NY Times: In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/business/energy-environment/29nuke.html

In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble

By JAMES KANTER
Published: May 28, 2009

OLKILUOTO, Finland — As the Obama administration tries to steer America toward cleaner sources of energy, it would do well to consider the cautionary tale of this new-generation nuclear reactor site.

The massive power plant under construction on muddy terrain on this Finnish island was supposed to be the showpiece of a nuclear renaissance. The most powerful reactor ever built, its modular design was supposed to make it faster and cheaper to build. And it was supposed to be safer, too.

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After four years of construction and thousands of defects and deficiencies, the reactor’s 3 billion euro price tag, about $4.2 billion, has climbed at least 50 percent. And while the reactor was originally meant to be completed this summer, Areva, the French company building it, and the utility that ordered it, are no longer willing to make certain predictions on when it will go online.

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For nuclear power to have a high impact on reducing greenhouse gases, an average of 12 reactors would have to be built worldwide each year until 2030, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency at the http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/o/organization_for_economic_cooperation_and_development/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Right now, there are not even enough reactors under construction to replace those that are reaching the end of their lives.

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[hunter]

1. We're entering the "can't do" phase of Western Civilization.

France would have liked to build this plant in France, they'd have had a much better idea where the real kinks in this design were and suffered somewhat less the usual clown parade, but France already generates more than enough electricity for itself using nuclear power. France has got a realistic hundred year plan for power generation, while we who depend upon fossil fuels can't see more than a few years into the future. I expect some natural gas crisis very soon now, and it's going to my California neighborhood especially hard. Over 40% of our electricity is generated from natural gas.

Meanwhile I'll cheer this plant on. Once it start Finland will be that much less dependent upon natural gas and coal, which are worse trouble... I personally would not want to depend upon Russian natural gas, and I always feel pretty rotten killing people by burning fossil fuels.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. "…in France, they'd have had a much better idea where the real kinks in this design were and…"

Or… maybe not…

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In Flamanville, France, a clone of the Finnish reactor now under construction is also behind schedule and overbudget.

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