Global decline in electricity from nuclear power, as renewables rise
[In China, Russia, South Korea, and India] Some reactors have been listed as “under construction” for over two decades
Plagued by cost overruns, construction delays, and a dearth of private investment interest, the world’s nuclear reactor fleet is aging quickly as new reactor connections struggle to keep up with retirements.
In contrast to the decline in nuclear power, electricity generation from the wind and the sun has grown 27 percent and 62 percent, respectively, per year since 2006
World Nuclear Electricity Generation Down 5 Percent Since 2006 Tree Hugger, Lester Brown, December 13, 2012 By J. Matthew Roney World nuclear electricity-generating capacity has been essentially flat since 2007 and is likely to fall as plants retire faster than new ones are built. In fact, the actual electricity generated at nuclear power plants fell 5 percent between 2006 and 2011. In 2011, following Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, 13 nuclear reactors in Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom were permanently taken offline. Seven new reactors, three of them in China, were connected to the grid. The net result was a two percent reduction in world nuclear capacity to 369,000 megawatts by the end of 2011. In 2012, the world has added a net 3,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity, with new additions in South Korea and Canada partly offset by more U.K. shutdowns.
The United States, with 104 nuclear reactors generating some 19 percent of the country’s electricity, leads the world in nuclear generating capacity. Continue reading
Japan’ s trading houses look towards a non nuclear Japan
Sojitz Sees Beyond Rare Earths to LNG, Solar in Non-Atomic Japan, Bloomberg by Yuriy Humber & Ichiro Suzuki – Dec 13, 2012 Sojitz Corp. (2768), Japan’s top trader of rare earths, plans to tap into the nation’s shift from nuclear power by setting up its own liquefied natural gas business and building solar plants, said Chief Executive Officer Yoji Sato. Continue reading
Costs of Finland’s Olkiluoto nuclear reactor go up yet again
costs have steadily climbed, calling into question the profitability of the undertaking.
Areva Again Raises Estimate of Cost of 
Reactor NASDAQ, By Dow Jones Business News, December,13 2012, By Inti Landauro PARIS–-French nuclear engineering firm Areva (AREVA.FR) raised its estimate Thursday of the cost of building the new generation reactor under construction since 2005 in Finland.
Chief Executive Luc Oursel said the reactor in Olkiluoto will ultimately cost about 8 billion euros, same as a similar reactor it is building in Flamanville, in northern France. That’s well over the last cost estimate of around EUR6.4 billion. Continue reading
Vogtle Nuclear Plant costing $14 billion, and more costs each year
Monitor: Ga. nuclear plant delayed at least 1 year http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20328554/monitor-ga-nuclear-plant-delayed-at-least-1-year Dec 12, 2012 By RAY HENRY ATLANTA (AP) – Building the first in a new generation of nuclear power plants could take at least a year longer than expected and involve hundreds of millions of dollars in extra costs.
Atlanta-based Southern Co. planned to have the first of its new reactors at Plant Vogtle (VOH’-gohl) built by April 1, 2016. A second reactor in eastern Georgia was supposed to start operating the following year.
A nuclear engineer hired by Georgia’s Public Service Commission, William Jacobs Jr., says he believes the first plant will not be completed earlier than June 2017. He says longer delays are possible.
Building the new power plant costs an estimated $14 billion. Jacobs
says delaying construction by a single year adds hundreds of millions
of dollars in construction and financing cost
Britain’s taxpayers up for more than 100 billion pounds in nuclear cleanup
Nuclear clean-up to cost £100bn and take 120 years. Decommissioning, no2nuclearpower, 9 December 2012 BRITAIN’S taxpayers will be landed with a bill of more than £100bn for cleaning up radioactive waste from sites such as Sellafield and Dounreay, according to the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
The amount represents a near-doubling of the £56bn cleanup cost announced when the NDA began operating in 2005, and could rise still more. The warning comes as NDA engineers start work on some of the biggest and most expensive engineering projects seen in Britain — building giant robotic grabs to lift deadly nuclear waste from Sellafield’s decaying 1950s repositories.
The buildings being targeted include Sellafield’s B29 and B30 cooling ponds, where decaying 1950s fuel rods are stored. This weekend John Clarke, chief executive of the NDA, said he was spending £3bn a year on the cleanup, with about £1.6bn of that going on Sellafield alone. Such sums are similar to those spent on the London Olympic site at the peak of construction.
Figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change show that, since Britain’s first nuclear power station opened in 1956, they have generated 2.5 billion megawatt hours of electricity — worth £125 billion at today’s prices. If the cost of building Britain’s 20-odd nuclear power stations (around £10bn-£12bn each in today’s money), is included, it would far exceed the value of the power produced, say experts.
Such figures show why power companies, which would be responsible for the waste, are refusing to build new nuclear power stations without government guarantees of a consumer subsidy that will almost double the market price for their power.
Sunday Times 9th Dec 2012 more >> http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/news/daily12/daily.php?dailynewsid=343
Safety finding about Tsuruga plant brings gloom to Japan’s nuclear utilities
Japan Utilities Plunge After Fault Found Under Nuclear Plant, Bloomberg, By Tsuyoshi Inajima – Dec 10, 2012 Kansai Electric Power Co. led declines in Japan’s utilities after geologists said an earthquake faultline may be active under a nuclear plant that houses the country’s oldest reactor. Kansai Electric shares fell as much as 9.7 percent, their biggest
intraday decline since Oct. 23, and closed 4.4 percent lower at 742yen in Tokyo. The Topix Electric Power & Gas Index fell 1 percent.
The company is the second-biggest stakeholder in Japan Atomic Power Co., which runs the Tsuruga nuclear plant on the coast 127 kilometers (79 miles) northeast of Osaka that was examined by geologists this month. The finding was announced yesterday and may lead to decommissioning of the unit.
“The assessment raises the risk” that the nuclear watchdog will come to a similar conclusion for other atomic generators under investigation, Reiji Ogino, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, said by phone today. Continue reading
Global uranium mining industry is in a dismal state
Uranium miners still struggling to emerge from shadow of Fukushima Canada.com. BY PETER KOVEN, FINANCIAL POST DECEMBER 12, 2012 Following the Fukushima nuclear facility disaster in March 2011, uranium miners were quick to rationalize that the fundamentals of their business were unlikely to change and the world still needed more nuclear power.
They were wrong, to put it kindly.
The recovery in Japan has been slower than we expected More than 21 months after Fukushima, the uranium business is still stuck in a rut. Uranium’s spot price has plummeted to nearly US$40 a pound (compared to a high topping US$135 in 2007), and there has been minimal activity in the spot market. Utilities are well-supplied with uranium for the foreseeable future, and, thanks to Fukushima, the outlook for demand growth is not nearly as healthy as it was a couple of years ago Now the question on everyone’s mind is whether things will finally start to turn around in 2013? Continue reading
Japan workers organise for a nuclear free society
It’s Labor’s Turn! – Workers’ Committee to Aim for Nuclear Free Society Established http://labornetjp.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/its-labors-turn-workers-committee-to.html “Civil society is active in no nukes movement, but it’s our turn now to mobilize workers and unions,” HASEGAWA Takehisa, president of Japan Construction and Transport Industry Workers Solidarity Union, said on Nov. 20 in Tokyo. “We have long made effort to protect our jobs and livelihoods, but as we are threatened even for our existence by nuclear plants, we must protect our lives and safety. No life, no job. We would build solidarity with those who are deprived of decent work and living due to dangerous work in radioactive environment.” The committee formed by seven unions plans to hold a simultaneous actions in March and movie screening of a documentary on people of Futaba. Some 60 attended the meeting held for establishment of the committee and listened to KAIDO Yuichi, lawyer, who spoke of the basic law on nuclear free society. (By M)
Exploitation of workers at Fukushima nuclear plant
Asahi: Fukushima workers report exploitation — Told to be like kamikaze — Large numbers leaving — “I wonder if we can raise children” http://enenews.com/asahi-fukushima-workers-report-exploitation-told-to-be-like-kamikaze-large-numbers-leaving-i-wonder-if-we-can-raise-children
December 9th, 2012
Title: Worker wants new government to secure safety at Fukushima plant
Source: AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
Author: Miki Aoki and Toshio Tada
Date: December 09, 2012
A man in his 50s hopes that a new government to be formed after the Dec. 16 Lower House election will protect the health of workers like himself at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant […]
The man said workers at the Fukushima No. 1 plant are being exploited. […]
“Many people work without seeing a doctor because they fear they might be told not to come anymore from the next day,” he said. “It is a distortion caused by the layers of subcontractors involved. I want the government to protect us.” […] Continue reading
It looks like the end for new nuclear industry in France
“In a way, the last 24 hours have killed French nuclear finally because the cost makes it totally impossible to export and now you have one of the few partners actively withdrawing; it looks really bad,”
Last 24 hours have ‘killed’ French nuclear – analyst http://enformable.com/2012/12/last-24-hours-have-killed-french-nuclear-analyst/ 6 Dec 12, French power utility EDF received a fresh blow on Tuesday after Italy’s biggest utility Enel announced it has pulled out from a project to build a next-generation nuclear reactor in northern France, and five other power plants to be built in France using EPR technology, following last year’s referendum in Italy to prevent nuclear energy from returning into the nation. Continue reading
Data on Fukushima workers’ radiation exposure
TEPCO releases worker radiation exposure data to WHO, Enformable.com. 6 Dec 12 TEPCO released data related to the radiation exposure doses documented for Fukushima Daiichi emergency workers which it had submitted to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The data showed the youngest workers were in their teens, while the oldest was 84 years old. One of the teenagers was exposed to 56.89 mSv. Most of the workers are in their 40s. 26 workers are over the age of 70.
TEPCO Worker Ages……
The highest radiation dose recorded was 678.8 mSv. The highest dose recorded by a worker in their 20s was 477.01 mSv…..
Distribution of Thyroid Doses based on measured value of I-131 (Thyroid equivalent dose from Cs not included in data)……
There are still over 600 workers unaccounted for in the most recent data, TEPCO did not release any details as to why they were unable to track down the missing workers……..
Source: TEPCO
Source: JiJi Press
Read more at http://enformable.com/2012/12/tepco-releases-worker-radiation-exposure-data-to-who/#les31YbP4ZC0Kk2S.99
Even France can’t build a nuclear reactor economically, and in the planned time
The spiralling costs at Flamanville, and at another EPR being built by French engineering company Areva in Finland, have raised questions about the viability of nuclear power.
“If there’s anywhere that the EPR should be built on time and on budget it surely must be France,” said Dr Paul Dorfman, founder of the Nuclear Consulting Group. “The fact that it hasn’t been has profound implications for nuclear new build in the UK.”
EDF plant cost rises damp nuclear hopes Ft.com, By Guy Chazan and James Boxell, 3 Dec 12 EDF, the French utility, said the cost of its new nuclear power station in northern France had increased by a third, raising fears that its planned UK plant may also be vulnerable to a similar budget blowout. But EDF Energy, the company’s UK subsidiary, insisted that the cost issues in Flamanville, Normandy, would have no bearing on its plans for Hinkley Point in Somerset. Continue reading
The cost of cleaning up after uranium mining and milling
The Curse of the Yellow Powder, Bacon’s Rebellion, by Rose Jenkins December 2, 2012 Is it possible to restore a landscape damaged by uranium? Ask the Navajo in New Mexico. “…….The Navajo Nation was the fourth uranium clean-up site I visited in the West.
In Cañon City, Colo., where a uranium mill shut down last year, the state of Colorado has estimated that a clean-up will cost $43 million, but it allowed the Cotter Corporation, which is responsible, to put up less than half of that amount in surety bonds, according to the Denver Post. Unless plans change, groundwater below the site will stay contaminated, leaving many private wells unusable.
Elsewhere in Colorado, the clean-up of uranium mills after the companies went bankrupt has cost taxpayers $950 million, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. At one of these sites, in Uravan, Colo., both the mill and the town around it were dismantled, buried, and permanently fenced off. That clean-up, or eradication, cost taxpayers $120 million.
The Atlas Mill, in Moab, Utah, which closed in 1984, is one of a few sites where tailings are being relocated, because contamination from them was leaching into the Colorado River, the source of drinking water for Los Angeles and other cities. A suitable repository was located just 30 miles away—but the clean-up will still cost taxpayers a solid $1 billion…….” http://www.baconsrebellion.com/2012/12/the-curse-of-the-yellow-powder.html
Hinkley nuclear project needs to get more permissions
The granting of the licence does not provide full permission for the construction of the power station.
New nuclear clears licence hurdle for EDF-Centrica link2 David Thorpe, News Editor, 27 Nov 12, EDF, the French power company, and Centrica are closer to building the first new nuclear power station in Britain, following the granting of a Nuclear Site Licence (NSL) for Hinkley Point C by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). Continue reading
Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) sides with nuclear company: ratepayers to pay up
Florida PSC screws over ratepayers again, approves more rate hikes for new nukes that aren’t being built 26 Nov 12 http://www.cleanenergy.org/index.php?/Press-Update.html?form_id=8&item_id=335#.ULUkZuR9JLv In spite of another year of significant cost increases and scheduling delays, it was business-as-usual at the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) today with the Commission once again siding with the big power companies over the interests of Florida customers. The PSC approved nearly $300 million in advanced cost recovery charges for new nuclear power generation projects. The PSC accepted all of the PSC staff recommendations issued earlier this month—an unfortunate trend of rubber-stamping that we have seen year after year in spite of major obstacles and pitfalls that have made new reactor proposals in Florida less and less feasible.
Progress Energy Florida (PEF), which recently merged with Duke Energy, was approved to recover over $142 million and Florida Power and Light (FPL) for over $150 million from their customers for new nuclear generation via a “nuclear tax,” including significant costs for four proposed, yet-to-be-licensed, nuclear reactors that neither utility has even committed to actually build and whose estimated combined costs exceed $40 billion.
The Commission granted all the utilities requests on top of the more than $1 billion in cost recovery that was already approved over the past several years. This is an extremely unfortunate situation for utility customers in Florida who are being forced to pay this “nuclear tax” up front for electricity that will very likely never be produced from proposed new reactors.
Today’s vote again underscores the unfairness of the nuclear cost recovery statute that was passed by the Florida legislature back in 2006. Because the Florida State Legislature, the Governor and the PSC have failed to protect Florida’s families and businesses from this “nuclear tax” scheme, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy challenged the statute’s constitutionality before the Florida Supreme Court. Oral argument occurred in early October and we await the Court’s decision. We remain hopeful that the Court will rule in favor of better protections for Florida’s utility ratepayers.
1 This Month
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- October 2026 (19)
- September 2026 (339)
- August 2026 (330)
- July 2026 (355)
- June 2026 (287)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (267)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
