Nuclear Power Industry Shaken by Japan Quake, Tsunami Disaster
William Ide
|
Washington
March 14, 2011
As authorities work to avert a disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the situation there is prompting countries across the globe to reevaluate the safety of existing nuclear plants and their plans to build new atomic facilities.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday announced a three-month review of plans to continue operating her country's 17 nuclear power plants.
The plants had been scheduled to be phased out by 2021, but Ms. Merkel's government agreed last year to keep them online for an additional 12 years. "We know how safe Germany's nuclear power plants are. But it is also true that we cannot yet ignore the importance of nuclear energy as a bridging technology, if we want to continue to cover our own energy consumption as Europe's largest economy and if we want to respect climate protection," she said.
Switzerland has suspended the approval process for three nuclear power plants, so safety standards can be reconsidered. And India has ordered safety inspections for all of its nuclear plants.
Chinese officials say they will learn from what has happened in Japan, but stressed that the pace of the country's plans to build new reactors will not be affected. China is aggressively expanding its nuclear power industry.
Industry experts say explosions at three reactors in Japan will seriously affect what many call a nuclear renaissance, a growing shift toward nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels. The World Nuclear Association, which promotes nuclear power and related industries around the world,155 new nuclear reactors are planned or are under construction -- most of them in Asia.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano says its too early to say how the crisis in Japan will affect the nuclear power industry. "In my view, this is not the accident by design or by human error. This is an accident caused by natural disaster that is unprecedented," he said.
Amano says the situation in Japan does not change the fact that the world needs a stable source of clean energy to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard says her nation has plenty of alternative sources of energy and does not need nuclear power.
The United States has not brought a new nuclear power plant online since before the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island facility in 1979.
Speaking at a White House press briefing on Monday, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman said nuclear power accounts for 20 percent of U.S. energy production and must be a part of the nation's clean energy policy. "We do see nuclear power as continuing to play an important role in building a low-carbon future. But be assured that we will take the safety aspect of that as our paramount concern," he said.
President Barack Obama is seeking tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees for the construction of new U.S. nuclear power plants.
But Ellen Vancko of the Union of Concerned Scientists says the situation in Japan will only add to the troubles nuclear power faces in the United States. "The nuclear industry was in trouble in the United States, was in trouble long before last week's earthquake and tsunami. Spiraling construction costs estimates, declining energy demand, low natural gas costs and the failure to put a price on carbon already spelled trouble for this industry," she said.
For now, Vancko says, the crisis in Japan will likely lead to safety inspections at all U.S. nuclear power plants.
"India has ordered safety inspections for all of its nuclear plants."
"the crisis in Japan will likely lead to safety inspections at all U.S. nuclear power plants."
Considering what we are talking about here, shouldn't safety inspections be carried out at least monthly and take into account the state of the plant and operational practices?
It is not like the issues a nuclear plant meltdown causes was an unknown prior to this disaster in Japan.
We'll see if people are still opposed to nuclear power when they realize we're running out of oil.
You can't inspect every plant every 30 days and loss of coolant accidents are studied in detail. What happened in japan is a gigantic earthquake and tsunami that overwhelmed multiple protection levels and the end result will be an industrial accident of minor consequence. No energy industry has a better safety record (even when including chernobyl) per megawatt than nuclear. It will be the future assuming people still want electricity.
Whether we run out of oil today or tomorrow, we need a better solution to our current situation that polutes and devastates our planet at an alarming rate. Is nuclear power the answer. If it were not so very dangerous i would tell you unequivocally yes, but look at what has taken place just in the past 20 years. If unchecked or grossly neglected or even a natural disaster we are in big trouble.
Safety is always a big concern,more now than ever.
Well, we are in a real dilemma. Nuclear power is unfortunately going to gain in importance, as our reliance on domestic and foreign oil falls, due to declining production and increased costs associated with further oil finds in more difficult terrain.
No one could have predicted the earthquakes; however. It is unfortunate because many of those exposed to radiation will not immediately get sick, but it will take years and also affect their offspring.
I shudder to think what could happen if China goes through with plans for 50 nuclear power plants.
China has the worlds worst safety and environmental record, Factory and mine accidents happen regularily and you can easily bribe a plant operator to take shortcuts.
We should create power using hydro electricity..the main way to achieve it is to interconnect rivers. Connecting rivers and constructing dams on it and producing hydro power electricity is the only way to survive the next generation. Fossil fuel and nuclear energy should be banned, since they are threat to nature and humans...
Maybe we should move the nuclear reactors to Mars or Moon.
let's just pray and trust God....
Human must and have to pay utmost attention to using nuclear power.I believe everybody will be seriously faced with using this devastating energy,no mater Chinese or American.It's really unadvisable to use a prejudiced attitude towards Chinese utilizing nuclear power.
We shouldn't worry about Chinese nuclear plants. Within the timespace required to build these plants, the Chinese will have leap-frogged almost every other nation in the world in almost all areas of technology. Sheer numbers of science graduates and the middle class growth rates will guarantee this. It's the plants in tsunami prone, earthquake prone, bankrupt, and partisan politics infested California I would worry about!
So nuclear power plants are not only threat to civilized countries alone but also to countries that own them under threat of natural causes. Who then needs restraint to build nuclear power plants: those in the plains or those in areas that nature can visit with fury? Maybe the world population needs to be put in check by building more of these death traps when earth quakes and tsunamis are too slow to do it! ALL IN THE NAME OF POLITICAL POWER AND PRETENSE OF CLEAN ENERGY.
Hydro electricity is not enough for us.So we have to build more nuclear power plants for our industry.Of course more attention is needed.Corruption is realy veay serious in China.So we will hire foreign supervisors to avoid corruption .
ths web is good and it gives a lot of imformation on the tsunami
NUCLEAR DISASTER HAZARDS ARE NOT COMPLETELY STUDIED BY HUMANBEINGS. PROTECTIONS AGAINST NUCLEAR FALLOUT ARE NOT PROPERLY KNOWN TO US. WIND POWER,HYDRAULIC POWER,SOLAR POWER SEA WAVE POWER SEEM TO BE BETTER AND LESS HARMFUL WAYS OF GENERATING POWER.PEOPLE SHOULD COME UP , ENCOURAGE MORE STUDY IN THESE METHODS AND ADAPT SUCH WAYS OF POWER GENERATION.UNFORTUNATELY THESE WAYS ARE NOT BEING GIVEN DUE IMPORTANCE. EVEN ALTERNATIVE TO PETROL HAS NOT BEEN GIVEN DUE CONSIDERA .WHY ?
nuclear power plant is a treat to mankind
nuclear power plant is a treat to mankind
humans security should be considered utmost. nucler power plants affects life directly or indirectly.. re-newable energies shoulb be bring in.. they should dominate the energy sector.. investment is vast but assurance is better...
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