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IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm closed the IAEA International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century which ended in Washington DC on 28 October. Grossi made a global appeal to advance the benefits nuclear energy in face of a pessimistic new report on climate change and the ongoing energy crisis.

Date: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsiaea-international-ministerial-conference-concludes-in-washington-10133127

New report highlights current opportunities for progress in commercialisation of the technology The UK has shortlisted five sites as the potential future home of the country’s first prototype fusion energy plant. Courtesy UKAEA. Capital costs for the development of a new generation of nuclear fusion reactors are high at around £100/MWh, but a substantial programme of standard build could bring them down to a viable target of £60-£70/MWh, a report published by engineering group Assystem says.

According to the report, which examines the potential for fusion in the UK, the government has estimated the 2040 levelised costs of electricity (LCOE) for the UK for standalone offshore wind, onshore wind and large-scale solar of £40/MWh, £44/MWh and £33/MWh respectively.

The £60-£70/MWh cost for fusion “provides the first target for nuclear fusion to be economically competitive”, the report concludes. It says fusion is uncompetitive today with other low-carbon options available in the UK – including wind and light-water nuclear fission reactors. The reason for this is the combination of a relatively high construction cost (£5,887/kWe) and a low capacity factor (56%).

The International Energy Agency has put the LCOE for advanced nuclear at $63/MWh (about £45/MWh).

With an improved, large fusion design the construction cost decreases to £4,135/kWe and the capacity factor to 75%. These two effects improve the fusion economics, decreasing the LCOE into the range £60 to £97/MWh. For a small fusion design, the energy cost of 75 units is in the region of £69- £99/MWh – a range that is comparable to 10 units of large fusion reactors and also the energy cost of LWR fission reactors.

Date: Saturday, 23 October 2021
Original article: nucnet.org/news/capital-costs-are-high-but-can-be-reduced-to-economically-competitive-level-10-4-2021

Netherlands Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Eric Wiebes has said that more nuclear power may join solar and wind in the Dutch energy mix after 2030, in particular small modular reactors (SMR) with a capacity of up to 400MW.

Date: Tuesday, 29 September 2020
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsnetherlands-pushes-for-more-nuclear-8153490

More than 40 nuclear associations representing over 80,000 scientists have called on the Clean Energy Ministerial Conference - which will be held in Vancouver between 28 and 29 May - to commit to doubling public investment in nuclear-related R&D and innovation within the next five years. Their declaration was signed yesterday at the International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP) , in Juan-les-Pins, France.

Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Viewpoint-Scientists-urge-commitment-to-nuclear-in

Germany already knows that it will fail to achieve the CO2 emission reduction targets set for 2020, and the gap will be quite significant. That’s why it is postponing the closure of coal-fired power plants and is building Nord Stream 2, writes Józef Sobolewski, director of the Nuclear Energy Department in Poland's Ministry of Energy. [Originally published in Wszystko Co Najważniejsze]

Date: Monday, 17 December 2018
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Viewpoint-There-is-no-Holy-Grail-of-energy

UK prime minister Gordon Brown has argued for greater diplomacy and international safeguards in a new world view that involves a greater access to nuclear power, and greater penalties for proliferation, in a speech delivered to the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference in London on March 16.

Date: Monday, 23 March 2009
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsgordon-brown-lays-out-uk-s-nuclear-diplomacy