Nuclear Energy

2. Reviewing the Renaissance in Canada
Canada was one of the first countries to invest in nuclear power. It developed the CANDU
design, a heavy water reactor. Officially, there are 18 CANDU units in operation; another 4 units
are in what the IAEA calls ‘long-term shutdown’. The reactors in operation have been plagued by
technical problems that have led to construction cost over-runs, shut downs for long periods, and
reduced annual capacity factors. In the mid-1990s, one third of Canada’s nuclear plants were shut
down for technological reasons, the largest shut down in the world. cccxv
No nuclear plants have been ordered in Canada since 1978.cccxvi However, like in the
USA, a number of its operating plants have been refurbished to extend their operating lifetimes.
While refurbishing usually takes less time and is less costly than building a new plant, for several of
Canada’s reactors, there have been several cost overruns that in some cases have made it almost as
expensive as new construction. cccxvii
Over the past few years, there have been several proposals to build new nuclear plants in
Canada. These would have been Canada’s first nuclear plants in 3 decades. However, all have come
to naught, because of strong public opposition and high financial risks. The President of the
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has stated that CNSC is "facing many of same
issues as the rest of the nuclear industry". cccxviii
3. Reviewing the Renaissance in Western Europe
There is no fixed definition of the countries that constitute Western Europe. We have for our
purpose defined it to include the following 18 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. cccxix
Nine of these 18 countries – Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Netherlands, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom – operated 129 nuclear power reactors with a total
installed capacity of 125 GW as of August 1, 2009. This was 33 units less than in 1988-89 when the
number of operating units peaked. cccxx
Two reactors are currently under construction in this region, one in Finland and one in
France. Except for the French Civaux-2 unit which got underway in 1991 and was coupled to the
grid in 1999, and the recent reactor projects in Finland and France, no new reactor order has been
placed in Western Europe since 1980 – that is one order outside France in 30 years. On the other
hand, dozens of reactors will go offline in the coming years – at least one-third of Europe's nuclear
plants would be decommissioned by 2025. cccxxi
Despite this, apologists for the global nuclear industry are claiming that a nuclear
renaissance is underway in Western Europe. Let us take a closer look at this so-called revival. For
our discussion, we divide the 18 countries under discussion into three categories: countries with no
nuclear plants which are still anti-nuclear (8), countries with nuclear plants and with previous
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