Poland Considers New Nuclear Build

Caught between emissions control and economic growth, Poland is taking a second look at nuclear energy:

But the European Commission has not yet accepted the Polish [emissions reduction] plan, demanding that the country slash its emissions quota by 47 million tons annually in the years from 2005 to 2007. If the EC’s decision stands – Poland is considering taking the issue to the European Court of Justice – Polish energy, steel, glass and cement companies may be forced to reduce production. Such a slowdown could impede the growth that the country had hoped would come with membership in the EU.

Whatever the final shape of the Polish plan, in order to achieve reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions the largely coal-based Polish energy sector will have to turn to other energy sources unless it is prepared to reduce production, pay fees for exceeding emissions quotas or buy surplus allowances on the emissions market.

Poland’s energy sector has little hope of developing renewable sources of energy like wind, water or solar power. According to Podgajniak, Poland will have no choice but to consider nuclear power if it wants to meet the EU’s ambitious long-term goals for reducing emissions. By 2020, emissions should be down by 20 percent to 30 percent. In 2050 the goal for cuts could be as high as 60 percent. It is hard to imagine an energy sector based on coal that could handle such limitations.

It's becoming a familiar refrain.

Technorati tags: Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics

Comments

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...

How many nuclear plants does it take to meet the world's energy needs?

Several weeks ago Joshua Pearce at Clarion University in Pennsylvania released a study titled “ Thermodynamic limitations to nuclear energy deployment as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology .” In the study he stated... nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050 to both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands. This line, of course, made the headlines and has been picked up by several outlets and blogs . When looking into his calculations for this statement, he made one assumption error that overstated the above sentence by nearly a factor of three. Page 121, Section 4.1 of the study states: Richard Smalley pointed out that in 2004, the global economy consumed the equivalent of 220 million barrels of oil per day, which converted into electricity terms is the equivalent of 14.5 TeraWatts (TW), or 14,500,000 MegaWatts (MW) (2005). … With a nuclear plant having about 1000 MW (1 GW) of capacity, we would need 14,500...

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

You may have noticed over the past few weeks that a number of nuclear plants are shut down for refueling outages or are resuming operations after just returning from one. This type of routine outage usually occurs in the spring or fall when electricity demand is low so that nuclear reactors can replace about one-third of the spent fuel rods with new fuel and conduct other routine maintenance and repairs at the plant. To get a better sense of how refueling works at a nuclear energy facility, I spoke with Marcus Nichol, NEI’s senior project manager for used fuel storage and transportation, and asked him to explain the basics. Why does a nuclear plant need to replace one-third of its fuel? Nichol: The main purpose of a refueling outage is to replace older fuel that is depleted—meaning it can no longer efficiently produce energy from nuclear fission reactions—with new fuel. This “used fuel” has typically been used in the reactor for four-and-a-half to six years before it is pe...

NEI Nuclear Notes

Search This Blog