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1 Mycle Schneider & Antony Froggatt, World Nuclear Industry: Renaissance or Decline 1 (2012)

handle is hein.unl/wonure0001 and id is 1 raw text is: World Nuclear Industry
Renaissance or Decline?

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Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt1
The triple disaster that hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on 11
March 2011 has had a profound impact on public opinion and nuclear policy
far beyond Japan. In China, the government froze all new nuclear projects. In
the Republic of Korea public support for nuclear power plummeted. Belgium
and Germany confirmed nuclear phase-out legislation by 2025 and 2022,
respectively. The Netherlands and Switzerland have abandoned new reactor
construction projects. And governments in many other countries are reviewing
their nuclear plans.
The first World Nuclear Industry Status Report, published in 1992 to assess the
impact of the Chernobyl disaster on the global nuclear industry, predicted a
dramatic slowdown of nuclear expansion and asserted that the market niche
that nuclear power once held has in effect gone. In 2012, reality has confirmed
that assessment. Nuclear power's competitors-most notably wind and solar
generation-are rapidly gaining market share as long lead times, construction
delays, cost overruns, and safety concerns have combined to make nuclear
power a risky investment that the markets are increasingly unwilling to make.
As of early 2012, a total of 31 countries were operating nuclear fission reactors
for energy purposes-one more than in 2010-with the Islamic Republic of Iran
starting up its Bushehr reactor in 2011. Nuclear power plants generated

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This briefing paper is based on Mycle Schneider and Anthony Froggatt, 2011-2012 World
Nuclear Industry Status Report, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 68, no. 5. It summarizes
the findings of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2012 that can be found at <www.
worldnuclearreport.org>.
Mycle Schneider works as an independent international consultant on energy and nuclear policy,
and is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. From 1998 through 2003 he
advised the French Environment Minister and the Belgian Minister for Energy and Sustainable
Development. He has given evidence and held briefings at 14 national parliaments and at the
European Parliament. He has given lectures at 18 universities and engineering schools in nine
countries and has provided information and consulting services to a large variety of clients
including international institutions, governments and non-governmental organizations. In 1997
he was honored with the Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize).
Antony Froggatt works as an independent European energy consultant based in London. Since
1997, he has worked as a freelance researcher and writer on energy and nuclear policy issues. He
has worked extensively on energy issues for European governments, the European Commission
and Parliament, environmental non-governmental organizations, commercial bodies, and media
organizations. He has given evidence to inquiries and hearings in the parliaments of Austria,
Germany, and the European Union. He is a part-time senior research fellow at the Royal Institute
of International Affairs, Chatham House, in London. He is a regular speaker at conferences,
universities, and training programmes across the region. Earlier in his career, Froggatt served for
nine years as a nuclear campaigner and coordinator for Greenpeace International.

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