NEI Nuclear Notes

Around the world: France has made a deal with Kuwait: An agreement "to develop the peaceful use of nuclear energy" was signed in Paris by Kuwait's Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmad al-Sabah, and French government officials. "This agreement will permit the development of cooperation between France and Kuwait in several areas of nuclear energy" including electricity generation, a French government statement said. Of course, water desalination is a big issue in desert countries and requires impressive electricity resources. Beyond that, Kuwait already suffers brown-outs and black-outs once the air conditioners start running full force. Kuwait has a population of 3.4 million people – the article doesn’t say, but it seems they could become an electricity exporter to Saudi Arabia and its old enemy, Iraq. --- So if that’s what the French are up to, how about the Russians? Moscow aims to spend billions of dollars to help Argenti...

An editorial in the Ottawa Citizen offers some surprises. Here's the rough: The latest fiasco in the world of nuclear is that the rehabilitation of Bruce Power units 1 and 2 is running up to 24 per cent over cost estimates. That could mean extra costs of between $350 million and $650 million on the $2.75-billion project. Ontario taxpayers are on the hook for the first $300 million of overruns and then a quarter of the cost after that. Bruce Power is owned by TransCanada Corp. and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. Already the provincial auditor has said that Queen's Park didn't drive a tough enough deal on the Bruce plan. Worth noting here is the differences between the U.S. and Canada, with government (and taxpayers) taking a heavier role in costs and cost overruns in the energy sector than would happen in the U.S. Add to this the difference between Canada's provinces and U.S. states, where provinces go their own way far more than states do. ...

Steven Aplin has the details.

From The Record (Ontario, Canada): Alternative energy sources may have a role to play, but Ontarians should not expect them to replace nuclear power as the province's main source of electricity, the chief executive of Bruce Power told local Rotarians yesterday. When surveyed, most people say they prefer wind, solar or hydroelectric power over nuclear energy because they think energy from renewable sources is "free," Duncan Hawthorne said. "That's fair, except I can qualify them all with one word: 'Sometimes,' " he said. "Because sometimes the sun shines, sometimes the wind blows and sometimes the rain falls. We need energy on a stable basis." "It's not reasonable to build a developed society out of any of those three things," he said. I first heard Hawthorne speak at a Platts conference in 2005. Bruce is lucky to have him.

Our friends at Ontario Power Generation have started to post their own videos, including this basic explanation on how their CANDU reactors at Pickering generate electricity.

Know that we were on the cusp of an election in the Canadian province of Ontario in which energy was a big issue, I asked Dr. Patrick Moore about the energy situation there, and how nuclear energy is playing a role as the provincial government seeks to shut down all of its coal plants: As always, to join CASEnergy, click here . Look for another clip tomorrow morning.

Click here and here for details from Ontario. As always, for the skinny on Canadian energy issues, check out Stephen Aplin .

We Support Lee has a great roundup of stories related to yesterday's announcement from the province of Ontario's 20-year electrical plan. Be sure to check it out. Elsewhere, Canada is interested in GNEP .

From yesterday's National Post Ontario's power system will rely on more wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, build more nuclear power plants and ask consumers to save more electricity to meet the province's energy needs for the next two decades under a sweeping $60-billion plan unveiled yesterday by the Ontario Power Authority. The plan would phase out Ontario's greenhouse-gas-emitting coal-fired power plants by 2014. "It's a directional plan: it's a road map," Amir Shalaby, the power authority's vice-president of planning, said. Just more good news from North America's best kept secret in emissions reduction .

A few days ago, I noted a post from Steven Aplin about how Ontario's achievements in carbon emissions reduction are being purposely ignored by environmental activists . Then again, there are others who understand the need for new nuclear, like David Goodings of Burlington, Ontario, who wrote the following in a letter to the editor in the Toronto Star : Like the proverbial generals who continue to fight the last war while preparing for the next one, Greenpeace Canada's Dave Martin continues to tilt against nuclear power with 30-year-old arguments – despite the fact that the world around him has dramatically changed. An entirely different opinion was recently expressed by the co-founder of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, who had this to say in a May 11, 2007 article in the Hamilton Spectator: "When I helped found Greenpeace in Vancouver in the 1970s, my colleagues and I were firmly opposed to nuclear energy. But times have changed. I now realize nuclear energy is the only non-gre...

Steven Aplin says that what's been happening in the energy sector in Ontario deserves more attention: Canada has achieved major greenhouse gas reductions in recent years (see article ). This is due almost entirely to reductions in Ontario’s power generating sector, where emissions were 15 million tonnes lower in 2006 than in 2003. It’s depressing that nobody knows about this. Professional environmental advocates pretend the reductions didn’t take place, for two reasons. First, they are partisan to a fault, and their partisan leanings are definitely not toward the federal Conservatives. So they don’t want to give any credit to a party they don’t like. Second, they don’t like the cause of the emission reductions: nuclear power. Hence, they never mention Ontario’s stunning reversal. Nor, for the most part, do their media interlocutors. Instead, they trot out phony scorecards like the one today from the World Wildlife Federation , which puts Canada in second-last place among greenhous...

Last Thursday, Eric reported on the nuclear debate in Canada , but he missed what I thought was the most interesting part of the article . The reporter said that there is a ... [N]uance creeping into the language of some environmentalists who are still far from sold on nuclear power. Even David Suzuki, the public face and living patron saint of the Canadian green movement, has raised eyebrows by declaring in at least two broadcast interviews that he doesn't take a "knee-jerk" position against nuclear energy, although he remains, for now at least, firmly opposed. In an email exchange with Maclean's , Suzuki explained his position. "I don't say unequivocally that nuclear is not an option. It may very well be sometime in the future," he wrote. "But right now, I think it's nuts to even suggest nuclear. It seems that I have heard a lot of similar talk south of the border. Antis want to appear to be open to reason. But to say that "it's nuts ...

From the Globe and Mail : The two companies that operate nuclear power plants in Ontario are seeking the green light to build up to eight new reactors, a far more ambitious plan than that touted by the McGuinty government. Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said last year that a large portion of the $40-billion it plans to spend addressing the province's looming electricity shortage would be earmarked for refurbishing existing nuclear reactors. He said only two new reactors would be built. However, Bruce Power and Ontario Power Generation have each applied to Canada's nuclear safety regulator to build four new reactors. Company officials played down their expansion plans, saying they merely give them the option of building new reactors or refurbishing existing ones. But the spectre of up to eight new reactors is fuelling concerns among nuclear-energy opponents that the province will be much more dependent on nuclear power than previously believed. Interesting. As always, this is so...

Details from the Mississauga Business Times . Thanks to We Support Lee for the pointer.

Steven Aplin has the details.