[ RadSafe ] Article: Stronger Future for Nuclear Power

[John Jacobus]

>From the February 2006 isse of Physics Today at
http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-2/p19.html
------------------
Issues and Events 

Stronger Future for Nuclear Power

Nuclear reactor builders are jostling for business as
energy utilities take another look at nuclear power.

Some two dozen power plants are scheduled to be built
or refurbished during the next five years in Canada,
China, several European Union countries, India, Iran,
Pakistan, Russia, and South Africa. In the US and the
UK, governmental preparations are under way that may
lead to 15 new reactor orders by 2007. 

About 16% of the world's electricity supply comes from
nuclear power, and energy demand is increasing (see
PHYSICS TODAY, April 2002, page 54). Worldwide, nearly
80% of the 441 commercial nuclear reactors currently
in operation are more than 15 years old. To maintain
nuclear power's position in the overall energy mix,
new reactors will have to replace decommissioned ones,
says a report from the Paris-based International
Energy Agency. 

The new interest in civilian nuclear energy results
from some heavy lobbying by groups involved in
building reactors, says Edwin Lyman of the Union of
Concerned Scientists, and from attempts to reduce
carbon-dioxide emissions. EU Energy Commissioner
Andris Piebalgs adds that there are also increasing
concerns about energy security, particularly in light
of the recent disruption of Russian gas supplies in
Europe. 

Most of the new reactor designs are third-generation
pressurized-water reactors (PWR), although companies
in China, France, and South Africa are looking to
build a fourth-generation design called a
gas-pebble-bed reactor (PBMR). The new reactors are
supposed to be inexpensive to build, more powerful,
and safer; and they can be operated for up to 60
years, according to nuclear-power trade groups.

The international view
Late last year, officials from Bruce Power, one of
Canada's largest power companies, announced a Can$4.25
billion (US$3.6 billion) investment to rebuild two
reactors that have stood idle for nearly 10 years on
the eastern shore of Lake Huron, north of Kincardine,
Ontario. Last December, the Ontario Power Authority
proposed plans to build 12 new nuclear plants to help
phase out Ontario's coal-fired power stations. 

New 1600-MW European PWRs are being built, one in
Finland and one in France, with respective power-up
dates of 2008 and 2012. On 5 January, France's
president, Jacques Chirac, announced plans for an
expansion of renewable and nuclear energy sources for
France, including a PBMR by 2020. UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair is expected to announce this spring six to
eight new reactors in the UK.

Russia is currently constructing several reactors,
including an 800-MW fast neutron reactor, but
financial difficulties may delay four of them, says
the London-based World Nuclear Association. Iran is
building two Russian-designed reactors, the first of
which should go on line later this year. The first
South African PBMR is set to be completed in 2012.

Nuclear-industry officials have long said that the
majority of growth would come in Asia. Japan is
building five new power plants by 2010, and China
plans to build 30 nuclear reactors, based on domestic
designs, by 2020. China also sees nuclear technology
as a major export opportunity, say industry analysts,
and is building its second of four power plants for
Pakistan, which may lead to a larger order. India has
nine power plants under construction, including a
fast-breeder reactor that generates its own fuel.

Six countries—Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, the
Czech Republic, and Turkey—may build two to five PWRs
each, while Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland are now
reevaluating plans to phase-out nuclear power.

US moves
The US nuclear power industry has been virtually
frozen since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979,
but in the US Congress 2005 energy bill, tax credits
worth $3.1 billion, along with liability protection
and compensation for legislative delays, were added
for the industry. On 30 December 2005, for the first
time in years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
certified the design of a new reactor—the 1000-MW
Westinghouse advanced passive (AP) reactor.

Six US power-plant operators are preparing combined
construction and operating license (COL) requests to
the NRC that could restart construction in the next
five years. NuStart Energy, a consortium of nine
nuclear energy companies, submitted plans for a
General Electric simplified boiling water reactor at
the Grand Gulf nuclear station near Port Gibson,
Mississippi, and an AP-1000 reactor at the Bellefonte
nuclear plant near Scottsboro, Alabama.

Two AP-1000 reactors may be built in the Carolinas by
Duke Energy, along with another reactor by Progress
Energy. "Preparing this application provides us the
option to continue using a diverse fuel mix in the
future," says Brew Barron, Duke Energy's chief nuclear
officer. 

Constellation Energy of Baltimore, Maryland, is in
partnership with AREVA, a large French–German
engineering firm, to submit COL requests for a
European PWR at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant
site in southern Maryland and the Nine Mile Point
nuclear plant in Oswego, New York. Entergy, another
NuStart member, announced it was preparing its own COL
request for a new reactor at its River Bend Station
power plant in St. Francisville, Louisiana. On 6
December, two electric utilities, Scana Corp and
Santee Cooper, filed a letter of intent with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build two new
reactors north of Columbia, South Carolina, to meet
growing regional power demands.

According to representatives of the electric utilities
involved, the US government and the reactor technology
suppliers are paying for most of the $150 million the
certification process costs. "The utilities are
waiting to see if they can get any more subsidies out
of the government," says Lyman, "so it's still
premature to say if any of them will go ahead." A
satisfactory means for disposal of their radioactive
waste products has not yet been announced. 

But the nuclear power industry believes the first new
US order is only two years away. Says NuStart Energy
president Marilyn Kray, "Our country needs these
advanced nuclear plants."

Paul Guinnessy

+++++++++++++++++++
"It is not the job of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or 
adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical 
staff."
MICHAEL D. GRIFFIN, NASA administrator.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com