In this extract from his new book, Nukenomics: The commercialisation of Britain's nuclear industry, Ian Jackson looks at the radwaste disposal market and how it influences the economics of new nuclear build.
Waste
Buried costs
Thursday, March 27, 2008
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Waste cost threat to nuclear plans
Thursday, March 27, 2008Energy companies cannot be charged a fully commercial price by the government for disposing of nuclear waste without “killing the prospect” of a new generation of reactors, a government adviser will warn on Thursday.
The analysis will fuel opposition to the government’s contentious and aggressive drive to expand the UK’s nuclear capacity. Gordon Brown will on Thursday underscore his determination to attract investors to build reactors, at his summit with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president. The leaders are expected to agree to Anglo-French co-operation on nuclear skills and regulation.
Russia continues to import spent nuclear fuel from Europe
Wednesday, March 26, 2008According to ecologists, about 700,000 tons of uranium hexafluoride have been accumulated in Russia. It is a byproduct of uranium enrichment that appears during the production of fuel at nuclear power plants. Today Russia is the only country which accepts this compound.
Depleted uranium turns earthworms into glowworms
Thursday, March 20, 2008EARTHWORMS WERE pushed into the firing line last week after a resumption of the testing of depleted uranium shells at Dundrennan.
Significant levels of radioactive uranium isotopes were found in the flesh of worms at the Ministry of Defence's Dumfries weapons range last year. Despite concerns from environmentalists and the international community, the MoD last week started a series of tests of depleted uranium (DU) shells, supposed "safety checks".
Tennessee regulators will not block Italian nuclear waste processing
Saturday, March 15, 2008KNOXVILLE, Tennessee: Tennessee regulators say there is no "technical reason" to prevent a Utah company from processing nuclear waste from Italy in Tennessee, but political opposition continues to grow.
Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. wants to bring about 20,000 tons (18,144 metric tons) of waste from shuttered nuclear plants in Italy through the ports of Charleston, South Carolina, or New Orleans, process it in Tennessee and send what's left to a disposal site in Utah.
Deep under Sweden's soil could lie a solution to the UK's nuclear waste problem
Monday, March 10, 2008Robin Pagnamenta in Oskarshamn, Sweden
Inside the cavernous hall of a nuclear storage plant in southern Sweden, an 18-tonne steel canister, bristling with tiny fins to draw out excess heat, is being hauled slowly through a hatch by a crane.
Packed with highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from a reactor north of Stockholm, the canister is being made ready for 30 years of storage in pools sunk into the bedrock. Once it cools sufficiently, it will be placed permanently in a final repository deep underground.
Ministers warned of nuclear 'albatross'
Saturday, March 1, 2008THE nuclear industry is an economic “basket case” and will continue to be a “financial albatross” for the taxpayer, the Government was warned today.
Labour’s Newport West MP Paul Flynn told the Commons the “immense” cost of cleaning up nuclear waste – which he said was £73 billion – was probably an underestimate. The bill would amount to £3,000 for every family in the country.
Shipping bottlenecks may halt nuclear renaissance
Wednesday, February 27, 2008LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Nuclear power -- back in favour in some circles on concerns over global warming -- may face supply problems as worries over the safety of radioactive material limit its movement around the globe.
After decades of plant closures amid opposition from the anti-nuclear lobby, many governments are now planning to build new reactors to try to cut dependence on oil and coal which put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Companies to foot nuclear clean-up bill
Friday, February 22, 2008Companies building nuclear reactors in the UK will have to meet the full cost of their future closure and clean-up, setting money aside from day one, the government will say on Friday.
Following on from last month’s white paper on nuclear power, the government will on Friday set out the draft framework for how the decommissioning of new nuclear reactors would be paid for.
Several companies, including British Energy, EDF, Eon, RWE and Centrica, are looking at building reactors but have said they want more certainty on a range of issues before they are ready to invest, including decommissioning costs and the disposal of radioactive waste.
Piebalgs defiant over EU atomic safety standards
Thursday, February 21, 2008The European commission will continue to push for EU minimum nuclear safety standards despite EU governments' failure to entertain a package of draft legislation tabled over three years ago, energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs insisted on Wednesday.
