By Justin Wong
The World Nuclear Association (WNA) envisions nuclear power to supply about 25 per cent of the world’s electricity demand by 2050, said Agneta Rising, Director General of WNA, during the launch of the World Nuclear Performance Report 2016 – Asia Focus at SIEW Energy Insights.
To achieve this, WNA has set a target for 1000GWe of new nuclear capacity to be added by 2050.
Asia will be important for nuclear growth and the outlook for new nuclear built in the region is promising, said Rising. New nuclear capacity globally hit a 25-year high in 2015, with more than two-thirds coming from South and East Asia, she added.
“Asia is dominating [in nuclear growth]. Thirty nine of the reactors are in Asia, with hundreds more already planned,” said Rising.
Reactor performance has also improved, increasing to a global average capacity factor of more than 80 per cent from the 60 per cent of the past. Capacity factors in East Asia are especially high, generally exceeding 80 to 90 per cent.
That said, nuclear has to grow two to three times from current levels if climate change targets are to be met – and more has to be done to expand the role of nuclear energy.
Wind and solar in Germany only generates a third of France’s total nuclear capacity, despite more installed capacity and higher cost, said Rising. “Nuclear is the only option [to achieve decarbonisation of electricity] if we have a limited budget and a limited time.”
Jeremy Gordon, Head of Information Management, WNA, said that nuclear is a competitive energy source compared to fossil fuels, and that externalities such as reliability and pollution are important considerations as well.
Other key areas to address include education and safer reactor designs to improve public acceptance of nuclear energy. Skilled labour is also an important factor for building nuclear capacity, he added.