Power shift puts nuclear back in race

Age
Tuesday 30/9/2008 Page: 2

NUCLEAR power is surfing a new wave of growth in Europe, as governments and electricity generators search for reliable, low-cost alternatives to coal and its emissions of carbon dioxide. Last week's $27.5 billion acquisition by Electricite de France of British Energy and its ageing network of nuclear plants is another sign that nuclear is back, as 30 years of opposition to building plants gives way to priorities in the fight against global warning.

EDF plans to build four reactors in Britain, the first by 2017, to replace coal-fired power stations likely to become uneconomic under European Union plans to make power stations pay for their carbon dioxide emissions after 2012. France's electricity supplier, now a public-private hybrid, also has ambitious plans to expand nuclear power in China, the US and South Africa. It is already building a state-of-the-art, 1600-megawatt plant at Flamanville, on the coast of Normandy, and another plant is being built in Finland.

France is the world's nuclear specialist. It generates 78% of its electricity from nuclear power and produces a sixth of the world's nuclear power output. Once reviled for its choice of nuclear over coal, it now feels it has been proved right. China plans to build 40 nuclear plants by 2020. US Undersecretary of State William Burns revealed this month that India had promised to buy 10 nuclear plants from US suppliers, implying a big expansion of its nuclear industry after the recent lifting of global sanctions.

"The order books of the world's nuclear suppliers are full, and there is a long waiting list," said one well-placed observer. "China is the most important player, but there are big ambitions in the US. EDF has big plans for expansion in Britain. Sweden has reversed its commitment to phase them out and is looking at building more.

"Italy is looking at it. Only Germany is still committed to close its plants, but they're talking about changing that." In a landmark report in June, the International Energy Agency estimated that if the world was to meet the target of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at least cost, it would need to open a nuclear plant every fortnight for the next 40 years - along with similar shifts to greater energy efficiency, renewable energy and carbon capture and storage.

Nuclear expert Pierre Zaleski, of the Dauphine University of Paris, said the new generation of nuclear plants was more efficient than those of the 1970s. while the fast-breeder reactors now under development would use one-80th of the uranium to produce the sane power. Environmental veteran Brice Lalonde, who co-founded Friends of Earth and was environment minister under the Socialist Party, is one of several prominent French leftists who have crossed sides to work for President Nicolas Sarkozy, in his case as France's ambassador for climate change negotiations.

Once a leading opponent of nuclear power, he now sees it as inevitable. "I've fought against nuclear power plants," Mr Lalonde told BusinessDay. "I feared they would lead to contamination and accidents. "Now I must admit that, 30 years later, the damn things are working very well. If you want to fight climate change, you have to have every available weapon. You cant escape it. You have to choose the lesser of two evils."