Energy futureTalk of nuclear power renaissance not matched by action
The rising price of oil and growing concerns about the environment have fueled the notion that nuclear power will soon enjoy a renaissance; new study shows that facts on the ground tell a different story
Rumors of an inevitable nuclear power renaissance — fueled by concerns about the environment and rising oil prices — may well be exaggerated. This is the verdict of an audit of the nuclear power industry released last week.
The report, commissioned by The Greens, a European parliamentary group, points out that many aging reactors are due to close before 2030, and that 338 new ones would have to be built just to replace them. The Paris-based nuclear consultants who compiled the report argue that the industry is growing too slowly to meet this target, and may even be shrinking. The world has five fewer reactors operating today than it did in 2002, they say. Only ninety-one reactors are now being planned, and a further thirty-two are under construction, mostly in Asia and eastern Europe. Construction work on eleven of those has been under way for twenty years or more.
The idea that nuclear power is about to experience major growth is “pure fantasy,” says the report’s author, Mycle Schneider. The industry is facing “a dramatic loss of competence, skeptical financial markets and the severe shortage of manufacturing capacity,” he says.
-read more in Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt, “The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2007” (Brussels: The Greens, November 2007)
