Nuclear energy still not safe

Chernobyl: The spectre still haunts

Nuclear technology still has two potentially fatal problems; the first is the so called fuel cycle. Uranium fuel turns into radioactive waste, which must be either recycled or disposed of. Both options are problematic. Reprocessing puts pure plutonium, the staff of bombs into circulation. And disposal is politically and technically tricky. To contain the spread of weapons material, nuclear nations may allow Iran and other countries to develop civilian reactors in exchange for giving up the control over the fuel cycle.

Developing safe civil reactor is gaining momentum all over the world. Engineers have made steady improvements reactors now being built, if operated properly, could improve the industries accident rate tenfold. Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR), for instance, are made to work even when they lose coolant, without overheating. Japan now operates three ABWR and Taiwan is building two. Pebbled reactors use uranium balls that dissipate heat so well that they shut down during accident. China and South Africa are building pilot plants, which look like a basement furnace split down the middle -- 27000 balls of uranium wrapped in layers of super strong silicon carbide, ceramic material and graphite make it physically impossible for the reactor to do anything but shut down if something goes wrong. The dangerous uranium would be trapped inside the spheres, which have a melting point much higher than the temperature inside the reactor could ever reach.

The so called pebbled technology behind the Beijing test plant originated in Germany more than three decades ago, and the US nuclear power industry also pursued it. But when the public opposition to nuclear energy forced those countries to curtail nuclear research in the 1980s, Beijing took over.

The growth of China's appetite for energy in the last four years has been staggering. As the world's fastest growing and most coal-dependent economy, China's share of world coal consumption in 2005 was 40 percent -- 2 billion tons -- more than that of the United States, India and Russia combined.

Worldwide, there are 442 nuclear power plants that supply 23 percent of the world's electricity. One tonne of natural uranium can produce over 40 million kilowatt-hours of electricity; this is equivalent to burning 16,000 tons of coal or 80,000 barrels of oil. There are currently 103 operating US nuclear power plants, producing over 20 percent of US electricity. Franc's 59 reactors, run by Electric de France, contributes 77 percent of the overall power generation. It is also the world's largest exporter of electricity, with an annual income of £3 billion.

The turn around is perhaps most startling in Europe. Most citizens remain wary, but rethinking is underway in almost every European country. In Italy, which junked its nuclear power, after a referendum 18 years ago, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi talked openly of reversing policy. In Germany, conservative politicians are cautiously debating the state's legal pledge to phase out nuclear power by 2020. Britain, struggling to meet its Kyoto targets, looks set for a nuclear comeback. In his New Year message, Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to make "the big choice" whether to add nuclear capacity. Britain currently depends on nuclear power for 20 percent of its electricity.

Cost overruns decimated nuclear power in the 1970s, but it is now seen as an essential ingredient to any country's energy portfolio, thanks to global warming.

Currently only India is the only country making eight reactors at a time, while nuclear plants under construction in China are 2, Russia 4, Ukraine 2, Taiwan 2, Argentina 1, Iran 1, Japan 1, Romania 1 and in Finland 1. Finland is building the first nuclear-power station in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 -- new anxiety have emerged to offset the old safety fears. Mounting evidence of climate change has refocused attention on an energy source that won't soil the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the cost of gas and oil is soaring. Europeans don't want to be dependent on supplies from Russia, especially after Moscow's recent show of arm-twisting with Ukraine. Japan wants to wean itself off the energy imports. US citizens are fed up with relying on Middle Eastern states for their energy. Olkiluoto's output alone will meet 10 percent of all Finland's requirements.

Recent visit of French president Jacques Chirac and US president Bush to India have heavily favoured India to push the interests of corporates engaged in the nuclear reactor and fuel supply (Uranium) business. Chirac's delegates included Phillipe Guillemot, chairman and CEO of Areva T&D. The group is big contributor to Chain's nuclear energy programme -- in both reactor and design construction, and front-end and back-end services, including fuel fabrication and spent fuel processing. The company estimates that India needs at least 25-30 large nuclear power stations to meet its energy needs. The Russians are already in India as dependable nuclear suppliers, helping the country build two 1,000 MW reactors. The Americans are not far behind. That was the main reason behind Bush's high profile visit on 1 March. The American sales pitches are expected to come from Bechtel Corp, which has built over half the nuclear plants in the US, and Washington Group International. Similar interest has been voiced by Russian president Mr. Vladimir Putin as well. Global nuclear energy players appear to have already started lobbying for large orders from India.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was in Australia beginning of April and signed two major agreements that will clear the way for the export of billions of dollars worth of Australian Uranium to the world's second biggest energy consumer after the United States. Australia has around 23 percent of world Uranium only after Canada where they produce 29 percent and Kazakhstan being third with 9.25 percent production. It's a clear indication that China is carefully planning its energy requirement with high emphasis on nuclear power.

Because nuclear power plants emit no carbon, nuclear power is emerging as a way of saving the earth from global warming. But the twin spectres of nuclear waste and proliferation -- nuclear material getting into the wrong hands -- cast doubt on whether nuclear power can fulfil this promise. When the uranium fuel is "spent" what's left is a mixture of radio active substances, of which 1 percent is plutonium -- a highly toxic material used to make nuclear weapons. Because plutonium stays radio active for tens of thousand of years, it must be kept in a facility that lasts a long time. Meanwhile, nuclear waste keeps pilling up and the risk of its falling into the wrong hands increases. The world's spent nuclear fuel already contains enough plutonium to make about 200,000 nuclear bombs.

Worldwide gas price is erratic based on the region. For example, Britons shivered through a cold snap in mid of March when temperatures plunged to unreasonable lows and snow dusted much of the northern half of the country. Business shook harder than most, as the frigid weather again played havoc with Britain's volatile natural gas markets. Price climbed from 59p per therm on March 10 to touch 255p on March 14, before falling back a bit. Why are British gas price so high? Besides cold snap the fire that knocked Rough, Britain's only big gas storage facility at North sea and depleting very fast anyway. Britain is desperate for new import facilities. New import facilities are being built, including a pipeline to Norway and two LNG terminals.

It's clear all the nations are hungry for energy and resources are limited. So in a country like Bangladesh, we feel proud of and should be careful in utilising our mineral resource like gas. Our gas is priceless and most important asset we do have after our human resource. We need to carefully utilise it and most importantly we shall have to reduce wastage of gas in residential usage. We do welcome all investment in the country including new companies where they are focusing to use gas as a basic ingredient for fertiliser and power but we should be very reluctant for any commitment for gas supply on price in advance. We should be fair to all investors in terms of gas supply either local or foreign and gas price should depend on real time issues and investors should not be worry because they are free to set their end product price based on the cost of their production including gas as a raw material for them.

Khalid Shams is a freelance contributor.