Posted on 12/15/2006 11:14:27 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BEIJING - China and the United States on Saturday signed an agreement that paves the way for Westinghouse Electric Co. to build four civilian nuclear reactors in China, a multibillion dollar deal.
The memorandum of understanding was signed by China's Minister for the National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai and U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
Stephen Tritch, Westinghouse's president and CEO, said the details of the contract have yet to be finalized but that it was a multibillion dollar deal. He said the company want the plants up and running by 2013.
Westinghouse, which was acquired by Japan's Toshiba Corp. earlier this year from British Nuclear Fuels PLC, had been vying with the French nuclear group AREVA and Russia's AtomStroyExport to win the lucrative contract for building facilities at Sanmen, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, and at Yangjiang in southern China's Guangdong province.
China is building scores of new nuclear power plants, seeking the latest technology from industry leaders while working to shore up its own expertise.
"This is an exciting day for the U.S. nuclear industry," Bodman said at the ceremony. "It is an example that if we work together we can advance not only our trade relations but also our common goal of energy security."
Asia offers the promise of a bonanza for American companies such as Westinghouse and General Electric Co. which already have a strong presence in the region. Westinghouse has helped build 14 nuclear plants in South Korea and provided technology for almost half of Japan's 55 nuclear units. GE, meanwhile, has helped build 36 reactors in Japan, India and Taiwan.
Eighteen reactors — about 70 percent of the world's total under construction — are going up in Asia, and another 77 are planned or proposed, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
The deal was signed on the sidelines of a meeting of five major oil importing nations hosted by China.
China is building scores of new nuclear power plants, seeking the latest technology from industry leaders while working to shore up its own expertise.
"This is an exciting day for the U.S. nuclear industry," Bodman said at the ceremony. "It is an example that if we work together we can advance not only our trade relations but also our common goal of energy security."
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Meanwhile, here in the US, energy security is nothing more than a hollow buzzword.
And as part of this "deal" do we get the HUGE tonage of high level, lethal nuke waste to store in our homeland?
I am so tired of the US being the world waste basket.
BOHICA
The positive side is that the billions of dollars for these facilities will help offset some of the trade deficit from vast Chinese imports into the U.S. Also, at least until they reverse engineer the technology, the PRC will be dependent on GE for upgrades, spare parts, fuel rods, etc.
fyi, the high level waste could fit in a couple of barns. now the low level waste is a large volume.
spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors and high-level waste from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel;
transuranic waste, resulting mainly as by-products from defense programs;
uranium mill tailings, from the mining and milling of uranium ore;
low-level waste, from contaminated industrial or research waste; and
naturally occurring radioactive materials. Mixed waste is waste that contains both radioactive components and other hazardous components.
Transuranic, or TRU, waste generally consists of protective clothing, tools, glassware, equipment, soils, and sludge contaminated with manmade radioisotopes heavier than uranium. (The term transuranic is derived from “trans,” meaning beyond, and “uranic,” which refers to uranium; thus, transuranic elements are beyond or “heavier” than uranium on the periodic table of the elements.) These elements include plutonium, neptunium, americium, curium, and californium.
Transuranic waste is produced during nuclear fuel assembly; during nuclear weapons research, production, and cleanup; and as a result of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.
They get the electricity, they get the waste.
You would think so, but the last time that I looked at this deal, the U.S. taxpayer was financing it via the federal Ex-Im Bank (http://www.exim.gov/).
I don't know if that has changed, but the lead story at Ex-Im today is "Export-Import Banks of United States and China Announce Agreement to Increase Sales of U.S.-Financed Exports to China".
Last I heard, China was going to be building literally hundreds of pebble-bed reactors, as safe, inexpensive energy for their rural areas.
I gather the way p-b reactors work is by making ceramic balls with radioactive material in them. Then you put them in a single layer on an egg-crate type surface, so they are a given distance apart. They need no controls, and produce a given amount of heat for a given length of time. When the nuclear material in the balls has expired, you just open the floor and dump the balls down a deep shaft for disposal.
It doesn't produce as much energy as a conventional reactor, but it is a lot cheaper and cleaner.
Thanks for the news and the link.
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