atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 06/07.2019

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atw Vol. 64 (2019) | Issue 6/7 ı June/July 378 NUCLEAR TODAY John Shepherd is a journalist who has covered the nuclear industry for the past 20 years and is currently editor-in-chief of UK-based Energy Storage Publishing. References Natural History Museum letter – https://bit.ly/ 2ZsMF6k European Energy Agency report – https://bit.ly/ 2WRldgS EV Revolution Could be Running on Empty Without Nuclear Hardly a day goes by when we don’t hear about another model of electric car being launched. Fully electric and hybrid vehicles are all the craze. There is a frantic race – encouraged by governments around the world – to put the most electric vehicles (EVs) onto the roads. The aim is noble enough: to make every effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions and scrap the petrol and diesel-guzzling internal combustion engines. TV adverts and slick promotional videos show these ‘green’ EVs darting around cities with solar panels on every building’s rooftop and running silently through the countryside, where windmills are more prolific than trees. But there is a big problem looming for this EV utopia… where is the electricity going to come from to keep recharging the vehicles’ batteries? And don’t forget the grid-scale battery energy storage systems that countries are also encouraging to be installed at a rapid pace. Solar and wind alone, on the scale that we currently know it, will not nearly be enough to keep these battery systems topped up and ready to be utilised at a moment’s notice. All this, perhaps unsurprisingly for readers of this journal, brings me to nuclear energy. The electric revolution in mobility is an incredible opportunity for nuclear and policymakers and politicians need to be made aware of that. In a recent announcement, experts warned that producing a new generation of electric vehicles and supplying the electricity to keep their batteries charged would add up to “huge implications” for the world’s natural resources. The UK alone would need just under twice the current annual world cobalt production to meet its EV targets for 2050, according to a letter to government climate change advisers co-authored by the head of earth sciences at the UK’s Natural History Museum, Prof Richard Herrington. In the letter, to the Committee on Climate Change, Herrington said the world must face up to the “raw material cost of going green” – which he explained would require supplies of some metals to “increase dramatically” to fuel the desire for the “revolution in the way we travel”. In the UK, petrol and diesel cars make up the biggest share of the UK’s climate pollution, with an estimated 31.5 million cars currently on UK roads, covering 252.5 billion miles per year. To replace all these with EVs today, “assuming they use the most resource-frugal next-generation batteries”, the letter said it would require: 207,900 tonnes of cobalt (just under twice the annual global production), 264,600 tonnes of lithium carbonate (three quarters the world’s production), at least 7,200 tonnes of neodymium and dysprosium (nearly the entire world production of neodymium) and 2,362,500 tonnes of copper (more than half the world’s production in 2018). On a global basis, for the expected 2bn cars on the world’s roads by 2050 to be electric, the letter said experts had calculated that the “annual production of neodymium and dysprosium would have to increase by 70%, copper output would need to more than double and cobalt output would need to increase at least three and a half times for the entire period from now until 2050 to satisfy the demand”. Switching to EVs for the UK fleet “comes with an energy cost too”, the letter said. “Energy costs for cobalt production are estimated at 7,000-8,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) for every tonne of metal produced and for copper 9,000 kWh/t. The rare-earth energy costs are at least 3,350 kWh/t, so for the target of all 31.5 million cars, that requires 22.5 terawatt hours of power to produce the new metals, amounting to 6% of the UK’s current annual electrical usage.” There are also challenges of using ‘green energy’ to power electric cars, the letter said. “If wind farms are chosen to generate the power for the projected two billion cars, at UK average usage, this requires the equivalent of a further years’ worth of total global copper supply and 10 years’ worth of global neodymium and dysprosium production to build the wind farms.” Solar power is also “problematic and resource hungry”, according to Herrington’s letter. “All the photovoltaic systems currently on the market are reliant on one or more raw materials classed as critical or near critical by the EU and/or the US Department of Energy.” Meanwhile, a new report from the European Environment Agency has warned that all parts of Europe’s energy system, from availability of energy sources to energy consumption, are potentially vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events. The report said Europe’s energy system needs to adapt and become more climate resilient to secure reliable supplies of clean energy. Crucially, the Agency’s assessment warns that the most important changes “include increases in mean and extreme air and water temperatures, and changes in water availability, extreme climate‐related events, and coastal and marine hazards”. These changes will affect the availability of primary energy sources – especially renewable energy sources – as well as the transformation, transmission, distribution and storage of energy, and energy demand, the Agency said. The facts I present here not only speak for themselves, but they speak volumes for why nuclear energy must remain part of the global energy equation. In terms of the raw material on which nuclear power generation depends, the world’s supply of uranium is more than adequate to meet projected requirements for the foreseeable future, according to the latest edition of the ‘Red Book’. The evidence is clear and must be increasingly so, even to nuclear’s critics and naysayers. Nuclear has been at the forefront of the green, electricity-generating revolution for decades and is a reliable and necessary technology partner for the future. Nuclear should not be treated as the ‘Cinderella’ of the energy family – left working to keep the lights on and industry running without recognition. If the EV revolution is to prosper it needs nuclear to shine and prosper too. Author John Shepherd Nuclear Today EV Revolution Could be Running on Empty Without Nuclear ı John Shepherd
Kommunikation und Training für Kerntechnik Rückbau kerntechnischer Anlagen In Kooperation mit TÜV SÜD Energietechnik GmbH Baden-Württemberg Seminar: Stilllegung und Rückbau in Recht und Praxis Seminarinhalte Genehmigungen für die Stilllegung und den Rückbau ı ı Gestaltung der Übergänge zwischen der Betriebs- und der Stilllegungsgenehmigung Gestaltung der Übergänge zwischen Genehmigungs- und Aufsichtsphase Rechtliche Gestaltung des Genehmigungsverfahrens ı ı ı ı Elemente des Umweltbereiches UVP und Erörterungstermin Anfechtung von Genehmigungen Stellungnahmen der EU-Kommission Reststoffe und Abfälle ı ı ı ı Vorstellung von Reststoffkonzepten Bewertung der Reststoffkonzepte Neue Regelungen zum Übergang der Entsorgungsverantwortung Entsorgungsfragen rund um Abfälle aus dem Rückbau Zielgruppe Die 2-tägige Schulung wendet sich an Fach- und Führungskräfte, Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter von Betreibern, Industrie und Dienstleistern, die sich mit der Thematik aktuell bereits beschäftigen oder sich künftig damit auseinander setzen werden. Maximale Teilnehmerzahl: 12 Personen Referenten Dr. Stefan Kirsch Dr. Christian Raetzke Wir freuen uns auf Ihre Teilnahme! ı Abteilung Stilllegung, Entsorgung, Reaktorphysik, TÜV SÜD Energietechnik GmbH Baden-Württemberg ı Rechtsanwalt, Leipzig Bei Fragen zur Anmeldung rufen Sie uns bitte an oder senden uns eine E-Mail. Termin 2 Tage 24. bis 25. September 2019 Tag 1: 10:30 bis 17:45 Uhr Tag 2: 09:00 bis 16:45 Uhr Veranstaltungsort Geschäftsstelle der INFORUM Robert-Koch-Platz 4 10115 Berlin Teilnahmegebühr 1.598,– € ı zzgl. 19 % USt. Im Preis inbegriffen sind: ı Seminarunterlagen ı Teilnahmebescheinigung ı Pausenverpflegung inkl. Mittagessen Kontakt INFORUM Verlags- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH Robert-Koch-Platz 4 10115 Berlin Petra Dinter-Tumtzak Fon +49 30 498555-30 Fax +49 30 498555-18 seminare@kernenergie.de
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atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 06/07.2019

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