No real sign of a nuclear renaissance

for Sunday Herald, 15 November 2009

France is the world’s biggest consumer of nuclear power, with more than three quarters of the country’s electricity being generated by 58 reactors. But even it has its nuclear headaches.

This summer, the heat put a third of the reactors out of action, because the river water needed to keep them cool became too warm. This winter the French nuclear industry is expecting to have to import electricity from abroad because several plants will be shut down for maintenance and repairs.

And last week Brazil had to shut down its two nuclear reactors because of a major power blackout caused by the collapse of transmission lines. The reactors need power from the grid to keep them safely cooled.

Such events are reminders of the fragility and inflexibility of nuclear power, but they have not staunched enthusiastic talk of a global “nuclear renaissance”. But evidence to back up the talk is scant.

A report (2.5MB pdf) by experts for the German environment ministry in August pointed out that the number of reactors operating in the world this year - 435 - was nine fewer than in 2002. Not a single new plant was connected to the grid in 2008.

In order to simply replace stations that are due to be shut down, the world would need to build 42 new reactors by 2015 and a further 192 reactors over the following ten years - one every 19 days. This, says the report, is impossible, so “the overall worldwide trend will most likely be downwards over the next two decades”.

The experience of the flagship new French reactor being built at Olkiluoto in Finland, meant to be the model for England’s new nuclear power programme, is hardly encouraging. The project is more than three years behind schedule and at least 55% over budget, costing some £4.5 billion.

Comments

[Varrie Boilowers]

Further there is no solution for the disposal of legacy or new high-level radioactive wastes. In its National Policy Statement on Nuclear Energy (England and Wales), the Government says that it is satisfied there will be a deep geological facility. The fact that there has not been a national repository to date and that there won't be one for many decades to come - if ever - reduces the Government's statement to the status of a forlorn hope. Unfortunately, it condemns hundreds of thousands of people to live with around 10 high-level waste stores at new sites, dotted all round the crumbling coast - perhaps for centuries.