Nuclear Power News

Russian energy company Gazprom is proposing using both floating nuclear power plants and submerged nuclear reactors, to provide power for undersea oil and gas field development.

Russia recently inked a deal with Bulgaria to build a couple of new nuclear power reactors, investors in Alberta have been looking hard at using nuclear power in the oil sands region, and this morning I came across two stories about floating or submerged nuclear power plants for both Norway and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.____Source

Meanwhile, China is slowly adding nuclear power capacity to its overall power ensemble--which is incredibly top-heavy with coal at this time.

The country's nuclear power plants generated 62.9 billion kWh last year, representing an increase of 14.6 percent compared with a year earlier, according to the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense.

"China's nuclear power industry has experienced a transition from appropriate development to accelerated development," Han Wenke, deputy director of the Energy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said.

At present, nuclear power accounts for less than 2 percent in the country's total power generation.

The authorities plan to increase the country's nuclear power capacity to 40,000 mW by 2020, which would take the sector's share of the total power industry to 4 percent.___Source

Nuclear fusion is the long term goal. Nuclear fission will be an important part of the energy mix for the next century, until fusion and geothermal achieve widespread utility.