Russia's Nuclear Industry is a Disaster Waiting to Happen

Yves here. Holy moley, the cost estimates focus the mind! And the little mishap recounted below isn’t encouraging either. By John Daly, a non-resident scholar at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and chief analyst at OilPrice. Cross posted from OilPrice

VANCOUVER • Japan is prepared to invest billions directly in natural gas infrastructure in Western Canada as part of a plan to secure massive supplies of liquefied natural gas to replace nuclear power, a top government advisor said Thursday. The plan, a new model for Japan, could intensify the race by Asian countries to lock down Western Canada’s energy resources and infrastructure, which so far has been led by China.

There’s a huge opportunity that the government, because it is so tightly tied to the private energy sector, has refused to acknowledge Japan is wasting the opportunity of the Fukushima disaster by failing to use the crisis and public opposition toward nuclear reactors to form an energy mix more reliant on renewable energy, Canadian author, environmentalist and geneticist David Suzuki says.

Around fifty years ago, the U.S. chose to develop uranium-based nuclear energy instead of thorium-based energy. Both energy sources provided a ton of power — though theoretically thorium could provide a whole lot more. What made the difference, however, were the byproducts. Uranium byproducts could be used for nuclear bombs, and that's all Richard Nixon needed to know.

Tom Lydon submits: Exchange traded funds (ETFs) that invest in nuclear energy and uranium have fallen sharply amid Japan’s unfolding nuclear disaster.