Archive for Nuclear
To the AFP : ” Egypt announced on Wednesday it would build its planned nuclear powerplant on the Mediterranean coast of el-Dabaa which it hopes will start production in 2019, the state news agency MENA reported. “
” Egypt has already used several foreign companies as consultants, including Areva and Westinghouse Electric Co. (this) plant would be followed by three other reactors, tentatively scheduled to start production in 2025. “
This would be the fourth country in the region to build nuclear reactors. Meanwhile, the country is also willing to develop renewable energies such as wind and solar. Continue »
To the New York Times, 36 years after the construction began, Iran finally opened its first nuclear reactor. The plant has a capacity of one gigawatt (compared to the 1,650 MW of an EPR).
Many around the world are fearing for the region’s peace as the uranium used in the plant could also be used for bombs and missiles. The Iranian government promised to give the spent fuel rods to Russia – who helped building this plant.
This would prevent proliferation. The Bushehr plant will begin producing electricity later this year , once the 82 tonnes of low-enriched uranium will have been delivered by Russia. Continue »
We have heard that before : ” Wind power is far too unreliable ” or ” Nuclear power isn’t a safe solution “. Yet the reality is most of the times far from these myths. Popular Mechanics published a long article debunking energy myths.
I wrote about some of them such as clean coal that won’t clean up our air or biofuels that won’t cure our addiction to oil or don’t even represent an alternative to oil. Some others, like algae are quite new topics here.
After debunking all these myths, this long article ends with a true fact that I have been hammering here since the beginning of this blog : ” Energy saved, it turns out, is the cheapest new source. “
According to the International Energy Agency, China became in 2009 the world’s biggest energy consumer in front of the USA. Indeed it consumed 2.25 billion tons of oil equivalent (TOE) while the latter consumed 2.17 billions.
To the Wall Street Journal : ” China’s total energy consumption was just half that of the U.S. 10 years ago, but in many of the years since, China saw annual double-digit growth rates. “
The IEA notes that these figures would be much higher without the important energy efficiency efforts carried out in the past few years. Continue »
This was a shock to me. To TreeHugger : ” According to an assessment of per capita carbon emissions by the Netherlands Environmental Agency, China now emits on a per person basis more than France.
” While emissions in France in 2009 were 6 tons, those in China were 6.1 tons -up from 2.2 tons in 1990. Which really means that China can no longer claim to be a developing nation. “
The study – and the original New York Times’ article – bring further interesting findings I will propose you in the full article. Continue »
According to the Wall Street Journal “ Vietnam plans to have 13 nuclear reactors online by 2030, with a combined capacity of 15 gigawatts, the government said Wednesday. “
” Nuclear power will account for 10% of the country’s total generation capacity, the government said on its website, citing a nuclear-power development plan recently approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. “
Similarly, Bulgaria and Kuwait are interested in either expanding or starting nuclear programs. This shows that more than ever, nuclear is seen as a trustworthy low carbon solution. Continue »
There is something I totally overlooked while writing earlier this week my article on how Europe goes forward on energy. Indeed, last month Italy announced its intention to build nuclear reactors this decade.
Italian electricity is both heavily reliant on foreign fossil sources (70 percent) and on imports (ten percent comes from France’s own reactors). Building four nuclear reactors will decrease both.
A total of ten reactors might be built by the next 20 years to enable the country to get 25 percent of its electricity from this low carbon source. Continue »
I found during the past few weeks news showing that Europe is investing more and more in solving the climate / energy equation by using various solutions : energy efficiency, smart grids and renewable energies.
Here are some examples : Sweden pledged this week for the installation of 2,000 wind turbines by the year 2020 and the United Kingdom is working on efficiency in the building sector.
Additionally, several countries are due to invest 30 billions euros in smart grids to connect renewable energy sources from across the continent. Continue »
Things are slowly but irresistibly changing in the United States. Wind power added ten gigawatts of capacity to the grids last year alone and coal is less and less used to generate electricity.
Meanwhile, a nuclear renaissance may be under way in America as last month President Obama announced a $8.3 billion (6 billion euros) loan to build in Georgia the first reactors in 30 years.
I dream of America being powered with 40 percent nuclear, 40 percent renewables and only 20 percent thermal. There is a long way to go but could this become a reality ? Continue »
Last month the founder of Microsoft gave a speech on low carbon energy and climate change at TED, a renowned event on Technology, Entertainment and Design.
To Mr. Gates we need five means : carbon capture and storage, nuclear power and renewable energies (solar PV, Concentrated Solar Thermal and Wind power). I agree with that.
To him, we need 20 years to research on the needed breakthroughs to achieve zero emissions energy sources and twenty other years to apply them. I beg to differ on this. Continue »
