Nuclear energy holds the key

Dubai : Emerging countries around the world are banking on a raft of new nuclear reactor power plants to meet world electricity demand expected to double to 33,000TWh [terawatt-hours] by 2030, said Dr Robert Hawley, a speaker at the Middle East Electricity exhibition in Dubai.

Hawley said that the UAE's Dh40 billion plan to build four new nuclear plants will add 5.6GWe [gigawatt-electric] of power.

More to come

Vice-Chancellor of London-based World Nuclear University, Hawley said in an interview that "currently there are in the world under construction 53 nuclear reactors. Twenty of those are in China. A further 147 nuclear plants are proposed".

World statistics show there are around 440 nuclear reactors now which provide about 16 per cent of global electricity needs.

A further 10 nuclear plants are proposed for the UAE and when all 14 reactors are completed domestically, it will bring future total nuclear power generation to 20GWe, he said, giving the UAE cheaper power and freeing up oil and gas reserves for export.

Nuclear power will help reduce fossil fuels in future, but he noted that for now coal is still the preferred and least expensive source for power generation around the world, especially in China and India, given abundant coal reserves in those countries.

He said that "only nuclear power offers a long-term environmentally acceptable solution able to produce the quantity of energy that the world will need in future".