business and costs « nuclear-news

Centrica Says Needs Price Clarity Before Making Nuclear Decision, Bloomberg By Josephine Forster and Kari Lundgren – Jul 25, 2012 Centrica Plc (CNA), the biggest supplier of gas and electricity to British households, said it needs more clarity on power prices before
deciding to participate in building new nuclear reactors in Britain. Continue reading →

July 29, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

Flat uranium market with more uncertainty about the industry’s future

Uranium, Two Pounds For A Benny International Business Times, July 24, 2012 By Andrew Nelson It was yet another dull week on the spot uranium market last week, marked by slim volumes and another minor price decline. As of Friday, a US$100 bill sporting the inscrutable face of Benjamin Franklin, will now buy you two pounds of uranium.

Industry analyst TradeTech reported just 3 transactions last week, with only 250,000 pounds changing hands. Also affecting trading was news that Honeywell will not restart production at its Metropolis Works conversion facility, operated by ConverDyn. The company said the plant could remain closed for as long as 12-15 months in order to
undertake safety upgrades ordered by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission…….

Whether the news is relevant or not to the daily grind of the uranium spot trading, it certainly did a good job of introducing even more uncertainty into what remains a very tentative market. The end result of low volumes, at least one motivated sell and new uncertainly was a US$0.25 decline in TradeTech’s Weekly U3O8 Spot Price Indicator to US$50.00.

There was no activity and only a little demand in the term market. None of it was new and all of it is coming from non-US utilities. TradeTech’s mid-term and long-term indicators remained unchanged at US$54.00 and US$61.00 respectively….
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/366001/20120724/uranium-two-pounds-for-a-benny.htm#.UBGVnGGe5dM

July 26, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Further delays for Finland’s and France’s new nuclear power plants

Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 nuclear plant delayed again, BBC News 16 July 12 Olkiluoto 3 has been hit by repeated delays and is over budget The launch of a flagship nuclear power station in Finland has been delayed for a third time, officials say.

Finnish electricity company TVO says the Olkiluoto 3 plant will not be ready by the latest deadline of 2014 and a new timetable has not yet been set.
The plant will be powered by a new generation of nuclear technology called the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR)….. Olkiluoto 3, originally due to be ready by 2009, is being built by French nuclear company Areva and German engineering giant Siemens.

In a statement, TVO said it was “not pleased with the situation” although solutions to various problems were being found one by one and work was “progressing”.

It said it was waiting for a new launch date from Areva and Siemens.

Work on the site in south-west Finland began in 2005 but has been hit by repeated delays and has run way over budget….. a similar project in Flamanville in northern France is itself running four years behind schedule…. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18862422

July 25, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland | Leave a comment

The continuing gloomy story of Finland’s Olkiluoto nuclear reactor

Nuclear dawn delayed in Finland BBC News, By Rob Broomby 8 July 2009 The turbine is the world’s largest and will generate about 2m horse power When it is finished, Finland’s 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor will be the biggest the world has ever seen, the excavation site alone is the size of 55 football fields.
It was to have been a pilot project for bigger, better, cleaner, Generation III reactors, which would lead the charge back to nuclear power in a continent which had gone cold on atomic energy after the accidents at Chernobyl and Thee Mile Island.
But hopes of an early nuclear dawn on the Baltic coast are fading – Continue reading →

July 25, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland | Leave a comment

Gee Whiz billionaires gambling on new untested Integral Fast Reactors

Virgin Nuclear? Branson asks Obama for reactor help. Sir Richard v Bill Gates? Smart Planet, By Mark Halper | July 23, 2012, Flamboyant British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has written to President Barack Obama seeking help commercializing an alternative type of nuclear reactor known as an Integral Fast Reactor……

Branson, known for his Virgin brand of media and airline companies, isn’t the only well-known billionaire advocating IFRs, also known as “fast neutron reactors,” “fast reactors,” and sometimes as “breeder reactors.” Microsoft founder Bill Gates is developing a type of fast
reactor known as a traveling wave reactor, through his startup company TerraPower. Continue reading →

July 24, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs | 1 Comment

There’s no “nuclear renaissance. It’s a Stillbirth!

We have heard from the nuclear lobby that a “nuclear renaissance” is just around the corner and, as evidence of this, we are told 65 reactors are “under construction” worldwide.

It is instructive to look at the number of years some of these have been “under construction”. For example, Lungmen 1 and 2 in China were begun in 1997 and have so far taken 15 years to build.

Moving from the disappointing to the ludicrous, Watts Bar 2 in the US has been ”under construction” since 1972. It is likely these long-delayed projects will eventually be cancelled, and almost certainly they will never be an economic success.

countries in the “considering” list is a distortion of the facts by the World Nuclear Association, perhaps born of a desperation to conceal the decline of the industry.

Nuclear industry ‘rebirth’ is instead stillborn http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=176811 The sad truth is that even according to the optimistic International Atomic Energy Agency data from the PRIS data, the number of reactors on which construction was started fell 75% from 2010 to last year, and again 75% from last year to this year PETER BECKER 2012/07/23 07

THE nuclear power industry is deeply troubled, with little cause for optimism. There is growing worldwide
public resistance to nuclear power stations, US President Barack Obama has terminated government subsidies for nuclear power, and Germany and Switzerland have committed to shutting down all their reactors. While the renewable energy industry has seen dramatic growth and constantly falling costs, the nuclear industry grapples with spiralling costs, the seemingly intractable waste-disposal issue, and the huge economic and human costs of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Continue reading →

July 24, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Reference | Leave a comment

Shortage of workers at Fukushima amid revelations of “doctored” radiation records

Fukushima Watch: Doctoring Dosimeters — How Far Did It Go? WSJ, By Mitsuru Obe and Phred Dvorak, 23 July 12 Over the weekend, a subcontractor that worked at the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant confessed to asking some of its employees to put lead covers on their dosimeters in order to keep their radiation exposure readings artificially low. Now, Japanese officials are trying to figure out whether the subcontractor, a small Fukushima Prefecture-based firm, was the only one to doctor dosimeters or whether other companies may have done the same…. Continue reading →

July 24, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | employment, Fukushima 2012 | Leave a comment

Soaring costs for new nuclear power leave UK govt with a dilemma

The government will publish draft strike prices next year, but has promised to give developers such as EDF and Centrica temporary assurances to bridge the gap and allow them to move ahead with Hinkley Point.

The price they come up with is bound to come under intense scrutiny. Critics will see a high level as a massive subsidy for nuclear, but if it is too low EDF and Centrica could walk away.

Strike price key to new nuclear plants FT.com By Guy Chazan and Rebecca Bream, 23 July 12, When the Blair government first backed the idea of a new generation of nuclear plants in 2007, energy companies insisted they could build them without any public subsidy. Five years later, that claim seems painfully naive.
In the intervening years, the cost of new reactors has risen so fast that constructing them without any government support has become unthinkable.

The evidence for this change is not hard to find. Continue reading →

July 24, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

China, Japan, USA, France, Russia all keen to market nuclear reactors to UK

Two consortiums interested in reactors http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/19dd4f1e-d425-11e1-942c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz21Vo4ZRkh By Rebecca Bream, Anousha Sakoui and Jim Pickard London July 22, 2012 The management of Horizon, the energy group, and government officials are to start detailed talks with potential investors, including Chinese state-owned power groups, about building nuclear reactors in Anglesey and Gloucestershire.

At least two consortiums have told the government and Horizon, which is being sold by German energy groups Eon and RWE, that they are interested in bidding for the venture, which plans to build new reactors near the sites of existing nuclear plants at Wylfa, Anglesey,
and Oldbury, Gloucestershire.

The first is led by Toshiba Westinghouse, the Japanese-owned nuclear reactor manufacturer, in partnership with State Nuclear Power Technology Corp of China and Exelon, the US power generator.
The second comprises Areva, the French state-controlled reactor manufacturer, and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp, possibly in partnership with other energy groups and investors. Continue reading →

July 23, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | marketing, UK | Leave a comment

Russia ahead in the race to sell off nuclear technology to South Africa

Russian nuclear group opens office in South Africa Engineering News, By: Keith Campbell 18th July 2012 South Africa has become only the third country to host a marketing office of Russia’s State-owned nuclear energy group Rosatom. The registration of the office was announced by the group on Wednesday….. Rusatom (spelt with a u) Overseas is a subsidiary of Rosatom (spelt with an o).

Another Rosatom subsidiary, Tenex, already supplies enriched uranium products for the production of nuclear fuel for South Africa. The country currently has one two-reactor NPP, at Koeberg near Cape Town, which has a capacity of 1 800 MWe. This started operation in 1984… http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/russian-nuclear-group-opens-office-in-south-africa-2012-07-18

July 19, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | marketing, South Africa | Leave a comment

Continued decline in price of uranium

Uranium Continues to Slide, 9 News 18 July 12 Last week was another slightly down-week for uranium spot prices, with industry consultant TradeTech reporting just three transactions taking place. Total volume on the spot market was 400,000 pounds, with little activity in either the supply or demand side. TradeTech notes the lack of any sort of firm demand is continuing to place downward pressure on spot prices.
Sellers, for the most part, just don’t want to cut their prices and buyers remain speculative in nature. This is a continuation of the prevalent trend over recent months and means the gap between willing sellers and buyers is continuing to increase.

Based on TradeTech’s assessment of the level at which it assumes a willing buyer and willing seller would do a deal, it’s Weekly U3O8 Spot Price Indicator finished last week at US$50.25 per pound, down US$0.35 from the previous week’s value….
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newscolumnists/other/8500561/uranium-continues-to-slide

July 18, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry in an economic no man’s land

COLUMN-Finnish delay fresh warning against nuclear: Wynn By Gerard Wynn 17 July 12, (Reuters) – The lesson from the latest delay to Finland’s planned new nuclear reactor, announced on Monday, is either build lots of them or don’t build any at all.

It is a general economic principle that costs per plant decline the bigger a programme. Historical data support that for nuclear, where it may apply more acutely given its highly specialised and often unique supply chain and engineering skills.

It makes no sense to take a suck-and-see approach, building incrementally in a modular fashion, especially for new technologies such as Finland’s advanced pressurised water reactor. Continue reading →

July 18, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Reference | Leave a comment

UK to sell out of nuclear power company URENCO

Nuclear sale set to net billions for UK The Government is holding a “beauty parade” for bankers to advise it over a potential sale of the UK’s multi billion-pound stake in nuclear power giant Urenco. Telegraph UK, By Emma Rowley, Rowena Mason, and Helia Ebrahimi 15 Jul 2012 Continue reading →

July 16, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK | 2 Comments

A litany of ongoing, and rising, costs for San Onofre nuclear power plant

The Sustainability Alliance of Southern California last night hosted a discussiont: “Nuclear Power in Southern California – Can We Afford It? San Diego Reader, 13 July 12, “… Featured speakers were Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility executive director Rochelle Becker and counsel for the Alliance/former executive director and commissioner of the California Energy Commission John Geesman.

A recurring theme of the talk was the cost of nuclear power, touted as a cheap alternative to gas-fired power plants or other means of power.

“For San Onofre, [the original cost estimate] was under $180 million dollars. But it was $4.7 billion dollars when finished,” Becker said. She also pointed out that the cost of new seismic studies needed due to the discovery of earthquake faults near the plant has risen from an original estimated cost of $21 million to a new request by plant operator Southern California Edison to bill its customers as well as those of San Diego Gas & Electric up to $64 million for the studies. Continue reading →

July 14, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear Plant Vogtle – escalating costs, delays, don’t augur well for nuclear industry

Most of the [USA’s nuclear power] projects have been delayed or scrapped due to the lower than expected demand for electricity, the inability to secure financing or because the utility decided a cheaper alternative, such as natural gas, was easier.

Delays, cost increases at nation’s new nuclear projects, By Kristi Swartz The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 13 July 12, Despite promises from the nuclear industry to regulators and consumers that they learned from mistakes of the past, the nation’s first two nuclear reactor projects built from scratch in 30 years are headed toward hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns and months, if not years, of delays.

Georgia Power customers currently are paying the financing costs of Plant Vogtle’s twin reactors. The impact of the early delays and budget increases at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle and South Carolina Electric & Gas’s Plant Summer will have on future nuclear projects is unclear. Continue reading →

July 14, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

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