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As nuclear industry dries up in the Western world – the push to sell to dodgy regimes

So what’s driving the world’s nuclear suppliers to service such nuclear pariahs?

 First and foremost: cash. As the prospects for reactor sales in the world’s advanced economies have dried up, most nuclear vendors have been forced to go after less developed—and potentially quite lucrative—markets in the Middle and Far East. In fact, vendors are falling all over themselves to do this, particularly South Korea, which made its debut as a nuclear exporter with a $20 billion deal to build four reactors in the United Arab Emirates.

Nuclear Power Goes Rogue, The Daily Beast, Henry Sokolski, Nov 28, 2011  “………What, then, is the good news for nuclear power? A handful of new reactors may be built in Eastern Europe and the U.K., and several more in South Korea, but in the North that’s pretty much it. If you head south, though, nuclear power’s prospects look much brighter. Russia is pushing reactor projects in Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Iran, and Turkey. The United States, France, Japan, and South Korea are all working to nail down similar deals in Jordan, Vietnam, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, as China continues to expand Pakistan’s reactor fleet.

None of these nuclear customers, it should be noted, has a nuclear-safety regulatory system worthy of the name. Nor, outside of Pakistan, do any of them have enough trained technicians to build or operate large nuclear-power programs. More than a few—Turkey, Syria, Iran, Algeria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia—have either toyed with or actually developed nuclear-weapons options. (And, of course, Pakistan actually has nuclear weapons.) And Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia have refused repeated American requests that they forgo making nuclear fuel—a process that can bring states within weeks of acquiring nuclear weapons. Besides Iran, Egypt, Algeria, and Syria have been caught violating International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

So what’s driving the world’s nuclear suppliers to service such nuclear pariahs?

First and foremost: cash. As the prospects for reactor sales in the world’s advanced economies have dried up, most nuclear vendors have been forced to go after less developed—and potentially quite lucrative—markets in the Middle and Far East. In fact, vendors are falling all over themselves to do this, particularly South Korea, which made its debut as a nuclear exporter with a $20 billion deal to build four reactors in the United Arab Emirates.

Russia, meanwhile, is angling to build on its reactor work at Bushehr, Iran, with what Moscow hopes will be at least four additional large Iranian reactors. Not to be outdone, Riyadh announced after Fukushima that it intends to spend $112 billion to buy 16 of these machines along with the necessary nuclear infrastructure by 2030. Finally, Turkey, which already has Russia building it one reactor, has a bid open for another, and plans to complete 18 more by 2030. This could add up to serious money…..
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/11/27/post-fukushima-nuclear-power-changes-latitudes.html

December 1, 2011 - Posted by | 2 WORLD, marketing

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