Nuclear Energy will continue to play a major role in the World Energy Supply as a low emission source of electricity.
In the next 50 years - as world population expands towards 9,000,000,000 - today's vast unmet human needs could multiply severely. Economic development is imperative not only to alleviate human misery but also to create conditions necessary to stabilize global population.
Today, in much of the developing world, a surging drive to meet these needs is generating an enormous rise in the use of energy. By 2050, global energy consumption will double.
Nuclear generation began 50 years ago and now generates as much global electricity as was produced then by all sources. Some two-thirds of world population lives in nations where nuclear power plants are an integral part of electricity production and industrial infrastructures. Half the world's people live in countries where new nuclear power reactors are in planning or under construction. Thus, a rapid expansion of global nuclear power would require no fundamental change - simply an acceleration of existing strategies.
Today nearly 440 nuclear reactors produce electricity around the world. More than 15 countries rely on nuclear power for 25% or more of their electricity. In Europe and Japan, the nuclear share of electricity is over 30%. In the U.S., nuclear power creates 20% of electricity.
Nuclear power - like wind, hydro and solar energy - can generate electricity with no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions. The critical difference is that nuclear energy is the only proven option with the capacity to produce vastly expanded supplies of clean electricity on a global scale.
Far from being competitors, nuclear power and 'new renewables' are urgently needed as partners if the world's immense clean energy needs are to be met.
The International Energy Agency of the OECD is the intergovernmental body that analyses global energy demand. In the private sector, the World Energy Council performs similar assessments. The projections by both organizations point inexorably to the same conclusion: Our world cannot meet its expanding energy needs - cleanly - without a sharp expansion of nuclear energy.
Canada — and in particular Ontario — continues on its long-term plan for electricity generation and will soon be making a number of critical decisions about nuclear power. In Alberta, harvesting the vast energy resource of the oil sands involves huge amounts of electricity for which many energy options are being considered including nuclear power. Hydro-Québec will make a decision this year on refurbishment of Gentilly-2 while New Brunswick is considering new nuclear construction in addition to its on-going refurbishment of the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant which began in late March.
Sources: World Nuclear Association, Canadian Nuclear Association
Scope
The symposium will identify how nuclear energy can be used as part of meeting the world’s energy demands.
Possible topics are :
Uranium Mining.
Nuclear Energy using the Thorium Fuel Cycle.
Nuclear Energy in Hydrogen Productions.
Nuclear Waste management Processes.
Small Reactor Applications for Nuclear Energy.
Publication
This symposium will be included in the WCCE8 proceedings.
Organizers
Hany Michael
Senior Vice President
Wardrop Engineering
A Tetra Tech Company
Gregory Patience
École Polytechnique
Sanjay Krishnan
Business Development Manager
Wardrop Engineering
A Tetra Tech Company
Further information
World Nuclear Association - www.wna.com
Canadian Nuclear Assosciation -www.cna.ca