Focus

Nuclear Waste Management

The global debate concerning the nuclear energy option is gathering pace at a time of oil and gas price volatility and security of supply concerns. The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet medium to long-term reduction targets is an additional driver in focussing economic and political attention on nuclear-based power generation. What is required is a full life cycle assessment of nuclear power and other conventional sources of power generation, including their wastes. (link to WEC 2004 Sydney Congress Comparison of Lifecycle Assessment)

At the end of 2005 there were 443 nuclear power plants in operation (103 in the US alone) and 25 nuclear power plants under construction, mainly in Japan, India, South Korea, China and Finland. Nuclear power plants are located on the world map as follows:

Source: International Nuclear Safety Center at Argonne National Laboratory

In many of these countries WEC has industry and public sector members and is therefore well placed to reflect on the issues at hand.  In the UK, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has launched an energy review that will examine, amongst other issues, the contribution that nuclear energy can make to energy supply. The main nuclear questions that will be reviewed, in the UK context, are no different to those that will be reviewed as the nuclear debate intensifies in other countries and regions:

• Safety and Security
• The Inevitability Of New Nuclear Power Generation
• Decommissioning and Long-term Waste Management
• Generation Flexibility
• Nuclear Proliferation