International Nuclear Energy Lobby Visits Chile

(Dec. 11, 2007) Víctor Filichkin, head of Russian energy company Intermash, visited Chile last week to promote a potential nuclear solution to Chile’s energy needs. Filichkin’s visit coincides with the arrival of the new U.S. ambassador to Chile – touted as a nuclear energy expert – and the recent visit by Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Chile’s media report this constellation of atomic energy experts in Chile amounts to a new international lobbying effort to fortify the nuclear energy option in energy-hungry Chile.

“Everything is ready,” said Filichkin. “We first began talks with Chile four years ago when the nuclear energy dialogue was negative, but now thing are completely different. The energy situation in Chile has gotten much more complicated... It all depends on the will of the government.”

Filichkin met with Chile’s National Energy Commission (CNE) and representatives from state-owed mining company CODELCO.

“CODELCO is very important to us because we know they will need 2,000 MW of additional energy resources to complete their projects in the next five years, and we wish to carry out a strategic business operation with them,” Filichkin said. “In 12 years Chile will need a minimum of 12,000 MW, but in less than six years we could produce 6,000 MW of nuclear energy. The other 6,000 MW can come from hydroelectric energy resources.”

Meanwhile, incoming U.S. ambassador to Chile, Paul Simons, used to represent the U.S. in the International Energy Agency (AIE) and worked as deputy assistant secretary of state for International Energy, Sanctions, and Commodities (ST, Aug. 6). Local media have repeatedly asserted that Simons is expected to promote nuclear energy options for Chile.

The third part of the nuclear energy lobbying constellation is Mohamed El Baradei, head
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who was recently in Chile and honored by Chile’s Foreign Relations Minister Alejandro Foxley. El Baradei met and analyzed the “nuclear option” with top Chilean government officials.

Here is the full story.

Once Taboo, Nuclear Power Experiences Renaissance in California

The state's ambitious goals to combat climate change have some environmentalists turning to an outlawed former nemesis.

Monday, Dec. 3, 2007 With the state's attention focused on combating climate change, lawmakers and some environmentalists are increasingly willing to at least talk about building new nuclear energy plants -- a topic once considered taboo.

Three decades after being banned in California, nuclear power has a long way to go before it could play a role in the state's ambitious plans to reduce greenhouse gases. Legislation passed last year, Assembly Bill 32, set a goal for California to cut greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020. An 80 percent cut is planned by 2050.

With those goals in mind, some say nuclear energy could be one tool to cut emissions. Nuclear plants produce electricity without emitting carbon dioxide.

"The global warming conversation -- and particularly AB32 -- has given us these concepts in California to start to consider," says state Sen. Christine Kehoe, who will hold an informational hearing about nuclear power Dec. 10. "We're not going to meet our greenhouse gas emissions goal unless we start taking some major steps to find cleaner ways to produce the tremendous amount of energy we need."

Kehoe, D-San Diego, says the reexamination of nuclear is at its earliest stages. But the fact that the discussion is happening at the behest of a lawmaker -- and a Democrat at that -- in a state with an outright ban on new nuclear plants highlights the technology's slowly reemerging popularity. Despite the stigma brought by Three Mile Island and the Chernobyl disaster, nuclear power is no longer so taboo.

Throughout the 1990s, the United States' nuclear power industry appeared to be dying. More plants closed than opened. Faced with a costly upgrade in 1992, one of the three reactors was decommissioned at San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station. Its two remaining reactors provide San Diego with 20 percent of its electricity.

Since Congress approved the 2005 Energy Policy Act, energy utilities across the country have rushed to file applications to build new nuclear plants, hoping to capitalize on federal subsidies and loan guarantees offered by the legislation. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission this year received its first permit application in 31 years.

Environmentalists and many Democrats have historically been staunch opponents of nuclear energy, citing its impacts on things such as water quality. Nuclear plants suck in hundreds of millions of gallons of water, killing marine life that gets pumped in. Concerns have also been raised about the threat of nuclear proliferation and security risks in a post-Sept. 11 age.

But choosing between climate change and nuclear power, some environmentalists are turning to nuclear as the lesser of two evils. Some have signaled a willingness to consider new nuclear plants as a way to supplant the country's dependence on coal, a dirty-burning fossil fuel that provides almost half of the country's electricity. Many still remain staunchly opposed to nuclear energy. While nuclear produces energy cleanly, its radioactive waste has long-term storage concerns, plants are expensive and can take decades to build.

Here is the full article.

Chile neither politically, nor technologically advanced enough for Nuclear Power rules the Zanelli Commission

ZANELLI COMMISSION: CHILE NOT READY FOR NUCLEAR OPTION

(Nov. 12, 2007) A group of government-convened scientists who spent the past several months analyzing the “nuclear option” shared their much-anticipated findings late last week. Offering what observers alternately characterized as both a “non conclusion” and a lukewarm endorsement of nuclear energy, the Zanelli Commission described the option as politically and technically “strategic,” but cautioned that further research is necessary.

“It’s an energy that in many parts of the world is safe and quite successful. There’s no reason that wouldn’t also be the case in Chile,” commission leader Jorge Zanelli, a physicist, told members of the press on Thursday.

Energy is a hot button issue in Chile, where electricity consumption is rising at an annual rate of approximately 6 percent. Complicating matters more is the so-called Argentine gas crisis. Chile produces roughly 62 percent of its electricity in thermo-electric plants, most of which were designed to run on natural gas. For the past several years, however, Chile’s principal natural gas supplier, Argentina, has been unable to juggle both domestic and international demand and has thus periodically cut the flow of gas to Chile. As a result, energy producers in Chile have had to run their plants with diesel, a costlier and more polluting alternative.

Chile’s other major source of electricity is its collection of river dams, which together account for roughly 38 percent of the nation’s generating capacity. Numerous projects currently in the works promise to increase hydroelectric output in the coming years. One proposal, the controversial Aysén Project, calls for a five dam complex in Region XI that would generate some 2,750 MW, equivalent to more than 20 percent of the country’s current overall generating capacity.

The Aysén Project and other large-scale hydro ventures, however, have sparked opposition from a host of national and international organizations. They have joined together in a high profile campaign against the Aysén Project and the companies behind it: Spanish electricity giant Endesa and Chilean utility Colbún.

In the meantime, Chilean government authorities have begun exploring a third option –nuclear energy – to which the Zanelli Commission has now given something akin to a yellow light.

The Commission concluded that Chile is not yet prepared - neither institutionally nor legally - to embrace the nuclear option. The country does not, for example, have people sufficiently trained in nuclear technology. Cost could be another problem. The state would likely have to foot at least part of the bill as private investment alone would probably not be enough to pay for potential nuclear plants, according to Zanelli and his colleagues.

(However, Enel SpA, Endesa's Italian parent company, has the expertise: Enel SpA, Europe's second largetst utility and Endesa S.A. owner, ready to develop nuclear power across Europe with EdF Energy of France )

Still, given its successful application in other countries, the nuclear option should not be ruled out in Chile, where proper research and training could make it both safe and effective, the Commission said.

“From the point of view of international evidence there is no reason not to consider nuclear energy as a future option for our energy matrix,” Energy Minister Marcelo Tokman told members of the press, apparently choosing to interpret the Commission’s findings a partial plug for the nuclear option.

Sara Larrain, a high profile Chilean environmentalist, had a very different take on the subject. Given the Commission’s “non-conclusion” on nuclear energy, she said, Chile has all the more reason to invest in non-traditional, sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar.

“Our country should look into all existing energy sources, the technologies required to make use of them and mechanisms for financing and promoting their development. The goal should be an energy matrix that is both safe and sustainable. They should study options that include geothermal, small-scale hydro dam, wind, biomass, solar and tide-generated energy,” said Larrain, who heads the environmental group Chile Sustentable.

Here is the full article.

Turkey takes major step to join the nuclear power club

Turkey has taken a major step to join the "peaceful nuclear club" approving a law that set the gudelines to set up a nuclear power industry. But experts say this may have militrary dividends in the future...

Overriding stiff objections from environmentalists and opposition parties, the Turkish parliament has passed a bill fixing the legal framework for the country's first nuclear power plants.

Legislators amended several technical provisions in the original draft, which former president Ahmet Necdet Sezer had vetoed in May. The legislation authorizes the Energy Ministry to run and finalize tenders for the construction of nuclear power plants and decide on their capacity and location.

It also provides for public institutions to build the plants if there is no interest from the private sector.

The bill now needs the approval of President Abdullah Gul, who took office in August.

Turkey has said it plans to build three nuclear plants with a total capacity of about 5,000 megawatts to become operational in 2012 in a bid to prevent a possible energy shortage and reduce dependence on foreign energy supplies.

(This will supply roughly double the amount of electricity as the HydroAysen Project: The HydroAysen Project - Damming the Pascua & Baker Rivers in Patagonia, Chile – Perspective, Background, Facts & Motivation )

The law, which was approved by lawmakers, stipulates that companies willing to establish and run a nuclear power plant must meet the requirements set down by Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK).

After passage of the law, Turkish Electricity Trade & Contract Corporation (TETAS) will open a tender for construction of nuclear power plants.

The companies willing to bid for the tender are not required to have licence, which will be issued after winning the tender and before the start of the project.

In accordance with the law, TETAS will buy all the energy produced in nuclear power plants.

This is Ankara's fifth attempt at launching a nuclear program. Most of the previous efforts failed on environmental grounds (most of Turkey lies in seismically active zones), but this attempt is likely to succeed because Turkey's world has changed greatly of late -- and Turkey is changing with it.

Here is the full article.

Enel SpA, Europe's second largetst utility and Endesa S.A. owner, ready to develop nuclear power across Europe with EdF Energy of France

ROME -(Dow Jones)- Electricite de France SA's is ready to meet Italy's Enel SpA "anytime" to discuss a 2005 preliminary accord, which centered on nuclear power, Chief Executive Pierre Gadonneix said Monday.

The CEO said he saw it "possible" for Enel to play a role in EdF's development of nuclear power across Europe.

"I am open anytime for discussions with Enel (on the accord)," the CEO of the French state-owned electricity company told reporters on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress in Rome.

"Up to now Enel's priority has been Spain," he added. Enel successfully jointly took over Spain's Endesa SA (ELE) last month in the world's biggest utility purchase.

The preliminary accord between EdF and Enel signed in May 2005 centered on nuclear power and participation in the European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, technology being developed by EdF.

Here is the full article.