Will Australia’s Carbon Price Lead It to Rethink Nuclear?

Australia has decided to put a price on carbon in the hope that it can kick-start its renewable energy industry and reduce emissions. 

The Australian government has unveiled plans to impose a tax on carbon emissions for the worst polluters. 

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said carbon dioxide emissions would be taxed at A$23 ($25) per ton from 2012.

The country's biggest economic reform in a generation will cover some 500 companies. In 2015, a market-based trading scheme will be introduced.

Households are expected to see consumer prices rise by nearly 1%, and the move has been criticised by the opposition.

The announcement by Gillard has led to a healthy debate about the plan, to put it mildly, as you can see on the comment section of this article. The greater question is: Will this lead to Australia to reconsider nuclear power?

"No one will build coal-fired power plants," he [Paul Breslin]said. "It is already sending a signal to prospective investors 'don't do it'. You couldn't possibly build a new coal-fired power station at $20 per ton, and the price is definitely going to rise.

"If the carbon price keeps going up in the 2030s, we will need to be moving to gas-fired electricity generation. Safe nuclear, although politically difficult, should be looked at."

Nuclear energy would seem a natural fit for Australia. It has high per capita emissions, abundant uranium resources and seems especially sensitive to the nastier consequences of climate change in Australia itself. But then again, the country has never really shown any great enthusiasm for embracing nuclear. Even the prime minister has distanced herself from the technology. And there’s the question of whether and how the whole carbon pricing plan will come to fruition. 

But with the need to keep the lights on (and the air conditioners humming) and with a potentially rising price on carbon, nuclear energy will surely become more attractive over time. Stay tuned.

For more on the carbon price plan, see this website from the Australian government.

Tuesday Update

From NEI’s Japan Micro-site:

No Problems at Fukushima From Weekend Quake

July 12, 2011

Plant Status

• An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck northeast Japan Sunday morning, prompting tsunami warnings for the coast, including Fukushima prefecture. Tokyo Electric Power Co. ordered workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to move to higher ground and suspended the transfer of low-level contaminated water from the plant to a large steel storage barge. However, no problems at the plant were reported after only a small tsunami wave reached the coast. Cooling water injections into reactors 1, 2 and 3 and nitrogen injections into reactors 1 and 2 continued as normal.

• TEPCO suspended operation of its water decontamination system for 12 hours Sunday to repair a leak in the system. The continued operation of the system is crucial to establish a circulatory cooling system for the reactors and to decontaminate and reduce the water accumulating in the reactor building basements. TEPCO has set a July 17 deadline to establish stable cooling for the reactors. As of July 10, the system has treated more than 18,000 metric tons of contaminated water.

• TEPCO has confirmed that an entry point is available to allow nitrogen injection into reactor 3’s pressure containment vessel. The injection of the inert gas will help prevent the potential for a hydrogen explosion. TEPCO reported to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency July 11 on its preparations for the injection, which is to be started “as early as possible.”

• TEPCO is preparing to restart the fuel pool circulating system for reactor 4, after checking that a kink in the reactor heat removal system piping will not block the flow of water. The system is expected to be in service by the end of July. The company sampled the water in reactor 3’s fuel pool and concluded that boric acid injections have helped to prevent corrosion of the aluminum fuel racks. The issue became a concern when concrete debris in the pool caused the water to become more alkaline.

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

• A long-term roadmap drafted by Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission and TEPCO calls for the removal of melted fuel from the reactors to begin in 2021, provided the technology required for the task has been developed. Damage to the reactor containment vessels will have to be repaired before the fuel can be removed. Dismantling the reactor buildings after the fuel has been removed will likely take several decades.

• TEPCO officials released the results of a detailed simulation of the tsunami that struck the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants on March 11. The analysis showed that the wave reached a height of 13 meters (42.7 feet) at the Daiichi plant and 9 meters (29.5 feet) at the Daini plant.

• At a press conference Monday clarifying the government’s position on restarting Japanese nuclear reactors, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano stressed that nuclear safety should be given priority over the issue of whether there will be enough electricity to meet demand. Last week Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Minister for Nuclear Crisis Management Goshi Hosono agreed said that “stress tests” assessing the plants’ safety response to severe accidents should be one of the requirements for restarting the reactors, along with routine safety checks. Edano said a first stage would check plants awaiting restart after scheduled maintenance, and the second phase would be for all plants, including those currently operating.

• The Japanese government is requesting parliamentary approval of a second supplementary budget of two trillion yen ($24.5 billion) for nuclear damage compensation, health checks and radiation monitoring. A previous supplementary budget was used for accident recovery and debris removal work.

• Fukushima prefecture officials are inspecting a cattle farm in Minami-Souma city after elevated levels of radioactive cesium were found in 11 cows shipped from the farm to a Tokyo meat processing firm.

Media Highlights

• A Reuters article reported Saturday that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said it will take decades to clean up and decommission the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

• CNN World reported on the Sunday earthquake that prompted tsunami advisories and evacuations of workers at Fukushima Daiichi that were later canceled.

Upcoming Events

• The NRC task force reviewing agency processes and regulations in light of the accident at Fukushima will brief the commissioners on its report at a public meeting July 19. The report is to be released to Senate and House committees July 12. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko will speak at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on July 18.

Friday Update

From NEI’s Japan Micro-site

Contaminated Water Levels Beginning to Drop at Fukushima Daiichi

July 8, 2011

Plant Status

• Tokyo Electric Power Co. is continuing preparations to stabilize Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor 3 primary containment vessel. The company is using a robot-mounted camera to check whether a penetration joint is suitable for nitrogen injection that will help stabilize conditions inside the reactor vessel. TEPCO is also checking radiation levels, which have decreased by up to half after installing steel plates on the floor of the working area inside the reactor building. However, radiation levels in the building are still high—up to 5 rem per hour.

• TEPCO is making headway in reducing the volume of contaminated water on site. In the last week, the new water filtration system has treated more than 13,000 tons of water. Recycling the treated water into the plant cooling systems also began last week, and the rate of water accumulation is now being reversed. The company says water levels in the basements of the reactor buildings could drop by more than three feet by next month. About 120,000 tons of water have accumulated in basements at the facility and in storage facilities. Also, the company has installed steel plates at the seawater intake structures for Fukushima reactors 1 through 4, closing off a path for leakage of contaminated water from the reactors to the ocean.

• TEPCO will add 12 more on-site monitoring locations at Fukushima Daiichi to sample for airborne radiation around the reactor buildings. Plant officials believe that dust and contaminated steam leaking from the reactors continue to contribute to contamination off site. A lightweight cover for reactor 1 is being built and should be in place by September. Similar covers will be installed on reactors 2-4.

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

• The mayor and town assembly of Genkai have retracted their approval for the restart of Genkai nuclear reactor after the central government announced that European Union-style “stress tests” should be conducted to assess the safety response of all Japanese nuclear plants to severe accidents. Mayor Hideo Kishimoto criticized the government for imposing the tests as a condition for restarting plants after he was assured that Genkai was safe to restart.

• Radioactive cesium levels in processed tea made in Tochigi City, about 100 miles from Fukushima Daiichi, are three times higher than the provisional government limit. Tochigi prefecture officials asked that farmers temporarily stop shipments of the tea.

• The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has found that some electrical equipment at the Tokai Daini nuclear plant in Ibaraki prefecture does not meet industry seismic standards. The plant operator will strengthen the seismic resistance of the equipment during the NISA inspection period.

New Products

• NEI’s new website provides information about nuclear safety, security and measures to protect public health.

Upcoming Events

• The Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee will hear Fukushima-related testimony at a July 14 hearing on small reactor designs. Marvin Fertel, NEI’s president and chief executive officer, will testify at the hearing.

• The NRC task force reviewing agency processes and regulations in light of the accident at Fukushima will brief the commissioners on the report at a public meeting July 19. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko will speak at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on July 18.

Jordan – Gates – Germany - NuScale

A couple of days ago, I expressed a little disappointment that Bahrain was not joining the nuclear family – well, maybe it will, but it doesn’t seem to be on its radar right now. So let’s replace that bit of grimness:

Like many others, Jordan is not giving up on its nuclear program, which it considers an essential part of its energy plan. The country has plans to build two reactors in the next decade, and two additional reactors are planned for the next 25 years.

Jordan is at the stage where it is scoping out vendors:

The country’s atomic commission has pre-selected possible technologies from Atomic Energy of Canada, Russia’s ZAO Atomstroyexport and Atmea, a joint venture between France’s Areva and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Rolling right along.

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Bill Gates has been enough a fan of nuclear energy to invest money in it. Have events in Japan changed his mind? Wired thought it would find out:

The good news about nuclear is that there’s hardly been any innovation in the past three decades, so the room to do things differently is quite dramatic. The difference between today’s designs and one from the 1960s is night and day. We understand heat pipes a lot better today. We understand what the decay of heat looks like. There’s this company, TerraPower, which former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myrhvold and I have spun out of his invention group, Intellectual Ventures. We’ve got a new nuclear design, a generation four. On paper it’s quite amazing.

Well, I can’t say I agree with everything here, but Gates is on the hunt for the next big thing (as he often is) and he’s decided that TerraPower is it. That makes everything else, in his mind, rather outmoded – out with DOS, in with OS/2.

You can read the rest at Wired. A lot of his views on energy are counterintuitive, but that makes them challenging even when you find yourself disagreeing with him most of the time.

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Economist Ferdinand Banks takes a look at the German decision to close its nuclear plants. The piece is a little dense in style, but easily comprehensible and even amusing. A taste:

Here it needs to be appreciated that if the German nuclear retreat were a reality instead of a politically motivated and bizarre fantasy, the French nuclear sector might have already started to expand in order to receive the hundreds of billions in export income that would become available when German nuclear facilities begin to close their doors.

Not completely fair, I’m sure, but love it anyway.

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NuScale, a prospective designer of a small reactor design, recently found itself the negative beneficiary of an investment firm heavily involved in a Ponzi scheme. NuScale had nothing to do with the bad business, but of course, suffered a stark reversal of fortune and almost collapsed. Better days ahead:

NuScale Power has been quietly recalling laid-off employees over the past two months as it slowly recovers from a financial crisis that very nearly proved catastrophic.

That’s good news.

NuScale's modular reactor technology has continued to attract attention in the nuclear industry, however, and some modest outside investment. Landrey declined to say how much new backing NuScale has raised so far, but said his company is increasingly confident about its future.

That’s chief marketing officer Bruce Landrey and that’s about what you’d expect him to say. Some of the vendors working on small reactors likely won’t last – it’s just how business works – but it would have been a shame to see NuScale go pear shaped due to the bad behavior of others.

Bill Gates

Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site

Robot Tests Radiation in Fukushima Reactor Building

Plant Status

• Work is continuing to reduce radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor 3 building. Tokyo Electric Power Co. has used robots to vacuum radioactive debris and place steel sheets on the floor to decrease the potential for radiation exposure. Pending a reduction in radiation levels,  workers are scheduled to enter the building housing the reactor on July 17 to begin installing new piping to inject nitrogen gas into the reactor containment vessel. The inert gas will reduce the possibility of a hydrogen explosion in the containment building. The company already is injecting nitrogen into the containments for reactors 1 and 2.

• TEPCO said debris may have clogged a hose, temporarily reducing the flow of cooling water into reactor 1 at Fukushima Daiichi by about one-quarter of normal volume. Normally, the cooling system injects 3.7 metric tons of water an hour into the reactors, but the flow was reduced Monday to about 3 metric tons per hour, setting off an alarm. Workers began injecting more water, restoring normal flow in less than an hour.

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

• The Japanese government is taking over the radiation surveys being conducted by local governments and TEPCO in the area around Fukushima Daiichi. Schools and other areas where children gather will have priority.

• The mayor of a town in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Saga said he agrees with restarting a nuclear energy facility there. Other prefecture officials must also sign off on restarting electricity production at two reactors at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Genkai plant. Thirty-five reactors, representing two-thirds of the country’s nuclear energy capacity, remain shut down because of the effects of the March earthquake and tsunami or for regular inspections.

• A research ship is collecting samples from the ocean floor near Fukushima prefecture to test for radiation. The research is focusing on shellfish and sandworms.

Media Highlights

• NEI President and CEO Marvin Fertel is quoted in a National Public Radio story on the human factor in the Fukushima nuclear accident. Another NPR report focuses on training for U.S. nuclear energy facility operators.

• A New York Times writer toured the LaSalle nuclear energy facility in Illinois and reports on how the plant—and the industry—handles used nuclear fuel.

New Products

• NEI’s new Safety First website provides information about nuclear safety, security and measures to protect public health.

Upcoming Events

• The task force reviewing NRC processes and regulations in light of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi will brief the commissioners on the report at a public meeting on July 19. The briefing will be webcast.

(Top Secret, Eyes Only) – The Blog Post Congressman Ed Markey Shouldn’t See

Earlier today Congressman Ed Markey sought to score political points for renewables by referencing a monthly report on energy use (pdf) by the Energy Information Administration.

Here’s Markey:

Buried in a report issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration are these facts: domestic production of renewable energy has now surpassed nuclear energy, and is swiftly gaining on oil. In their “Monthly Energy Review” released last week, the EIA said that in the first quarter of 2011, total domestic production of renewable energy (2.245 quadrillion BTUs of wind, solar, water, geothermal, biomass/biofuels) outpaced domestic production of nuclear energy (2.125 quadrillion BTUs).

While words and numbers can explain a lot, below is the applicable chart that shows trends in U.S. energy production since 1973. Nuclear energy surpassed renewable energy in the early 1990s and has been ahead for most of the last 20 years.

Primary Energy Production (Quadrillion Btu) p. 4

There’s a little bit more to the story, of course. The thing about using overall energy numbers is that it compares and includes production from all sectors. So while renewables have produced more energy than nuclear for the first three months of 2011, that number includes biofuels and biomass used in the industrial and transportation sectors. When we look at generation in the electric sector where nuclear actually competes, renewables produce about half as much electricity as nuclear. Renewables still have a long way to go to match nuclear’s electric generation. See chart below and pages 94 and 95 from EIA.

Electricity Net Generation (Billion Kilowatt-hours)

Back to the Congressman:

The [EIA] report comes after years of nuclear energy boosters continually suggesting that a “nuclear renaissance” was just around the corner

Hmm, it might be good for the Congressman to read more of the EIA report before making this claim. A full read shows that U.S. nuclear stations broke their record in 2010 for most generation in a year, p. 115 (pdf). The nuclear industry continues to pump more megawatt-hours on the grid even with the same number of units.

But the number is about to change. Here are pictures of nuclear construction going on around the country.

Vogtle 3 and 4

Watts Bar 2 

V.C. Summer 2 and 3

Looks like the industry is alive, kicking and growing.

Back to politics from the Congressman:

The [EIA] report comes ahead of a week when House Republicans will put a 2012 energy spending bills [sic] to a vote in the House of Representatives that prescribes devastating cuts to clean energy while actually increasing investments in coal, natural gas, nuclear, and other traditional technologies.

While I don’t know all of the specifics of the new energy spending bill, I’m reminded of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that passed in 2009. Wikipedia notes that ARRA provided $27.2 billion for “energy efficiency and renewable energy research and investment” while excluding incentives for nearly all other so-called traditional technologies.

So if the nuclear and fossil industries don’t want folks to see the EIA report because renewables are apparently taking over, it looks like the Congressman’s news release is trying to hide the billions in loan guarantees, production tax credits, grants, etc. made available to renewables in a previous stimulus bill…

Iowa – Nevada - Brunei

The Des Moines Register sees the nuclear energy facilities over in Nebraska surrounded by flood water and that people are fretting about them:

People worry because just the phrase "nuclear power plant" conjures thoughts of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. People worry because the world is still watching as Japan deals with the Fukushima nuclear power plant from both a human health and economic perspective.

Iowans worry because the Nebraska plants are separated from us by only a river rather than the Pacific Ocean.

Actually, I’d be surprised if people needed to project back 25 or more years to find fear buttons to push. Any such button, fairly or not, is now labeled Fukushima. (And remember: not downplaying the seriousness of the accident, of course, but the health and economic issues resulting from the earthquake and tsunami were fantastically large.)

Yet the public's concern should not be irrational or used to feed an anti-nuclear energy agenda or imply that the U.S. government is lying to Americans.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what is happening online where anything goes and supposed reporters aren't held accountable for blatant misinformation.

Just so. The editorial board reaches to Pakistan for its example, but it needn’t have gone so far afield. Nuclear energy facilities will live in a world for awhile where Fukushima informs everything – and while the floods in Nebraska are not comparable in kind to the tsunami in Japan, both involve water and that’s enough. Fearing a similar result is a natural response for some and it doesn’t have to be particularly rational. And rumor mongering to enflame those fears is – well – what some people like to do.

Still:

We cannot allow fears about nuclear energy -- unfounded fears, as of now in Nebraska -- [to] scare us away from this important power source.

There can be countervailing voices. That’s the service being provided by the Register.

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The Las Vegas Sun is a reliable opponent of the Yucca Mountain used fuel repository and enjoys any opportunity to say so. That’s fine – that’s its role if it wants it. But still, its glee over a court case regarding Yucca Mountain that was recently dismissed included this curious paragraph:

Instead of concentrating on litigation, the nuclear power industry and its friends in South Carolina and Washington [state, which brought the suit] should turn their attention to disposal alternatives being considered by the Obama administration’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. The commission, co-chaired by former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, is scheduled to issue its interim findings by the end of this month and final recommendations within the following six months.

Why curious? Because the alternative could, after all, involve Nevada. Good to know the Sun favors an alternative approach in Nevada if it is different than Yucca Mountain.

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Occasionally, we run into stories that promise to be about something, but turn out to be more of a tease. In this case, we were looking for some international news and thought our old friend Brunei might have something cooking.

Nuclear power will be discussed by energy ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their counterparts outside the region at an annual meeting scheduled for September in Brunei, according to Brunei's energy minister, Yasmin Umar.

So the action here, if any, will be in September. Brunei has talked a bit about nuclear energy here and there but not much more. It sounds as though it will be a topic at the conference, but most likely the discussion will concern nuclear developments in southeast Asia following the accident at Fukushima Daiichi.

So we’ll keep Brunei back-of-mind for now.

In case you didn’t know. Brunei is two pieces of land occupying the northern part of the island of Borneo. Malaysia and Indonesia have other parts, with Malaysia bordering Brunei on three sides. Brunei has about 400,000 people and is a constitutional sultanate.