And what if the crisis at Fukushima drags on as appears likely? Could it still trigger the start of another ice age for nuclear power, like Chernobyl did in 1986? Or will it be a bump, a temporary dip in an upward growth curve? Full Story »
Posted by David Agnew
And what if the crisis at Fukushima drags on as appears likely? Could it still trigger the start of another ice age for nuclear power, like Chernobyl did in 1986? Or will it be a bump, a temporary dip in an upward growth curve?
The article doesn’t answer these questions, but it does review the current state of nuclear construction and the players who wish to buy or sell reactors.
Privately, the big players all seem happy to criticize their rivals’ reactor designs demerits. If you promise not to quote them, competitors will tell you that Areva’s EPR does not have much in the way of passive safety features, for instance, while French sources rarely fail to suggest that some rival reactors are not designed to withstand the impact of an airline crash.
None of the new designs have it all, but that’s likely not a big concern to those driven by economics.
Greenpeace EU Policy Campaigner Jan Haverkamp. “Fukushima will end all this talk about a nuclear renaissance. The industry says nothing will change. Forget it,” Haverkamp said.
Good overview of the world reactor market. Unfortunately, commonsense may be less likely to prevail than the profit motive.