End of Nuclear

Yes, it is over.  The pending advent of effective energystorage will make wind and solar easily as competitive, as will superconductingpower transmission.  Subsidies areirrelevant because nuclear is the biggest pig at that trough anyway.

Wind can build out on demand ascan solar and they are doing just that. Nuclear takes decades and that simply will not work in a high demandmarket now developing for ev’s.

And after all that, we now have apotent ten times unity heat engine coming on the market not causing anyradiation problems at all.  With that itis truly over for nuclear. Inside five years we will see everyone figuring howto get rid of the problem once and for all.

The End of Nuclear

by Staff Writers

Washington DC (SPX) Apr 28, 2011

As of April 1, 2011, there were 437 nuclear reactors operating in theworld, seven fewer than in 2002. File image courtesy AFP.

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/The_End_of_Nuclear_999.html

Even before the disaster in Fukushima, the world's nuclear industry was inclear decline, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute. Thereport, which Worldwatch commissioned months before the Fukushima crisis began, paints a bleakpicture of an aging industry unable to keep pace with its renewable energycompetitors.

"The industry was arguably on life support before Fukushima. When thehistory of the nuclear industry is written, Fukushima is likely to begin itsfinal chapter," said Mycle Schneider, lead author of the new report, TheWorld Nuclear Industry Status Report 2010-2011: Nuclear Power in aPost-Fukushima World, and an international consultant on energy and nuclearpolicy.

Some of the report's key findings include:

+ Annual renewable capacity additions have been outpacing nuclearstart-ups for 15 years. In the United States, the share of renewables in newcapacity additions skyrocketed from 2 percent in 2004 to 55 percent in 2009,with no new nuclear capacity added.

+ In 2010, for the first time, worldwide cumulative installed capacityfrom wind turbines, biomass, waste-to-energy, and solar power surpassedinstalled nuclear capacity. Meanwhile, total investment in renewable energytechnologies was estimated at $243 billion in 2010.

+ As of April 1, 2011, there were 437 nuclear reactors operating in theworld, seven fewer than in 2002. In 2008, for the first time since thebeginning of the nuclear age, no new unit was started up. Seven new reactorswere added in 2009 and 2010, while 11 were shut down during this period.

+ In 2009, nuclear power plants generated 2,558 Terawatt-hours ofelectricity, about 2 percent less than the previous year. The industry's lobbyorganization The End of Nucleard "another drop in nucleargeneration"-the fourth year in a row.

Despite predictions in the United Statesand elsewhere of a nuclear "renaissance," the report concludes thatthe role of nuclear power was in steady decline even before the Fukushima crisis. Thedisaster will make the construction of new nuclear plants and extensions to thelifetime of current plants even more unrealistic.

"U.S. news The End of Nuclears often suggest that a nuclearrenaissance is under way," said Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin.

"This was a big overstatement even before March 11, and thedisaster in Japanwill inevitably cause governments and companies that were considering newnuclear units to reassess their plans. The Three Mile Island accident caused awholesale reassessment of nuclear safety regulations, massively increased thecost of nuclear power, and put an end to nuclear construction in the United States.For the global nuclear industry, the Fukushimadisaster is an historic-if not fatal-setback."