@@ Stronger future for nuclear power - China is getting ready for the 4th-generation nuclear reactor design, gas-pebble-bed reactor (PBMR) @@
- From: "Arash" <A7000@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 03:21:52 -0500
Physics Today - The American Institute of Physics
February 2006
Stronger Future for Nuclear Power
Nuclear reactor builders are jostling for business as energy utilities take another
look at nuclear power.
By Paul Guinnessy
http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-2/images/p19fig1.jpg
Finland's new nuclear power plant at Olkiluoto will be home to Europe's first new
reactor in 15 years.
Some two dozen power plants are scheduled to be built or refurbished during the next
five years in Canada, China, several European Union countries, India, Iran, Pakistan,
Russia, and South Africa. In the U.S. and the UK, governmental preparations are under
way that may lead to 15 new reactor orders by 2007.
About 16% of the world's electricity supply comes from nuclear power, and energy
demand is increasing. Worldwide, nearly 80% of the 441 commercial nuclear reactors
currently in operation are more than 15 years old. To maintain nuclear power's
position in the overall energy mix, new reactors will have to replace decommissioned
ones, says a report from the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
The new interest in civilian nuclear energy results from some heavy lobbying by
groups involved in building reactors, says Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned
Scientists, and from attempts to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. EU Energy
Commissioner Andris Piebalgs adds that there are also increasing concerns about
energy security, particularly in light of the recent disruption of Russian gas
supplies in Europe.
Most of the new reactor designs are third-generation pressurized-water reactors
(PWR), although companies in China, France, and South Africa are looking to build a
fourth-generation design called a gas-pebble-bed reactor (PBMR). The new reactors are
supposed to be inexpensive to build, more powerful, and safer; and they can be
operated for up to 60 years, according to nuclear-power trade groups.
The international view
Late last year, officials from Bruce Power, one of Canada's largest power companies,
announced a Can$4.25 billion (US$3.6 billion) investment to rebuild two reactors that
have stood idle for nearly 10 years on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, north of
Kincardine, Ontario. Last December, the Ontario Power Authority proposed plans to
build 12 new nuclear plants to help phase out Ontario's coal-fired power stations.
New 1600-MW European PWRs are being built, one in Finland and one in France, with
respective power-up dates of 2008 and 2012. On 5 January, France's president, Jacques
Chirac, announced plans for an expansion of renewable and nuclear energy sources for
France, including a PBMR by 2020. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to
announce this spring six to eight new reactors in the UK.
Russia is currently constructing several reactors, including an 800-MW fast neutron
reactor, but financial difficulties may delay four of them, says the London-based
World Nuclear Association. Iran is building two Russian-designed reactors, the first
of which should go on line later this year. The first South African PBMR is set to be
completed in 2012.
Nuclear-industry officials have long said that the majority of growth would come in
Asia. Japan is building five new power plants by 2010, and China plans to build 30
nuclear reactors, based on domestic designs, by 2020. China also sees nuclear
technology as a major export opportunity, say industry analysts, and is building its
second of four power plants for Pakistan, which may lead to a larger order. India has
nine power plants under construction, including a fast-breeder reactor that generates
its own fuel.
Six countries?Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, the Czech Republic, and Turkey?may
build two to five PWRs each, while Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland are now
reevaluating plans to phase-out nuclear power.
U.S. moves
The U.S. nuclear power industry has been virtually frozen since the Three Mile Island
accident in 1979, but in the U.S. Congress 2005 energy bill, tax credits worth $3.1
billion, along with liability protection and compensation for legislative delays,
were added for the industry. On 30 December 2005, for the first time in years, the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) certified the design of a new reactor?the 1000-MW
Westinghouse advanced passive (AP) reactor.
Six U.S. power-plant operators are preparing combined construction and operating
license (COL) requests to the NRC that could restart construction in the next five
years. NuStart Energy, a consortium of nine nuclear energy companies, submitted plans
for a General Electric simplified boiling water reactor at the Grand Gulf nuclear
station near Port Gibson, Mississippi, and an AP-1000 reactor at the Bellefonte
nuclear plant near Scottsboro, Alabama.
Two AP-1000 reactors may be built in the Carolinas by Duke Energy, along with another
reactor by Progress Energy. "Preparing this application provides us the option to
continue using a diverse fuel mix in the future", says Brew Barron, Duke Energy's
chief nuclear officer.
Constellation Energy of Baltimore, Maryland, is in partnership with AREVA, a large
French?German engineering firm, to submit COL requests for a European PWR at the
Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant site in southern Maryland and the Nine Mile Point
nuclear plant in Oswego, New York. Entergy, another NuStart member, announced it was
preparing its own COL request for a new reactor at its River Bend Station power plant
in St. Francisville, Louisiana. On 6 December, two electric utilities, Scana Corp and
Santee Cooper, filed a letter of intent with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
build two new reactors north of Columbia, South Carolina, to meet growing regional
power demands.
According to representatives of the electric utilities involved, the U.S. government
and the reactor technology suppliers are paying for most of the $150 million the
certification process costs. "The utilities are waiting to see if they can get any
more subsidies out of the government", says Lyman, "so it's still premature to say if
any of them will go ahead". A satisfactory means for disposal of their radioactive
waste products has not yet been announced.
But the nuclear power industry believes the first new U.S. order is only two years
away. Says NuStart Energy president Marilyn Kray, "Our country needs these advanced
nuclear plants".
http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-2/p19.html
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