atw Vol. 63 (2018) | Issue 5 ı May
354
NUCLEAR TODAY
Author
John Shepherd
Shepherd
Communications
3 Brooklands
West Sussex
BN43 5FE,
United Kingdom
Links to reference
sources:
IAEA announcement
on Akkuyu
https://bit.ly/
2JmW0Wa
Der Spiegel
https://bit.ly/2IIZfpH
JAIF report
https://bit.ly/2IKKQt4
Joe Lassiter article
https://hbs.me/
2uVYPua
Nuclear Newcomer Turkey and ‘Comeback
Kid’ Japan Show the Way Ahead
Around 20 years ago, when I took my first tentative steps into writing about the nuclear sector there was one
story that cropped up again and again – and I was frequently told: “Forget that – it will never happen, they’ve been
talking about it for years.”
The subject was Turkey and its desire to build the country’s
first nuclear power plant. Many of those I encountered in
my early nuclear years and who had much more experience
could list a myriad of reasons why Turkey’s ambition would
probably not come to pass.
The mainstream media too, I recall, was less than
enthusiastic about Turkey going nuclear. One such article
I’ve managed to dig up from Germany’s Der Spiegel in 2008
asked of Turkey’s nuclear aspirations: “In a country prone
to earthquakes, is it safe?” The article went on to say:
“By acquiring nuclear energy, the country hopes to make
itself independent of its main energy suppliers, Russia
and Iran.”
Well fast forward to today and think again! In early
April, Turkey finally reported the start of construction of its
first nuclear power plant to the International Atomic Energy
Agency’s (IAEA) Power Reactor Information System. First
safety-related concrete was poured for unit 1 of the Akkuyu
nuclear power plant on 3 April, following the granting
of a construction license by the Turkish Atomic Energy
Authority the day before.
Four units are planned at the site on the Mediterranean
coast, 500 kilometres south of Ankara, all scheduled to
be in operation by 2026. Akkuyu will apparently have a
total installed generating capacity of 4,800 megawatts
( electrical) (MWe). The technology will be Russian
VVER following an agreement between Russia and
Turkey to build and operate the plant at the Akkuyu site
signed in May 2010.
So much for that 2008 article reflecting on how Turkey
wanted “energy independence” from Russia! Politics
makes strange bedfellows, but let’s leave politics aside for
now. Turkey has become the fourth country in recent years
to have started construction of its first nuclear power plant,
following the United Arab Emirates in 2012, Belarus in
2013, and Bangladesh in 2017.
There was progress too on the international nuclear
front in April from Japan, where Kansai Electric Power
Company confirmed that the third unit of its Ohi nuclear
power plant, in Fukui Prefecture, had resumed commercial
operation.
According to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF),
the Ohi-3 PWR had been restarted on 14 March and was
followed by Kyushu Electric Power Co’s Genkai-3 PWR
restart on 23 March.
JAIF said the restarts brought the total number of the
country’s nuclear reactor units clearing the country’s new
post-2011 safety regulations to seven.
Japan was another country ‘written off’ by the nuclear
naysayers just seven short years ago after the earthquake
and tsunami led to the Fukushima nuclear accident.
In a related move, JAIF said as of 26 March, the Russian
government had lifted almost all prohibitions on marine
products from Japan that had been introduced due to fear
of radioactive contamination following the accident.
Some countries had seized on the most recent accident
in nuclear history to justify their own attempts to kill off
nuclear at any cost and for spurious reasons. Yet Japan is
‘back in the game’.
Both Japan and Turkey highlight the art of the possible.
They also underline the planet’s continuing, undeniable
need for nuclear to remain a part of the energy mix.
With the future in mind, the IAEA has formed a technical
working group to push ahead with work on small, mediumsized
or modular reactors (SMRs) and to provide a forum
for the agency’s member states to share information and
knowledge. By the time you read this article, the first
meeting of the group, comprising some 20 IAEA member
states and international organisations, is likely to have
been held in Vienna.
According to IAEA deputy director-general Mikhail
Chudakov, who heads the agency’s Department of Nuclear
Energy: “Innovation is crucial for nuclear power to play a
key role in decarbonising the energy sector. Many member
states that are operating, expanding, introducing or
considering nuclear power are quite keen on the
development and deployment of SMRs.”
The first three advanced SMRs are expected to begin
commercial operation in Argentina, China and Russia
between 2018 and 2020, the IAEA has said. “SMR
development is also well advanced in about a dozen other
countries.”
In a recent Op-Ed for the Harvard Business School
Joe Lassiter, who is a faculty fellow of the Harvard
Environmental Economics Program and a faculty associate
of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, said:
“I have high hopes for the promising technology category
known as “new nuclear,” which offers the potential to
dramatically reduce costs and rapidly ramp up installations
when compared to today’s nuclear power plants. But
the success of new nuclear – and perhaps the future of the
planet – requires big, immediate investments from the
private sector.”
Lassiter said that while he is “all for renewables, I
believe every effort should be made to make nuclear power
one of the world’s low-cost alternatives for meeting the
urgent demand for power while winning the race with
fossil fuels”. This is especially the case in Asia, “where the
demand for energy is so pressing and the resulting fossil
fuel CO 2 emissions are forecast to grow for the foreseeable
future”, Lassiter said.
Lassiter’s article is spot on and should be recommended
reading to nuclear industry leaders and policymakers.
There will of course be setbacks (challenges) along the
way in any venture. That’s life and that’s how we learn. But
the nuclear industry would be in a dark place today if it
had given in to those who talked down the aspirations of
countries such as Turkey – or given in to those who said the
accident in Japan meant it was time for the world to turn
its back on nuclear.
I believe that nuclear’s best days are yet to come. But
that will require vision and determination and an
unwavering commitment to grow the industry safely for
the benefit of all.
Nuclear Today
Nuclear Newcomer Turkey and ‘Comeback Kid’ Japan Show the Way Ahead ı H. Breitkreutz, J. Shi, R. Jungwirth, T. Zweifel, H.-Y. Chiang and W. Petry
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