EU Energy Crisis - Desert Energy Project

15.08.2010Uranium scarce and costly, the production does not meet demand[1]
Astrid Schneider, from the Energy Watch Group analysed the data of the EURATOM report and the Red Book. Following the EURATOM report the production of uranium ore will not be enough to respond to the global demand in 2010 The price of uranium increased already six fold from 1990 to now, and its market becomes more interference-prone than ever. Water inflow in October 2006 which flooded the Canadian uranium Cigar-Lake-Mine and uncertainty about the future of the low grade Australian Olympic Dam mine stand for a loss of production of 16 Kilotonnes uranium per year, with Cigar-Lake-Mine alone counting for 18% of the global production. Re-entry of the mine in 2010 makes restart of the production in 2011 possible.

The water inflow on the 420m level was remediated by remotely placing an inflatable seal between the shaft and the source of the inflow and subsequently backfilling and sealing the entire development behind the seal with concrete and grout. [2]

EURATOM ESA Report 2009 [3]
According to EURATOM ESA uranium costs make up only around 5 % of the total cost of generating electricity at nuclear power. However, mining is moving to political insecure regions.
The bulk of this increasing production came from Kazakhstan (27 %), now leading producer followed by Canada (20 %) and Africa (17 %). Delays in development and adverse economic conditions could have a negative impact on growth in uranium production in the medium term.
The European nuclear fuel market makes up around one third of the global market. Its largest
suppliers of natural uranium are Australia, Russia, Canada and Niger, which cover almost three
quarters of the EU’s total needs. Global mining capacities are far below demand.

At the end of 2006, world uranium production (39 603 tonnes) provided about 60% of world reactor requirements (66 500 tonnes) for the 435 commercial nuclear reactors in operation. The gap between production and requirements was made up by secondary sources such as the dismantling of over 12 000 nuclear warheads and the re-enrichment of uranium tails. Most secondary resources are now in decline and the gap will increasingly need to be closed by new production.

[1]Atomkraftwerken geht das Uran aus. Koenner Stadtanzeiger. 09.08.2010
http://www.ksta.de/html/artikel/1280133247550.shtml

[2] Pumping resumes at Cigar Lake. Nuclear Engineering International. 27 October 2009.
http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=2054498

[3] Uranium 2007: Resources, Production and Demand, jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
http://www.nea.fr/press/2008/2008-02.html

10.01.2009: The European energy crisis [1]
Every year, when the temperature goes down, Russia cuts the European supply of natural gas alleging a billing dispute with Ukraine. The gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine escalated further in January leaving several countries in Central and Eastern Europe out of gas, and supplies of Russian gas to Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Macedonia had been halted. Austria and Germany are using up their reserves. The Russian Gazprom delivered meager 92 million cubic meters of gas for EU states, compared to 300 million on previous days.
Gazprom alleged that the Ukraine was to be blamed for the shortfall shutting three of the four export pipelines which cross their country.
The Caucasian pipeline bringing natural gas from Baku through Georgia was recently endangered during the military conflict between Georgia and Russia.
The pipeline through Poland has a low capacity.
The EU Nabucco pipeline is planed to transport gas from the Caucasian region and from Iran in case the sanctions against this country will be lifted. The Nabucco pipeline will excert pressure against the monopoly of Russian gas.
The Baltic Sea pipeline, a cooperation between Russia and Germany is planed to avoid bottlenecks from the Ukrainian and the Polish transit pipelines.

Reactivation of rotten nuclear power plant in Slovakia [2]
Several days are  needed for restarting the second unit of the V1 Nuclear Power Plant in Jaslovske Bohunice. The reactor is an old Russian construction which was closed by the European Union as a requirement to accept Slovakia's EU membership.  Slovakia argues that the country was forced by the uncertain natural gas supply to avoid a total shutdown of its economy.  Austria expressed deep safety concern.

[1] Spiegel Online: A European Energy Crisis: Why Ukraine Needs Help in the Gas Row. 06.01.2009
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,599796,00.html

[2] Slovak minister recommends nuclear plant relaunch unless gas supply restored. January 9, 2009.
http://pepei.pennnet.com/news/display_news_story.cfm?Section=WireNews&Category=HOME&NewsID=172278

European natural gas supply

German energy consumption 2008

                                  in million tons of
                                  coal equivalents               total %
Liquid petroleum             166                            34,7
Natural gas                       109                            22,8
Coal                                     63                            13,2
Nuclear energy                  55                            11,5
Lignite                                  53                            11,1
Other                                    32                              6,7 

Total                                 478 mio Tons eq.     100 %

The European government must act now to avoid bottlenecks in energy. Germany has no solution  to be presented in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Hydrogen economy in  cooperation with the Arabian states may become  be a sound solution.

An EU Initiative to support car manufacturing industry and lead to a decarbonisation of the transport business is presented here.

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