business and costs « nuclear-news

Pilgrim Nuclear power plant workers vote down contract, with safety concerns

Workers say the inability of Entergy to perform a safety drill is one more reason why the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should shut down the plant while the workers are locked out. …

Nuclear Power Workers Vote Down Contract As Safety Questions Mount, In These Times, BY MIKE ELK , 22 June 12, On Wednesday, locked-out nuclear power plant workers in Plymouth, Mass., members of Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), voted down a proposed contract by a margin of 137 to 89. ….. UWUA Local 369 President Dan Hurley announced that the union had voted down the contract.

“The hardworking men and women who keep Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant operating profitably and safely have spoken loud and clear: They will not accept cuts to their pay or healthcare from a company making record profits and paying executives in the tens of millions,” said Hurley. “We urge Entergy to return to the bargaining table so that we can realistically address the very real concerns of our members.”… Continue reading →

June 23, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | employment, USA | Leave a comment

AREVA nuclear power company is in trouble

This renaissance is just a fairy tale, THE HINDU, 15 June 12, “…….In India, In Kalpakkam, , the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor was slotted to contribute to the grid in March 2012. In 2005, Baldev Raj, Director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, boasted that the 500 MW unit will be completed in 2010, 18 months before schedule.

Till date, there is no sign of this happening. The Kudankulam plant, which is now 23 years old since conception, lost only eight months due to protestors. In Jaitapur too, the government has more to worry about than local protestors.

Areva, the technology supplier, is in trouble. Last year, it announced losses of €1.6 billion, and the sacking of 1,200 workers in Germany. Last June, it decided to suspend production at a Virginia reactor component plant due to declining market prospects. Its expansion plans in France, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. may never materialise. Areva expected to sell 50 nuclear reactors this decade. It has not received a single order since 2007.

Now, with a socialist president at the helm in France, Areva’s future looks even more uncertain. French President François Hollande had promised voters a reduction in nuclear dependence from 75 to 50 per cent, and shutdown of an aging reactor in Fessenheim. Whether or not he carries through with these promises, it appears certain that no new
plants will be built or planned during his term.

Both conservative-led Germany and socialist France will make up the shortfall from the
nuclear phase-out, by investing in renewables for electricity and new jobs. In replacing nuclear with renewables, these nations are declaring that despite its carbon dividend, nuclear is too risky — financially, politically and environmentally — to pursue.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3528968.ece

June 18, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France, Reference | Leave a comment

The “Nuclear Renaissance” – dead in the water

This renaissance is just a fairy tale, THE HINDU, 15 June 12, NITYANAND JAYARAMAN”.….Germany and Switzerland have decided to phase out nuclear power,
despite their substantial dependence on it. Israel abandoned its year-old civilian nuclear programme after Fukushima. Belgium revived a pre-Fukushima decision to phase out nuclear power, using the Japanese disaster as a reminder. Italy and Kuwait gave up their nuclear debut by abandoning plans for 10 and four plants respectively. Mexico dropped plans for constructing 10 plants. All of Japan’s 54 reactors are now closed, and plans for 14 new reactors killed. Continue reading →

June 16, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Reference | Leave a comment

Australia’s uranium industry in decline

for all the hype, uranium accounts for a lousy 0.3% of Australian export revenue and a negligible 0.02% of Australian jobs. The industry’s future depends on the nuclear power “renaissance”, but global nuclear power capacity has been stagnant for the past 20 years.

The uranium price tanked after the Fukushima disaster and so far there is no sign of a bounce.

Australian uranium industry in trouble after Fukushima,June 2, 2012,Green Left, By Jim Green A protest walk from Wiluna to Perth took place last year against the proposed Wiluna uranium mine.

These are interesting times in the uranium sector. The mining companies have had a few wins in the 14 months since the Fukushima disaster, but they’ve had more losses. Continue reading →

June 16, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, business and costs | Leave a comment

Australian rare earths company Lynas – pulling out of its Malawi project?

Lynas Likely To Give Up Rare Earths Project in Africa International Business Times, By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | June 14, 2012 With its highly-controversial Malaysian rare earths processing plant an already ample source of headache, Lynas Corp. has been reported to be likely backing out from another rare earths project, this time in Africa.

Citing unidentified industry sources, The West Australian reported that Lynas Corp. is thinking of shunning the Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi after a Malawi High Court questioned the authenticity of the Australian miner’s ownership over the project…..
With the recent development, the Australian rare earths miner deemed it might be better to give up the African project altogether, than suffer again the same fate as with its highly controversial rare earths processing plant in Malaysia, The West Australian reported…. Lynas Corp. “is reassessing the project’s risks in the context of Malawi’s present governance and institutional frameworks,” sources told The West Australian. … http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/351984/20120614/lynas-corp-rare-earths-malawi-africa-malaysia.htm

June 16, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Malawi | Leave a comment

Nuclear company NuStart Energy Development LLC to disband

Nuclear power partnership to disband ww.power-eng.com/articles/2012/06/nuclear-power-partnership-to-disband.html, Jun 12, 2012 After achieving its goal of licensing the first new nuclear power plants in decades and spurring more than $2 billion in private investment in new nuclear energy development, NuStart Energy Development LLC on June 12 said it will disband and reallocate its resources back to its 10 member companies effective June 30, 2012. Continue reading →

June 15, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Shareholder meetings could be the next impediment to restarting Japan’s nuclear power industry

Fukushima Watch: Next Nuclear Battleground — Utilities’ Shareholder Meetings, WSJ, June 13, 2012, By Mitsuru Obe With the government inching closer to restarting the first nuclear reactors since last year’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, a new battleground between Japan’s pro- and anti-nuclear camps is emerging: the annual shareholder meetings of the country’s big power companies in June.

Japan’s four biggest utilities hold their shareholder meetings on June 27. The meeting that’s drawing a lot of attention these days is that of Kansai Electric Power Co., which relied on
nuclear plants to supply around half of its electricity, and operates the Oi nuclear plant, whose No. 3 and 4 reactors are first in line to restart. Kansai Electric supplies energy to the region around the city of Osaka, Japan’s third-biggest metropolis and the utility’s largest shareholder, with 8.92% of outstanding shares.

And Osaka has submitted proposals to Kansai Electric that it exit nuclear power and separate
its power-generation operations from distribution and transmission — or control of the electricity grid. Continue reading →

June 14, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Private enterprise is the major funder for new renewable energy

Who’s funding the green energy revolution? By Eoghan Macguire, June 12, 2012 – (CNN) — Money invested in renewable energy reached new heights last year, topping $257 billion.

So is the world finally going green?

The figures come from The Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2012 report, a UN Environment Program backed study that has tracked the finance flowing into green energy across the world since 2004.

It found that renewables accounted for 44% of all new energy generation capacity added last year, up from 34% in 2010 and just 10.3% back in 2004.

The source for most of this finance came from the private sector, according to the report. Investment from the private domain in research and development of new technologies was almost double that of governments and public bodies.

While Europe attracts most of the investment, the renewable energy sectors of emerging economies such as India and China have been given the biggest boost.

China overtook the U.S. in terms of total annual investment in renewable energy in 2009 and attracted more money than any other country ($52.2 bn) in 2011.

India meanwhile saw the fastest expansion rate for any large renewables market last year, with a 62% increase in capital funding…… http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/12/world/renewables-finance-unep/

June 13, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, renewable | Leave a comment

Taxpayers’ huge costs for nuclear power mishaps

During a visit to Chernobyl in April, I learned about a new project to build, by 2015, a “shelter” to lock in the radiation still emanating from the reactor. The price tag is estimated at 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion). But this sarcophagus is no more than a wildly expensive Band-Aid, which will be ripped off a still-festering wound in 100 years.

Then there is the issue of who pays to build such facilities. In principle, private capital does not flow to nonprofit activities. In fact, it is flowing to renewable energy sources, not atomic.

It is governments—and thus taxpayers and bondholders—that finance nuclear plants. Moreover, the alleged “cost-savings” of nuclear power never include the price tag for direct and indirect governmental subsidies, decommissioning of aging facilities, and emergency cleanup and remediation of impacted communities when disasters occur—all, again, at taxpayers’ expense.

The road from Chernobyl, By: Alexander Likhotal, Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 11th, 2012 “……. While nuclear energy’s advocates often claim that there have been only two major calamities, a very different picture emerges if we consider other “accidents” that caused loss of human life or significant property damage.

Between 1952 and 2009, at least 99 nuclear accidents met this definition worldwide, at a cost of more than $20.5 billion, or more than one incident and $330 million in damage every year. This recurrence rate demonstrates that many risks are not being properly managed or regulated, which is worrying, to say the least, especially given the harm that even a single serious accident can cause. Continue reading →

June 11, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs | Leave a comment

Half of the world’s nuclear reactors will be closed down by 2030

GlobalData’s report shows that more than 200 nuclear power stations across the world are expected to be closed by 2030, almost half of the number that are currently in operation.

Europe to Decommission Majority of Nuclear Power Stations by 2030 http://www.globaldata.com/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?PRID=174&Type=Industry&companyID=jpr Europe to Decommission Majority of Nuclear Power Stations by 2030 While US Bucks Global Trend 06 Jun 2012 Continue reading →

June 8, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Reference | Leave a comment

San Onofre nuclear power plant shut throughout the summer

San Onofre nuclear plant out of service for the summer, LA Times, June 7, 2012 The top official at Edison International said Thursday that the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant will remain out of service through the summer.

The plant has been shuttered since Jan. 31 while officials probe the extent and cause of unusual wear on tubes that carry radioactive water in the plant’s newly replaced steam generators. Continue reading →

June 8, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

The unraveling of Europe’s nuclear dream

And, no doubt, new technologies will be proposed that promise to solve all the problems of the past, while utilities will fight tooth and nail to keep existing plants online long after their expected life-span is complete.

Nuclear Europe: a dream unwinding, China Dialogue, Steve Thomas June 06, 2012“ Francois Hollande’s election victory is the latest blow to an industry struggling to revive the optimism of pre-Fukushima days. But the seeds of crisis were there well before Japan’s disaster, writes Steve Thomas. Prospects for nuclear power in post-Fukushima Europe are looking grim. Since the reactor meltdown in Japan last year, Germany, Switzerland and Italy have imposed phase-outs or abandoned attempts to start ordering new nuclear plants; the British programme has been delayed and one of the two remaining potential investors has dropped out; foreign investors are walking away from projects in eastern Europe, for example in Bulgaria and Romania; and France has elected a new president on an apparently anti-nuclear ticket.

With the leaders of Germany and France – two of Europe’s most powerful economies – now firmly in the “anti” camp, the outlook for nuclear power on the continent more widely is distinctly ropy. The Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, it seems on first glance, has been a devastating pill.

But while there is little doubt that the crisis in Japan significantly worsened the chances of a nuclear-powered Europe, it did so mainly by exacerbating problems that were already there – around cost, finance and public acceptance. It’s worth taking a moment to look at how these dynamics are playing out across the continent, and how they might impact Europe’s long-term energy agenda. Continue reading →

June 7, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, EUROPE | Leave a comment

China the nuclear lobby’s great hope – or is it?

Public opinion could also pose an obstacle. In a poll carried out by research agency Ipsos MORI after Fukushima, 42% of those surveyed in China were supportive of nuclear power – but that 48% were opposed. It
is also reported that public opposition and environmental concerns have led to the delay in construction of three inland nuclear power sites.

China’s nuclear developments probably matter more to the rest of the world than they do to China.

Chinese nuclear goes global? China dialogue Antony Froggatt June 06, 2012 From Parisian boardrooms to Kazakh uranium mines, the nuclear industry anxiously awaits news from Beijing. …….

“…… the Fukushima crisis in Japan has had a significant – and under reported – impact on Chinese nuclear developments, triggering a freeze on the start of new construction, a re-consideration of the safety standards of domestic designs and unprecedentedly visible opposition to the building of new, inland nuclear plants. Continue reading →

June 7, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, China | Leave a comment

Nuclear companies compete desperately for sales, prices offered below costs!

French Nuclear Watchdog Says Orders Won At Too-Low Prices Bloomberg, By Francois de Beaupuy – Jun 6, 2012 Nuclear-reactor makers are offering prices too low to cover costs to win orders abroad in a strategy that puts earnings at risk, the head of the industry’s watchdog in France said. “Export contracts for nuclear plants are being obtained at pure dumping-level prices,” Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of the Autorite de Surete Nucleaire regulator, said today at a conference organized by L’Usine Nouvelle magazine in Paris.

“Prices accepted by vendors and obtained by buyers are unsustainable,” Lacoste said. “There aren’t many tenders, which is why competitors are ripping each other off. It’s already a serious matter, and we need to make sure that there’s no dumping on safety on top of that.”
Areva SA (AREVA), the world’s largest provider of nuclear equipment and services, has booked more than 2.8 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of costs since 2005 because of delays and cost overruns at an atomic plant it’s building in Finland. The Paris-based company and General Electric Co. (GE) were beaten in 2009 on a four- reactor order in the United Arab Emirates by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEP) in the Seoul-based company’s first export contract……. Areva is preparing
bids or in talks to sell reactors in countries including China, India, the U.K., the Czech Republic and Poland. In Finland, Areva faces GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011) and Toshiba Corp. (6502) in a tender next year. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-06/french-nuclear-watchdog-says-orders-won-at-too-low-prices.html

June 7, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Vogtle nuclear power project – a money pit?

A lot is at stake in the Vogtle project. The new breed of reactors being built at the site — featuring advanced standardized design, streamlined licensing and new construction techniques — are supposed to keep costs steady and bring projects in close to budget and on schedule.

That in turn is supposed to spur a new golden era for nuclear power.

Cost overruns of almost $1 billion — so far — at Ga. nuke reactors June 6, 2012, by Jay Bookman Last month, a consortium of utilities including Atlanta-based Southern Company announced cost overruns of almost $1 billion at two new nuclear reactors being built near Waynesboro.

That’s an arresting number under any circumstances, but it looms even larger when you realize that major construction on the Vogtle 3 and 4 reactors has basically just begun, with at least five more years of construction to come.

And if costs soar, who’s going to pay for it? Southern Company and its subsidiary, Georgia Power, own 45.7 percent of the project, so its ratepayers’ share of these recent overruns would come to more than $400 million. But according to Buzz Miller, Southern’s executive vice president of nuclear development, that cost will be borne by contractors who are building the project. Continue reading →

June 7, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

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