nuclear-news

The programme, launched by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown in Cape Town yesterday, is a strong vote of confidence by the government and Eskom for an expanded nuclear energy sector in the future.

The Koeberg-Eskom programme is the latest in several initiatives to gear up for the country’s proposed nuclear build, which government has said will involve the construction of 9600MW of new capacity. Others include training programmes with Russia, France, China and South Korea, where South African students are being empowered in a variety of skills……http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2016/06/10/Eskom-promises-to-plug-youth-into-nuclear-future

There has been no radiation leak, according to the operator…….The operator said it was “certain” the problem was somewhere “in the secondary part of the plant,” such as an engine room, and not in the nuclear zone.  https://www.rt.com/news/346143-belgium-nuclear-plant-tihange/

“Power ascension testing” will be repeated several times and the unit will be shut after producing power to test safety systems, officials have said. TVA said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission May 3 that it expects to declare commercial operation of the reactor, when testing is complete and steady-state operations are likely, sometime this summer. http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/washington/tvas-watts-bar-2-nuclear-unit-shuts-soon-after-21634906

The latest development in this regard was the recent announcement that Russia will lend Egypt $25bn to finance and operate a nuclear power plant which will be built by Russia’s state-owned nuclear giant Rosatom.

The Russian tender Egypt accepted was for the construction of a station with a capacity of 4,800 megawatts, at an estimated cost of $10bn.

“This was a long dream for Egypt, to have a peaceful nuclear programme to produce electricity,” President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said late last year.

And this dream dates back to the very dawn of the nuclear age, when then President Gamal Abdel-Nasser launched Egypt’s nuclear programme in 1954, and the first Soviet-built research reactor came online in 1961.

Since then, Egypt’s nuclear ambitions have stalled for a number of political, economic and technological reasons.

The revival of Egypt’s civilian nuclear programme has stirred a lot of debate and controversy, both in the media and in private – as I discovered during a long impromptu debate at a Cairo restaurant recently….

Unstudied political decision’

In addition to the risks of an Egyptian Chernobyl or Fukushima, there are the everyday dangers of radioactive leaks and seepage, not to mention nuclear waste, which is likely to outlive humanity.

If the “safe” disposal of nuclear waste in technologically advanced and wealthy Germany has proven to be extremely unsafe and dangerous, what chance does poor, inexperienced Egypt stand in averting a future radioactive crisis?

Then, there are the more subtle environmental costs. Nuclear power plants are extremely thirsty beasts – consuming the equivalent of a major metropolis – and Egypt suffers serious “water poverty”, by the government’s own admission.

Weighing in on the debate, the renowned Egyptian-American NASA space scientist Farouk el-Baz called Egypt’s nuclear plan “an unstudied political decision”, fuelled by the desire to catch up with Iran which “spurred Arab countries to enter the nuclear field”.

But if anything, the folly of Iran’s nuclear programme should deter Egypt and the other Arab countries from pursuing nuclear energy, for geostrategic, economic and social reasons.

Iran’s Bushehr I reactor, which reportedly cost $11bn to build, provides less than 2 percent of the country’s electricity requirements, while sanctions may have cost the Islamic Republic as much as $500bn in opportunity costs, experts estimate.

In contrast, supplying all Iran’s electricity needs from solar power would cost a mere $94bn, according to one estimate.

More dependence

While Egypt’s non-pariah status will probably mean that its programme will be cheaper, nuclear power is still extremely expensive, especially in “sunbelt” regions such as the Middle East.

Egyptian solar energy expert Sherife Abdelmessih estimates that nuclear power plants are four times as expensive to construct as solar ones per unit of energy.

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In addition, he expects that Egypt will pay about $150 per MWh for the power generated by the new nuclear power plant, while the equivalent price for Egyptian wind farms is $45 per MWh.

There are also persuasive geostrategic reasons for Egypt and other Arab countries not to invest in nuclear energy. While proponents believe it will enhance our energy security, it will actually diminish it.

No Arab country possesses the scientific and technological know-how to build their own nuclear facilities and to conduct the extremely costly research required to advance knowledge in this highly developed field.

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This will make Arab civilian nuclear programmes highly dependent on foreign technology and expertise.

Moreover, the fuel required to run the power plants will have to be imported, making Arabs vulnerable to supply disruptions, which could be exploited for political arm-twisting.

In contrast, Egypt, and the wider region, is blessed with abundant sun and wind resources, and the renewable energy sector is still young enough for Egypt to become a major player and innovator in it.

Egypt recognises this opportunity and seeks to extract 20 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2022, but this is not enough.

Unlike nuclear power, renewable energy has the potential to create an enormous number of jobs and abundant business opportunities, including start-ups.

In addition, it is scalable, meaning that energy can be consumed close to where it is produced, and it paves the way to distributed energy generation, where each building or home can potentially produce its own power and sell its excess supply into the national grid.

Renewable energy technologies are also diverse. For example, a relatively small investment in solar boilers can save Egypt the huge amounts of electricity used to heat water.

I cannot help thinking that the $25bn Egypt is spending on a single nuclear power facility would have been better invested in pursuing these alternative energy options.

In fact, for the entire region, nuclear energy is pure folly and the only sunny future is in renewables. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/06/egypt-nuclear-energy-folly-160602110506962.html

EDF’s Hinkley Point C plant in western England will have much to do with the nuclear industry’s prospects globally — and hence for the ability of renewables to grow quickly.

While South China Sea (SCS) issue which has now become a major flash point between the two countries is expected to dominate the two-day talks, a host of other issues including Taiwan, Tibet and India’s inclusion in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) are also expected to figure.

While the US has expressed its firm backing to India’s inclusion into the 48-member nuclear club building on the India-US nuclear accord, China has been insisting that there should be consensus among the members about inclusion of countries who have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

India has not signed the NPT on the ground that it is discriminatory.

Officials are hopeful of a solution as China-US dialogue is taking place ahead of two of NSG’s key plenary meetings on June 9 in Vienna and June 24 in Seoul during which the issue is expected to come up.

As India pressed its case, Pakistan too has applied amid reports that China is trying to push the case of its all-weather ally…….http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/indias-admission-into-nuclear-club-may-figure-in-china-us-talks-1415771

For critics who have long insisted that nuclear power is inherently dangerous and too expensive, the prospect of delivering a death blow to Diablo is something to relish.

“They try to get people to take a look at them ‘one more time’ just about every other year,” said Phillips. “We don’t consider (nuclear power) as a clean source of energy.”

Nuclear’s critics say the solution is boosting the storage of renewable sources like wind and solar.

The California Public Utilities Commission requires the state’s big three investor-owned utilities to add 1.3 gigawatts of energy storage to their grids by the end of the decade.

“The storage industry is just booming,” said Phillips, adding that greater energy efficiency and conservation can replace nuclear. “You can get to a point where you don’t need to create new, giant energy plants, new, big gas plants or new, big nuclear plants.”

For example, Diablo Canyon sucks in billions of gallons of seawater for its cooling system. Estimates to retrofit the plant to meet state rules implemented after Diablo Canyon was built range anywherefrom $1.6 billion to $14 billion.

“You cannot afford nuclear plants,” said Rochelle Becker, executive director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, based in San Luis Obispo, not far from Diablo Canyon. “If you look at the cost overruns from any new nuclear plant … they are billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.”

In Georgia, two brand new Westinghouse reactors being built at the Vogtle Generating Plant by Southern Co. were estimated to cost $14 billion.