NUCLEAR power is a divisive issue, with many nations polarised on its use. Countries like France and Italy continue to increase their use while other European nations such as Germany, Sweden and Belgium are actively phasing it out. Ian Hore-Lacy* from the Uranium Information Centre surveys the state of play on the European continent.
There are 165 power reactors in operation across Europe, 155 of them in the enlarged European Union. For many years, about one-third of all the electricity produced in the EU has been nuclear-generated.
When the EU grew from 15 to 25 member states in May 2004, the number of EU nations using nuclear power rose from eight to 13. They rely on nuclear for electricity to varying degrees. For instance, the nuclear share in total generation ranges from 78% in France to below 4% in the Netherlands, and zero in a few countries that nevertheless import nuclear-generated power.
The nuclear power plants operate safely and reliably, producing large amounts of electricity at competitive prices. They are environmentally friendly, as they emit no greenhouse or acid rain gases and their waste is safely managed. The nuclear industry thereby makes a valuable contribution towards achieving Europe's economic, energy supply and environmental objectives, particularly those relating to Kyoto Protocol obligations.
Looking at individual countries, the picture is diverse and sometimes confusing.
In some countries, nuclear is a prime (but not necessarily high-profile) policy priority for reasons of energy security, economics, local environmental quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Such countries include France, Finland, Switzerland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. In other countries, there is explicit reservation about nuclear power, despite high reliance on it for economic and environmental well-being.
In Germany, Sweden and Belgium there are even government policies to phase out nuclear power, though all lack credible plans for achieving this without economic chaos and significant environmental detriment. The policies themselves, however, appease minority coalition parties, but for the next few years they will not have any great impact.
In between are a number of other countries that are vaguely neutral or ambivalent. For instance, Britain has a policy of "keeping the nuclear option open", while doing nothing at all to achieve that, and depending on ageing nuclear plants for quarter of its electricity. The betting, however, is that following the country's May elections, the Government will come out of the closet and suddenly discover that nuclear power is essential to achieving its economic and environmental goals.
As well as these three groups we have Italy, which had an attack of nervousness following the Chernobyl accident and decided to close down its nuclear power plants. It is now the world's largest importer of electricity, all of which comes ultimately from France and most of which is nuclear-generated. France is the world's largest net electricity exporter, at very competitive prices, because of its nuclear share of generation.
Virtually all European nuclear power plants (other than Britain's) are second-generation units built from the 1970s to the 1990s, representing a stage of nuclear power technology which is safe, durable, economic and fairly reliable. The reactors being built today are starting to be third-generation units, which represent the same sort of advance as a 2005 model motor car over a 1975 one. They are simpler, more durable (60-year design life), one-to-two orders of magnitude safer, and build on 50 years technological experience involving more than 11,000 reactor years of civil operation.
The new plant being built in Finland, for instance, is called an EPR (originally European Pressurised water Reactor). It is a 1600MW unit that was designed and is being built for Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) by Framatome ANP. The basic design was confirmed in mid-1995 as the new standard design for France and it received French design approval in 2004. It is derived from the large French N4 and German Konvoi types and is expected to provide power at about 10% cheaper than the N4. It will operate flexibly to follow loads, have fuel burn-up of 65GWd/t and the highest thermal efficiency of any light water reactor, at 36%. Availability is expected to be 92% over a 60-year service life.
The Finnish plant was the subject of competitive bids in mid-2003 from a number of reactor vendors in the US, Europe and Russia. Three vendors and four designs were involved:
Framatome ANP bid the EPR that was eventually selected as well as the SWR-1000 (a boiling water reactor) of 1200MW.
General Electric put forward its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) of 1300MW.
Atomstroyexport bid its AES-91 of 1060MW.
The ABWR has been operating in Japan and already has design certification in the US, while the SWR is now seeking it, and two of the AES-91 units are being built in China.
These bids indicate the spread of new technology ready to be deployed, though the Finnish line-up excludes two designs that have since come to the fore in North America - GE's ESBWR (developed from the ABWR) and Canada's Advanced Candu Reactor (ACR). And Russia is building and offering a more advanced model now - the AES-92.
In France, Electricité de France (EdF) is seeking direct investment by energy-intensive European industry in its new 1600MWe EPR to be built at Flamanville, as a means for those consumers to secure favourable long-term power prices.
Meanwhile, discussions continue with other European utilities, and Italy's Enel is reported to be interested in taking 25% equity in the project for about EUR750 million. The deal is likely to involve technology transfer to rehabilitate Italy's nuclear capacity and skills base. Italy imports some 20 billion kWh per year from EdF, almost twice what the new EPR plant will produce. Enel has recently purchased 66% of Slovenske Elektrarne (SE), Slovakia's nuclear generator for EUR840 million plus EUR1.1 billion debt.
In November 2004, the chief executives of more than 20 EU energy companies called upon governments to make nuclear power a central part of their energy policies on the basis of energy security and environmental protection. They pointed out that all low-carbon and zero-carbon sources would need to be mobilised - notably nuclear and renewables - and hence all should be able to compete equitably. The statement was represented as the opening shot in a new offensive to change policy settings in EU countries to give due credit to the virtues of nuclear power and to remove measures that discriminate against it.
In Britain, the head of the Confederation of British Industry earlier called for the immediate construction of six new nuclear plants over the next 10 years, since the British Government's reliance on wind would achieve little. A similar call came from the Swedish forest products industry in relation to that country's policies. - AUSTRALIA'S MINING MONTHLY
* Ian Hore-Lacy is general manager of the Uranium Information Centre in Melbourne, Victoria.
