Berita Teknologi Nuklear Dunia Terkini

WZWH mahu Malaysia lihat apa China buat. China minta bantuan teknologi Rusia untuk menjayakan tenaga nuklear kapasiti 100GW melebihi sasaran 70GW menjelang 2020.

Selain untuk keperluan domestiknya, China bercita-cita mahu eksport tenaga nuklear ke India, Korea Selatan dan Rusia. China mahu syarikatnya bersaing dengan France’s Areva and General Electric.

1/3 pembinaan loji janakuasa nuklear dunia sedang dilaksanakan di China. Di Asia negara selain China, Jepun, Korea Selatan, Korea Utara, India, Iran, Vietnam sedang rancak dengan pembinaan loji janakuasa nuklear.

Malaysia juga bercadang mahu bina loji janakuasa nuklear menjelang 2021 yang perancangannya dimulai dari sekarang. Ianya mengambil masa 10 tahun untuk kajian dan pembinaan loji nuklear.

WZWH telah mencadangkan kepada kerajaan supaya sebuah loji janakuasa nuklear 1000MW dibina di Lembah Tembeling, Jerantut, Pahang, yang hanya memerlukan keluasan tanah 80 hektar bagi langkah perintis DS Najib merealisasikan salah satu NKEA untuk guna tenaga alternatif-"renewal energy".

Jika kita tidak serius dan sungguh-sungguh dengan Dasar Nuklear Negara, Malaysia akan ketinggalan menyebabkan industri negara kita tidak dapat bersaing dengan negara-negara yang punyai perancangan keperluan tenaga masa depan.

Rakyat Malaysia haruslah menyedari hakikat ini. Jika kita menentang tenaga nuklear ini, dari segi jangka panjang ekonomi industri negara akan kehilangan daya saing dan kita akan kebelakang tercorot ditinggal ekonomi besar dan baru Asia. Pilihan adalah pada rakyat Malaysia.

Russian state nuclear company to work with China in 3 projects

Russia's state nuclear company said it is willing to cooperate with China in three key nuclear energy projects, the company's spokesman told Xinhua in a recent interview.

According to Sergei Novikov from the Russian Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom), the projects include the fourth stage of a uranium enrichment plant due to be operational in 2012, the extension of Tianwan nuclear plant and an experimental fast-neutron reactor near Beijing.

"Our Chinese clients have no criticism on how these projects are working, and this is pleasing to us very much," he said.

"Now we have been focusing on development of future technologies like fast-neutron tanks, which have been working out in Nizhny Novgorod," Novikov said.

"China has been interested in building the industrial, rather than scientific, nuclear reactors. This is an attractive option for further cooperation between Russia and China," he said.

"The Chinese government has planned to build nuclear capacities up to 100 GW, that is, about 100 power-generating units. This is a huge and prospective market for us," he said.

Novikov said that Rosatom was ready to compete on this market with all major world nuclear technology suppliers.

"Our advantage is that we started cooperation with China before our competitors did, and now we may present the real fruits of the cooperation," he said.

This summer, the world's first floating nuclear power station set out from St. Petersburg, noted Novikov.

The station called "Lomonosov" will first sail to Murmansk for fuel loading and later to the Far East coast where it will work permanently, he said.

The station on which Rosatom has invested 16.5 billion rubles (533.7 million U.S. dollars), has a generating capacity of 70 MW and should become operational in April 2012, according to Rosatom's schedule.

"There are many world companies interested in this unique technology that combines electricity generation with water desalination. We expect this project, the first in the world, will start working within 20 months," said Novikov.

"After that we can start negotiations with the Chinese companies about exporting this technology," he added.

The spokesman also named a nuclear icebreaker-assisted escort of cargo ships through the Arctic Ocean.

"We expect to receive more orders for those vessel escorts in 2011 from the Chinese companies, as Russia is the only country in the world that is in possession of the nuclear icebreakers fleet, and this fleet works well," he said.

Sick of coal, China boosts its nuclear goals by 50 percent

China is scaling up its nuclear power plans in a big way. Its goal is to build 70 gigawatts worth of nuclear capacity by 2020 — 50 percent higher than its 2020 target was five years ago. It looks like uranium, still unpopular in the U.S. is finding big fans in Asia.

Achieving this goal will cost the country as much as $59 billion for 28 more reactors — 20 of which are already in the process of being built. As of this year, China is home for one-third of the world’s nuclear power construction. And the industry looks pretty healthy. Nuclear is thriving in its relatively lax regulatory environment. In the U.S., projects can be bound up in red tape for years before inevitably being abandoned. In China, plants can be built in just four years, like clockwork.

But the country isn’t the largest nuclear generator in the world, it’s simply the fastest growing. In fact, nuclear only provides about 2 percent of the energy used in the country, compared to 19.7 percent in the U.S., and more than 75 percent in France.

China still consumes more coal than any nation on earth — but it knows that has to change. That’s one of the reasons it’s pushing so hard to build rectors — to limit reliance on dirty power while also expanding the energy supply to meet skyrocketing demand. After the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen went bust, China said it would ramp up efforts to cut emissions. Nuclear could help it make good on its word.

The difficulties associated with wind and solar energy in China have also made nuclear look more appealing. Without a well-developed electrical grid, much less a Smart Grid with adequate storage, fully harnessing distributed sources of energy is somewhat of a fool’s errand. The country is still investing in solar and wind — developing a market presence in the U.S. in both areas, as well (think SunTech) — but not as much as in nuclear.

China’s latest nuclear strategy will be detailed in full later this year. As it stands, the country is building more than twice as much new power as its closest competitor, Russia. In addition to delivering the power generated to its own people, China hopes to export it to its neighbors, including India, South Korea, and Russia — each of which are building more reactors than any other three countries outside of China. By selling nuclear energy abroad, Chinese companies will be competing directly with France’s Areva and General Electric.

Around the world, 370 gigawatts-worth of nuclear facilities are in operation. Another 200 gigawatts are currently under construction.