September-October 2017 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2017 NuclearPlantJournal.com 39 Call to Accelerate New Build By Jonathan Cobb, Senior Communication Manager, World Nuclear Association. WNA Symposium 2017 The recent World Nuclear Association Symposium, the global nuclear industry’s leading annual conference, held in London from September 12-14, 2017, saw the association director general Agneta Rising issue a call to action to governments, expert bodies and the nuclear industry to do more to ensure that nuclear energy can make the full contribution that society requires to meet its future clean energy needs. Rising noted that the world is not on track to provide reliable and affordable electricity to the global population, while meeting its environmental targets. Access to electricity remains out of reach to hundreds of millions of people and actions pledged by government at the Paris climate change conference in 2015 will barely limit the temperature rise to three degrees Celsius, far short of keeping the average global temperature rise well below two degrees Celsius. More will need to be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while improving access to electricity. The nuclear industry has set a Harmony goal for nuclear energy to supply 25% of the world’s electricity by 2050, which will mean the construction of 1000 GW of new nuclear capacity. For this faster build rate to be achieved, action is required in three key areas; reform of energy markets, greater harmonisation in regulatory processes and the adoption of a more effective safety paradigm. Projections of nuclear capacity to 2035 were the focus of the latest biennial edition of the World Nuclear Association’s Fuel Report. The report outlined Upper, Reference, and Lower scenarios with underlying generic assumptions concerning the economics of nuclear power, public acceptance, greenhouse gas abatement measures and electricity market structure. The World Nuclear Association working group responsible for drafting the report was co-chaired by Fletcher Newton, president of Tenam Corporation, and Fredrik Leijonhufvud, purchasing manager at Vattenfall AB. Newton said the report had been prepared to be “genuinely reflective” of the current state of the industry “without any unnecessary glossing over of difficulties or understatement of the challenges” facing it. In the report’s Upper and Reference scenarios global nuclear capacity continues to grow over the period to 2035, with installed capacity increasing by 70% and 35% respectively. Capacity declines slightly under the Lower scenario. Growth is dominated by increased capacity in China, increasing from 37 GWe today to 141 GWe in 2035 under the Reference scenario. The projections of installed capacity are lower than those in the previous edition of the report, published in 2015, by about 15% for the Upper scenario and 10% for the Reference scenario. Further closures for economic reasons and less new construction than previously anticipated in the USA, de- lays to some Chinese construction projects, changes to South Korean plans, and slower restarts of Japanese reactors are among the considerations contributing to the decline. Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the US Nuclear Energy Institute highlighted some of the issues faced by nuclear in the USA. She noted wind, solar, hydro and nuclear are stronger when working together. Korsnick also highlighted the potential of smaller reactors. This was a message echoed by speakers from Terrestrial Energy, NuScale Power and LeadCold reactors, who took part in a session on nuclear futures. A NuScale study showed a fleet of their reactors could be ramped to balance output from intermittent wind generation. The future of regulation was debated during a Regulators Panel session, that saw regulators from Russia, the UAE, Finland, Canada and the UK discuss regulatory issues from their perspectives. Regulation was also addressed by speakers discussing what would need to be done to achieve the Harmony goal. They concluded that we need harmonised regulatory processes to provide a more internationally consistent, efficient and predictable nuclear licensing regime allowing for standardised solutions, to facilitate significant growth of nuclear capacity, without compromising safety and security. An effective safety paradigm focusing on genuine public wellbeing, where the health, environmental and safety benefits of nuclear are valued when compared with other energy sources would be needed for nuclear to deliver on its full potential. Contributing to this would be a greater public understanding of energy issues. The message that nuclear and renewables work better together was reiterated by Kirsten Gogan, Energy for Humanity, who noted that public support for an energy mix including both nuclear and renewables reached 75% in polling in the UK. The Symposium also saw speeches from industry leaders addressing the status of their own companies. Westinghouse president and CEO Jose Gutierrez said that his company will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection “leaner, stronger and more competitive”. The company, he said, will protect its “core business” - nuclear fuel, engineering, component supply and decontamination & decommissioning. Bernard Fontana, CEO of Areva NP reported that corporate restructuring of the French nuclear sector is “on track and major milestones have been successfully achieved.” These milestones include re- focusing Areva NP on its core business since July 2016 and the ongoing transfer of the company’s assets to a “financially sound and cash-generating” subsidiary, namely New NP. Asked about Harmony, Fontana said: “I’m convinced that nuclear power has an important role to play and I think the Harmony target is very positive.” He added: “There is growing demand for reliable, affordable and clean electricity. We will need all low-carbon energy sources to work together as part of a diverse mix and nuclear energy has a strong part to play as a predictable low-carbon source of baseload electricity. The Harmony target is a good way to federate the nuclear industry.” But it is important to acknowledge, he said, that nuclear “faces a challenging market environment and its competitiveness, whilst maintaining a high level of safety, is key for its sustainability”. He added: “To improve the investment rate, it is essential to de-risk new build and reflect in the value of electricity and capacity the real value of the public benefits provided by nuclear power. To stabilise long-term revenues, there needs to be the assurance of a long-term electricity price.” The next World Nuclear Association Symposium will be held 5-7 September 2018. Contact: Sharan Gallager, World Nuclear Association, email: events@world- nuclear.org , telephone: 44 20 7451 1521, fax: 44 20 7839 1501.