Time for change

There has been a lot of talking about the renaissance of nuclear power in the light of global warming and increasing oil prices. So let's have a look at the global situation: Who is building new nuclear power stations and who is just talking about?

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Greenpeace has announced a new weblog about the downsides of the nuclear industry.The blog is called "Nuclear Reaction" - blogging the meltdown of the nuclear industry".

The About-Section says:

"Welcome to Nuclear Reaction, where we'll be recording for history the meltdown of that most over-rated, over-subsidised and over-confident of industries, the nuclear industry.

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Finland's Olkiluoto nuclear power plant: The Olkiluoto construction project in Finland is rapidly becoming an example of all that can go wrong in economic terms with nuclear new build. It demonstrates the key problems of construction delays, cost overruns and hidden subsidies.

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How much CO₂ is produced by atomic energy?

One of the few pros of nuclear power is the relatively low emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the major causes of global warming. For this reason, it has been proposed as "the" method to mitigate the effects of climate change. However a recent life cycle analysis showed that nuclear power produces 4 to 10 times higher CO2 emissions per kWh electricity than renewable energies.

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Current discussions about possibilities to mitigate the effects of global warming have also opened discussions about a potential revival of nuclear power. In this context, it is often argued with very low cost of electricity from nuclear power plants. This seems to be one of the strongest arguments in favor of atomic energy. To determine the future cost of electricity from nuclear power, the cost from currently operating power stations is taken into account. This is not correct, however.

 

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An official study from the German government shows the risk of getting cancer is significantly increasing for small children growing up in the neighborhood of a nuclear power station. This is in particular true for leukemia, a special case of cancer.

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Weckaktion gegen neue AKW

Demonstration in Bern (Switzerland) against new nuclear power plants. On Saturday, September 8, 14.30h, Bundesplatz, Bern

Wir wollen keine neuen Atomkraftwerke!

Samstag, 8. September 2007, 14.30 Uhr
Bundesplatz, Bern

Mit Festständen, Essen und Musik

 
Atomlobby und Bundesrat planen neue Atomkraftwerke in der Schweiz. Wir sagen entschieden NEIN. Wir fordern eine Energiewende statt neuer AKW.

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In July 2007, Oxford Research Group in London released a report about the future of civil nuclear power applications and about the threat of nuclear proliferation. It's title is "Too hot to handle?" A link to the full article is provided at the end of this text.

Here are the conclusions of the report:

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Nuclear phase-out means the discontinuation of usage of nuclear power for electrical energy production. Usually because of concerns about nuclear energy, existing plants are either shut down or not renewed after being retired.

Many European countries have decided to phase-out nuclear power, for details see further below. Under the umbrella of global warming, lobbying organizations of the atomic industry are putting high pressure on several governments to postpone the planned shut down of nuclear power stations or even to cancel the phase-out altogether. Their main argument is the relatively low CO2 emission of nuclear power compared to fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas. However nuclear energy should rather be compared to sustainable energies and not to fossils.

The general pros and cons of nuclear power are discussed on a separate page. Here we concentrate on the pros and cons of nuclear phase-out.

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Electricity from nuclear energy is considered to be economical and very cost effective, in particular compared to electricity from renewable energy sources like wind, water, sun, biomass or geothermal energy.

There are two main reasons for the relative low cost of nuclear power:

• Research and development for nuclear applications has been financed by the government, therefore these costs don't get transferred to the cost of electricity produced from nuclear power. However the cost of R&D for renewable energy sources is mostly financed privately and therefore added to the production cost. It is therefore included in the cost of renewable electricity.

• Nuclear power plants are underinsured for legal liability. The risk for nuclear catastrophes is not carried by the owner of the nuclear power plant, it is carried by the whole nation. Electricity from nuclear power would cost at least twice as much than today if operator companies of nuclear power plants were to insure the plants for the real risks.

 

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