CONSULTING

work on site in India for six AP1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse and noted the intention
of India and the U.S. Export-Import Bank to work together toward a competitive financing package
for the project (…). Both sides welcomed the announcement by the Nuclear Power Corporation of
India Ltd, and Westinghouse that engineering and site design work will begin immediately and
the two sides will work toward finalizing the contractual arrangements by June 2017”. 564
The relatively vague statement did not excite most financial analysts. Chris Gadomski, a leading
nuclear analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in New York, for example was blunt: “To be
frank, I'll believe it when the check clears (…). There's so many of these deals that, you have to
wait until the pie is completely cooked”. 565 In India, questions have been raised about the cost
competitiveness of these reactors. 566 A recent assessment of the economics of AP1000 reactors by
the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that the costs of generating
electricity at the proposed AP1000 reactors would be at least three and possibly six times the
corresponding cost of setting up solar photovoltaic plants. 567
Japan Focus
For the first time in nearly two years, commercial nuclear reactors began operation in Japan
during 2015. The Sendai-1 reactor restarted on 14 August 568 with Sendai-2 restarting
21 October. 569 In the following months, both reactors generated a total 3 TWh of electricity, or
0.5 percent of the nation’s annual output. This compares with a nuclear share of 1.7 percent of
total electricity in 2013, 2 percent in 2012, 18 percent in 2011, 29 percent in 2010, and the historic
maximum of 36 percent in 1998. The restarts of Sendai were the first reactor operations since
15 September 2013, when Ohi Unit-4 was shut down. 570 Efforts to follow restart of the Sendai
plant, with operation of the Takahama-3 reactor 571 in January 2016, proved short-lived due to an
564 The White House, “Joint Statement: The United States and India: Enduring Global Partners in the 21st
Century”, Press Release, 7 June 2016, see https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/07/jointstatement-united-states-and-india-enduring-global-partners-21st,
accessed 2 July 2016.
565 Tribune-Review, “Westinghouse to Build 6 Nuclear Reactors in India”, 7 June 2016, see
http://triblive.com/business/headlines/10595279-74/deal-india-westinghouse, accessed 2 July 2016.
566 Suvrat Raju, “The Cost of Nuclear Diplomacy,” The Hindu, 20 June 2016, see
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-cost-of-nuclear-diplomacy/article8748864.ece, accessed
22 June 2016.
567 David A. Schlissel, “Bad Choice: The Risks, Costs and Viability of Proposed U.S. Nuclear Reactors in
India”, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, March 2016, see http://ieefa.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/Bad-Choice_The-Risks-Costs-and-Viability-of-Proposed-US-Nuclear-Reactors-in-
India_-March-2016.pdf, accessed 2 July 2016.
568 WNISR, “32-Year-Old Reactor First to Generate Power in Japan in Nearly Two Years”, 14 August 2015,
see http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/32-Year-Old-Reactor-First-to-Generate-Power-in-Japan-in-Nearly-
Two-Years.html, accessed 17 June 2016.
569 WNISR, “Second Reactor Restarts in Japan”, 22 October2015, see
http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/Second-Reactor-Restarts-in-Japan.html, accessed 17 June 2016.
570 WNISR, “Japan Nuclear Free, Last Operating Reactor Shut Down”, 16 September 2013, see
http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/Japan-Nuclear-Free-Last-Operating.html, accessed 2 July 2016.
571 JAIF, “Kansai EP Starts Up Takahama-3 NPP”, 29 January 2016, see http://www.jaif.or.jp/en/kansai-epstarts-up-takahama-3-npp/,
accessed 17 June 2016.
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 148 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016