nuclear-news

Nuclear industry stalled in all safety-conscious countries

SPIEGEL ONLINE By Dinah Deckstein, Frank Dohmen and Cordula Meyer Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan. 15 Oct 09

Global Renaissance off to a Slow Start

The French state-owned company isn’t the only one having trouble building new nuclear power plants. Last year, for the first time since the beginning of the nuclear age, not a single new reactor went into service worldwide.According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, 52 reactors are “under construction,” although 13 of them have been under construction for more than 20 years now. And in the case of 24 reactors, it is not even clear when exactly they can be put online.

More importantly, 36 of the new reactors are to be built in China, India, Russia and South Korea rather than the safety conscious West. “It makes me dizzy to think that 16 power plants will be built at the same time in China, and that all you hear from China is that there are no problems,” says nuclear critic Schneider.

Other than in Finland, only one other new nuclear reactor is currently under construction in the Western world. At the reactor construction site in Flamanville in Normandy, the French are experiencing problems similar to those in Finland…… http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,655409-2,00.html

October 16, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin