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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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Rundown on world’s nuclear energy situation, and I do mean DOWN

India’s nuclear march of folly http://wrd.mydigitalfc.com/op-ed/india%E2%80%99s-nuclear-march-folly-012 By Praful Bidwai,  Jul 11 2012 HOLLOWMEN: Blind to the perils of nuclear reactors, India continues its ‘March of Folly’, even as it seeks untested reactors, with potentially dangerous consequences, such as the disaster in Fukushima.

All those, including Indian policymakers, who nurture the illusion that nuclear power is the energy source of the future and will flourish despite the Fukushima disaster, increasingly adverse atomic economics, and widespread social and political opposition, would do
well to read the just-released World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) 2012 (http://www.­worldnuclearreport.org). Continue reading →

July 13, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Reference | Leave a comment

$26 million just to find out how much 2 nuclear reactors might cost

TORONTO – It’s like giving the cashier at Tim Hortons a penny to find out how much a cup of coffee costs.CNews 11 July 12,
Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has agreed to pay two prospective reactor builders $26 million to come up with an estimate on how much two new nuclear reactors at the Darlington Generating Station would cost, Energy Minister Chris Bentley told a Queen’s Park committee
Wednesday. Continue reading →

July 12, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Canada | Leave a comment

New nuclear power plants – Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina – just gobbling up money!

The plants burning natural gas are far cheaper to build than nuclear power plants…..….

Building costs rise at US nuclear sites Bloomberg, By Ray Henry on July 10, 2012 ATLANTA (AP) — America’s first new nuclear plants in more than a decade are costing billions more to build and sometimes taking longer to deliver than planned, problems that could chill the industry’s hopes for a jumpstart to the nation’s new nuclear age.

Licensing delay charges, soaring construction expenses and installation glitches as mundane as misshapen metal bars have driven up the costs of three plants in Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina, from hundreds of millions to as much as $2 billion, according to an Associated Press analysis of public records and regulatory filings.

Those problems, along with jangled nerves from last year’s meltdown in Japan and the lure of cheap natural gas, could discourage utilities from sinking cash into new reactors, experts said. The building slowdown would be another blow to the so-called nuclear renaissance, Continue reading →

July 11, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Huge copper/uranium mine plan might be abandoned, trend towards recycling metals adds to poor market prospects for BHP’s Olympic Dam

Olympic Dam is surely under review,” said UBS mining analyst Glyn Lawcock. “It’s not an issue of finding the cash,” he said, but rather ensuring a good return on the investment……

Further curbing the appetite for refined copper, BHP now sees recycled scrap meeting up to 50 percent of China’s overall demand in the coming year for the metal, up from 35 percent now.

there is a much bigger question mark over it [Olympic Dam new mine] now

BHP Olympic Dam delay would tighten copper supply Reuters, By James Regan SYDNEY | Fri Jul 6, 2012 “….. A 25 percent drop in benchmark international copper prices since early 2011 has eroded potential returns from the project, and the economic slowdown in top base metal consumer China has dampened the demand outlook.

BHP’s scheme to quadruple output from Olympic Dam – the fourth-largest known copper deposit and largest uranium source in the world – is one a growing number analysts believe likely to be shelved until markets stabilize…. London copper prices have fallen to around $7,650 a metric ton (1.1023 tons) from a peak over $10,000 in early 2011 as big copper buyers such as car and computer manufacturers slow consumption… Continue reading →

July 10, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, business and costs | Leave a comment

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