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[TTHQ Staff]

BEING STREET SMART ____________________ Sy Harding Nuclear Power Revisited! January 28, 2005. In a column last September I pointed out how the U.S., which once was leading the way, is now left far behind in the world’s development of nuclear power as a safe alternative to oil and coal-fired power plants. Among the column’s points; It’s been 50 years since the U.S. nuclear fleet was launched, and with all the nuclear-powered subs, aircraft carriers, etc., now in the fleet, the Navy has accumulated over 5,500 nuclear years of accident-free experience. There are also 103 nuclear power plants operating in the U.S. The first one was built 45 years ago. The only accident was a partial meltdown in reactor #2 at Three Mile Island in 1979 (25 years ago). But that incident spread so much fear, and initiated so many protests across the country, that construction of only one additional nuclear plant has been undertaken in the U.S. since. Yet there were no deaths or injuries even from the Three-Mile Island incident. In 1996 the courts dismissed the 2,000 lawsuits that workers and people living around the plant had filed, saying, “The parties have had nearly two decades to muster evidence in support of their claims and have not been able to do so.” Meanwhile, the rest of the world did not stand still for those 25 years. There are now 437 nuclear power plants operating around the world, with over 11,000 reactor years of operating experience. There are 30 more under construction and 32 more in the planning and design stage. That includes those in Iran and North Korea, which the U.S. worries about because it suspects they are being built so their fissionable materials can be secreted away and used to produce nuclear weapons. Update: Mainland China (which has nine nuclear reactors in operation, two more under construction, and still more in the planning stage), recently conducted an experiment, observed by scientists from around the world. In the experiment, Chinese nuclear engineers tried their darndest to deliberately cause a disaster. Among their stunts they cut off the critical flow of water through the reactor, and then withdrew the control rods, a sure way to cause a meltdown. But the reactor simply shut itself down. Observers, including U.S. engineers from MIT, called the experiment dramatic and impressive. South Africa plans to have several of these advanced Chinese plants. Elsewhere in the world, earthquake-prone Japan has always focused on making sure its nuclear plants can withstand the worst possible earthquakes, but also equips them with seismic detectors to automatically shut them down safely if one threatens. A study released this month reports on the effectiveness of those designs over the years. The epicenter of serious quakes in Japan have been as close as 100 miles from some of Japan’s nuclear plants. Yet there has not been a single instance of damage to a reactor. The huge earthquake off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan in 1993 registered 7.8 on the Richter scale. Its epicenter was just 95 km from Japan’s Tomari 1 and Tomari 2 nuclear plants. Both continued to operate normally. It’s been a similar situation over the years with earthquakes in California and Russia that occurred close to nuclear facilities. In Taiwan, which has six nuclear reactors in operation, two more under construction, and still more in the planning stage, the big magnitude 7.3 earthquake in 1999 resulted in three reactors safely shutting down automatically. They were restarted two days later after heavily damaged power lines and power grids in the surrounding area were repaired and could again distribute the electric power the plants produce. However, nuclear power still remains a dead issue in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Energy is working on the unique idea of portable nuclear power plants that could be shipped out of the country to emerging nations around the world. The idea is to have the portable plants completely sealed to prevent tampering with the fissionable material, and capable of operating without re-fueling or maintenance for up to 30 years. But this U.S. attempt to get back on the nuclear energy stage probably faces serious obstacles. To prevent foreign governments from secretly tampering with the nuclear fuel, it’s planned that the reactors would not only be sealed, but would have alarm systems connected via satellite to controllers in the U.S. The alert system would not only immediately warn of the tampering, but would also be capable of controlling and even shutting down the plant’s electrical output. Critics question whether foreign countries would be willing to put control of their electrical energy, and therefore their economies, in the hands of the U.S. (or any outside government). Nuclear energy does seem to be too important an area for the U.S. to continue to sit idly by, worried about the pollution of fossil-burning fuels like oil and coal, worried about global warming, worried about the rising cost and diminishing supplies of crude oil, while the rest of the world takes such a big lead in what is still, after 25 years, the only viable alternative for generation of electrical power. Sy Harding is president of Asset Management Research Corp., DeLand, FL, publisher of The Street Smart Report Online at www.streetsmartreport.com and author of 1999’s Riding The Bear – How To Prosper In the Coming Bear Market.