WEMO24-Compiled Report-Interactive compressed (002) 4154-7882-8116 v.1 - Flipbook - Page 10
Global
Outlook
The EU Nuclear Alliance launched early 2023 includes 12
countries27 that intend to build new nuclear plants. In addition,
other countries such as South Africa and Saudi, are launching
tenders for new reactors.
25 In 2023, out of 59 reactors under construction worldwide, 22 are being built in China
26 With a capacity of 8000MW
27 Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.
28 https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/nuclear-energy/small-modular-reactors/small-modularreactors-explained_en#:~:text=Globally%2C%20there%20are%20more%20than,in%202019%20
and%202021%2C%20respectively.
29 https://www.eenews.net/articles/
nuscale-cancels-first-of-a-kind-nuclear-project-as-costs-surge/
30 https://ieefa.org/resources/eye-popping-new-cost-estimates-released-nuscale-small-modularreactor
•
Their smaller individual size will allow to manufacture in
factories many components that would be assembled on
site. Factory environment is far better to ensure a good
quality of the equipment and thus of the plant.
•
Thus, they should be quicker to build.
•
Their smaller size allows to connect them to less robust grids.
•
SMR heat transfer reactors which also provide district
heating solutions represent an interesting solution because
they have a better energy yield and relief the grids.
HOME
We can acknowledge these benefits:
However, prerequisites for their massive deployment are:
•
Cost competitiveness
End 2023, the USA first expected commercial SMR developed
by Nuscale was stopped.29 The project consisted of six 77MW
SMRs, with a total capacity of 462 MW. It was supposed to
come online in 2029. But the project experienced substantial
cost overruns and delays. Initially, it had a target of delivering
40 years of electricity at $55 per megawatt-hour. However, the
target price soared to $89/MWh due to a 75% increase in the
estimated construction cost for the project, from $5.3 to $9.3
billion dollars.30 Remarkably, the new $89/MWh price of power
would have been around $120/MWh without IRA and DOE31
$30/MWh subsidies.
31 DOE: Department of Energy
WEMO 2024
French government has announced a program to build 6 EPRs
in a first step and then 8 more in a second step.
After more than 12 years of delay and an estimated cost of € 19
billion (compared to the initial budget of €3.3 bn), the French
Flamanville 3 reactor should be connected to the grid in H2
2024. This would be the 4th EPR to enter in commercial service.
The others, Taishan 1 and 2 in China and Olkiluoto in Finland,
are operating at full power.
There is a lot of hope on SMRs (Small Modular Reactors)
development. SMRs are smaller size reactors using the same
processes and design as large reactors. They are usually light
water-cooled reactors of 60MW capacity They are assembled
by modules to reach on average a 600MW size (the average
size of a coal plant).
Many projects are developed worldwide. Globally, there are
more than 80 SMR designs at different stages of development
across 18 countries. While countries such as the USA, UK,
Canada, Japan, and the South Korea are actively developing
their own designs, Russia and China connected their first SMRs
to the grid in 2019 and 2021, respectively.28
10
2023 was marked by a renewed interest in nuclear electricity
that provided about 10% of the world's electricity (about onequarter of the world’s low-carbon electricity).
Asia and notably China remained the main driver for nuclear
power growth .25
Moreover, in August 2024, China has authorised 11 new nuclear
reactors in $31bn worth of investment.
However, in 2023 the startup/closure balance was negative by 1
GW as reactors totalling 5 GW (gigawatt) of new nuclear capacity
became operational while 6 GW were closed.
Thirteen years after the Fukushima accident, Japan is returning
its nuclear reactors to operation. As of year-end 2023, 12 reactors
have returned to commercial operation, with 8 reactors were
planning for a restart. Another 5, have passed a government
safety review, among them, the world’s biggest nuclear plant
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa26 could restart in October 2024.However,
in many locations, a nuclear plants restart is confronted to
local opposition.
This nuclear revival helps Japan to decrease its LNG imports,
meet its environment targets and decrease electricity prices.
NEXT
ARTICLE
