World Nuclear Association Blog

In recent years one reason given for opposing electricity generation from nuclear power is to say that "nuclear can't contribute to a low carbon economy because if you decide to build nuclear reactors today it will be too late and too little to make a difference. We need to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions this decade and new nuclear power stations won't come on line until the 2020s." 

This argument simply does not stand up to scrutiny.  

For a start, to suggest that any contribution from nuclear energy to combating global warming will come too late ignores the plain fact of its significant contribution today. Already around 15% of the world's electricity is supplied by nuclear power, avoiding the emission of more than two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. New renewables (wind, solar, biomass, as opposed to large hydro) generate only around a quarter of that amount of electricity, although certainly that is no reason to suggest we shouldn't be expanding the use of these low carbon electricity sources too.

It is true to say that if a government makes a policy decision today to support new nuclear build then it may take a decade to turn that commitment into a practical response of operational nuclear power plants.  

It is also true that to effectively tackle climate change and meet our needs for secure supplies of low carbon electricity we need to be bringing in new generation capacity this decade. But it is wrong to think investment in new nuclear capacity is beginning today from a standing start. There are currently over fifty nuclear reactors with a capacity of just under 50,000 MWe under construction. These reactors will collectively avoid the emission of an additional 350 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. These reactors are coming online throughout this decade, some will start this year. (See our Reactor Database for where these are being built). Still more are already in the planning stage with construction due to start soon. In China alone there are plans to increase nuclear generation capacity sixfold to 60,000 MWe by 2020. 

So nuclear energy is already making a major global contribution to providing secure and affordable electricity supplies of electricity today and many new nuclear power plants will add to that contribtion over the next few years.  

But even if we were to put aside this immediate contribution from nuclear power is it right to say that the time taken to build new nuclear power plants mean they are irrelevant to the purpose of fighting climate change, just because greenhouse gas emission growth needs to be halted in the next few years?

Again the answer is a clear 'no'. We live in a world starved of electricity. Only a small, fortunate minority of the global population benefits from a reliable supply of electricity. The fast-growing economies of major developing countries such as India and China are driving an increasing global demand for electricity. The world's population is expected to grow from just under 7 billion at present to 9 billion by 2050.

Even if developed countries can stabilise or reduce their electricity demand through increased energy efficiency the growing need of  the rest of the world driven by economic growth and increased population will mean conventional electricity demand is likely to rise to three or four times the current level over the next 40 years.

Shifting from today's world of electricity poverty to one where we meet the needs of all will take decades.Yes, it can take time to bring new nuclear power plants online and that means that we need to now make a commitment to nuclear energy as part of a clean energy future.. But it is ridiculous to say that nuclear power isn't part of the long term solution to climate change because new plants can't come on stream until 2020. The majority of electricity generation capacity required in 2050 won't be needed in 2020.  Nuclear energy is part of the solution today, new nuclear power plants already under construction will be starting up throughout this decade and nuclear energy can be a major component in meeting our long-term global electricity needs.

The Guardian reports that the UK has reached 1GWe of low carbon offshore wind generation capacity. That the UK is leading the world in terms of offshore wind capacity while at the same time as starting on a process of new nuclear build is just one example of how countries can support a portfolio of clean energy technologies, rather than trading one off against the other.

The Guardian article gives another example when it identifies Finland as the country in Europe with the shortest time taken to approve new wind turbine projects, taking just eight months, compared to 24 months in the  UK  and 50 months in  Spain. Finland  has also just announced plans for new nuclear build.

The Guardian article says that 1GWe of offshore wind capacity will produce enough electricity to supply 700,000 homes. Exactly what that means isn't clear, but based on average UK electricity consumption per household it suggests 1GWe of offshore wind turbines will generate about 2.5 TWh of electricity. In comparison 1GWe of nuclear generation would generate three times that amount, the difference coming from the more intermittant and variable nature of wind power.

What is it about UFOs and low carbon generation? It was only just over a year ago the BBC reported that a  wind turbine was (allegedly) damaged by a UFO. Now WNN is reporting that aliens are buzzing the area around a proposed nuclear waste repository in Australia.

There may be an element of doubt about these reports, but for some space-based facts have a read of our paper on Nuclear Reactors for Space.

The Royal Academy of Engineers says that the UK may need up to 80 new nuclear power plants by 2050 (see the WNN report http://npinf.tk). That's in line with the projections made in WNA's Nuclear Century Outlook, which considers both global need and global capability for clean energy generation.

The WNA is now on Facebook. If you want to join us please go to our fan page  World Nuclear Association

 
"In Europe and the United States, signs of the long-discussed “nuclear renaissance” are increasingly positive. But it’s in China (which now has 21 out of the 53 reactors under construction around the world) that the initial boom is occurring."

Read more from WNA's Steve Kidd in this article from Nuclearstreet.com

http://nuclearstreet.com/blogs/nuclear_power_news/archive/2010/03/11/wna-director-nuclear-reborn-03112.aspx

A new information paper has just been published,  Uranium in Mongolia, detailing Russian, Canadian and Chinese interest in the urnanium reserves in that country. In total WNA now has around 40 Country Profile pages.

WNA has also launched a page with listing weekly the latest updates  to its information papers. From this page you can also access an archive of previous industry developments.