir,

Last week, the notorious nuclear lobby appeared to take over the front pages of "The Herald" newspaper. Such brash, aggressive campaigning seemed unprecedented - even for them. Along with the current Labour administration in London, they have begun to sound truly hysterical as they continue to shriek that our Scottish Adminstration must allow them to impose more nuclear reactors onto Scotland. We need to ask why.

At the same time, EDF have just been given permission by that same Labour administration, to continue operating their nuclear reactor at Torness for another five years - despite the fact that it now has THE SAME NUMBER of cracks in its graphite core that finally forced the closure of the Hunterston B on safety grounds.

The potential consequences and environmental and health risks to surrounding communities of cracks in any part of a nuclear reactor, are very serious. This careless attitude of the English Labour Party - which has governmental responsibility for public safety - is very worrying. Again, we need to ask why.

Meanwhile, in France, after two years of huge problems with corrosion and shutdowns in most of their nuclear reactors, the Civaux 2 Reactor, recently "repaired", has just been shut down again, to "repair the repairs", while new corrosion is investigated. We should urgently ask why corrosion and cracks at Torness are ignored, while the French nuclear inspectorate demand action be taken.

The answer to all these questions is simply that Westminster requires Scotland, which produces more sustainable, clean electricity than we can use, to remain (i) a producer of nuclear waste and (ii), to be implicated in the need to secure supplies of uranium for Westminster's very stupid backward lunge towards nuclear fission.

I hope the Scottish Administration stands firm: we are reliving a horrible history.

I was 25 years old when a London Labour Government nominated Galloway [selected by the Scottish Administration as the preferred site for Scotland’s 3rd National Park] as the UK High Level Nuclear Waste Dump and Orkney as the UK National Uranium Mine.

Galloway

Fifty years later, having, apparently, despite Chernobyl and Fukushima, learned nothing about the pointlessness of distance from nuclear disasters and pollution, it is coming at poor old "remote and expendable" Scotland again.

Frances McKie