Japan’s Fukushima crisis continues to impact the nuclear power industry around the world.
It has already had considerable political impact in countries like Germany, while forcing countries such as China, South Korea and others to delay their power programs while checking on safety rules.
But now, in the biggest impact so far, plans to build six nuclear reactors in Italy and Texas have been shelved or cancelled in what is the most dramatic fallout so far from the Fukushima disaster.
US power group NRG Inc. said yesterday it will drop its plans to build two nuclear reactors in Texas.
The two would have cost well over $US11 billion.
NRG wasn’t backward in blaming the Japanese disaster for its decision:
"The tragic nuclear incident in Japan has introduced multiple uncertainties around new nuclear development in the United States which have had the effect of dramatically reducing the probability that STP 34 can be successfully developed in a timely fashion,” said David Crane, president and CEO of NRG in the company’s statement.
“We continue to believe both in the absolute necessity of a U.S. nuclear renaissance and that STP 34 is the best new nuclear development project in the country bar none.
"However, the extraordinary challenges facing U.S. nuclear development in the present circumstance and the very considerable financial resources expended by NRG on the project over the past five years make it impossible for us to justify to our shareholders any further financial participation in the development of the STP project."
It was building the plants in co-operation with its Japanese partner, Toshiba, which was responsible for building two of the six reactors at Fukushima plant of Tokyo Electric Power, which was in turn involved in helping finance the NRG project. (No wonder it’s a goner given Tokyo Electric’s future is very much in doubt.)
On Tuesday the Italian government revealed plans to shelve indefinitely plans for four reactors in the wake of the radiation leaks at Japan’s nuclear plant.
And overnight Wednesday the Italian Senate voted to approve the measure shelving the program.
The four reactors were to have cost an estimated $US26 billion (which is a lot of money for Italy which is struggling with high deficits and debt).
That was after the government had ordered a one year deferment of its nuclear plans in the wake of the Japanese disaster.
And while there is a chance that the Italian government could return to the issue, the unpopularity of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would make that almost impossible, given his gathering legal problems.
Italian critics claimed the government’s decision was merely designed to imperil a popular referendum set for later this year on the government’s nuclear plans.
They said with the issue off the political agenda, it looks like this referendum won’t be called.
Italians had been expected to overwhelmingly reject the nuclear power plans.
The Italian government presented an amendment to legislation under consideration in the Senate that would call off plans to find, build and activate nuclear plants in the country. The amendment says the government plans to define a new energy strategy instead.
That will involve predominantly carbon based fuels: Italy presently gets 20% of its energy needs from renewables such as hydro and solar and 80% from gas, oil and coal.
After the 1986 Chernobyl accident, Italy shut down all its nuclear power stations and abandoned nuclear power generation.
In proposing the postponement, Economic Development Minister Paolo Romani said the leaks at Japan’s Fukushima plant had changed everything and that Italy was merely taking the same steps as Germany and others in altering energy strategies following the disaster.
"Such important choices for our future can’t be taken based on emotional waves or political maneuvering," he said in a statement.
In a 1987 referendum following the Chernobyl disaster, Italians overwhelmingly rejected nuclear power.
Italy’s parliament in 2008 adopted a bill that opened the way to construction of atomic power stations from 2014 to cut the price of electricity bills and make Italy less dependent on energy imports.
Italy had hoped that 25% of its electricity would come from nuclear power by 2030, but with Italians largely against the idea, it was always a bit of a pipedream of the pro-nuclear club.
More than 80% of Italy’s energy comes from outside the country, mostly in the form of gas from Algeria and Russia. The average for EU member countries is 53%. Gas, oil and coal, with some hydro provide the bulk of Italy’s power. There’s some geothermal and a small but growing solar component.
Of the two decisions, the one from NRG is by far the most concrete because the two plants cancelled were being looked on favourably for US government loan finance.
But US power industry and media reports say the two projects were also looking shaky because of a lack of contracts from industry for the power and weak power prices.
America has a gas glut, thanks to the rapidly growing production of shale gas from so-called unconventional sources, such as tight shale formations in Texas and in several other states.
That has seen US electricity prices fall as the glut has driven down natural gas prices.
Because gas is a better and g
