Nuclear’s second wind

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Governments the world over are taking another look at nuclear power.

Time is a healer, as the saying goes. And in the case of nuclear energy this certainly seems to be true.

Not long back, it looked like nuclear power would never be able to shake off the tainted image that it gained 20 years ago as a result of the Chernobyl disaster.

The explosion in April 1986 that ripped apart reactor number four at the Ukrainian plant killed around thirty people and exposed thousands of others to potentially lethal doses of radiation. And many countries abandoned their planned nuclear programmes soon after.

Because this was such a unique occurrence, numerous studies have been conducted on the after-effects on the people who lived nearby, which have kept the event firmly in the public mind.

By contrast, the US Three Mile Island accident in March 1979 has largely slipped from memory. Even though the plant's reactor was destroyed, safety mechanisms worked and all radiation was contained within the building, and no deaths or injuries resulted.

What is often forgotten, though, is that the Chernobyl explosion was the combined result of flawed Soviet reactor design and maverick testing carried out by poorly trained operators, and as such it should never be repeated.

Nevertheless, there were lessons to be learnt from both incidents, and reactor designs and operating procedures have been much improved since then. And now, with 20 relatively trouble-free years under its belt, it appears that nuclear power is no longer regarded as the bad guy.

World-wide revival

As countries seek to establish independent, secure energy supplies and to cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the demands of the Kyoto Protocol, nuclear is once again being considered as an affordable and viable low-carbon source of energy.

Countries that were once committed to a nuclear phase-out are now having second thoughts. And supporters of the technology are going to great lengths to paint nuclear fission as a safe source of energy, pointing out that coal-mining accidents and gas explosions account for hundreds of fatalities each year.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are currently 435 nuclear reactors operating around the world and a further 30 facilities under construction.

France's AREVA, the world's largest supplier of nuclear reactors, openly talked about a nuclear revival during the presentation of its 2007 financial results. The state-run firm predicts more than 500 GWe worth of new nuclear power plant orders or life extension orders for existing facilities will be made worldwide by 2030.

Over the next two decades, many European countries will have to replace generating capacity as plants come to the end of their service life. China, Japan, India, Brazil, the UK and the US are all looking to expand their programmes and new markets are also emerging in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Within MENA itself, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and the GCC member countries are all considering building nuclear power plants. Some of them already have research reactors up and running. Iran, of course, is much further down the line.

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