Nuclear Reactor 748 - Meeting At Chatham House On The Decline Of Nuclear Power - Part 2 of 2 Parts
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
There is also a possibility that interruptions of electricity for cooling ponds could be exacerbated by power cuts resulting from climate change over the sixty-year projected lifespan of a nuclear power plant. He did express doubt that any new nuclear power plants would actually be operated for sixty years because of the steadily increasing cost of plant operations.
Schneider said, “The fact is that the electricity from new reactors is going to be at least three times more expensive than that from renewables and this will alarm consumers. Governments will be under pressure to prevent consumers' bills being far higher than they need to be. I cannot see even the newest reactors lasting more than a decade or so in a competitive market at the prices they will have to charge. Nuclear power will become a stranded asset.”
The status report stated that only thirty-one countries out of the one hundred and ninety three members of the UN have operating nuclear power plants. Nine of the countries with nuclear power plants are either committed to phasing out all nuclear power or they are not planning to build any new nuclear plants or extend the lives of the plants that they have. Eleven of the countries with nuclear power plants are currently constructing new plants. Eleven of the countries have not active construction in progress.
Only four countries including Bangladesh, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey are building their first nuclear power plants. In the past year, only Russia and China have connected new nuclear power reactors to their national grids. China started up seven reactors and Russia started two.
One topic of conversation at the meeting was the fact that some governments including the U.K. were continuing to back nuclear power projects regardless of all the evidence that nuclear power was uneconomic as its costs kept rising and could not possibly compete with renewable sources whose costs kept falling.
Allen Jones is the chairman of the International Energy Advisory Council. He remarked that one of the popular myths about nuclear power was that it was needed to provide “baseload” power because renewable sources were intermittent. He pointed out that some countries are now producing over fifty percent of their power from renewables. Other countries were producing almost one hundred percent of their energy from renewables and suffering no power cuts or reductions. These facts suggest that nuclear power is not necessary for baseload power.
Jones said that large nuclear power reactors were difficult to turn on and off for load following based on demand. This made them unsuitable for modern electrical grids where renewable sources could often produce all the energy needed at a much lower cost.
Lovins said that it appeared that the U.K. was captive to a “nuclear ideology.” It was driven by policies, beliefs and facts that had no connection to reality. He said, “Nuclear is a waste of time and money in the climate fight.”