Alternative Energy / Nuclear Power

• Full Speed Ahead for China’s Nuclear Program

  To say that the partial meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima plant has put a chill on the global nuclear industry would be a vast understatement. Lead stock Cameco (CCJ) has cratered by 40%, while the ETF (NLR) has taken a 30% hickey. Is the disaster creating a buying opportunity? To find out, I stayed up late one night to call a friend at China Guangdong Nuclear Power. While a crash safety review of all designs, both under construction and pending, is underway, there has been no slowdown in the People’s Republic’s plans whatsoever. The Soviet era designs that led…

• India Should Look to Australia to Satisfy its Growing Demand for Uranium

  While India maintains that nuclear power is the best way to address its growing energy needs, it does not possess sufficient uranium to meet demand. Australia would make an ideal supplier, but its concerns over India's unwillingness to sign the NPT and its possible nuclear proliferation are souring the relationship The alarming events that have unfolded at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant have raised environmental and health concerns the world over. The Indian government, however, is unlikely to completely dismiss the benefits of nuclear energy, given the energy crunch it is facing. India has one of the highest economic growth…

• Ukraine’s Nuclear Safety and Uranium Production Back in the Spotlight

  The world observes the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster (April 26th, 1986) today, the worst nuclear accident in history. The Fukushima debacle in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami last month has thrust Chernobyl back into the spotlight, for better or worse, as a comparative example for scientists, politicians and journalists alike. Now that the benefits and drawbacks of nuclear power are under the microscope once again, the home of the now-defunct Chernobyl plant – Ukraine – and its government is taking a leading role in the nuclear discussion. (Of course, Soviet authorities ran the Chernobyl power station, as…

• On the 25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster Old Nuclear Fears are Awakened

  When reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded 25 years ago, it seemed nuclear power might die with it. Around the world, people recoiled in horror as radioactivity from Ukraine spread with the wind. As it settled hundreds and even thousands of kilometers away, scientists monitored the concentrations to see if the areas would become too dangerous to inhabit. Even today, the health concerns continue in unexpected ways. Britain still restricts the sale of meat from sheep that graze in certain parts of Wales. And Germany bans the sale of meat from boars in the south of…

• UN Sponsored Nuclear Safety Reforms Following Fukushima

  With the recent increase of its accident rating to level 7—the highest on the International Nuclear Radiological Event Scale (INES)—the Fukushima nuclear accident has taken on another attribute of Chernobyl, the world’s worst nuclear disaster and the only other one in history to receive a level 7 “major disaster” rating. On the whole, however, Fukushima is not as severe as Chernobyl: when the latter exploded, radioactive debris and parts of fuel rods shot upwards of thirty thousand feet into the atmosphere and spread across the globe. The initial explosion and radiation exposure killed about 30 personnel and nuclear fallout from…

• The Nuclear Industry Took a Wrong Turn: Could Fukushima Have Been Prevented?

  Nuclear researchers knew long ago that reactor designs now in wide use had already been bested in safety by another design. Why did the industry turn its back on that design? Imagine a nuclear reactor that runs on fuel that could power civilization for millennia; cannot melt down; resists weapons proliferation; can be built on a relatively small parcel of land; and produces little hazardous waste. It sounds like a good idea, and it was a well-tested reality in 1970 when it was abandoned for the current crop of reactors that subject society to the kinds of catastrophes now on…

• Can Asia Live Without Nuclear Power

  Every time there is a spike in the cost of energy such as the ’73 crisis and the ’79/80 oil price spike — and then again in ‘07/08 — alternative energy sources get a renewal of interest. This time, reaction to the high oil price has been further supported by widespread anxiety about the future of nuclear power, particularly in geologically active areas such as the Pacific ring of fire. Japan, for example, is battling to control, never mind save (they will never operate again), the six boiling water reactors at Fukushima 1 with a combined power of 4.7 GWe.…

• Completely Wrong About Nuclear Power

  When the subject was oil, my students at the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok) were politely asked to study the situation in the United States. It told me everything I needed to know about the peaking of oil production, and I presumed that it would do the same for them. In the matter of nuclear, my future students in other institutions of higher or lower education will be told to study the situation in Sweden – assuming that they prefer a passing to a failing grade. Almost everything that needs to be known about that subject can be ascertained from…

• Nuclear Waste Storage in the Spotlight Following Fukushima

  Events at Fukushima in Japan have put the spotlight not just on nuclear power as a source of energy, but on the storage of nuclear waste. Some of the gravest dangers at Fukushima resulted from spent fuel rods held in cooling tanks that lost fluid and overheated. The world is awash with spent fuel rods being stored in this manner, usually for up to five years while the rods cool to the point were they can be moved, but often for much longer as utility operators struggle to find long-term storage solutions. The Japanese experience has added an additional dynamic…

• Spent Nuclear Fuels Could Provide an Economic Opportunity for the UK

  The UK should turn its stockpiles of spent nuclear fuel into a £10 billion ($16 billion) economic opportunity, according to a report from the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment. David King, director of the institute and former chief scientific adviser to the government, said: “Currently the UK has a window of opportunity to deal with its nuclear material and spent fuel … and to maximise the value of its existing assets.” The UK has likely the largest stockpile of spent nuclear fuel of any country, a legacy of its 20th century nuclear programme. This includes around 100 tonnes of…