Skip to main content

Coming Soon: Double Dutch Reactors?

By Anonymous
Who knew 2nd place could be so sweet?

It seems a major rethink is underway over nuclear energy in Europe. Sweden, Poland, Italy and Germany have all either reversed their moratoriums/phase-outs or put forward serious proposals to add nuclear generating capacity. Now, it looks like the Netherlands may be about to join the club.

The Netherlands has just one reactor—and at 485 megawatts—it generates only about four percent of the country’s electricity.

But a new proposal by a holding company representing “six Dutch provinces and various city councils” may be about to change that.

The submission will detail plans to construct a nuclear power plant with a maximum capacity of 2,500 megawatts, almost five times the capacity of Borssele 1. ERH hopes to obtain all necessary permits by 2014 and start up the plant in 2019.

This new plant could be “one or two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, an EPR or a BWR” according to the World Nuclear Association.

Perhaps, like much of the rest of Europe, the Dutch are thinking low-carbon, but they’re also thinking energy security. And let’s face it, nuclear is definitely lower carbon and almost always more secure than natural gas (unless you’re sitting on top of huge reserves of easily accessible gas). The Dutch rethink is an instructive case for those now entranced by the recent low prices of natural gas. As a recent report by the IEA on the Netherlands’ energy sector shows, even fossil fuels don’t last forever.

Power generation is dominated by natural gas, which has an almost 60% share in 2007. Natural gas has fuelled more than half of the Netherlands’ electricity generation since the early 1980s – down from nearly three-quarters in the 1970s.

That’s where we’re at now, but there are concerns in the Dutch government that as the natural gas runs out they may have to switch to a higher carbon fuel: coal.

According to government projections based on the so-called “global economy scenario,” the share of coal-fired generation is expected to increase substantially between 2007 and 2030, rising from just over a quarter to over half of all generation. Over the same period, natural gas will fall to less than 30% of generation.

Think what that would do to Dutch emissions targets.

So, it’s not surprising that as another day passes, another European country is reconsidering nuclear. It’s also not surprising to learn that—despite hand wringing in some European countries—the European Union gets about 30 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy compared to 20 percent in the U.S.

Oh, and one final note: electricity supply—as opposed to generation—was closer to nine percent of the Netherlands’ electricity in 2007.

The nuclear reactor at Borssele in Zeeland continues to provide a small amount of power – 4% in 2007 – as it has since 1973. (In addition, approximately 5% of Dutch electricity supply is provided by imported nuclear power, which is not included in domestic statistics reported here.)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
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...
23 comments
Read more

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

By
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...
6 comments
Read more

How Much Land Does Nuclear, Wind and Solar Really Need?

By
Not too long ago, we reviewed a report that looked at nuclear energy (and other energy sources) as biodiversity agents. This had to do, in part, with the amount of land a facility needs to function. Nuclear energy and fossil fuel plants use relatively little, wind farms and solar arrays quite a lot of land . Based on an objective and transparent analysis of our sustainable energy choices, we have come to the evidence-based conclusion that nuclear energy is a good option for biodiversity conservation (and society in general) and that other alternatives to fossil fuels should be subjected to the same cost–benefit analyses (in terms of biodiversity and climate outcomes, as well as sociopolitical imperatives) before accepting or dismissing them. Writer Barry Brook, who collected 75 scientists to endorse his paper, is interested in land use as it impacts flora and fauna. Biodiversity concerns do not get as much play as they might – and, when they do, it annoys many when land is withdraw...
4 comments
Read more