But what do you two mean by "that" or "it"? A nuclear renaissance? :->
<http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0229755520070402?feedType=RSS> Nuclear renaissance already here: consultant Mon Apr 2, 2007 3:05PM EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The race to generate more electricity from nuclear power plants in the United States is officially underway, according to a report released on Monday.
Cambridge Energy Research Associates, private energy consultants, says that the promised U.S. "nuclear renaissance" is already happening, although not through the construction of new plants.
Mostly, companies are expanding existing reactors and extending licenses to operate, the report found.
In the United States, 48 reactors have recently been granted 20-year life extensions by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the remaining 56 will likely be granted extensions soon, the group said.
The nation's 104 nuclear plants generate about 20 percent of U.S. electricity supplies, but the NRC has not issued a new plant license since 1973.
Financial incentives packed into an energy law passed in 2005, along with a move to diversify U.S. energy supply away from fossil fuels, is driving the trend, the group said.
A growing global acceptance of nuclear plants and solid performance in Asia and Europe has also boosted demand, CERA writes.
The Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 heightened safety fears and effectively halted new reactor construction in the United States.
Now, CERA reports, 20 countries have new plants under construction. More than half will be built in five countries -- China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Concrete could be poured at the earliest in the United States in 2010, the report said.
In the short term, a lack of manufacturing for reactor components and skilled personnel in the United States could constrict growth, CERA said.
The recent spike in the price of uranium, which has increased by about 700 percent since the 1990s, might also tighten the market.
But those are "growing pains" that can be overcome, the group said. Over the long haul, the industry must find places to store used fuel and prevent its materials from ending up in weapons, CERA wrote.
<http://www.planetark.com/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=39977> Support for Ending German Nuclear Power Wanes - Glos
BERLIN - Support for Germany's programme to phase out nuclear energy is waning, Economy Minister Michael Glos said on Tuesday amid a heated national debate on the policy.
The argument centres on whether the country's five-year-old legislation, aimed at closing all reactors by the early 2020s, should be reviewed now that protecting the climate and safeguarding energy supply have risen to the top of the political agenda.
"In my view, sooner or later there will be changed majorities on this ... the point in time is not yet clear but you could already now explain a change of direction," Glos said in a speech to an energy conference.
High oil prices and the uncertainty of gas supplies, as Germany fears becoming too dependent on foreign sources such as Russia, were arguments in favour of nuclear power, he said.
Nuclear provides a third of German power and proponents cite its environmental advantages. Opponents say its technical risks and waste storage problems have not been dealt with.
Supporters of nuclear say that, unlike coal- or gas-derived power, it produces few of the carbon emissions that scientists blame for global warming and policymakers want to cut sharply.
Many of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, who share a grand coalition government with Social Democrats (SPD), support suggestions to scrap the nuclear exit programme.
They are holding back because the issue could damage relations with their political partners, including the SPD's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, who supports the plan.
Glos said the latest European Union climate protection targets, including raising the share of renewable energy to 20 percent of the bloc's power needs by 2020, could not be met if Germany closed its nuclear reactors.
He defended the role in Germany's power mix of coal generation, which produces half of all electricity but also a disproportionate amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
But it might not be possible to tackle the problem of these emissions before the planned closure of nuclear plants, he said.
"Hopes that coal-fired generators can develop technologies to capture and store CO2 output quickly and cheaply might not be fulfilled in time," Glos said.
Germany's nuclear operators are RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall Europe and EnBW.
Story Date: 24/1/2007
<http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2007-03-28T220930Z_01_N28386363_RTRIDST_0_CANADA-OILSANDS-NUCLEAR-COL.XML&archived=False> Canada wary of nuclear power for oil sands Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:09 PM EST160
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Plans for nuclear power plants to supply electricity and steam to the Alberta oil sands should be put on hold until the full repercussions of using the technology are known, a Canadian parliamentary committee advised.
In a report on the sustainable development of the oil sands released this week, Parliament's natural resources committee steered clear of making a decision on using nuclear energy before the impact of placing the plants near oil sands projects are known.
Production from Canada's oil sands, the world's second-largest storehouse of petroleum, is forecast to triple by 2015 to 3 million barrels a day.
At least one Alberta company has touted building a C$5.5 billion ($4.7 billion) nuclear plant in the oil sands region to generate steam and electricity, both key to the process that separates tar-like bitumen from the sand.
Energy Alberta Corp. wants to put a Canadian-designed Candu twin-reactor plant in the region by 2016. The steam produced by the facility would be piped to thermal oil sands producers, who could pump it into the ground to liquefy the bitumen.
The electricity produced could replace natural gas-fired generation plants, cutting emissions of carbon dioxide.
However, the committee report said that steam could only be piped up to 25 km (16 miles), while a 600 megawatt reactor would be capable of supplying an upgrader that produces about 60,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil a day.
It concluded that almost 20 nuclear reactors would be needed just to meet the production growth planned to 2015.
Smaller reactors, producing 100 megawatts of power, could be more useful for individual projects, given the limitations of shipping steam, the report said. It added that other technologies have the potential to produce power and steam more cheaply than nuclear plants.
The committee called for government and industry to work together to find ways to cut natural gas use in the oil sands but added it "recommends that no decision be made on using nuclear energy to extract oil from the tar sands until the repercussions of this process are fully known and understood."
Wayne Henuset, head of Energy Alberta, could not be reached for comment.
($1=$1.16 Canadian)
On 4/7/07, tfast <tfast at yorku.ca> wrote:
> Hey its Alberta: think Texan oil men and Evangelicals on Crack and
> completely in control. Personally I await global warming which will turn
> most of Alberta into a lifeless sand dune.
If the Canadians could stop the oil sands giveaway, that sure would help slow down climate change.
<http://www.oilsandswatch.org/> An Outdated Scheme in the Midst of an Oil Boom
* Oil sands companies pay a 1% royalty to Albertans until projects are making a profit * Once profits are being made, companies pay only 25% of the "net" revenue * Between 1996 and 2005, royalty revenue per barrel of oil from oil sands declined 32% * The federal government lost up to $1.65 billion in tax revenue between 1996 and 2005.
<http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=11562§ionID=1> To Sow the Oil, or Give it Away? Canada and Venezuela are pursuing very different oil policies. In the war of the wells, whose investment will bring the biggest return? by Jonah Gindin; Alberta Views; December 04, 2006 -- Yoshie