LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #662, Saturday, (06/15/2024)
“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Saturday, (06/15/2024)
This Bloomberg article, reprinted by “The Japan Times”, indicates the world’s global investors and banks are not going to support the next generational attempt to rely on nuclear power to resolve not only the shortage of energy, but also the concept of investing in nuclear power to solve the CO2-caused climate change/global warming issue. So where will the unaffordable nuclear industry find financing? Obviously, from you, the taxpayer demanded of you under penalty of law by your country’s government.
This ought to tell the average citizen everywhere that new nuclear power plants are not only a terrible idea from a world-wide health and safety issue, but also a financial disaster simply waiting to destroy economies everywhere. If the capitalists are expected to capitalize nuclear energy, chances are it will never be financed, and therefore our collective world leaders should abort their concept of eliminating increased CO2 by 2050 pie-in-sky thumb-sucking pacifier to us all. They told the lie; they know it’s never going to happen; and they should come clean and admit they are wrong. But they won’t.
So that means we are all living on borrowed time that we all have long known is running short. We have been fed similar lies over a few decades before to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gasses, and no progress was ever made, and this one is the same, only worse, and most likely the last because our borrowed time has run out . . . To survive we must learn to relive a different, older kind of life, but that’s not going to happen either until it’s too late; in fact it is probably already too late. ~llaw
Building nuclear power is a bridge too far for world’s private investors
BY JONATHAN TIRONE
BLOOMBERG
Jun 15, 2024
The next generation of nuclear reactors will need to be financed by taxpayers because private investors aren’t willing to bear the risks associated with building new plants.
That was the warning from bankers at a meeting of industry and government officials in Prague this week. The Nuclear Energy Agency event underscored the hard decisions Western economies soon need to make to keep one of their biggest clean energy sources going. While the public have warmed to nuclear in recent years, spiraling project costs have made private equity cautious.
Officials have estimated that the world needs to spend $5 trillion to triple nuclear-power generation over the next 25 years. The problem is that years of delays and billion-dollar budget overruns at European and the U.S. projects are spooking investors, and scores of reactors already running on borrowed time will need to be replaced. No private investors want to take on construction risks, said Simon Taylor, a financier at the Cambridge Nuclear Energy Center.
"We’re at a critical juncture of in the history of nuclear energy,” said William Magwood, director general of the Nuclear Energy Agency. "We have to move quickly. Financing is critical.”
Earlier this year, Electricite de France said its nuclear project at Hinkley Point in the U.K. would cost as much as £10 billion ($13 billion) extra to build and take several years longer than planned. In the U.S., Southern’s Vogtle nuclear facility came in more than $16 billion over budget and seven years behind schedule.
"Unfortunately, the nuclear industry has been its own worst enemy,” said Anurag Gupta, chief risk officer at Sequoia Investment Management.
While some private capital has gone toward designing small modular reactors — factory-built units theoretically cheaper to build than traditional plants — those projects have also been plagued by delays pushing full commercialization years later than expected. That leaves nuclear advocates struggling for investor support with the technology at hand.
Rothschild & Co.’s Steven Vaughan, an adviser for U.K.’s proposed Sizewell C nuclear plant, echoed the view that investors are wary of taking on exposure to construction risk.
Equity investment interest in Sizewell, currently owned by the U.K. government and minority stakeholder EDF, has been muted, with Centrica suggesting it could become a stakeholder.
Compounding nuclear power project risks are the long life span of the assets and the uncertain development of electricity markets. Historically, nations alleviated that risk by building reactors themselves. That’s still the case in China and Russia — the two countries building the most plants.
"It’s hard for any investor to think about market design 50 years into the future,” said Iain Smedley, chairman of global banking at Barclays. "It’s therefore very important they’re comfortable with the social contract.”
Some delegates in Prague suggested economies need to think about nuclear power beyond simply profit and loss. It’s an emissions-free energy source that can help meet climate targets, as well as supporting a skilled workforce.
"There is a vast need for state involvement,” said Marcin Kaminski, risk manager building Poland’s first reactors at Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this evening’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Saturday, (06/15/2024)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Bill Gates is going nuclear: How his latest project could power U.S. homes and AI - WGBH
WGBH
That's a lot of what the next six years are all about. Taillights ...
Parenting advice: My mom's new neighbors are a nightmare. I think it's time to go nuclear on them.
slate.com
My last straw was when they decided to light a barrage of loud fireworks for no reason at all. That is illegal at this point in the year, as we are ...
What's next for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act now that it's expired? - KUER
KUER
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expired on Friday, June 7, leaving many people who were affected by nuclear ... All Things Considered. Next Up: ...
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Nuclear Energy—A Technology That Must Be Continued - POWER Magazine
POWER Magazine
... nuclear power during an energy conference in Poland in June 2024. Echols talked about how Georgia was able to overcome many challenges to build ...
Nuclear Power - Down To Earth - Down To Earth
Bill Gates is going nuclear: How his latest project could power U.S. homes and AI | News
WLIW
The new facility, designed by the Gates-founded TerraPower, will be smaller than traditional fission nuclear power plants and, in theory, safer ...
Building nuclear power is a bridge too far for world's private investors - The Japan Times
The Japan Times
That was the warning from bankers at a meeting of industry and government officials in Prague this week. The Nuclear Energy Agency event underscored ...
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Power station emergency response drill deemed a success - Salem News
Salem News
... nuclear power plant, requiring first responders, officials and the county Emergency Management Agency to practice what to do based on a scenario ...
Nuclear War
NEWS
Trump Worries AI Deepfakes Could Trigger Nuclear War | TIME
Time
Former President Donald Trump discussed with Logan Paul how AI deepfakes could cause nuclear war, and how America should respond.
Putin soldiers surrender after counterattack as G7 leaders agree to $50bn Kyiv loan
The Independent
That is a red line drawn by the US president, who does not want to have America pulled into a direct conflict with nuclear-armed Moscow. ... war, won't ...
US sends Nuclear Submarine to Cuba amid Russian Warship Deployment - YouTube
YouTube
US sends Nuclear Submarine to Cuba amid Russian Warship Deployment | Vantage with Palki Sharma The US has sent a nuclear-powered fast attack ...
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Putin's nuclear threats induce 'escalation paralysis' in Washington - Washington Times
Washington Times
The Russian president's barbaric war in Ukraine has “backfired in spectacular ways,” according to retired CIA officer and Threat Status contributor ...
German Defense Minister Pistorius: Putin's nuclear threats should not be taken too seriously
unn.ua
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Putin's nuclear threats should not be taken too seriously, as his hybrid warfare strategy is to ...
NATO discusses nuclear policy, security threats from Russia, China: Report - YouTube
YouTube
NATO discusses nuclear policy, security threats from Russia, China: Report | National Report. 2.8K views · 6 hours ago #NEWSMAX #News #BreakingNews
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory 2023 annual report | U.S. Geological Survey - USGS.gov
USGS.gov
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) monitors volcanic and hydrothermal activity associated with the Yellowstone magmatic system, ...