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China Deal Gives Lift to Revival of Fission
John Tabliabue, New York Times
Areva, the French nuclear power giant, signed the largest deal in the industry’s history Monday, with China’s leading nuclear power company.
The agreement will bring both technology and much-needed energy to China, which has the world’s fastest-growing appetite for energy. But the deal could prove an even greater boon to Anne Lauvergeon, Areva’s chief executive, whose strategies – and optimism – have been questioned by critics.
The reasons for skepticism are clear. In recent years, nuclear-powered countries – like the United States, Germany and Japan – have refrained from building more plants, and countries like Italy and Poland, who had none, have refused to plunge into the nuclear age. But as today’s deal illustrates, the business of nuclear energy has come alive again, and it is people like Ms. Lauvergeon, her steely temper softened by a lively manner and a captivating laugh, that are bringing it back to life.
(26 November 2007)
Nuclear industry may be running out of steam
New Scientist
Rumours of a nuclear power renaissance have been greatly exaggerated. So says an audit of the nuclear power industry released on Wednesday.
The report, commissioned by The Greens, a European parliamentary group, points out that many ageing reactors are due to close before 2030, and that 338 new ones would have to be built just to replace them.
“The world has five fewer nuclear reactors operating today than it did in 2002”
The Paris-based nuclear consultants who compiled the report argue that the industry is growing too slowly to meet this target, and may even be shrinking.
(25 November 2007)
OSU prof talks up tiny nuclear plants
Jennifer Nitson, Corvallis Gazette-Times (Oregon)
Over lunch Monday, the Corvallis City Club envisioned a future in which the city’s electricity needs could be met with portable nuclear reactors.
Advocating for the safety of this scenario was José N. Reyes Jr., professor and head of Oregon State University’s nuclear engineering and radiation health physics department.
The featured speaker at the City Club’s monthly meeting, Reyes shared how OSU researchers and engineers have helped design a self-contained, factory-built nuclear power reactor. Each of these mini-reactors, about the size of a railroad car, is designed to produce between 35 and 50 megawatts of power n enough to provide electricity to 35,000 homes.
“This has gotten quite a bit of attention from the United Nations,” Reyes said. Developing nations are especially interested in the technology, he added.
(26 November 2007)
Nuke to the Future
Dave Maass, Santa Fe Review
The portable nuclear reactor is the size of a hot tub. It’s shaped like a sake cup, filled with a uranium hydride core and surrounded by a hydrogen atmosphere. Encase it in concrete, truck it to a site, bury it underground, hook it up to a steam turbine and, voila, one would generate enough electricity to power a 25,000-home community for at least five years.
The company Hyperion Power Generation was formed last month to develop the nuclear fission reactor at Los Alamos National Laboratory and take it into the private sector. If all goes according to plan, Hyperion could have a factory in New Mexico by late 2012, and begin producing 4,000 of these reactors.
Though it would produce 27 megawatts worth of thermal energy, Hyperion doesn’t like to think of its product as a “reactor.” It’s self-contained, involves no moving parts and, therefore, doesn’t require a human operator.
“In fact, we prefer to call it a ‘drive’ or a ‘battery’ or a ‘module’ in that it’s so safe,” Hyperion spokeswoman Deborah Blackwell says. “Like you don’t open a double-A battery, you just plug [the reactor] in and it does its chemical thing inside of it. You don’t ever open it or mess with it.”
LANL scientist Otis Peterson filed the patent for the nuclear fission reactor in 2003. In theory, the reactor uses uranium crystals and hydrogen isotopes to create an internal, self-regulating balance. Because it’s so new, anti-nuclear power activists aren’t quite sure what to make of it yet. But ‘skeptical’ is perhaps too gentle a word for their initial reactions to Hyperion’s claims of a “clean” energy source.
“This whole idea is loony and not worthy of too much attention,” Los Alamos Study Group Executive Director Greg Mello says. “Of course, factoring in enough cronyism, corruption and official ignorance and boosterism, it’s possible the principals could make some money during the initial stages, before the crows come home to roost.”
(28 November 2007)
Noted with incredulity by Dave Roberts of Gristmill.
