Nuclear power in the energy mix

James Calderwood
Foreign correspondent

• Last Updated: November 03. 2009 10:42PM UAE / November 3. 2009 6:42PM GMT

KUWAIT CITY // The Gulf Co-operation Council countries should consider generating nuclear power to complement renewable sources and meet their growing energy needs, the secretary general of the Kuwait National Nuclear Energy Committee said yesterday.

Shihab Eldin was speaking at an engineering conference titled “Alternative Energy Applications: Option or Necessity?” organised by the Kuwait Society of Engineers, which is hosting the general assembly of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations alongside the event.

The region’s exploding population and economy have caused a 7 per cent increase in demand for energy yearly, Mr Eldin said, adding that such renewable resources as solar power would not be sufficient to meet that demand alone.

“Over the next 20 to 30 years, it would not be possible to think that renewable [energy] would provide us much more than 10 per cent of our energy requirements,” he said.

The Gulf is known as one of the richest sources of oil in the world, but, Mr Eldin said, if the price of oil remains above US$50 (Dh184) per barrel – as Opec predicts it will – then rather than fuel power plants with oil, it makes more economic sense to export it and invest the revenues in such alternative energy sources as nuclear power.

Oil is currently trading around $75 a barrel.

The region is also rich in natural gas, but the main fields are concentrated in Qatar and Iran.

“For Kuwait and the Emirates, the gas that we produce comes only in association with the oil, so the quantity of gas that we extract from the ground would be dictated by how much oil we are producing,” he said.

Opec production targets to try to steady the price of oil limit how much oil, and therefore gas, these countries can produce.

The economics of energy production in the Gulf makes nuclear power a viable alternative, Mr Eldin said. To have nuclear power as an option in 10 years or 15 years, he said, the GCC had to start laying down the framework now.

He said: “You have to build institutional infrastructure, human resources, legal infrastructure,” all of which has to be done before construction contracts are signed.

In 2006, the GCC stated its desire to explore a joint nuclear programme and in 2007 a study was conducted with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear monitor, to examine the possibility of generating nuclear power.

The study found that nuclear power was a viable option in the GCC, but since that time, its six member states’ nuclear programmes have progressed at different speeds.

“The UAE has announced a national programme and began to implement it rapidly,” he said, adding that the country is about to announce it is awarding a consortium to build the country’s first nuclear power plant by 2017.

He said: “a regional approach is possible,” but some countries lack the right skills, or competencies, then it is difficult to move forward, because “you have to move at the speed of the slowest partner”.

Mr Eldin said the region’s current lack of expertise in the field means that “the only way that we can run these nuclear power plants safely” is to “go into a joint venture with an experienced operator such as a nuclear utility in the United States, Europe or Japan”.

The issue of nuclear energy is especially sensitive in the Gulf because of Iran’s refusal to co-operate with IAEA inspectors and suspicions that it is trying to enrich uranium for use in weapons.

Mr Eldin said that geostrategic factors play a role in the region’s quest for nuclear power, and that some people “allege that the GCC are looking into nuclear power because of Iran”. But he disagrees with this thesis and said the GCC countries did not want the technology for use in weapons. He said the economic bloc wanted nuclear energy because of the economic “options it offers to us”.

Nuclear power expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s after it was harnessed for use in power generation. Such disasters as Chernobyl led to a loss of enthusiasm for atomic energy, but with the onset of climate change there has been renewed interest in an alternative to burning fossil fuels. Nuclear reactors currently produce about 14 per cent of the world’s power.

Another speaker at the event, Rajendra Pachauri, who, as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said it was significant that the engineering federation conference was being held in a major oil-exporting country. “This region, and this country in particular, can take the lead in developing technologies that harness the sun, harness the wind, biomass and possibly even the oceans,” Mr Pachauri said.

The significance of the event to Kuwait was underlined by the attendance of the emir, Sheikh Sabah al Jaber al Ahmed al Sabah; the crown prince, Sheikh Nawaf al Ahmed al Jaber al Sabah; and Sheikh Nasser al Mohammed al Ahmed al Sabah, the prime minister.

The Kuwait Society of Engineers said more than 75 countries were represented at the event. It will produce a document listing the findings of the conference to the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.

jcalderwood@thenational.ae