We round up the past week’s news and updates from the world of Nuclear.
IAEA Reviews Uzbekistan’s Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development, by IAEA: “An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts has concluded a 12-day mission to Uzbekistan to review its development of infrastructure for a nuclear power programme. The Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) was carried out at the invitation of the Government of Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country of 33 million people and a major global uranium supplier, is looking to nuclear power as a low carbon energy source to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost electricity generating capacity.”
Nuclear societies call for COP26 to support nuclear, by World Nuclear News: “Over 100 nuclear societies around the globe have called for world leaders to “follow the science” and recognise that nuclear energy output must at least double by 2050 to meet global net-zero targets. The call comes ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) being held in Glasgow from 1-12 November this year.”
Here’s What the World’s Greatest Minds Think About Nuclear Energy, by Interesting Engineering: “While most major companies and manufacturing firms have committed to going net-zero by 2050, opening the door to more jobs focusing on green energy, the people behind them don’t always agree on nuclear power, and whether it should be classified as clean. This raises the question: How do the minds considered great in our time feel about it?”
Nuclear’s new deal, by Investor’s Chronicle: “Advocates of nuclear power point to the fact that it is an energy-dense, low-carbon and reliable source of power that could pair well with wind and solar. While renewables are on the rise, they are not a panacea for the race to net zero due to the problem of ‘intermittency’ – electricity is only produced when the sun is shining, or the wind is blowing.
So, until we achieve wide-scale battery storage to store and release excess power from renewables, nuclear could be used to provide large amounts of predictable power as part of a centralised grid. The idea is that it is ‘nuclear plus renewables’, rather than ‘nuclear versus renewables’.
Energoatom extends international cooperation, by World Nuclear News: “Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom told ambassadors of the Group of Seven (G7) and the head of the EU mission in Ukraine that it has “made significant progress” with its strategy to diversify its sources of nuclear fuel. During their meeting on 2 June, the state-run company described the issues it faces related to its ‘corporatisation’, including ‘discrimination’ in the wholesale electricity market, as well as the safety and upgrade work at its reactor units.”
