nuclear-news

Nuclear delusions keep mushrooming The Age BILL WILLIAMS October 15, 2009 “……….. on closer scrutiny, nuclear power’s real potential is disappointing. Despite over half a century of intensive subsidisation and promotion, it produces less than 15 per cent of the world’s electricity. This may seem hard to believe, given the fervour with which its promoters have been singing its praises of late, but the numbers speak for themselves.

In addition to 430 reactors operating worldwide, 52 reactors are listed by the International Atomic Energy Agency as ”under construction”. Thirteen have been on that list for over 20 years, and 24 still don’t have an official planned start-up date…………….the industry gestures excitedly at China (16 under construction), India (seven under construction) and Russia (nine under construction), which are unlikely even to compensate for lost global capacity as older reactors will have to close.

Predictions of huge expansion in Eastern Europe or North America – even in Australia – over the next two decades border on hysteria. Don’t be deceived by talk of ”planned reactors” or ”new generation solutions”: ask to see the poured concrete and the installed reactor core…………………….

Critical to a sustainable energy future is demand reduction, not by ”returning to the Dark Ages”, but by using available and emerging technologies in building, design and transport.

One conservative scenario, prepared by the Clean Energy Future Group, proposes an electricity supply model which comprises solar (5 per cent); hydro (7 per cent); coal/petroleum (10 per cent); wind (20 per cent); bio-energy (28 per cent); and gas (30 per cent). This model would reduce our electricity sector emissions by 78 per cent by 2040.

Even if the logic of the market were not choking the nuclear industry, its modest capacity to address climate change mitigation makes it a dangerous diversion of resources.

Areva May Sign India Nuclear Contract Early Next Year

By Natalie Obiko Pearson

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Areva SA, the world’s biggest maker of atomic reactors, said an agreement with Nuclear Power Corp. of India to build a plant in the South Asian nation may be signed early next year before approvals are received……..

…..Areva will initially supply the Indian state-run monopoly with two 1,650-megawatt reactors for the project, the first large-capacity plant to be built after a global ban was lifted, according to the preliminary agreement between the companies in February. The final accord will be signed after getting French parliamentary and regulatory approvals.

Czech industry ministry sparks uproar with long term power plans Radio Czechoslovakia 14-10-2009  Chris JohnstoneThe Czech Ministry of Industry has just made public its plans for the country’s energy policy over the next four decades. They include more nuclear power, the breaching of environmental barriers to mining brown coal, and expansion of uranium mining. ………

……the ministry calls for further mining of uranium — either at the current deep mine in the centre of the country or at sites in the north. That area is still suffering from the massive pollution problems caused by the chemical extraction of uranium under the former communist regime. This polluted the groundwater and has resulted in an ongoing clean-up costing billions of crowns…………..

 Step on the gas for power needs  Daily Herald Tribune Brock F. Smith 15 Oct 09  “…………Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and expensive.I cannot understand why the Minister is even considering this when Alberta is awash in natural gas and oil.

If our government wants to create jobs, why don’t they push the use of natural gas? If the rigs started drilling again for gas, thousands and thousands of jobs would be created all over the province.The province should be pushing to convert cars from gasoline to natural gas, build natural gas refuelling stations and help build the proposed pipeline to Prince Rupert.

A natural gas-fired electric plant produces half the pollution of a coal-fired plant. If the heat can be utilized, a small natural gas-fired electrical generator is quite economical for a concentrated area.Bruce

Power is going to leave us stuck with the dirty radioactive spent rods for thousands of years, as there is no facility for long-term storage of them in North America.Presently, the spent rods are put in a nuclear swimming pool and water is pumped around them 24 hours a day for 10 years. Then, if they are cool enough, they are encased in a cement silo on site and air-cooled for another 20 years. So far, they are just left there as there is no long-term storage and nobody knows how to make long life waste packages (50,000 years plus).One of the problems is that the spent rods keep giving off heat for another 50,000 years, so if they are buried deep in the ground there has to be some system of ventilation or they will heat up again.

German Nuke Reprieve Could Hurt Wind SPIEGEL ONLINE 14 Oct 09 Plans by Germany’s new coalition government to postpone a shutdown of the country’s nuclear power plants may delay the growth of wind energy “………….

The plan is that these turbines will one day generate 12,000 megawatts, enough electricity for 12 million households. It would take 12 medium-sized nuclear power stations to produce the same amount of electricity—and that’s where the problem lies. Each individual giant wind turbine could cost around €10 million because installing it and maintaining it at sea is extremely expensive.

Such projects can only be afforded by large corporations capable of investing hundreds of millions of euros, and the only viable players are the big German energy companies that also run nuclear power stations: E.on (EONGn.DE), RWE (RWEG.DE), Vattenfall and EnBW……………….environmental groups and energy analysts suspect the various projects will grind to a halt if the new German government goes ahead with its plan to postpone the phase-out of nuclear power stations, originally scheduled to be completed by 2020………………….”In Germany, by contrast, the company would be competing against its own fossil power business if it were to proceed with strong investment drive in renewable energy,” says Gerder.

U.S. ‘Deeply Committed’ to Solving Climate Change . Bloomberg .  By Tara Patel 14 Oct 09 “………..The government will soon announce loan guarantees for nuclear power plants “very soon.”

The U.S. is “working aggressively to restart the nuclear industry,” Chu said. “I believe the nuclear waste problem is solvable on a scientific level and a political level.”

The medical and economic costs of nuclear power Global Research, Dr Helen Caldicott, 14 Oct 09 “……….the economic feasibility of a “nuclear renaissance” at this time. The World Nuclear Industry Status Report published in August 2009 states that the nuclear industry continues to face steadily increasing construction costs and future cost estimates.

The AREVA French-designed reactor project in Olkiluoto Finland is three years behind schedule and 55 per cent over budget (US$7 billion). There are now 435 commercial reactors operating globally, nine fewer than 2002. In 2008, nuclear electricity provided only 5.5 per cent of the international commercial primary energy production.

The average age of operating reactors globally is 25 years, while the average age of 123 reactors already closed is 22 years only. In addition to the 52 reactors currently under construction, another 43 reactors would have to be planned, built and started by 2015 – one every six weeks, and another 192 units over the following 10 years – one every 19 days – in order to maintain the same number that are operating today.

With extremely long lead times of 10 to 15 years, this will be an impossible task, let alone actually increasing the number of reactors.None of the new countries wanting nuclear power have the appropriate nuclear regulations, independent regulators, the domestic maintenance capacity and the skilled workforce to run a nuclear reactor. Nor do they have an adequate grid system to absorb the output of a nuclear power plant.

Furthermore some of these countries either have a government hostile to the concept of nuclear power (Norway, Malaysia, Thailand), hostile public opinion (Italy and Turkey), major economic problems (Poland), earthquake or volcanic risks (Indonesia) or some have an absolute lack of all necessary infrastructure (Venezuela)…………..
These problems, together with the global financial crisis mean that the prospects of funding for the nuclear industry – most of which is government sourced – looks grim. New reactors are too risky and expensive to attract private investor funding, and the nuclear industry will not proceed with its “new build” unless they can transfer the risk to the tax payers or ratepayers.

N.S. legislates ban on the exploration and mining of uranium( Google News CP) – 15 Oct 09 HALIFAX, N.S. — A moratorium on the exploration and mining of uranium in Nova Scotia will be turned into law by the provincial government.The ban has been in place since 1981, but was only in the form of a cabinet policy statement.

Natural Resources Minister John MacDonell says enshrining the ban in law fulfills a promise made by the NDP.He says a legislated moratorium will make it more difficult for future governments to rescind or change the law.

The legislation is modeled on an Australian law. It will allow mining operations that encounter uranium in the course of looking for another mineral to continue as long as the uranium is present in quantities less than .01 per cent by weight.

Land take-over begins for 9,600 MW Maharashtra nuke plant Sify News 14 Oct 09 Work on the 9,600 MW Jaitapur nuclear power project in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district will kick off Thursday with the process of acquiring 938 hectares of land, a top official said here Wednesday. The project, in collaboration with French company Areva, would involve setting up six European pressurised water reactors (EPRs), each with a 1,600 MW capacity is expected to be completed around 2020, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd chief S.K. Jain said……………………

Aiming at multiple sources for its nuclear fuels requirements, India would acquire stake in some of the uranium mines of Areva located in Australia, Niger and Kazakhastan, with the French Nuclear Corporation, or the NPCIL and Areva jointly acquiring mines in other countries and setting up fuel processing facilities, according to Jain.