Nuclear
solution takes centre stage at G8 summit
AFP
PARIS
Petroleumworld.com
03 14 06
Nuclear power will dominate the first G8 energy summit in Moscow
next week as more and more countries regard it as the solution
to environmental concerns and dwindling fossil fuel supplies.
The rising price of fossil fuels, combined with concerns about
the greenhouse effect and the demands of the Kyoto agreement has
meant industrialised nations are having to reconsider how they
source their energy supplies.
"There is an emerging international trend towards nuclear
power, led by rising prices of fossil fuels, the Russian gas pipe
closure and the need to invest in ways of producing electricity,"
believes Colette Leiner, head of energy at consultancy Capgemini.
Oil, gas and coal provide 80 percent of the world's energy, and
experts believe that production of oil, and to a lesser extent
gas, could peak in the next three decades.
Meanwhile uranium reserves remain plentiful across the world,
and could meet current levels of demand for up to 80 years.
Nonetheless, France and Finland are the only European countries
to have embarked on a programme of nuclear plant construction,
although Britain is considering building a new nuclear facility.
The project, the brainchild of Prime Minister Tony Blair, is aimed
at enabling Britain to achieve its twin objectives of cutting
CO2 emissions and becoming less dependent on the natural gas supplies
it currently imports to produce its electricity.
In Germany, a decision taken by the last government to phase out
nuclear power has not yet been reversed, although there has been
talk of increasing energy prices.
European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Joaquin Almonia recently
said it would be "suicidal" not to consider nuclear
energy given the European Unions's dependence on imported energy
supplies. European countries import 50 percent of their gas supplies,
with half of that coming from Russia.
European Commission President Jose Jose Manuel Barroso has said
the debate on energy sources should be conducted without "taboos"
- including nuclear energy.
In the United States, the resurgence of nuclear power has been
clearly signalled by the Bush administration, while Canada is
about to launch an invitation to tender for a nuclear reactor,
said Leiner.
And Toshiba's recent acquisition of US nuclear power plant maker
Westinghouse will boost Japan's nuclear technology capabilities.
Even in Russia, where natural gas supplies remain plentiful, preparations
for the development of a nuclear energy programme are underway.
The energy ministers for the G8 countries (Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States) will be joined
in Moscow by their counterparts from other countries with interests
in nuclear energy including India and China.
Beijing is spending almost 50 billion dollars on a vast nuclear
programme aimed at building 40 reactors by 2020, while India has
just signed nuclear coopoeration agreements with France and the
United States.
AFP
03 13 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved.
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