Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
estimate for nuclear electricity does not take account of the soaring costs
of plant construction, managing pollution, insuring power stations, pro-
tecting them from the twenty-fi rst-century plague of terrorists, decom-
mission risks, and almost-certain repeated litigation.
The current projected cost for new nuclear power plants is about 20
cents per kilowatt-hour, seven times more expensive than coal.
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Nuclear
utilities depend on government bailouts, insurance, and subsidies. From
a strictly fi nancial point of view, nuclear power plants should not be the
wave of the future in the United States. From a business perspective,
nuclear is the highest-risk form of power generation. The electricity these
plants generate has moved from the 1960s estimate of “too cheap to
meter” to the 2010 estimate of “too costly to matter.”
Reactor Construction in Other Countries
Several dozen nuclear power plants are under construction in Europe
and Asia, fi nanced at least in part by national governments rather than
completely by private enterprise. The construction frenzy has been gener-
ated largely by concerns about the rising tide of carbon dioxide emissions
worldwide and its effect on climate change. Other important factors are
concerns about national energy security and the rapidly increasing cost
of oil and natural gas in nations that lack coal.
Many of the fi fty-four reactors being built around the world will be
operational within a decade. The growth in reactor construction is exem-
plifi ed by China, whose rapid industrial growth and economic success
have been underwritten by greatly increased energy consumption. Most
of the energy has been supplied by China's vast coal reserves, and the
country has suffered worldwide criticism because of its rapidly increasing
emissions of carbon dioxide. China views its increasing use of nuclear
power as one way to reduce the country's dependence on coal, a partial
response to international criticism of its increasing rate of production of
greenhouse gases. Under plans already announced, China plans to build
32 nuclear plants by 2020. Some analysts say the country will build 300
more by the middle of the century, almost as many as the generating
power of all the nuclear plants in the world today.
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The speed of the
construction program has raised safety concerns, and China has asked
for international help in training a force of nuclear inspectors. The
country must maintain nuclear safeguards in a national business culture
where quality and safety sometimes take a back seat to cost cutting,
profi ts, and corruption, as shown by scandals in the food, pharmaceuti-
