The reality of nuclear energy is inconsistent with dreams of a renaissance

In summary, the hard facts about nuclear energy are inconsistent with the possibility of a worldwide renaissance of nuclear energy. Indeed, they point toward a continuing slow phase-out of nuclear energy in most of the large OECD countries. guardian.co.uk.

Proposed Calvert Cliffs reactor looks shaky

Electricite de France, the French national utility that holds a 50% share in Unistar in the U.S. along with Constellation Energy, saw its net income plummet 47% this past week. The EDF-Constellation partnership is slated to build an EPR reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear site in Maryland - conditional upon federal loan guarantees. But according to a Bloomberg story, EDF "took a provision of 1.1 billion euros (1.44 billion euros) related to its holding in Constellation Energy Group Inc. due to the “less favorable” outlook for power prices for existing power generators and a planned new nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs."  EDF is already under scrutiny in France because its EPR construction site at Flamanville is over-budget and has fallen more than two years behind schedule.

South Texas reactor project puts on the brakes

"NRG Energy, one of the City of San Antonio’s partners at the South Texas Project nuclear facility in Matagorda County, announced today it will idle payments into a planned two-reactor nuclear expansion on the Texas coast," writes Greg Harman this week in the San Antonio Current. The NRF-Toshiba project which would add two reactors to the South Texas nuclear site, is dependent on federal loan guarantees - a burden likely to fall to taxpayers. But the loan guarantees have so far failed to materialize causing this latest retreat from the nuclear energy frontier.

Safety fears about French Areva EPR raised in Europe and U.S.

The New York Times has reported allegations of safety significant design flaws with nuclear fuel rod cladding, as well as the danger of control rod ejection accidents, at the French Areva "European Pressurized Reactor" targeted at Flammanville on the Normandy Coast. Meanwhile, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has continued to question the safety of interconnections between safety and non-safety "Instrumentation and Control" systems at the Areva "Evolutionary Power Reactor" targeted to be built at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland, Nine Mile Point on the Lake Ontario shoreline in New York State, and elsewhere. See the NRC press release here.

Safety authority puts dent in British nuclear hopes

According to The Guardian (UK), "The government's safety watchdog is cracking down on Britain's biggest and oldest nuclear complex after a series of radioactive leaks and safety blunders, despite private sector managers receiving multimillion-pound "performance-related" payments from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority". The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will take legal action for force the vast Sellafield plant in Cumbria to improve its safety record. The revelations of serious safety flaws at Britain's largest nuclear installation will do little to improve the industry's case to build new reactors. Further embarassment has been caused by the revelation that Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) – a consortium involving Amec, URS and Areva and which took over ownership of Sellafield in 2008  – "is believed to have made "profits" of up to £50m over a 12-month period," according to the Guardian article.