Dewar is executive director of the group Physicians for Global Survival.
In the article Cameco CEO bullish on nuclear future (SP, Nov. 30), Tim Gitzel presents a report of the nuclear industry that is very much at odds with the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2012 and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
While Cameco's chief executive is well paid to sell the industry, apparently being factual is unnecessary.
The authors of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report are not particularly friendly to the nuclear industry, but neither are they a bunch of rabid antinuclear environmentalists. They simply tell it like it is. The IAEA promotes and licenses the nuclear industry worldwide.
Gitzel says there will be 80 new nuclear reactors online in 2021. To make that a reality, there would need to be a lot more groundbreaking today. Of the 59 reactors currently listed as being under construction, nine have been on the list for more than 20 years, four for 10 years and, according to the IAEA, 43 are not yet close to an official startup date.
Some of Gitzel's figures are wishful thinking. He says that four new plants are being built in the United States. In fact, there are no new plants being built south of the border. In addition to U.S. cancellations, Brazil, France and India have cancelled their new builds and the Netherlands may follow suit.
And China may want to have 26 under construction, but not a single construction site has yet been opened. Constructions in Bulgaria and Japan have been abandoned, and the Finnish Okiiluoto 3 site is so delayed and so far over-budget that it is in jeopardy.
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