IEA, “세계 원전 폐쇄 비용 천억 달러 이상” Nuclear plants closure bill to reach $100bn

2040년까지

IEA, 원전 폐쇄 대비 충당금 충분히 준비 촉구

 

 

영국의 파이낸셜타임스(아시아판)는 12일, 전 세계 원전 폐쇄 비용이 2040년까지 1천억 달러(약 109조 8200억 원) 이상 필요할 것으로 국제에너지기구(IEA)가 시산했다고 보도했다.   IEA 당국자는 각국의 정부와 전력회사에 원전 폐쇄에 대비해 충당금을 충분히 준비하도록 촉구했다.   시산 결과는 IEA가 12일 발표하는 2014년판 ‘세계에너지전망’ 보고서에 담겨 있다. 2040년까지 폐쇄해야 하는 원전은 약 200여 개이지만, 지난 40년간 폐쇄된 원전은 10개에 불과하다.   IEA는 각국 정부의 원전 폐쇄 경험이 부족하기 때문에 원자로 폐쇄 비용에는 “상당한 불확실성”이 있다고 경고하며 비용이 더욱 팽창될 가능성을 시사했다.   또한 2040년까지 사용후 핵연료의 총량은 지금의 두 배인 70만t이 될 것으로 전망되지만, IEA 당국자는 각국의 처리 체제가 충분하지 않다고 지적했다 .【교도통신】

 

Nuclear plants closure bill to reach $100bn

 

 

Anjli Raval, Oil and Gas Correspondent The bill for closing down and cleaning up the world’s ageing nuclear reactors will exceed $100bn over the next 25 years alone, the leading energy watchdog has said, warning that governments risk underestimating the cost.   With almost 200 reactors due to be shut down by 2040, the International Energy Agency says in its annual report there are “considerable uncertainties” about decommissioning costs, reflecting governments’ limited experience in safely dismantling nuclear plants. In the last 40 years, only 10 reactors have been closed down. “This is an urgent area that needs consideration,” Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist, told the Financial Times.   The IEA called on regulators and utilities to ensure enough funds were set aside to cover future expenses.   The estimates for clean-up costs are contained in the IEA’s closely watched World Energy Outlook, which this year includes a comprehensive analysis of the global nuclear industry.   It will inevitably raise questions about the economics of nuclear power at a time when countries such as China and the UK are pressing ahead with ambitious reactor-building programmes.   Nuclear energy has been seen by many nations as an effective way of cutting their carbon dioxide emissions, as well as reducing their dependence on expensive energy imports.   But governments pursuing nuclear expansions have long been criticised for underplaying the full lifetime costs of operating reactors, which include shutting them down and cleaning up their sites. They have also pointed to the safety issues, which were dramatically underscored by the Fukushima disaster in 2011, and the still unresolved question of how to dispose of radioactive nuclear waste.   The IEA said the amount of spent nuclear fuel will double to more than 700,000 tonnes by 2040. But even now, Mr Birol noted, “some 60 years after the first nuclear power plant started operation, no country has yet opened a permanent disposal facility for commercial high-level waste”.   Paul Dorfman of the Energy Institute at University College London noted that the IEA’s $100bn figure is only for decommissioning and does not include the costs of permanent waste disposal. “The UK’s own decommissioning and waste disposal costs are £85bn alone, so that gives you an idea of the astronomical costs associated with nuclear,” he said.   But Andrew Sherry, director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute at Manchester University, said the surge in nuclear retirements will “spur the sector to find ways to reduce volumes of this high-level, or radioactive waste, in the decommissioning and waste management process”.   Addressing broader concerns around global energy security, Mr Birol stressed that despite a current well-supplied oil market, production may fall short of expectations in 2020 and later. “Short-term conditions should not blind us to the problems that may be around the corner” as the world increasingly relies on only a handful of producers, Mr Birol added.   US shale oil production will begin levelling off at the start of the next decade, developing Brazil’s deepwater fields will be a complex and capital-intensive process and the lack of investment amid security risks in regions such as Iraq – these would all contribute to greater stress on the oil market, he said.   “We see more than half of the growth in Middle East production coming from Iraq. But to deliver on this it needs to be investing around $15bn per year. The risk is that the current instability will deter investment and that, as a result, we might see a shortfall in supply.” FT

 

 

 

Construction News
CONPAPER