Posts Tagged ‘Nuclear renaissance’

Nuclear renaissance: Vietnam gets nuclear reactors from Russia and Japan, Japan gets access to rare earths

November 1, 2010

Now Vietnam is going nuclear with its first 2 plants coming from Russia and the next 2 from Japan. Unexploited rare earth deposits in Vietnam are receiving a great deal of attention from countries hit by the Chinese monopoly on rare earth supplies.

Chosun Ilbo reports

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet have called for increased trade and investment between their two countries. The two leaders met Sunday in Hanoi to seal a nuclear plant construction agreement and other bilateral deals. Under the $5 billion agreement, Russia will build Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant. Construction is expected to start in 2014.

Asahi Shimbun reports on a deal where Japan  gets access to the rare earth resources in Vietnam in exchange for two 1000 MW nuclear reactors worth 14.4 billion $ to the Japanese nuclear construction industry.

The nuclear reactor construction agreement, worth an estimated 1 trillion yen ($14.4 billion), gives the green light for Japanese companies to build nuclear facilities in an emerging nation’s fledgling nuclear industry for the first time.

The two reactors will be built in the southeastern province of Ninh Thuan and are scheduled to start operations in 2021. They will have a combined output of 2 gigawatts. Vietnam plans to build 14 nuclear reactors by 2030. Construction deals for four reactors in Ninh Thuan province have so far been agreed upon, including the two to be awarded to Japan. Russia won the rights to build two reactors in December last year.

Japan, which has been trying to use infrastructure exports as a springboard for its flagging economy, began bidding for the nuclear reactor project earlier this year. In August, a delegation of Japanese business leaders led by Japan’s industry minister visited Vietnam to lobby officials. They offered financial assistance and training for Vietnamese people.

Visiting Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Tan Dung also agreed on joint development of deposits in Vietnam of rare earth elements, part of a Japanese drive to reduce its reliance on China for supplies of the vital raw materials, which have been obstructed following a diplomatic dispute with Beijing.

A joint team of Japanese and Vietnamese businesses is currently applying for rare earth mining rights. The Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. discovered rare earth veins in the northern Lai Chau province about 10 years ago. Toyota Tsusho Corp., Sojitz Corp., and an arm of a Vietnamese public corporation have been preparing plans for joint development.

The underground reserves are believed to be capable of yielding 3,000 tons of rare earths a year, about 10 percent of Japan’s current annual requirement.

The Japanese government has offered to provide expertise and training in surveying, excavation, and processing the rare earth metals to Vietnam. Japan is also likely to dip into official development assistance to help the country build infrastructure such as roads and water supply near the mines. In a separate project, Sumitomo Corp. is looking into mining rare earths in Yen Bai province in the north of Vietnam.

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Business, Energy, Japan, Nuclear Power, Russia, Vietnam | Comments Off on Nuclear renaissance: Vietnam gets nuclear reactors from Russia and Japan, Japan gets access to rare earths

Nuclear Renaissance continues: Germany extends life of nuclear reactors

October 30, 2010

Der Spiegel:

Opponents of nuclear power suffered a setback in Berlin on Thursday as the federal parliament approved legislation that would effectively repeal Germany’s planned withdrawal from atomic power. Now nuclear plants can stay open an average of 12 years longer than originally planned.

Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen, a member of Merkel’s CDU, countered  criticism by saying: “You are at a dead loss when it comes to energy policy.” He said the Greens, SPD and far-left Left Party were scaremongering and merely seeking to gain votes. “They are placing their party interests before the interests of the country,” he said. Röttgen also stated that his government’s energy plan — which foresees 80 percent of all electricity coming from clean energy sources by 2050 — was the most ambitious renewable energy program in the world.

The Green Party, in particular, sought in vain on Thursday to prevent the vote at the last minute.

Jörg van Essen, a senior party official with the FDP, angered many with his statement that, “it has never done any parliament in history good when a party appeared appeared wearing the same uniform,” a statement he made while staring at the Greens. Members of the party were angered by the statement, which they considered to be a comparison to the uniformed Nazi members of parliament during the Weimar Republic era.

Meanwhile, members of the government accused the Greens of disobeying parliament. “The Greens need to know one thing: The greater the racket they cause, the more damage they do to themselves in terms of how seriously they are taken outside,” said Peter Altmaier, a senior member of the CDU.

The quiet renaissance is continuing in other parts of Europe as well. The Financial Times points out that:

In Italy, which decommissioned its four power stations after the country voted for a moratorium following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the government is considering new nuclear power stations. Sweden has embarked on a similar path, voting earlier this summer to overturn a 30-year-old ban on new reactors. Neighbouring Finland has announced plans to build two reactors in addition to one already under construction. In the UK, the coalition government, is also backing new plants.

Several east European countries, many of which are dependent on gas imports from Russia, are also proposing new reactors.

“Globally, there is a nuclear revival,” says Colette Lewiner, head of the Energy and Utilities division at Capgemini, “but it is much bigger and sustained in Asian countries, in particular in China, which has proposals to put eight to nine reactors into operation a year.”

For Europe’s cash-strapped governments, hit by the credit crunch, extending the life of an existing reactor is much cheaper than building a new one. In France, for example, recent estimates suggested it would cost about €500m ($697m) to extend the life of a 1,000MW reactor for 20 years. This compares with a cost of about €3bn for the same capacity from a new one that would have a lifespan of about 60 years, says Ms Lewiner.

On the fuel supply side as well companies are developing strategies and positioning themselves to take advantage of the renaissance. From London South East comes the news that:

Severstal, the largest steelmaker in Russia, has made a bid approach for its first uranium asset in Spain, seeking to diversify its mining business and benefit from an expected rise in European demand for nuclear power.

Severstal has approached Berkeley Resources Ltd about a possible takeover of the uranium exploration company worth about A$304 million ($294.9 million), sending Berkeley shares sharply higher in London.  Severstal is considering a cash bid for Berkeley, also listed in Sydney, at A$2.00 (122 pence) per share, Berkeley said in a statement on Friday.

The big due diligence question will concern the start-up of a uranium concentrate line that is part of the Salamanca project, Renaissance Capital analyst Boris Krasnojenov said. The line operated for 16 years before closing in 2000 due to low uranium prices. ‘Some people believe that nuclear generation is the future for Europe because regulation measures linked to coal generation emissions will increase,’ Krasnojenov said.


Tags:, ,
Posted in Energy, Engineering, Environment, Nuclear Power | Comments Off on Nuclear Renaissance continues: Germany extends life of nuclear reactors

The quiet nuclear renaissance is already under way

October 10, 2010

 

The map shows the commercial nuclear power pla...

Commercial and planned nuclear plants around the world: Wikipedia

 

In spite of political posturing of many kinds,  nuclear power capacity worldwide is steadily increasing  with 58 reactors under construction in 15 countries. Most reactors on order or planned are in Asia, though there are plans for new units in 65 countries. In many countries which already have nuclear plants in operation significant capacity addition is being created by plant upgrading.

Quietly, the nuclear renaissance is already under way and the lead is in Asia.

The 2nd International Conference on Asian Nuclear Prospects 2010 (ANUP 2010) gets under way tomorrow at Mahabalipuram near Chennai, India.

Speaking on the occasion, chairman, Indian Atomic Energy Commission, and secretary department of atomic energy Srikumar Banerjee said that the major issue facing the sector was waste management.  R.K. Sinha, vice president, Indian Nuclear Society and director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, said around six new countries are interested to have atomic power plant and many of them will have one by 2030.

Of the 58 nuclear reactors currently under construction world-wide, 35 are in Asia (23 in China, 6 in Korea, 4 in India and 2 in Japan).

The Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Y.A. Sokolov said that current nuclear expansion remains centred in Asia. Of the twelve constructions started in 2009, ten were in Asia.

In addition to the new plants under construction, numerous power reactors in USA, Belgium, Sweden and Germany, for example, have had their generating capacity increased. In Switzerland, the capacity of its five reactors has been increased by 12.3%. In the USA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved 126 uprates totalling some 5600 MWe since 1977, a few of them “extended uprates” of up to 20%. Spain has had a program to add 810 MWe (11%) to its nuclear capacity through upgrading its nine reactors by up to 13%.  Some 519 MWe of the increase is already in place.  For instance, the Almarez nuclear plant is being boosted by more than 5% at a cost of US$ 50 million. Finland boosted the capacity of the original Olkiluoto plant by 29% to 1700 MWe. This plant started with two 660 MWe Swedish BWRs commissioned in 1978 and 1980. It is now licensed to operate to 2018. The Loviisa plant, with two VVER-440 (PWR) reactors, has been uprated by 90 MWe (10%). Sweden is uprating Forsmark plant by 13% (410 MWe) over 2008-10 at a cost of EUR 225 million, and Oskarshamn-3 by 21% to 1450 MWe at a cost of EUR 180 million.

Commissioner William C. Ostendorff, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the Keynote Address at  the Emerging Issues Policy Forum, Powering the Future 2010 Conference on 4th October in Florida. During his speech he said:

Despite the global financial crisis over the last two years, there still appears to be great interest in nuclear power worldwide. In September, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its annual nuclear power projections. In these projections, the IAEA estimates that up to 10.4% of global electricity will come from nuclear reactors by the year 2030. This estimate is higher than last year’s estimate, which was up to 9% from nuclear power by 2030. The IAEA also made projections out to the year 2050, which estimated a maximum share of 11.9% from nuclear reactors.

Since the 2008 timeframe, the number of countries interested in the introduction of nuclear power has risen from 43 to about 65. Most of these countries are in Asia and Africa. At the same time, the number of countries planning to phase out their reactors has dropped. For example, you may have read that the German government decided last month to extend the life spans of its nuclear plants while alternative energy sources are developed.

I want to touch on one more subject before I close. I believe that it is important for the public to have trust and confidence in a strong regulator. A recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) compared nuclear accident risks with those from other energy sources. What caught my attention was the impressive safety record of the nuclear industry compared to other energy sectors.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Development, Economy, Energy, Nuclear Power, Technology | 1 Comment »