Half life

摘要

"Nuclear has to be part of the energy mix," insists Claude Mandil, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a think-tank-cum-watchdog for power-hungry countries. He was speaking at the launch this week of a report that overturned the IEA's previously pessimistic view of the prospects for nuclear power. It now estimates that nuclear generation will grow by at least 13% by 2030, and perhaps as much as 40%. The firms that build nuclear plants are making similarly rosy projections. The nuclear division of General Electric (GE), an American conglomerate, predicts that 66 gigawatts of new capacity—equivalent to the output of about 44 big reactors-will be ordered by 2020. Areva, a French nuclear firm, foresees 130 new plants by 2030.