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Core Issues
Dissecting Nuclear Power Today
By Steve Kidd
Nuclear power offers affordable, secure and climate-friendly electricity to an energy-hungry world. But in order to deliver on its promises, the nuclear industry must address several complex challenges – including political, commercial, environmental, logistical as well as technological.
Core Issues – Dissecting Nuclear Power Today by Steve Kidd analyses the challenges faced by the nuclear power sector, and provides a practical overview of where the industry is today, where it is heading, and how it can overcome the many obstacles in its path to get there. Written by one of the industry’s most widely-known experts, Core Issues covers the entire nuclear power business, particularly nuclear fuel, economics and public acceptance.
Following on from the success of his monthly Comment in Nuclear Engineering International – the magazine’s most popular column in its 50-year history – Steve Kidd has combined and reworked the series of articles, adding new material to produce this essential guide to the nuclear power industry in the 21st Century.
- Chapter 1, Nuclear around the world explains how the experience of nuclear power (and its prospects) differ considerably from country to country. Nuclear power now accounts for almost 16% of world electricity generation, but the last 15 years have been characterised by relative stagnation. Now there are renewed prospects for further reactors in both established nuclear countries and some new ones too. The major developing counties, China and India, are particularly important. Yet there remain significant anti-nuclear forces in several European countries, notably Germany.
- Chapter 2, Nuclear new build and economics highlights that, despite the increased attention now being paid to nuclear for environmental and security of energy supply reasons, it’s clear that new nuclear plants must prove their economic credentials in the power markets of today. If it can be shown that a new nuclear plant will provide the cheapest baseload electricity over the long term, this is a very powerful argument in favour of selecting it. Several possible constraints have been mentioned, notably the availability of finance in liberalised markets and lack of supply capability, but these can be overcome.
- Chapter 3, Public acceptance shows that the roots of opposition to anything to do with nuclear run very deep and are an essential element of the environmental movement, which found the industry a relatively easy target. It was helped by an initial poor response from its advocates and some structural weaknesses within the industry itself. Experience has shown that gaining public approval is best accomplished at the local level, by letting people visit nuclear facilities and ask lots of questions. For the industry, the best approach is to carry on doing what it does best, which is running the facilities well, both safely and economically.
- Chapter 4, Nuclear fuel explains that just because the low cost of nuclear fuel and its relative stability over time has always constituted a prime economic advantage of nuclear power, this doesn’t mean that the fuel sector is unimportant or lacking in interest. Indeed, the opposite is very much the case, partly because the front end of fuel cycle is, in itself, quite complex, with individual markets for each of uranium, conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication. In particular, the upsurge in world uranium prices since 2003 and the subsequent sharp fall back from the peaks have in themselves created a lot of comment and interest (particularly from the financial sector). This has stimulated a renewed look at alternatives to the traditional ways of buying and selling nuclear fuel and encouraged buyers to press for the opening up of as many sources of supply as possible.
- Chapter 5, Trade and the back end of the fuel cycle discusses the significant international restrictions on knowledge transfer and trade that are important in nuclear commerce and also important issues in the management of used fuel and the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The constraints are very much bound up within the provisions of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and its policing by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). What to do with the used fuel when it is discharged from a nuclear reactor has been one of the biggest issues since the early days of nuclear power and has given rise to probably the biggest issues on public acceptance. The debate over reprocessing is an important part of this. Resolution of these important issues is vital to the future of nuclear as is proof that the industry will take full responsibility for returning closed nuclear sites to alternative use.
- Chapter 6, The big picture puts nuclear within the context of wider world energy developments. These have now returned as a subject of popular debate, after many years on the sidelines after the world oil crises of the 1970s. This has been prompted by renewed concerns over the security of long-term oil and gas supplies (indicated by significant price escalation) but also by the concerns about the environmental consequences of continued mass exploitation of fossil fuel resources. There are various scenarios now postulated for the future of nuclear power but lifecycle analysis of various electricity generation options shows nuclear in a very favourable light. Yet nuclear proliferation remains as a very live issue and could conceivably threaten prospects of a nuclear revival. Amongst other issues, this is addressed by initiatives such as the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) proposed by the United States and alternative (largely complementary) suggestions by other countries.
About the author
Steve Kidd is Director of Strategy & Research at the World Nuclear Association (WNA), the international association for nuclear energy based in London.
After reading economics at Queens’ College Cambridge and a brief period teaching and researching at Sheffield University, he followed a career as an industrial economist with leading UK companies. He practised as an independent consultant from 1990 and then joined the former Uranium Institute as Senior Research Officer in 1995. He assumed his present position when the Institute changed its name to the World Nuclear Association in 2001.
He acts as Secretary to many WNA working groups, notably those preparing incisive reports such as the biennial treatise on the global nuclear fuel market. He authors many articles on the commercial aspects of nuclear and is a frequent speaker at conferences and meetings around the world, particularly those targeted at non-specialists. Finally, he organises and teaches at training courses for nuclear professionals in developing nuclear countries, on behalf of the World Nuclear University (WNU).
Order now
Core Issues by Steve Kidd (ISBN: 9781903077566) is available in hardback at £25. Copies can be ordered online (please note that this link takes you to NEI’s secure subscription ordering webpage – please select subscribe. After selecting your region, you should be able to purchase books). Copies can also be ordered from NEI by:
email to cs@progressivemediagroup.com
Tel: +44 (0) 845 155 1845
Fax: +44 20 8269 7877
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