nuclear-news

Nuclear industry facing total collapse, or at best, slow decline

Fukushima fallout slows nuclear industry, Sky News,  December 11, 2011 “……Anxious to restore public faith in nuclear plants, officials travelled the world testing power stations and delaying numerous projects.

Japan switched off several reactors for tests, leaving only nine reactors up and running. Results won’t be known until next year, but it’s certain that safety margins will need to be improved, forcing nuclear power to become more expensive and less competitive.

Fukushima was the world’s third large-scale nuclear disaster, after Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986. It’s not clear how giants in the nuclear industry — GE-Hitachi, Toshiba-Westinghouse, Russia’s Rosatom and France’s Areva — will react to the crisis.

Experts are torn over whether the industry faces total collapse, a more modest decline, or diminished growth.

One scenario from the International Atomic Energy Agency is the cancellation of 50 per cent of new projects, no new construction in developed countries and a 15 per cent reduction in the number of existing power stations…

December 12, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs