I think one can be nuclear-positive while also being negative about its prospects in your own country. Which is where I would place myself. As a technology: Clean, abundant, safe, very cool, etc. In the hands of our governing elite: Merely a money-river to take a large bucket to.
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And we can’t even complete a shed to house an old turbine - let alone build a brand new station.
A Dutch friend has the following interesting view: " It’s not necessarily the waste risk NOW or in 20 or 50 years - what about 500 years" And I must admit I think the next generation(s) needs to be considered.
Waste sites are perfect points of weakness if you want to target a country or area…
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That’s why we dig a very deep hole…
Dig the hole deep enough that it is cheaper to bring your own radioactive material…
Granted, the on-site stored material is more risky in this scenario.
To be clear here, I think the technology is amazing, safe and clean. It’s human beings I don’t trust.
The one and only “weakness” in and around nuclear really.
I understand the risk you are referring to is the danger of the plant itself.
The new risk of coal is the damage it causes to the environment. This is driving all possibilities to move away from it despite thousands of years of depending on this energy source.
It’s more the death toll. Research now indicates that the (perhaps indirect?) death toll is much higher than we might think.
It’s a bit like air travel. Again, the severity is high. When a plane crashes, the outcome is terrible and that is what we remember. But still, the likelihood is so much lower than many of the alternatives that air travel actually has a significantly lower risk than doing the same distance in a car. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but that’s how it pans out.
It’s funny how people differ, personally I won’t mind living somewhere where I had a view of a nuclear power station, I could wake up every morning and look at the station and think: Wow, some of the craziest engineering we humans have ever done, only to boil water 
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So, exactly like the new coal plants we have been building?
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Corruption. It has nothing to do with technology, just greed, Worldwide.
Groetnis
Indeed! But even the best organised international vendors can’t build nuclear plants on time.
That was the point, corruption… Not on time, ie overruns cost money. Normally contractually, there are penalties. Orchestrated overruns circumvent those conditions and that is partially how the corruption happens.
So no, the contractors, and the media reporting, spin that story.
Groetnis
Ok, these stats are 5 years back but I don’t think it’s moved much since then:
Overruns and delays could be partially due to corruption, but it might also simply be a consequence of the vendors providing over-optimistic budgets and timelines which inevitably end up being missed, but the scramble still causes cost overruns and general inefficiencies.
At least, in my line of work I often see companies quoting what I consider to be way too little budget/time to complete a project. This seems to be a good indication that they actually have a poor idea of everything involved in the process, due to a lack of experience or poor understanding of the client’s needs. They will only discover the complexities as they go along. Often times clients don’t see it like that, they see a bargain. Perhaps this is just a feature of the time we are living in: oversell and underdeliver.
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It is kind of a strategy, quote cheap to get the business, its survival. Then ramp up the pricing by overruns, exploiting the system and the letter of the contracts…
Of course, this happens on small scale as well and sometimes we think nothing of it. The guy who does most of my tiling and building around here… he’s always about a thousand short on the end. But I know that so I budget for it. This guy however can always tell me exactly how it happened in itemised detail, so I am not upset. It’s usually because he found out that something could be done better.
Eg, they did an outside bathroom for me some years ago. He decided to put the pipe through the floor (rather than use the existing piping through the wall, as I wanted, but his way was obviously better), and then he said we really should install new cornices on the ceiling. Which we did, and that added about 10% to the price. I don’t mind because it’s been communicated and there is value for money involved.
I’d much prefer the world to start putting vendors at risk for completion of a project. Then clients would also be much less willing to go with small vendors, without the necessary experience for large projects. And vendors would be less willing to oversell.
A while back when we were building, I didn’t take the cheapest quote. I went with a well respected contractor who has done work for many people I know well and they all have went back to him more than once. I had zero overruns (other than add-ons along the way) and no fights when something had to change (which wasn’t just once or twice and the projection had quite a few complications - as is tradition). It was as painless and construction can go.
I’m happy for this to happen. What I’m not happy with is if the guy doesn’t have the necessary skills and ends up doing a poor job, causing me way more issues down the line and ends up making the project more expensive than if it was just done right the first time…
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When we relate our own experiences, I multiply our real-life experiences by 10 000 000 when thinking of the challenges and complexities when talking about nuclear and/or power station builds.
Anybody have the latest on Koeberg’s (un)planned maintenance shutdown?
There is this, but lots of talking and without saying much:
Groetnis
Thanks Sarel!
My takeways…
- The problems - are numerous and some are expensive to fix and will take a long time…
- The positives - They have some document templates
- a template to collect from OEMs, "vital importance parameters”
- a ‘capability index’ to characterize staff members.
The 2024 revisit date is the key for me… To late to then get life of plant extension approval.
They should stop spending money and plan for shutdown.