I recently visited the Flamanville nuclear generating station on the channel coast in Normandy, where the French electric utility, EDF, is building a new 1,650-megawatt EPR reactor. Two thousand seven hundred contractors, split into three shifts of 900 each, work around the clock six days a week to get the thing done. The locals...
Atomic Energy Canada
The right way to defeat nuclear proliferation
A couple of weeks ago, the Toronto Star published an opinion piece whose author accused Canada of facilitating nuclear proliferation through international sales of uranium and CANDU reactors. It drew a couple of rebuttals: a short, pithy one from Jeremy Whitlock of AECL, a longer one from me. I’ll let readers judge for themselves whether...
Fragile pro-nuclear consensus emerges in U.S., but wait for the green/gas counterattack
Jacques Besnainou, CEO of Areva North America, on Monday applauded the Obama administration’s decision in February to award federal nuclear loan guarantees to The Southern Company. Southern will use the guarantees to borrow US$3.4 billion to build two Westinghouse AP 1000 reactors in Georgia. Yes, the head of a French company is happy to see...
Canada’s nuclear future II: tough questions and no clear answers
To no one’s surprise, the Canadian government has announced it wants to sell the reactor part of Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL). What exactly that entails is not clear. The government says it is open to any and all offers, from some kind of public-private partnership to full 100 percent private ownership. It looks...
Canadian government inches closer to coherent nuclear strategy
How should Canada resolve the medical isotope crisis? A new report says we should build a new multi-purpose research reactor which can produce isotopes on the side. Though this is the most expensive of the options presented, the authors point out the impressive benefits a multi-purpose reactor would offer. The logic of this recommendation...
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