China's Coming Nuclear Power Boom

Ramping up growth in the nuclear industry will be crucial to achieving China’s emissions goals.

Get ready for China’s nuclear industry to boom (no pun intended): The China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA) predicts that eight new nuclear reactors will begin operation this year. If so, that will mark the largest single-year increase in nuclear power production in China’s history.

China is looking to more than double the number of nuclear power plants in operation — there are currently 23 operating, with 26 under construction. If all the projects are completed as planned, it would bring China’s nuclear energy capacity up to 49.9 gigawatts, compared to the current capacity of 21.4 gigawatts. Plus, CNEA expects an additional six to eight nuclear energy projects to be approved this year.

Zhang Huazhu, the chairman of CNEA, called 2015 “an important yet for China to resume its nuclear power program.” Like many countries, China slammed the brakes on nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster in Japan; the industry in China is just beginning to regain its footing. A rapid expansion of nuclear power is critical for weaning China off of coal and reaching emissions reduction targets, but safety concerns (and public fears) continue to plague the industry. In 2014, China didn’t approve a single new nuclear power project, and investment in the industry dropped by 6.6 percent, Zhang said, speaking an industry conference in Beijing.

Currently, nuclear energy accounts for less than 3 percent of China’s total power generation. “In the coming decade, China will maintain a rapid pace of nuclear power development so that it can reach the target of nuclear installations by 2020 and make better use of energy,” Zhang said.  China’s stated goal is to have 58 gigawatts in nuclear power capacity by 2020, but that goal may be difficult to reach given the slowdown in construction after 2011.

Germany’s Nuclear Cutback Is Darkening European Skies

If Germany wants to phase out nuclear power, coal is the only realistic option

 Germany’s influence in Europe is unquestionable, but it appears that some of its neighbors may be adversely affected by recent German decisions; and Greece is not the neighbor in question here. France has been reporting heavy levels of air pollution which authorities in the country are blaming on diesel cars there. But the real culprit may in fact be the renewed German penchant for coal power.

Up until a few years ago, Germany, along with France, was at the forefront of nuclear power use. But after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011, the Germans were quick to begin phasing out nuclear power. In some countries, phasing out nuclear power would be easy, but in 2011, Germany obtained 25% of its power from nuclear sources. This nuclear power generated no carbon dioxide emissions of course, and little in the way of other forms of pollution. But after starting the phase out of nuclear power, Germany still needed to find a source of replacement power.

Renewables like wind and solar sound great in theory, but the sporadic nature of power generation from those sources makes them imperfect substitutes for the consistency of nuclear. In that sense then, battery solutions like that announced by Tesla last week, or the solutions from General Electric, may eventually provide a solution for Germany. But as of now, the grid battery industry is still too nascent to provide serious help to Germany.

 

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A former EPA director is pushing for wider use of nuclear power in the US

By Adam Wernick for PRI

 

All the waste from America’s nuclear power could fit in a city block, and nuclear power plants don't release greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the US hasn’t completed construction of a nuclear reactor in more than 30 years.

Christine Todd Whitman, former Republican Governor of New Jersey, and administrator of the EPA under George W. Bush, says its time to change this. She is a strong advocate for the use of nuclear power and co-chairwoman of CASE, the Clean And Safe Energy Coalition.

Nuclear energy today provides about 19 percent of the overall energy mix in the US, but more than 60 percent of the clean energy, Whitman says. “We feel this is something which people should be aware of. They don't really know about it. They have a lot of questions.”

CASE aims to answer those questions. Whitman pushes back against those who say it’s better to invest time and capital in renewable energy like wind, solar and tidal, because nuclear is so expensive to build. “We need all those sources,“ Whitman contends. "[But] right now, we do not have a way to store [solar and wind] energy. [They] only work when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, and all of them require back-up power. We want reliable power 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

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New nuclear power plants provide clean energy

Long-lived transuranic waste from the production of nuclear weapons is stored at a deep-geologic repository in southeastern New Mexico, but there is no comparable permanent, or even temporary, repository for civilian high-level nuclear waste from electricity production.

President Barack Obama directed the Department of Energy to abandon the Yucca Mountain project after $12 billion and 30 years had been spent on site preparation and mining engineering. It had become clear that Nevadans did not want and would not accept the repository.


As DOE prepares to begin its search for an alternative to the Yucca Mountain site, it is worth exploring the possibility that the consent-based approach that was used so successfully in building public acceptance of the defense waste repository in New Mexico can be replicated.


The answer will determine whether a permanent disposal site can be found for the thousands of tons of spent fuel now stored at New York power plant sites.


Recently, a blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste lauded the bottoms-up approach used in New Mexico to build the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, popularly known as WIPP. WIPP’s construction and operation have gone without incident. Since 1999, there have been more than 10,000 shipments by railroad and truck carrying steel drums loaded with transuranic waste — primarily machinery, tools, gloves and clothes with small amounts of plutonium and other nuclear materials. Some of the shipments originate at nuclear installations and national laboratories more than 1,000 miles away.


The unloaded steel drums are lowered into the repository, which is located in a salt bed a half-mile beneath the desert floor. The waste shipments are expected to continue for another 25 to 35 years, at which time the repository will be covered in soil and concrete. And within 75 years, the salt will have filled in any cracks or fissures and sealed in the repository essentially forever.


WIPP is located 26 miles outside of Carlsbad. This city of 25,000 has benefited economically from WIPP seems obvious. WIPP has created 1,300 permanent jobs, including many for scientists and engineers engaged in research on nuclear waste management, and just as many support jobs.

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Nuclear power is clean energy

Nuclear power is clean energy


Euphoria over new U.S. oil production is soaring, as North Dakota replaces Alaska as our number two oil producing state. Visions of our energy independence, proclaimed by presidents since Richard Nixon, dance before us.  The reality is that while North Dakota’s 570,000 barrels/day is a lot, it is only 3% of our daily oil consumption.


Conservation and increased production have reduced our oil imports to less than half our demand from two thirds a few years ago.  That trend is continuing, and we should soon be able to meet our needs from the Western Hemisphere, especially from the huge reserves in the Alberta oil sands. Approving the Keystone XL pipeline will support our independence from Middle East supplies.


The other major energy trend is the rapid reduction in coal’s share of electric power fuel. From 50 percent five years ago, coal supplied 42 percent in 2011, and it is now below 40% in the first months of 2012. A rise in natural gas use from 20% to more than 25% at our electric utilities is making up the difference, with help from wind which has risen from 1% to about 3% of electric energy supply.


The Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) is proposing that utilities cannot emit more than 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt hour produced. Modern natural gas plants already meet this standard. Coal plants produce nearly twice that amount, and there is still no effective way to segregate and bury that CO2 from coal plant flue gas. Emissions of pollutants like sulfur and mercury from coal plants can be controlled at high expense. This expense isn’t economic at many older coal plants, and they are being retired for cleaner natural gas. Longer term, nuclear plants are still an answer, as they emit only water vapor.

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