Nuclear power for the Middle East?[1]
In an article of Kuwait Times Dr Hassan Shaaban, Nuclear Engineer and Professor Emeritus of Metallurgy at Atomic Energy Authority in Egypt, explained nuclear energy development. He stressed that 77% of electricity in France is being provided by nuclear power plants. China and India are commitments to develop nuclear programs.
How safe is nuclear power?
Nuclear accidents: The explosion of Chernobyl in the 1980s almost complete meltdown of the nuclear plant of Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg in America in March 28, 1979, together with recent serious accidents and radioactive spills in France demonstrated clearly the dangers of nuclear power.
Disposal of nuclear waste impossible: Most alarming of all disadvantages of nuclear power is that there is no way to get rid of the nuclear waste for thousand of years. America keeps nuclear waste in the environment without any protection. Barrels of radioactive materials were discarded at high sea. Europe stores its waste in containers in shanties. Will it be safe for thousand of years?
The German nuclear waste disaster: A nuclear disposal research site at Asse II in Germany, near Braunschweig releases radioactivity in the groundwater. The German Government closed the site as to dangerous for men. It is planed to flood the whole 700 metres deep former salt mine with magnesium chloride solution (the so-called conservation fluid) to equalise pressure. The German Professor Rolf Bertram warns that the 12.000 high radioactive barrels are already leaking. He says that flooding will increase the contamination of the groundwater and atmosphere by radioactive gas bubbles pressing out of the site. [2]
Decommissioning old nuclear power plants and the disposal of nuclear waste is unsolved. Today no country has nuclear waste disposal sites, not the USA nor France. The fairy tale of safe waste disposal is a myth and money charged for it are used to close other gaps.
Dependence on uranium producing countries
According to Dr. Shaaban, countries like Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are now vying for nuclear energy. Most of the 600 nuclear power facilities in the world today are located in the United States , Japan and Europe. Dr. Shaaban deplores that there is not even one in the Middle East and wants to see three of them very soon there. Twenty five percentage of energy in the world today is generated from nuclear facilities. Dr. Sabban says that nuclear energy will reduce too much dependency on fossil fuel.
Arab countries gets dependent of Uranium producing countries
USA and Australia are the main Uranium producing countries. An increase of demand will rise the price. It is extreme expensive because uranium ore as fuel must be continuously replenished (74 kg/day for 1 Gigawatt power plant).
Countries producing concentrated uranium oxides (2005) [4]
Canada 27,9% Niger 7,4% Australia 22,8% Uzbekistan 5,5% Kazakhstan 10,5% United States 2,5% Russia 8,0% Ukraine 1,9% Nanibia 7,5% China 1,7%
Kazakhstan continues to increase production and may become the world's largest producer of uranium by the year 2009 with an expected production of 12,826 tonnes, compared to Canada with 11,100 tonnes and Australia with 9,430 tonnes. Available resources are sufficient for at least the next 85 years, although some studies indicate underinvestment in the late twentieth century may produce supply problems in the 21st century. [4]
According to Thomas Neff only a few years ago uranium inventories were being sold at $10 per pound; the current price is $85 per pound. Read about the bottleneck of nuclear fuel. China, India and even Russia have plans for massive deployments of nuclear power and are trying to lock up supplies from countries on which the United States has traditionally relied, leading to a bottleneck and dependence on Russia. [5]
High total costs of nuclear power [3]
Construction Costs: The CANDU ACR and Gas Cooled pebble bed with 5 years construction time costs $5000 per KW
The General Electric ABWR plant is of the third generation in Taiwan is 2 years behind schedule and costs $2000 per KW
Chinese power plants are down to amazing $1300 per KW. In the time of economic meltdown safety is of no concern.
Operating Costs: Operating costs, including uranium ore was 1.68 cents per KWHr in 2004
Decommissioning Costs: The British decommissioning costs have been projected to be around 1 Billion pounds per reactor. Cleaning up the Hanford Nuclear Weapons reactor is budgeted at 5.6 Billion dollars but may cost 2 to 3 times this much.
Comparing costs of nuclear facilities and solar power plants
(see detailed financing plan at http://www.desertenergyproject.net/Global%20Initiative.pdf)
1 GW Nuclear plant 1 GW Photovoltaic/solar plant
Construction $5 Billion Construction 5.4 Billion
Operating costs
Decommissioning $1 Billion
Total $6 Billion $ 5.4 Billion
The Arabian alternative to the nuclear power
The deserts of the Arabian countries provide solar energy for the whole world. Construction, decommissioning and operating costs are much higher than electricity from solar energy. Construction of 3 to 8 years from nuclear power plants are unknown with solar plants. Revenues start at the beginning of the construction. Desert Energy Project [6], and Desertec [7] explain how it works.
The Middle East should use its native power to start this project, which may become the global energy supply for the next generation, using clean electrical energy and hydrogen for transportation. The Arabian resources should be used instead of moving its economy in dependence of uranium producing countries.
[1] Kuwait Times: Middle East vying for nuclear energy'. January 21.2009. By Ben Garcia.
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTM5NDc4MTI3
[2] Where Should Germany Store Its Nuclear Waste? 09/08/2008
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,577018,00.html
[3] Nuclearinfo: Cost of nuclear power
http://nuclearinfo.net/Nuclearpower/WebHomeCostOfNuclearPower
[4] Wikipedia: Uranium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium
[5] Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Lack of fuel may limit U.S. nuclear power expansion. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/fuel-supply.html
[6] http://www.desertenergyproject.com
[7] http://www.desertec.org/concept.html