nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Nuclear power falling behind, as China grows its wind power

In China, and globally, wind power will stay well ahead of nuclear for decades and replace it altogether…..

China’s path to renewable superpower, Climate Spectator, Matthew Wright, 23 Nov 11 Comparing China’s wind and nuclear power sectors reveal much about the fortunes of new and old energy technologies.

Wind power in China is growing at a blinding pace. China commenced construction of its first wind turbines in 2005 and in just six years has installed 58GW worth of wind power, which now contributes 128TWh to its grid. …

What’s remarkable about China’s wind sector is the speed and scale of its expansion. Wind generators are up and operating within nine months of breaking ground. Continue reading →

November 23, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, China | Leave a comment

India should make Nuclear Suppliers Group fully liable for accident costs

Jeremy Leggett urges India to claim full nuclear liability from suppliersTimes of India Laxmi Ajai Prasanna, TNN | Nov 20, 2011, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “India should make the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group face the full liability costs in case of an eventuality,” says Jeremy Leggett, an international climate campaigner and Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist and author of ‘Half Gone oil, gas, hot air and the global energy crisis’.

Taking his stance on the ‘Civil Nuclear Liability Act’ introduced in the Indian Parliament, he says, “Voicing for total liability cap will deter the investment bankers to face up the huge economic responsibility. That way India could safeguard its interest for clean and green energy and avert the recurrence of a Fukushima-type disaster.” In an interview to TOI here on Saturday, Leggett’s message for India in the context of exploring and utilising alternative energy sources was to ‘Catch up and shine fast’.

When told that the Indian government has toned down the right to recourse in the legality of the ‘Civil Liability Act’ conceding to the pressures of the nuclear lobby, Leggett says, “I am 57 now and realised that things don’t happen as expected, nuclear energy though not a safe option, is given the nod by the policy makers and decision makers of the government supported by fragile leaders…….

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/Jeremy-Leggett-urges-India-to-claim-full-nuclear-liability-from-suppliers/articleshow/10797698.cms

November 21, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, India | Leave a comment

Ontario Power Generation can’t afford nuclear clean-up costs

One more nuclear risk – the dwindling value of cleanup funds  One more risk of nuclear power: Ontario Power Generation recorded a third-quarter loss because of a sharp decline in the value of funds set aside for nuclear clean-ups…..

 funds set aside for future nuclear plant de-commissioning and for nuclear waste treatment performed poorly, recording a loss of $16 million, compared with gains of $287 million a year earlier.

November 19, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Canada | Leave a comment

Uranium mining industry now facing a gloomy future

Canada’s Cameco, the world’s biggest uranium miner by market value, has seen its share price tumble 48 per cent since the beginning of March.

A drop in supply may also be met by a drop in demand, according to UxC. “The reduction in uranium demand will extend to the longer term as some of the reactors taken offline will be permanently shut down,” it says in its report. “In addition, other new reactors under construction or planned will likely be delayed, leading to a further reduction in demand.”….

Uranium miners hamstrung by price and demand By William MacNamara, FT.com November 16, 2011  The uranium industry, suppliers of the fuel that powers nuclear plants, is processing a few hard numbers.

These start with the benchmark spot price for uranium. Since the Fukushima disaster in March, when the price was hovering about $70 per pound, uranium has fallen to a range of $50-$55 per pound. The costs of extracting uranium are rising, and lower prices are affecting producers’ profitability and plans to invest in future supply. Continue reading →

November 17, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Big boost in renewable energy investment

Clean Energy Investment May Double to $395 Billion by 2020 Bloomberg, By Louise Downing – Nov 15, 2011  Investment in renewable power generation may double to $395 billion a year by 2020, led by growth in offshore wind and solar energy projects, Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast.

The total may rise further to $460 billion a year in real terms by 2030 from $195 billion last year, according to the research unit of Bloomberg LP. Continue reading →

November 17, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, renewable | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry’s future on the line

“Fukushima is having a resounding effect in those countries where they wanted to hear it. Countries that never wanted to pursue nuclear power or who came at it reluctantly are using the event as a way to back out gracefully,”

Even as some countries continue to progress their plans, the resultant delays from additional safety checks, coupled with higher costs, has already prompted changes in estimates of the role nuclear power will play in the global energy mix.

The industry knows it needs to regain the public’s trust. It cannot afford another accident.

Nuclear power stands at a crossroads, FT, By Sylvia Pfeifer, November 15, 2011 Off the west coast of Finland on a thickly wooded island, Europe’s most advanced nuclear reactor is taking shape. The reactor, being built by France’sAreva for its Finnish customer, the utility TVO, is western Europe’s latest generation, pressurised water reactor. However, at more than €2.6bn ($3.54bn) over budget and five years late, the project is hardly the best poster child for Europe’s ambitions at a time when atomic power is under scrutiny following the crisis in Japan in the spring. Continue reading →

November 16, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs | Leave a comment

TEPCO executives’ delusion that nuclear business will go on as before

the biggest policy threat to the nuclear industry is local. Since the disaster, Japanese mayors and governors have been blocking utilities from restarting reactors that have shut down

Anti-nuclear mood melts Tepco’s hopes of normality FT.com By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo, 16 Nov 11,  Call it fortitude or fantasy, but executives at Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the owner of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, still talk of the meltdowns at three of the facility’s reactors in March as a merely temporary setback for their business.

“The sooner we get back to normal, the better,” Toshio Nishizawa, Tepco’s president, recently told the Financial Times. “Whatever happens, our core business will not change.” Continue reading →

November 16, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Escalating costs of Japan’s nuclear safety plans

Japan’s Nuclear Safety Steps May Cost 19 Billion Yen Per Reactor, Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) –– Additional safety measures required at Japan’s nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster may cost 19.4 billion yen ($252 million) per reactor, the government said.

Emergency measures such as maintaining cooling at a 1,200- megawatt nuclear station are estimated to cost about 11.8 billion yen, a committee under the National Policy Unit said in a report today. Other costs include steps to secure emergency power generators and improve external sources of electricity and 1.3 billion yen to prevent explosions and equip workers with radiation-protection gear in a severe nuclear accident…..The additional safety measures will increase the cost of building a nuclear reactor by about 5 percent, according to calculations based on data provided in the report. The committee estimates the cost of constructing a reactor at 420 billion yen, assuming a rate of 350,000 yen per kilowatt and a capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts….. http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LUOVUT07SXKX01-5QP1VSJAM1CAG2877DDVS9EV6H

November 16, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Thorium nuclear reactors 50 years away, if ever

Technology transitions always happen faster than the conventional market predicts PV MAGAZINE 14. NOVEMBER 2011 BY:  RAY WILLS  “……Some bang on about nuclear – yes, China, in raw numbers, is planning a lot – but the country is comparatively modest in the scale of things: it is planning 70 GW of nuclear by 2020, but 200 GW of renewables, also by 2020! Also, a decision hasn’t been announced over what is being done post-Fukushima, but the analysts expect the country to proceed at a more modest scale. The 12th five-year plan was released post-Fukushima and it was in that that China increased its renewables target on solar from one GW to 10 GW by 2015,…

Thorium is the latest suggestion from those attempting to distract us from renewables as the solution, but according to those in the nuclear research arena, thorium realistically is at least 50 years away from being realized. Nevertheless, I note India talking about building a 300 megawatt (MW) prototype – it’s being played up in some parts of the press – but when you look at the detail, the proponents note, “if all goes to plan, the […] reactor could be operational by the end of the decade”. That’s just a prototype. My view is that by 2025, the game will be over, we will have solved intermittency through storage, and electricity from solar will be cheaper than coal. I don’t believe I’m dreaming, simply looking at technology shifts and the capacity for rapid technology shifts in the past – go back 100 years ago and tell the buggy and whip manufacturers they will soon be out of business and imagine the response.
http://www.pv-magazine.com/opinion-analysis/blogdetails/beitrag/technology-transitions-always-happen-faster-than-the-conventional-market-predicts_100004940/

November 15, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, technology, Uranium | 1 Comment

Taiwan urged to abandon nuclear power – unaffordable costs

   many people thought it was a waste of money to have spent NT$320 billion (US$10.6 billion) to construct the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City, and not allow it to operate, but it would actually cost twice that amount to retire the plant after it begins operations.

Writer urges Taiwan to abandon nuclear power Taipei Times, By Lee I-chia  /  Staff Reporter, 10 Nov 11 COSTLY:Japan-based writer Liu Li-erh said the rising costs of the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant should be a warning, particularly around the Taipei metropolitan area

Saying that the compensation for damage caused by the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan was way beyond what Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) or the Japanese government could afford, a Japan-based Taiwanese writer yesterday urged Taiwan to abandon all nuclear power. Continue reading →

November 10, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Taiwan | Leave a comment

Wind energy becoming competitive without subsidy, while bulk of subsidies go to fossil fuels

Onshore wind generators will become competitive without subsidies by 2020 in Europe and by 2030 in China, the agency predicted……

 Fossil fuel users’ subsidies six times those for renewable energy, Kansas City Star, By BEN SILLS, Bloomberg News, 9 Nov 11,  Fossil-fuel consumers worldwide received about six times the government subsidies given to the renewable-energy industry, according to the chief adviser to oil-importing nations.

State spending to cut retail prices of gasoline, coal and natural gas rose 36 percent to $409 billion as global energy costs increased, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said Wednesday in its World Energy Outlook. Aid for biofuels, wind power and solar energy rose 10 percent to $66 billion.

The figures don’t include subsidies for nuclear power or to producers of fossil fuels. Continue reading →

November 10, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, ENERGY | Leave a comment

Accident risk makes nuclear costs even more expensive

 Japan study factors accident risk into nuclear power cost estimates Nov 8 (Reuters) – The cost of generating nuclear power in Japan would rise by up to 1.6 yen per kilowatt hour if the risk of a serious nuclear accident like the one in Fukushima is factored in, a government panel of experts estimated, providing a key element for the government to decide on its post-Fukushima energy policy.

Lawmakers and officials are working to come up with a new energy policy after the Fukushima radiation crisis made it difficult, if not impossible, to build more reactors in the world’s third-biggest generator of nuclear power…..

now that the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant forced its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co , to pay compensation for residents who have been evacuated and extra costs to decommission the crippled reactors, a new estimate on the cost of nuclear power was needed to include these factors…..

The cost for the risk of an accident could rise further if compensation payments to help evacuees and cover other damages increases from the current estimate, based on actual payments related to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, of 5 trillion yen ($64 billion) for a model reactor, the panel said…. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/nuclear-japan-estimate-idUSL4E7M81Q620111108

November 10, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Call for better “marketing” of nuclear power

Market N-technology properly: Kalam to scientists IBN Live, 8 Nov New Delhi: “Market nuclear technology properly.” This was the brief message former President APJ Abdul Kalam had for nuclear scientists.

“Today the nuclear technologists are all doing
great work for the world, but it is essential for the services of nuclear science and its future prospects to be marketed as the only
continuously available clean energy source,” he told an international conference.

Kalam’s message comes in the backdrop of protests over the Kudankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu following concerns over safety and environmental issues.

The Department of Atomic Energy had admitted that it had not succeeded in reaching out to the locals on the safety aspects of the Kudankulam nuclear project…http://ibnlive.in.com/news/market-nuclear-technology-properly-kalam/200165-3.html

November 8, 2011 Posted by | India, marketing | Leave a comment

Global nuclear industry in turmoil – uranium company’s profit drops 60%

Cameco reduces production forecast, Globe and Mail, BRENDA BOUW — MINING REPORTER, VANCOUVER, Nov. 07, 2011 Uranium giant Cameco Corp.  lowered its annual production forecast and reported third-quarter financial results below expectations amid continuing upheaval in the nuclear power industry.

Saskatoon-based Cameco, in a bidding war with Rio Tinto PLC for Hathor Exploration Ltd. during the current uranium price slump, cited “unfavourable market conditions” for the earnings underperformance…..

Production of uranium used to fuel nuclear power plants fell 5 per cent to 5.3 million pounds in the quarter, and for the year it is expected to drop 1 per cent to 21.7 million pounds, Cameco said. It also lowered guidance for UF6, a compound used to make enriched uranium, by 6 per cent….

profit fell 60 per cent…… Cameco shares closed down 6.5 per cent to $20.35 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday, a sign investors are worried that Cameco will continue to suffer from volatility in the sector following the Japanese nuclear disaster.

“We expect the current uncertainly in the uranium market to linger for the near to medium term,” Mr. Gitzel warned.

Driving industry concerns are forecasts for excess uranium inventories in Japan and Germany, which represent 12 and 5 per cent of global nuclear generating capacity, respectively. Germany is phasing out its nuclear program, and Japan is operating only 11 of its 54 reactors since a tsunami and earthquake destroyed its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant this past March…..

China, too, is slowing its rapid nuclear power expansion plans as it takes extra measures to ensure its facilities are safe….

November 8, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Canada, Uranium | Leave a comment

TEPCO nuclear company makes $8 billion loss, gets $11.5 billion in public funds

Japan Approves Billions in Aid to TEPCO, Voice of America, 5 Nov 11 Government agreed Friday to a deal giving $11.5 billion in public funds to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to cover costs in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled its Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The government said the funds would help TEPCO with cleanup and dismantling of the plant and compensation payments to residents of the area. The money comes from a fund made up of all Japanese nuclear plant operators and the government. In return, the utility must reduce its operating costs by more than $32 billion over the next 10 years and lay off more than 7,000 workers.

Engineers at Fukushima are still trying to bring the reactors to a stable cold shutdown by the end of this year. News of the bailout came on the same day TEPCO forecast a nearly $8 billion loss for the current fiscal year, ending in March.  http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/11/04/japan-approves-billions-in-aid-to-tepco-2/

November 7, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Japan, politics | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »