#WorldGovSummit: Nuclear power use on the rise globally

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#WorldGovSummit: Nuclear power use on the rise globally

Dubai - Over 60 reactors are under construction in 15 countries, including four in the UAE.

by

Bernd Debusmann Jr.

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Published: Tue 14 Feb 2017, 9:38 AM

Last updated: Tue 14 Feb 2017, 11:57 PM

There will be a "significant" increase in the global use of nuclear energy between now and 2030, according to Yukiya Amano, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
As of 2015, more than 30 IAEA member states were actively considering or planning nuclear power programs, and at the moment, over 60 reactors are under construction in 15 countries, including four in the UAE.

"In the lowest scenario, there will be a two per cent increase (in the use of nuclear power worldwide). In the highest scenario, there will be a 56 per cent increase by 2030," Amano said. "The countries that are considering the increase in nuclear power are states in which climate change is one of the strongest reasons for the use of nuclear power."

Philippe Jamet, the former commissioner of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, noted that countries must remain extremely careful and maintain the highest possible safety measures as they turn to nuclear power.

Jamet noted that - in the last 40 years - there have been three major nuclear safety accidents, at Three Mile Island in the US, at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union, and at Fukushima in Japan.
"This is quite a high frequency," he said. "This calls for modesty, because in none of these accidents there was any warning. The day before those accidents, everybody believed that nuclear safety was achieved. We never can avoid surprises."
"We have to be modest in our predictions, and we also have to be very careful," he added. "The key players in nuclear energy have to strive a lot for continuous improvement. There are many areas where continuous improvement can be done, and should be done, and this is from an institutional point of view."
Amano, for his part, said that in the IAEA's point of view, the Fukushima disaster had a positive effect on worldwide nuclear energy safety.
"Safety culture has strengthened a lot after Fukushima," he said. "The concept of safety (is now) widely accepted."
Despite better safety precautions, Amano said that public acceptance of nuclear power often holds nations back from achieving their nuclear power goals.
"Social acceptance is one of the most important issues," he noted. "(In some countries) there were delays because of technical reasons, but delay by social acceptance is very long, and in some cases the projects failed."
One major misconception, he noted, is that nuclear waste cannot be disposed of safely.
"It is widely believed that there is no solution to deal with nuclear waste," he said. "That is wrong. "It is difficult to deal with high-level waste and spent fuel, but even with these high-level wastes and spent fuel, there is a solution, which is deep geological disposal."
Regarding the UAE's own nuclear ambitions, Amano said that the IAEA is "very happy" at the close cooperation between the organisation and Emirati authorities.
"Since the beginning of the project, the UAE and IAEA have been working in close cooperation," he said. "We have trained nuclear professionals and been cooperating with Khalifa University, and your country is organising a nuclear management school."
In October, Amano added, the UAE is organising a ministerial-level nuclear power conference.
bernd@khaleejtimes.com


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