As nuclear power spreads, so do worries about safety
Of the more than 100 nuclear reactors now being built, planned, or on order, about half are in China, India, and other developing nations; China has 11 nuclear plants and plans to bring more than 30 others on line by 2020; MIT report says China may need to add as many as 200 reactors by 2050; imagine China bringing to nuclear matters the same rigor and corruption-free approach it brings to inspection of food, children toys, and medicines
Britain is the latest to recommit itself to nuclear power, with its government announcing support last week for the construction of new nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants produce around 20 percent of Britain’s electricity, but all but one are due to close by 2023. AP’s George Jahn writes that
Some countries hopping on the nuclear bandwagon, however, have abysmal industrial safety records and corrupt ways that give many pause for thought.
China has eleven nuclear plants and plans to bring more than thirty others online by 2020. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology report projects that it may need to add as many as 200 reactors by 2050. Just imagine China bringing to nuclear reactors — and to the treatment of radioactive materials — the same rigorous, exacting, transparent, and corruption-free inspection and monitoring methods it has demonstrated in food production, children toys, and medicines.
Of the more than 100 nuclear reactors now being built, planned, or on order, about half are in China, India, and other developing nations. Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa plan to expand existing programs; and Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt, and Turkey are among the countries considering building their first reactors. The concerns are hardly limited to developing countries. Japan’s nuclear power industry has yet to recover from revelations five years ago of dozens of cases of false reporting on the inspections of nuclear reactor cracks. The Swedish operators of a German reactor came under fire last summer for delays in informing the public about a fire at the plant. A potentially disastrous partial breakdown of a Bulgarian nuclear plant’s emergency shutdown mechanism in 2006 went unreported for two months until whistle-blowers made it public. Nuclear transparency will be an even greater problem for countries such as China that have tight government controls on information. Those who mistrust the current nuclear revival are still haunted by the 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl reactor and the Soviet Union’s attempts to hide the full extent of the catastrophe. Further back in the collective memory is the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979.
The revival, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) projects, means that nuclear energy could nearly double within two decades to 691 gigawatts — 13.3 percent of all electricity generated. “We are facing a nuclear renaissance,” Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of the French nuclear energy firm Areva, told an energy conference. “Nuclear’s not the devil
