From the Economist: Half life: Nuclear Power
The nuclear industry is predicting a rapid expansion—but that will not happen without government help
“NUCLEAR has to be part of the energy mix,” insists Claude Mandil, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a think-tank-cum-watchdog for power-hungry countries. He was speaking at the launch this week of a report that overturned the IEA's previously pessimistic view of the prospects for nuclear power. It now estimates that nuclear generation will grow by at least 13% by 2030, and perhaps as much as 40%. The firms that build nuclear plants are making similarly rosy projections. The nuclear division of General Electric (GE), an American conglomerate, predicts that 66 gigawatts of new capacity—equivalent to the output of about 44 big reactors—will be ordered by 2020. Areva, a French nuclear firm, foresees 130 new plants by 2030.
There are several reasons for this optimism. The prices of rival power sources, including coal and natural gas, have risen dramatically in recent years. At current levels, the IEA calculates, nuclear power is cheaper than gas and almost as cheap as coal. Unlike such fossil fuels, which release climate-changing carbon dioxide when burnt, nuclear power is “carbon free”. Better yet, uranium comes from stable countries such as Canada and Australia, so interruptions to supplies are unlikely. GE, Areva and another rival, Westinghouse, are also touting new designs that they say are safer than existing nuclear plants….
Leave a Reply