Posts Tagged by nuclear renaissance
The Nuclear Renaissance is Pushing Ahead? Really?
| June 16, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
Because there are plenty of people writing on the Fukushima disaster, I tend to comment on it quite sparingly. But I just received an email from Areva (the French nuclear giant) that begins: “With the nuclear renaissance pushing ahead, I’m sure you’re aware …”
I always marvel when I see stuff like this. When large, industrialized countries are saying no to nuclear, and its costs are skyrocketing (while renewables are becoming more affordable every month), does it appear credible to anyone that the “nuclear renaissance is pushing ahead?”
And what about the fact that the whole world is learning more about the safety issues every day? I’m not happy to have to say this, but I accept what this article suggests, i.e., that scientists believe Japan’s nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public, but that it’s only a matter of time before this becomes clear to everyone. “Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind,” Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.
I’m not sure how any of this – and the decisions of Germany and Italy — squares with the “nuclear renaissance.”
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Nuclear Renaissance? Guest Blogger Mike Brace Says "Let's Hope Not."
| November 2, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Guest Blogger Mike Brace comments on an article called “A nuclear renaissance needs government funding to move ahead.”
This is full-on garbage, written in a deliberate attempt to mislead readers. If you want to find it, use Google, as I don’t want to empower this evil cause by linking to it.
Principally, there are two things in this article that defy logic; one is plain as day: the author lists the cost as $10 billion for a 5,400 MW plant. That’s $1,800/kw. Not even coal is that cheap anymore. The last and best estimates by the DoE has nuclear at about $10K/kW.
The other lie here — this one a bit better hidden — is that large scale power generation no longer enjoys the economy of scale that it once did. In today’s economy it is seldom cheaper to go bigger unless you are at the lines in McDonalds. Large power plants lose that argument every time they stack up against localized power distribution. (This, btw, is what killed T. Boone Pickens’ plan, too).
