nuclear-news

Nuclear industry claims that it is not dead (just dying, perhaps)

“Operable” is not quite the same as “operating”http://www.beyondnuclear.org/just-the-facts/2015/1/15/operable-is-not-quite-the-same-as-operating.html The international investment bank, UBS, has declaredold style centralized generation, like nuclear and fossil fuels “the dinosaur of the future energy system.” Yet the nuclear industry continues to claim, like the old man inMonty Python and the Holy Grail, that it is “not dead.”

UBS exorts its customers to “join the revolution.” The bank predicts that “By 2025, everybody will be able to produce and store power,” using a decentralized system that makes fissile and fossil fuel systems, “Too big, too inflexible, not even relevant for backup power in the long run.” Meanwhile, the World Nuclear News claims nuclear generating capacity rose in 2014, and trumpets that 2015 began “with 436 operable reactors.” (Since there were 435 in 2014 according to WNN, the boast is rather a hollow one.)

But as the 2014 World Nuclear Industry Status Report reveals, the key word here is “operable” rather than the more truthful “operating,” bringing the true number down to 388 for 2014, “50 fewer than the peak in 2002.” Nuclear may indeed not be dead, yet. But it is well on its way.

January 17, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general