— Thorium cycle does not require fuel treatment or Uranium-235 enrichment, as it has quite another set of isotopes. It means that the countries of thorium cycle will not be able to develop nuclear weapons

The United States of America plan to increase the power output of the active reactors at Turkey Point and St. Lucie NPPs along with construction of the new reactors at Turkey Point.

Nickolay Laverov, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS):

On election of Barack Obama the US President I was in the United States and had a chance to listen him in person many times. Thus, I heard his sharing the opinion of the French on that the nuclear power engineering should be referred to the environmentally friendly industries. He expressed it in about such words: there are some countries in the world that have widely developed the nuclear power engineering and have significantly reduced greenhouse gas and other emissions, therefore, making people’s life more comfortable. This is what I heard myself. I can say that as the Energy Secretary Steven Chu has come to power the nuclear power engineering will be certainly seeing its development in the US. The information obtained from the authorized persons makes me believe that in the US they intend to extend the service life of specific power-generating units at NPPs and make a special resolution to develop the so-called thorium-uranium fuel cycle. In this respect they are working on establishment of a dedicated Directorate to resolve the issues of the cycle, and $250 mln. US dollars have been allocated for 5-year research work. Here I am referring not only to the pressurized water reactors well-tested in the US and other countries and familiar for us. Firstly, because there are more thorium than uranium in the Earth crust. Secondly, many American scientists believe that the thorium cycle is better in view of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials. Thorium cycle does not require fuel treatment or Uranium-235 enrichment, as it has quite another set of isotopes. It means that the countries of thorium cycle will not be able to develop nuclear weapons, while ecology and safety meet the highest standards of contemporary nuclear power plants. Indeed, Japan and especially France emit only automobile combustion products, while all other industries use either nuclear power or natural gas.

Recently at the special workshops in power engineering we also discussed wider development of combined cycle gas turbines as more gas-saving facilities. Our existing gas usage method gives us 40% of efficiency ratio, while with combined cycle gas turbines it would be about 60%. The turbines may be used more frequently for the thermal power generation.

In the US, they plan on development of the nuclear power engineering by all means. It is mainly because this development will provide more jobs. Construction of each NPP is a major project. Using them, we become less dependant on oil and gas. In fact, the nuclear power engineering is more environmentally friendly, and it facilitates creating more jobs. There they will also develop new power-consuming industries, including biotechnical, which are not expected to produce emission of greenhouse gases.

For example, in Brazil, that I have recently visited, more than half million automobiles are alcohol operated, and almost every village has gasoline and spirit stations. Indeed, while spirit is burnt, it produces water, so there are no greenhouse gases. And the people work on the problem for about 10 years. However, it won’t be good for any system. Not every place has loads of processed sugar cane wastes. Therefore, the Americans have been working on the electric car concept for quite a few years. It would require good power batteries, capable of lengthy operation. So, we must depart from traditional hydrocarbon energy sources. At night NPPs generate surplus power which is cheaper. I have been working with the Americans for many years now and I have noticed, they are moving off the ban on the nuclear power engineering they adopted in the middle of past century. Now they will maintain the nuclear power engineering development, including thorium cycle facilities.

NOTE:

On October 16 the Commission of Florida Public Utility Services (USA) allowed two major energy-generating companies to collect over $270 mln.US dollars from the tax-payers in 2010 in the framework of an advance payment scheme to be invested in construction of the new NPPs, scheduled for commissioning in the following decade. To be more specific, they plan on construction of the fifth and sixth power-generating units at Turkey Point NPP and the power output increase at the active third and fourth power-generating units at Turkey Point NPP and the first and the second power-generating units at St. Lucie. It is expected both newly-built reactors with the total capacity of 2,200–2,300 MW at Turkey Point NPP will be launched in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

In addition, the Commission made a positive resolution on $207 mln. US dollars invested in construction of the first and second power- generating units at Levy NPP and the active reactor power output increase at Crystal River NPP to be compensated by Progress Energy Florida company. It is expected, the first and the second power-generating units at Levy NPP will be launched in 2016 and 2017, respectively.