Alternative Energy / Nuclear Power

• The Beginning of the Nuclear Renaissance Will Not be Televised

  According to the United Nations energy organization (IAEA), statistics indicate that for 2009 and 2010, nuclear reactors in Sweden and Germany managed by the Swedish firm Vattenfall  had the lowest capacity factors in the (nuclear) world.  Fifty-five percent was the figure given by that organization for the average availability of Swedish equipment, which is very different from the up-beat impression I attempt to provide of Swedish nuclear efforts in my forthcoming energy economics textbook (2011). ‘My goodness, but how the mighty have fallen”, to paraphrase an observation by a high ranking German officer in Theodor Plievier’s brilliant war novel Stalingrad…

• Water Shortages Threatening France's Nuclear Reactor Complex

  Nuclear energy company executives worldwide can be forgiven for wondering if Mother Nature is pursuing a vendetta against them. The 11 March 9.0 Richter scale earthquake that rattled Japan saw its shoreline structures survive, but the 50-foot waves generated by tsunami that followed less than an hour later destroyed many Japanese coastal installations and knocked out power to Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) six nuclear reactor complex at Fukushima, instigating a crisis that has yet to be resolved. Now, half a world away, a shortage of water is threatening France’s nuclear reactor complex, as the region’s worst drought in more than…

• Nuclear Twilight in Europe

  It is becoming evident to many that the March nuclear catastrophe at Japan’s six reactor Daichi Fukushima complex has dealt a huge, possibly fatal, blow to the nuclear industry’s hopes of a revival. A year ago even global warming enthusiasts reluctantly embraced nuclear power as a carbon-free energy generating system, and the industry was ramping up for glory days as a result. The triple whammy against nuclear power beginning with the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, followed by 1986’s Chernobyl  disaster and now Fukushima, effectively present a “three strikes and you’re out” call against civilian nuclear energy power…

• Low Natural Gas Prices Make Nuclear Power a Losing Investment

  Low natural gas prices have thwarted investment in nuclear generators in the US and federal loan guarantees will not help nuclear power reach parity, experts said. Even before the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, nuclear power was seen as a losing investment, with cost estimates continuing to rise while the price of other energy sources fell, said Peter Bradford, former member of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and adjunct professor at Vermont Law School. “Wall Street rating agencies were uniformly sceptical,” he said. Last year, utility Constellation Energy abandoned plans to add another nuclear generator to its…

• A New Nuclear Revolution – Safe, Clean and Abundant

  Somewhere in Cheshire an energy revolution is brewing. Modern nuclear researchers are developing new approaches to safe subcritical reactors, using fertile thorium as fuel. The new reactor designs will be incredibly safe, proliferation resistant, and will produce only miniscule and easily stored amounts of long-lived nuclear waste.  GWPF Imagine a safe, clean nuclear reactor that used a fuel that was hugely abundant, produced only minute quantities of radioactive waste and was almost impossible to adapt to make weapons. It sounds too good to be true, but this isn’t science fiction. This is what lies in store if we harness the…

• Despite Fukushima Nuclear Power Production to increase by 27% before 2020

  One could be forgiven for thinking that ever since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, the global nuclear industry would be dead in the water. Indeed, the reaction of Angela Merkel’s center-right party in Germany is the least dramatic of several in her country, calling for closure of all the country’s nuclear power plants by 2022; some of her opposition were suggesting closure by 2017. Nuclear power provided 23 percent of Germany’s electrical power at the start of this year and no clear economic alternative exists to replace this capacity. However, a highly readable report on the future of…

• The Economics of Nuclear Power

  When considering various sources of power, it is important to note that the analysis of power generation costs is a complex process that is highly dependent upon the location of interest. As confirmed by an OECD/NEA (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/ Nuclear Energy Agency) Study, Coal, for example, will likely remain economically attractive in countries such as China, the US and Australia in which such a resource is abundant and accessible and in which carbon emissions are cost-free. Natural gas is also competitive for base-load power in many places, particularly using combined-cycle plants, though rising gas prices have removed…

• Germany and the Nuclear Future

  Lets start with the bottom line, or what I usually call ‘The Message’ While Germany might temporarily abandon nuclear facilities located in Germany, they will never abandon electricity generated in nuclear reactors – at least as long as German voters prefer a higher to a lower standard of living. Put another way, for every kilowatt of nuclear-based power lost because of temporary nuclear closures that might take place in the largest economy in Europe, another will probably be obtained from somewhere else in Europe, sooner or later. Notice the two words temporarily and probably in the above paragraph. “Temporarily” means…

• Are Uranium Prices Ready to Rally?

  Say what you will about nuclear energy... But it's not going away. Not as smart investors realize Chinese demand far outweighs Japan's nuclear woes. As a result, the biggest drop in uranium prices may be coming to an end as China and India make plans for nuclear developments that will more than double global uranium production. China's Nuclear Energy Association announced two weeks ago they will boost atomic capacity as much as eight times by the time 2020 rolls around. By 2030, India's Atomic Energy Commission is increasing production 13-fold. Turkey has a 4.8 GWe reaction site under construction on…

• Fukushima a stake through nuclear industry’s heart

  Despite the managed media campaign by Tokyo Electric Company, the Japanese government and nuclear industry flacks worldwide, the 11 March 9.0 on the Richter scale earthquake, followed by a tsunami that off-lined TEPCO’s six reactor Daiichi Fukushima nuclear power complex represents a global mortal blow to the nuclear power industry, which had been optimistic of a renaissance following worldwide concerns about global warming. While TEPCO’s PR spin doctors along with Japanese government flacks will continue to parsimoniously dribble out information about the real situation at the stricken reactors while blandly assuring the Japanese population and the world that all is…