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NATURE

Nuclear power can't compete, study finds

Since its boom days in the 1970s, nuclear power has grown to supply just under 17 percent of the world's energy   

March 9, 1999
Web posted at: 11:20 AM EST




Nuclear power generation has reached its peak and will begin a sustained decline in the year 2002 to its eventual demise, according to a study conducted by the Worldwatch Institute.

Although the campaigns of environmental activists and advocates for clean, renewable energy have made a mark in the demise of nuclear power, the energy source simply cannot compete in an open and deregulated energy market primarily controlled by new, low-cost, gas-fired power plants, said Nicholas Lenssen, an energy analyst who co-authored the study.

Since its boom days in the 1970s, nuclear power has grown to supply just under 17 percent of the world's energy. However, nuclear generating capacity has grown by just five percent in the last decade and in 1998 world generating capacity fell by 175 megawatts.

In the United States, each kilowatt of nuclear power costs $3,000 to $4,000 to produce. Whereas new gas-fired combined cycle plants using the latest jet engine technology cost $400 to $600 per kilowatt and wind turbines are being installed at less than $1,000 per kilowatt, according to the institute.

In fact, the only countries still building nuclear power plants are China, Japan and possibly Iran, where the electric power industry is still a government-sanctioned monopoly that is protected from competition.

In the United States, no new nuclear power plants have been ordered since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and six reactors have been closed in the country since 1996.

In Canada, seven of 21 reactors have been "laid up" due to safety concerns and are unlikely to operate again, according to the institute. And, according to Wall Street analysts and the Washington International Energy Group, as many as one-third of U.S. and Canadian reactors are vulnerable to shut down in the next five years due to their inability to compete in competitive power markets.

France, a well-known pro-nuclear country, has issued a moratorium on nuclear plant construction and the Environment Minister, Dominique Voynet, has called for making the ban permanent.

Even in Asia, where 88 reactors are in operation and 26 are under construction, a slowdown is expected, reports the Worldwatch Institute. Why? Citizen groups have campaigned hard to stop the plants and some communities have passed referenda prohibiting additional units.

Citizen groups have also been effective in changing government policy in Germany where the question is not whether or not to build more nuclear reactors, but how quickly to shut down the existing ones.

Lenssen said that while the citizen groups would like to see the plants close immediately, "renewable energy is not maturable enough to backfill the power to be taken off line."

However, renewable energy sources, such as wind power, are expanding rapidly, according to the report. While nuclear power fell last year, wind power capacity rose by 2,100 megawatts and is growing at the double digit rates that nuclear power enjoyed in the 1970s.

Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved


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