Ensuring Nuclear Safety

Ensuring Nuclear Safety

March 10, 2010

Ken Silverstein
EnergyBiz Insider
Editor-in-Chief

Both the European Union and Russia are planning for more nuclear energy. It's part of their effort to reduce carbon emission levels. With the two powerhouses dependent on each other to accomplish their respective goals, they have agreed to enter into a "nuclear partnership agreement" to assist in nuclear trade and safety-oriented transactions.

Russian nuclear technology is now considered to be advanced. As such, it has become a leading global supplier of nuclear fuels as well as materials and equipment to Europe. With the exception of a few European nations such as Austria, Germany and Sweden that have expressed opposition to more internal nuclear development, the continent as a whole is working to expand the technology. Member states are free to pursue their own policy, although they are obligated to abide by international carbon treaties.

"It is in the interest of both sides to reach a comprehensive agreement on nuclear cooperation, and I am pleased that these negotiations can now start," says outgoing European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. "Such an agreement creates a stable and predictable legal framework both for the governments and the industrial operators, aims at corresponding levels of safety and security standards, and facilitates legitimate nuclear trade between the parties."

At present, the European Union has cooperative bilateral arrangements in effect with other countries that also supply its nuclear industry. Besides the developed countries of the United States, Canada and Japan, they also have them with the Eastern European nations of Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Commissioners are also working with Australia and China to accomplish the same.

According to the European Nuclear Society, 194 nuclear power plants now exists in Europe and 17 more of them are planned. One is in Finland, which is considered to be state-of-the-art, but which has run into construction delays. A similar one is scheduled next year for France, which already generates about 76 percent of its power from nuclear. Altogether, nuclear energy generates a third of the continent's electricity and about 15 percent of the energy it now consumes.

As for Russia, it now has 31 nuclear reactors. They supply 16 percent of the nation's power, although the country has said it seeks to double the number of reactors by 2020 -- something that would provide about a quarter of the country's electricity at that point. The efficiency of its modern nuclear plants has propelled the agenda, with capacity factors rising from about 56 percent in the 1990s to about 80 percent today.

Along those lines, the EU has forced some of its newer members from the old Soviet Bloc that include Bulgaria and Slovakia to cease using older plants. While bilateral agreements have been signed, the EU wants to see a multilateral treaty implemented across the continent.

Preventing Proliferation

As the region strengthens its environmental rules and prepares for its energy future, uniform nuclear standards have appeal. Finland, France, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom are all gearing up to develop their nuclear programs.

Altogether, the European Commission says that the member states must cut carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels -- a target that could be ratcheted higher as more global partners come aboard. They must also generate 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources that may include nuclear power while achieving energy efficiency goals of 20 percent.

Nuclear energy was also a big part of the international climate change talks held in Copenhagen in December 2009. Negotiators there were forced to remove exclusions. That means that countries can include nuclear power in their mitigation efforts, however, nothing firm can be finalized until a pact is realized, possibly by year-end.

Russia wants to be at the forefront of the nuclear movement, giving new technologies and even loans to the nations that it helps build such plants. "Fast reactors are to come first," says Sergey Kiriyenko, head of Russia's nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom. "The shift to using fast reactors gives us a possibility of getting 100 times more energy out of one kilogram of uranium."

Russia's internal policies are one thing. But its efforts to export nuclear technology are another. Critics say that it is not just a matter of plant safety but also of preventing proliferation. Russia and Iran, for example, are trading partners -- something in which the West remains highly suspicious, saying that Iran does not intend to use the technology for peaceful purposes.

The United States, however, has come to view Russia's economic bond with Iran as "constructive." Russia has offered to enrich the uranium that would be used for nuclear energy production on its homeland if Iran ceases all attempts to do the same within its own boundaries. Iran has rejected the bid, which prompted its international condemnation and specifically from Russia.

The global community is wrestling with how best to deal with Iran, and North Korea. But the European Union has also expressed continued concerns over global warming and volatile oil prices. Toward that end, nuclear energy has become recognized as a viable way to achieve energy independence and environmental security.

Nuclear security, however, is paramount. It's especially true now that Eastern Europe is part of the fold -- nations that have relied on older Soviet technologies as well as coal-fired power. As they modernize their economies and build more nuclear reactors, an agreement that ensures the incorporation of consistent safety measures is essential.