By Eric Reguly, Rome-
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
After more than two decades of stagnation, the global nuclear power industry was just coming back to life. Power utilities had launched proposals for more than 300 new reactors, most of them in Asia, and dozens were under construction.
Then came the Japanese nuclear disaster, shocking the world with images of two explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeast Japan, near the epicentre of Friday’s earthquake. The disaster threatens to end the nuclear renaissance. A slowdown has already begun.
On Monday, two days after thousands of nuclear protesters gathered in Stuttgart, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a suspension of her coalition government’s decision to extend the lifespan of her country’s aging nuclear power stations. Investors hammered the shares of utilities with nuclear-energy exposure, among them French nuclear development giant Areva, and energy consultants and analysts predicted hard times ahead for the industry.
Reactors in U.S. Quake Zones May Be Key to Future Nuclear Plans
By Jeremy van Loon and Mark Chediak,
Bloomberg News
The future of President Barack Obama’s plans to redesign the U.S. energy system with low- emission nuclear plants may hinge on reactors across the Pacific Ocean as Japan’s nuclear disaster renews a debate about the safety of plants.
Engineers are battling to prevent a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power station crippled last week by a tsunami and the 9.0 magnitude temblor off Japan’s coast. U.S. regulators may first closely scrutinize San Francisco-based PG&E Corp. (PCG)’s Diablo Canyon seaside nuclear plant in earthquake-prone California, Hugh Wynne, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Co. wrote in a note to clients yesterday.
“Nuclear, long term, will be decided over the next couple of weeks,” said Abel Mojica, who manages energy-related limited partnerships at Tortoise Capital Advisors in Leawood, Kansas. “If there are decisions after the post mortem, that there are additional safety features required, that could add to costs.”
