July 1st, 2009
Nuclear power has political meltdowns
A next generation nuclear power plant was being developed in Ontario. Now all work has been stopped. The price tag was climbing and the provincial government pulled the plug even though it’s pledged to close all coal-burning plants there within five years. Right now about half of Ontario’s electricity comes from nuclear generation.
Nuclear generation is often proposed as the best alternative to burning fossil fuels. A nuclear power plant should be able to recycle the water it needs, and it produces no greenhouse gas emissions. There’s the on-going issue of nuclear waste, and in Ontario, at least, there’s the problem of the expense of the next generation technology.
Only Finland is currently building the latest and best in nuclear generation tech, the work being done by European firms, Areva and Siemens. The project is now far over budget and at least three years from completion. The plant construction began in 2005 and was supposed to have been completed this year. Situations like Ontario and Finland are not going to encourage other nations to go further into nuclear generation.
Next year Finland itself is supposed to decide whether to build more third generation nuclear plants. Whaddaya think?
Loading ...
A newsman since 1969, Harry Fuller has worked for CBS, ABC, CNBC Europe, CNET and was founding news director at TechTV. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to GreenTech Pastures via Email alerts or RSS.
