Carbon Pricing is the key issue.

This article was written by nukeguy who is based up near Wylfa--the other Horizon site.

It’s all about Carbon


December 23rd, 2009 The Nuke Guy Leave a comment Go to comments

Hi everyone,



I get asked all the time when I think there will be a Wylfa B. First of all, don’t ever call it Wylfa B. Think of a better name. One that evokes the 21st century attitudes and behaviours that will be required to successfully operate the beast. More about that in a later post!



To answer the ‘when’ question, though, I thought I would start a thread here about the conditions needed for any company to seriously consider putting 4-7 billion notes on the nuclear construction table to build just one of the modern beasts currently seen as the favourites. It is not about land…it is not about public support…it is not even about digging some exploratory bore holes around the sites selected for “potential” new build (you would be amazed how many existing Wylfa employees are comforted by the fact their cars are getting dirty as they use the approach road to work!).



No…It is all about CARBON, or to be more precise, making existing pollutors pay for the privelige of producing it. In simple terms, there is a market where carbon intensive industries buy the rights to pollute the environment. It operates like the stock market. At the moment the carbon price is too low to support major nuclear investment, and the forecast for carbon prices going forward is also low. This means that for the foreseeable future it will be cheaper to burn gas than it will be to allocate huge sums of capital for the construction of (business) risk laden nuclear plant which may not be able to compete in commercial terms with this carbon intensive energy source in the future.



That is why Copenhagen was so important. And with that opportunity missed other forums will now have to be exploited to try and move the price of carbon to 3, 4 or even 5 times where it is now.



Companies interested in getting something built with “nuclear” in the title need to be able to see a world where it is not acceptable to burn the second dirtiest form of fuel (coal being first), Gas.



I urge each of you to google ‘carbon’ and start to learn a bit more about the market and it’s issues (see the link under blog roll at the right!). After that, mention it to every politician you can bother as they have been quite clear that no ‘Nuclear Levy” will be allowed. In that case, the only way forward is to make the polluters pay. Quite right too! After all, new nuclear will have to account, plan and fund for the waste they will create right up front. So should your local CCGT or oil/ coal plant.



Trust me…the only folks who will ultimately determine whether new nuclear happens are the accountants. And the only thing the accountants will be interested in is the business case bottom line. At the moment that line is not dominated by waste, security, safety or political issues around nuclear. No…it is purely focussed on the economics 10-60 years in the future and the price the energy industry will have to pay to generate a ton of CO2.



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