Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMR’s) – last forlorn hope of the nuclear industry
There just isn’t any proof that small reactors are going to be any more economic than larger ones…. it’s all about hype and hope
Small nuclear reactors generate hype, questions about cost STL Today 29 April 12, “…..Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse Electric Co. announced plans to pursue a $452 million federal subsidy to advance development of small modular reactors that could be built alongside the utility’s much larger Callaway nuclear plant near Fulton, Mo.
While some utilities are still pursuing full-scale plants, there is a parallel push for smaller reactors that could be easier for utilities to finance and minimize sticker shock for regulators and consumers.
But despite a lower total cost, there’s no evidence yet that tiny fission factories would be able to produce electricity at a competitive cost in an era of abundant, cheap natural gas. Continue reading
Excessive radiation levels received, but 16 Fukushima workers have to stay on
How’s this for injustice to workers? An illustration of three things: the heroism of Japan’s Fukushima “liquidators”, the nuclear industry’s ruthless lack of concern for its workers, and the desperate situation of the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Workers with high radiation levels to stay at N-plant http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120427006236.htm Jiji Press 28 April 12, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday that a total of 16 employees whose cumulative radiation doses have exceeded 100 millisieverts, a government-set limit, will continue to work at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. According to TEPCO, the 16 are engaged in equipment operation and radiation control and have advanced expertise and extensive experience at the nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami last year.
Following the accident at the plant, the health ministry raised the cumulative dose limit to 250 millisieverts for workers there. But this measure will expire at the end of April. The cumulative limits revert back to 50 millisieverts per year and 100 millisieverts over a five-year period.
As the 16 people are vital for containing the plant’s nuclear crisis, the company will keep them at work and take steps to reduce radiation levels at the quake-proof building used for its disaster response team, it said. With TEPCO taking such measures as covering some ceilings and floors with lead in the quake-resistant building, radiation levels there have fallen to 0.7 microsievert per hour from 1.6 microsieverts, according to the utility.
Squabble in UK over who gets the lucrative nuclear decommissioning job
Union fury as US firms eye nuclear work The Independent MARK LEFTLY 23 APRIL 2012 A swath of US firms are preparing to bid to oversee the multibillion-pound decommissioning of 10 obsolete Magnox reactor-powered nuclear stations, angering unionsthat want the work to go to British outfits. Continue reading
Financial folly – pipe-dream of Small Modular Reactors for Missouri
“what already is clear.. is that Ameren and Missouri are embarking on financial folly.”
“other electric utilities are using cheaper natural gas, which has made nuclear energy especially uneconomical. In addition, renewable energy and energy efficiency would be more inexpensive alternatives.”
Federal aid sought to build nuclear reactors in Missouri Reactors would be built in Missouri for Callaway plant and for export throughout the world. Kansas City Star, BY JASON HANCOCK AND STEVE EVERLY, 19 April 12, JEFFERSON CITY –– Westinghouse Electric Co. and Ameren Missouri announced Thursday they would seek federal funds to help build a new generation of smaller and safer nuclear reactors.
If Westinghouse wins some of up to $452 million in investment funds from the U.S. Energy Department, then St. Louis-based Ameren would apply for licenses to allow up to five 225-megawatt reactors to be built at the company’s nuclear power plant in Callaway County……
Missouri also could turn into a hub for manufacturing the new reactors — known as Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, or SMRs — to be exported around the world, Gov. Jay Nixon said…… Continue reading
Dubious plan by Lynas to sell 300,000 tonnes of converted radioactive wastes
The anti-Lynas groups also questioned today whether the market “can fully absorb the colossal amount produced given that Lynas will be producing at least 300,000 tonnes of contaminated waste every year.”
Locals say market won’t buy Lynas’ recycled waste, ww.themalaysianinsider.com/mobile/malaysia/article/locals-say-market-wont-buy-lynas-recycled-waste/ The Malaysian Insider ,21 April, By Shannon Teoh KUALA LUMPUR, — Lynas Corp’s plans to recycle waste from its controversial RM2.5 billion rare earth plant in Kuantan into a commercial product will not be accepted by the market, local residents opposed to the refinery said today.(Jan 26 ) Continue reading
BHP Board might not approve development of world’s biggest uranium mine
Acting chief executive of the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy Nigel Long said the state’s mining industry was not solely reliant on the expansion of Olympic Dam because there were other “exciting opportunities” ahead,
“The decision to press the pause button is a decision to be made by the BHP board, but we see a very good future for other projects in South Australia regardless…..
The BHP board will be considering whether to approve the project at a time when cost pressures in Australian mining are rising and profit margins are contracting.
BHP has Olympic hurdles to overcome, Financial Review 17 APR 2012 The South Australian government says it is not inclined to grant BHP Billiton an extension on an approvals expiring in December that cover the $US20 billion expansion of the Olympic Dam mine at this stage. Jamie Freed and Lucille Keen Continue reading
Britain’s nuclear pickle, as French firms demand more subsidies for building reactors
The comments will send a shockwave through Whitehall because they come just weeks after the German utilities RWE and E.ON said they would not proceed with plans to build new nuclear plants at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire.
“UK energy policy is being manipulated and subverted to make it possible for French nuclear power companies (EDF and Areva) to start building four new reactors in the UK – two at Hinkley Point in Somerset and two at Sizewell in Suffolk.”
GDF Suez’s nuclear reservations hit government energy policy French firm needs more financial incentives if it is to proceed with new nuclear plant in Cumbria, says CEO Gérard Mestrallet, Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, 16 April 2012 The government’s energy policy has suffered a fresh blow when GDF Suez, the French firm behind plans to build a new nuclear plant in Cumbria, said it needed more financial incentives if it was to proceed. Continue reading
Paladin Uranium shares go further down
Paladin misses targets, shares drop, Peter Ker April 16, 2012 Shares in Paladin Energy are sliding lower this morning, after the uranium miner revealed it had missed production targets yet again and had been forced to reduce its annual production targets.
Uranium production at Paladin’s flagship Langer Heinrich mine was 10 per cent below the company’s target during the first three months of2012, while its secondary mine also missed its production targets.
The missed targets, combined with concerns over Paladin’s debt, was pushing shares were down by 3 cents to 1.77 shortly after 11am…. Many analysts are concerned about Paladin’s debt levels, and the company is looking to sell minority stakes in its non-producing assets as a way to boost cashflow.
Concerns over the debt situation prompted Patersons Securities to downgrade Paladin to a sell earlier this month. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/paladin-misses-targets-shares-drop-20120416-1x2od.html#ixzz1sQlkNcbp
60 years of government welfare to the nuclear industry. Time to stop this.
Stop the nuclear industry welfare programme After 60 years, the taxpayer should not continue to subsidise multibillion-dollar corporations in the nuclear energy sector Bernie Sanders and Ryan Alexander guardian.co.uk, 13 April 2012 ‘It is shocking that the nuclear industry continues to receive so much federal support at a time of record debt.’
The US is facing a $15 trillion national debt, and there is no shortage of opinions about how to move toward deficit reduction in the federal budget. One topic you will not hear discussed very often on Capitol Hill is the idea of ending one of the oldest American welfare programmes – the extraordinary amount of corporate welfare going to the nuclear energy industry.
Many in Congress talk of getting “big government off the back of private industry”. Here’s an industry we’d like to get off the backs of the taxpayers. Continue reading
UK’s messy situation – the economics of new nuclear reactors
Japan, the nation who cannot even restart its own reactors or bring the Fukushima disaster to a close, will be allowed, no encouraged, to sell the UK its own technology right back, and presumably for a profit.
The Nuclear Powers of Japan and United Kingdom Enformable, 13 April 12, “……The history of nuclear energy economics in the UK is equally complex. The once-mighty UK nuclear fleet, which at the beginning of the 1990s generated over 25% of the nations power, has fallen hard in more recent years. Continue reading
Continued poor prospects for uranium. ERA may close its Ranger mine
Spot Uranium Grafting, 9 News Finance, 13 April 12, ”………Activity in general remains sluggish, and while two transactions were reported last week in the term market they were both pretty small by term market standards…
..Energy Resources of Australia managed a 5% price increase over the quarter but remains in thebalance. The company has elected to spend $120m to explore the underground potential at its premier Ranger mine in the northern territory, known as the Ranger Deeps project.
If ERA decides the Deeps is not a commercially viable proposition, Ranger is destined to quietly shut down. Merrills suggests known reserves are unlikely to last beyond this year and stockpiles would be gone in 3-4 years.
Meanwhile, Merrills has ceased coverage of Extract Resources post takeover and its impending de-listing this week.
The broker has also taken the opportunity to review its uranium price forecasts to account for weaker Japanese demand now apparent one year after Fukushima. The analysts’ 2012 spot price forecast falls to US$56.25/lb from US$58.50/lb and 2013 to US$67.50/lb from US$70.00/lb. Merrills’ long term price drops to US$63.00/lb from US$65.00/lb. …
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newscolumnists/greg/8449091/spot-uranium-grafting
Russia joins Japan in planning to make money out of Britain’s nukes
‘The British market is very attractive,’ said the group’s director of communications, Sergei Novikov…..
An agreement yesterday between the UK government and Japan ‘will open up opportunities’ for British firms to decommission the country’s nuclear sites.
Russian nuclear giant that built Chernobyl interested in erecting generators in Britain… well, they do have glowing references Daily Mail, By PETER CAMPBELL, 11 April 2012 | The Russian nuclear giant that built Chernobyl has confirmed interest in erecting generators in Britain. Kremlin-owned Rosatom is fundamentally the same group that built the Ukrainian reactors, one of which exploded in 1986. Continue reading
Exelon Nuclear company begging for taxpayer charity
State Help Needed for New Nuclear Units, Exelon Chief Says Bloomberg News, By Brian Wingfield April 11, 2012 U.S. utilities will need government help to build nuclear reactors as other forms of electric power become less expensive, a top executive of Exelon Corp. (EXC) (EXC), the nation’s largest commercial producer of atomic energy, said.
State support may include letting companies recover costs from customers during construction, providing loan guarantees or agreeing to buy power from the plant, Mayo Shattuck III, executive chairman of Chicago-based Exelon, said today at a conference in Washington.
Building reactors may require “the sovereign support of that state, which really means it’s on the backs of the ratepayers, not the backs of the shareholders,” Shattuck said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission on March 30 awarded Scana Corp. (SCG) (SCG) a permit to build two reactors at a plant near Columbia, South Carolina, and on Feb. 9 approved Southern Co. (SO) (SO)’s plan for two units at its Vogtle plant near Augusta, Georgia. Southern expects its project to
cost $14 billion. Scana will cover 55 percent of the estimated $10.2 billion for the South Carolina reactors. The plants, being financed partly by customers, may be among the last in the U.S. this decade…..
Economic conditions raise “very serious questions” about the possibility of building new reactors without government support, Shattuck said……
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-11/state-help-needed-for-nuclear-units-exelon-chief-says
There’s gold in them thar dead nuclear reactors
Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs
And some of us thought that the nuclear industry wasn’t profitable any more!
Well, after ripping off the taxpayer all these years they will now be back in business with a vengeance. The almost eternal task of buryng dead nuclear reactors could turn out to be even more profitable than ever
UK in nuclear decommissioning deal with Japan http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/10/japan-britain-nuclear-idUSL6E8FA3JP20120410 by Oleg
Vukmanovic; Edited by David Holmes LONDON, April 10 Apr 10, 2012 (Reuters) – Britain and Japan signed a framework civil nuclear co-operation pact opening up Japan’s multi-billion pound decommissioning sector to UK companies, the UK energy ministry said.
The announcement on Tuesday came as UK Prime Minister David Cameron kicked off his tour of Asia in Japan. The tour is aimed at boosting trade and investment ties, while the nuclear pact follows the devastating Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown in March last year. Continue reading
$Billions for the Watts Bar nuclear reactor could be better spent on renewable energy
Another Multi-Billion Dollar Nuclear Gamble for TVA Clean Energy Footprints, April 9th, 2012 Simon Mahan › Hot on the heals of the biggest Mega Millions jackpot in history, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has just upped its ante on a different game of chance: completing the Watts Bar nuclear reactor at their existing nuclear plant in Tennessee. TVA announced last week that the construction cost estimates to resurrect the abandoned reactor “were wrong.”
The initially proposed $2.49 billion reactor now needs another $1.5 to $2 billion to be completed, according to TVA. And remember, this is on top of the $1.7 billion that utility spent decades ago on the reactor before abandoning the project. Just as we highlighted last summer when the TVA board approved billions of dollars to spend on completing the Bellefonte reactor in Alabama, we don’t think this nuclear gamble bodes well either for TVA ratepayers. Continue reading
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PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
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