OECD Countries Produce 85% of World Nuclear Power (C)

OECD Countries Produce 85% of World Nuclear Power (C)



Nuclear Power has become the most important electricity source in last one year since prices of petroleum has started shooting up. OECD countries are considering new nuclear power plants.



First in series of messages explains OECD the richest countries in the world produce 85% of Nuclear Power generated in the world and 23% their power needs are met by Nuclear Power. Along with Hydro Power, Renewable and CNG these countries get almost half the electricity from green sources.



Developed countries like Switzerland, France, Japan, Finland, Canada, USA, Belgium, Korea are among 31 countries already operating nuclear power. Among large OECD countries only Australia is yet to install a reactor but is top exporter of coal & uranium in the world.



http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/RDS2-27_web.pdf



Year ending 2006 out of around 2.66 trillion units of power OECD countries produced 2.31 trillion units of Nuclear Power that around 80%.



Finland is considering one more high power EPR reactor of around 1600 MWe that would double the nuclear power generation in Finland along with a 1600 MWe EPR reactor recently commissioned in last few months. Last year Nuclear Power contributed 27.99% of its electricity needs from 2696 MWe operational reactors. Presently around 45% of its power needs are met by nuclear power which could go up to 60% very soon.



Romania has two operational reactor (one commissioned last month) and two are already tendered. With all four operational in few years Nuclear generation will exceed 50% in Romania.



Brazil has only two reactors operational (1901) and one under construction has plans to commission 8 new reactors in eight years so Nuclear contribution in Brazil will shoot up from present 3.31% to over 15,000 MWe contributing around 120 billion units of electricity or 25%. Brazil has already hydro peaking power so reactors are expected to operate at over 90% load factor. (In a following story figure is 1.4% so IAEA document give correct figure.)



http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2006/04/13/nuclear-alberta13042006.html



In April 2006 Alberta (Canada) refused to support its first Nuclear reactor to heat sand oil but is now considering four reactors to give net power of 4400 MWe. Population of Alberta is 3.5 million. Thus Nuclear Power will contribute 10,000 units per capita from nuclear power.



Alberta has huge oil and gas reserves and use oil and gas for power generation and heating, precious fuels in present times. Extraction of oil needs Steam and hot water heating. Nuclear Power will save oil & gas precious fuels and thermal efficiency of reactors may exceed 70% double of conventional reactors.



USA is assisting Vietnam in Nuclear Power development. China, Argentina & Canada are collaborating in developing new advanced Candu reactors.



Ravinder Singh

July10, 2008



New ‘Brown Book’ Shows Increased Nuclear Share In OECD Countries



14 Jun (NucNet): The nuclear share of total electricity production in countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) increased to 23.1 percent in 2006 compared to 22.8 percent the previous year, according to new figures published today by the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA).



According to the NEA, nuclear electricity generation in OECD countries generated 2,278 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2006, an increase of 1.8 percent over the previous year.

The NEA, which comprises 28 OECD member countries, released the data with the 2007 edition of its Nuclear Energy Data report, also known as the “Brown Book”. The report also gives an overview of the status of, and trends in, nuclear electricity generation and the fuel cycle in OECD countries. The 2007 edition extends these forecasts for the first time up to 2030.

The figures show that overall electricity generation in OECD countries rose to just over 9,867 TWh of electricity in 2006, about 0.5 percent more than in 2005.

According to the NEA, there were 346 nuclear units in operation in 17 OECD countries at the start of 2007. A further 10 reactor units, representing a total installed generating capacity of 8.5 gigawatts electric (GWe), are currently under construction in the OECD area: four in South Korea, three in Japan, two in Slovakia and one in Finland.

“Firm commitments have been made for the construction of 15 more reactors (14 in the OECD Pacific region), representing an additional total capacity of 18.9 GWe,” the NEA said.

“Natural uranium production in OECD countries is lower than requirements and as in the past, the gap is being made up by imports and secondary sources,” the agency said. However, the NEA says that plans to increase uranium enrichment capacity moved ahead in 2006 when construction started on two new enrichment facilities in France and the US.



Environmental Study Process Starts For Potential New Finnish Unit



31 May (NucNet): Plans to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) into the possible construction of an additional unit at Finland’s Olkiluoto nuclear power plant were today submitted to the country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The EIA programme – the first step in the EIA process – was submitted by Finnish power company Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) and considers building a unit with an electrical output of around 1,000 to 1,800 megawatts (about 2,800 to 4,600 megawatts thermal).

If eventually built, it would be the fourth at the Olkiluoto plant and the country’s sixth reactor unit.

“The new unit can be either a boiling water reactor or pressurised water reactor,” said TVO’s quality and environment manager Olli-Pekka Luhta, who is responsible for the EIA process at TVO. Two potential construction sites at Olkiluoto are covered by the EIA programme.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry said today that the proposed unit would have an estimated design lifetime of about 60 years and that the project included the intermediate onsite storage of the unit’s spent nuclear fuel and the treatment and disposal of low- and intermediate-level waste.

TVO considers that not building another unit is a “zero option”, the ministry said. “This means assessing the environmental impact of a situation where the amount of electricity corresponding to the unit’s production capacity would be bought from the market.”

Public consultation about the EIA programme will continue until the end of August 2007. The programme will be posted on the ministry’s web site* and be available for inspection in local municipal offices. The ministry said the EIA procedure is estimated to run for “no less than a year”.



Romania Confirms Six Companies To Complete Cernavoda Units



10 Nov (NucNet): Binding offers from six companies for the completion and commissioning of units three and four of Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear power plant have been formally accepted.



Romanian utility Nuclearelectrica said that the offers were officially accepted on 5 November 2007. The six companies, who were named when the deadline for offers closed last month, have been confirmed as:

• Arcelo-Mittal of Romania;
• CEZ of the Czech Republic;
• Electrabel of Belgium;
• Enel of Italy;
• Iberdrola of Spain;
• RWE of Germany.

Negotiations on investors’ agreements are scheduled to begin later this month. Nuclearelectrica has said previously that draft investor agreements for the two units could be concluded by the end of 2007 with government approval and registration of the project management company early in 2008.

The Cernavoda site was designed for five identical 655-megawatt pressurised heavy water reactor units. But a lack of financial resources and a drop in power demand in the early 1990s resulted in the suspension of construction work on units three, four and five. Efforts were instead concentrated on the completion of Cernavoda-1 and -2.

Cernavoda-1 has been in commercial operation since 1996. Cernavoda-2 began commercial operation last month.



Japanese Company To Supply Major Component To Brazil’s Angra-1



8 Nov (NucNet): Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) of Japan is to supply a replacement reactor vessel closure head (RRVCH) for Brazil’s Angra-1 pressurised water reactor unit.



MHI said yesterday that the order from Brazil’s state-owned nuclear utility Eletronuclear was the first major nuclear plant component order from the country to a Japanese company. Delivery of the RRVCH is scheduled for April 2010.

The low-alloy steel RRVCH will be manufactured at MHI’s Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works. The value of the order was not given.

The 540-megawatt (MW) Angra-1 (first connected to the grid in April 1982) and the 1,275-MW pressurised water reactor Angra-2 (first connected to the grid in July 2000) are Brazil’s only commercially operational reactor units, providing about 1.4 percent of the country’s electricity.

Brazil’s government has tentatively budgeted 1.8 billion US dollars (1.3 billion euro) for the completion of Angra-3, a 1,224-MW pressurised water reactor, where work was put on hold in the 1980s because of a lack of funds.

In June 2007 Brazil’s National Council on Energy Policy proposed the potential construction of up to eight nuclear power plants over the next eight years, with a short-term target of constructing four plants within the next five years.



US Signs Agreement To Help Vietnam Prepare For Nuclear Energy



13 Sep (NucNet): The US has signed an agreement to help Vietnam as it prepares to develop a civilian nuclear energy programme, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said yesterday.

The NNSA said it had signed “an arrangement” with Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology to work together on efforts to use nuclear energy peacefully. “Demonstrating both countries’ commitment to controlling nuclear proliferation risks, NNSA will assist Vietnam as it prepares to develop civilian nuclear power safely and securely,” an NNSA statement said.

Under the new arrangement, scientists from the Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge national laboratories in the US will collaborate with Vietnamese technical personnel on specific measures that promote non-proliferation and security objectives.

The NNSA said this work includes reactor operations and safety, radiation protection, environmental radiological monitoring and radioactive waste disposition. Future collaborations will address nuclear safeguards and regulatory controls.

Vietnam has no commercial nuclear power plants, although it does have a research reactor at the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute.



Application Filed For Four New Canadian Units



28 Aug (NucNet) The Energy Alberta Corporation (Energy Alberta) said yesterday that it had filed an application with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for a licence to prepare for the construction of up to two twin-unit nuclear power plants in the province of Alberta.



Privately-owned Energy Alberta has teamed up with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) for the project. The application proposes siting up to two twin-unit ACR-1000 Advanced Candu Reactors on privately-owned land adjacent to Lake Cardinal, about 30 kilometres west of the town of Peace River.

Energy Alberta said the site was chosen after "months of engaging the local community". The company initially plans to build one twin-unit ACR-1000 plant "that will ultimately produce a total net 2,200 megawatts (MW) of electricity with a targeted in-service date of early 2017".

Wayne Henuset, president and co-chairman of Energy Alberta, said: Corporation. "This filing, the Licence to Prepare Site, is the first of many steps in getting licences to build the plant. Building a nuclear power facility is a long and rigorous process. This is the beginning of a public and regulatory process that will include environmental, health and safety assessments. Public consultations will be an essential component of the process."

Energy Alberta said it had chosen the region as its preferred site "because of the demonstrated support from the community, existence of essential infrastructure and support services, and technical feasibility".

The ACR-1000 is a Generation III+, 1200 megawatt electric class nuclear power plant incorporating 80 per cent of the technical specification from the company's CANDU 6 design.



AECL Signs Candu Agreement With China And Argentina

5 Sept (NucNet): Canada, China and Argentina have agreed to carry out a joint study into possible cooperation on new Candu reactor units in the three countries.



Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Nucleoelectrica Argentina signed a memorandum of understanding in China to carry out a joint study into potential cooperation in the design, manufacture, construction and operation of Candu nuclear power plants, AECL said on 4 September 2007.

CNNC and Nucleoelectrica Argentina have also agreed to strengthen cooperation in sharing and exchanging their Candu-6 nuclear power plant operational and maintenance experience.

China has two Candu units in service at Qinshan phase three while Argentina has one older unit operating at Embalse.

Nucleoelectrica Argentina recently signed an agreement with AECL to enter into commercial negotiations to build a new 740-megawatt Candu-6 reactor unit similar to the Qinshan phase three design.



China’s Tianwan-2 Starts Commercial Operation Ahead Of Schedule

16 Aug (NucNet): Unit 2 of China’s Tianwan nuclear power plant started commercial operation ahead of schedule at 00.15 local time today in eastern Jiangsu province, the China National Nuclear Corporation said.

Tianwan-2 formally entered its commissioning period when it reached full power on 11 July 2007 and had been scheduled to start commercial operation in September 2007. The Russian-designed light water VVER-1000 reactor unit reached first criticality in April 2007.

The two-unit plant represents the largest nuclear energy cooperation project to date between Russia and China. Tianwan-1, also a VVER-1000, entered commercial operation in May 2007.

Up to today, both units have delivered a total of nearly 5,000 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity to the grid – nearly 730 million kWh of which came from Tianwan-2.