The shock waves of the nuclear catastrophe in Japan were certainly felt in Israel this week, but it is doubtful whether they will have any effect on the plan to construct a nuclear power plant here. Government ministries and Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) were parsimonious with interviews on the subject this week, preferring to release general statements. "We are still deep in the fog of battle," Ministry of National Infrastructures chief scientist Dr. Shlomo Wald told "Globes", "but it is not certain that this disaster will give rise to any new consideration that didn't exist before. We will wait for the dust to settle."
But it's impossible to ignore the fact that nuclear energy has huge destructive power, even if the chances of it being unleashed are very low.
"Nuclear energy arouses almost religious feelings among people, and the responses are not always founded on fact. The reactor in Japan was built forty years ago, which means it was designed 60 years ago. It's a second generation reactor, while in Israel we are now talking about building a fourth generation reactor. These are reactors designed to be inherently safe from any kind of external damage."
The lack of urgency sets Israel civilian nuclear project apart from other important energy projects, such as the coal-fired power station in Ashkelon, which are proceeding under time pressure. This week, IEC was talking about constructing a nuclear power plant in the northern Negev in another decade. Ministry of National Infrastructures director-general Shaul Tzemach gave 2025 as the target date. Wald, who is directly in charge of the project at the ministry, estimates that "at least 20 years" will go by from the moment that a final decision is made until the time that the nuclear plant starts to produce electricity.
This timeframe allows the nuclear program to proceed slowly but surely, on the margins of media attention and far from potential objectors. Environmental organizations, for example, are divided over whether to oppose the nuclear project. The only prominent objector is international organization Greenpeace, which grew out of opposition to nuclear power. Organizations like Adam Teva V'Din (Israel Union for Environmental Defense) or the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel actually see advantages in the nuclear option, since a nuclear power plant does not emit greenhouse gases or pollution and does not take up much land.
The central question, however, is what does Israel need a nuclear power plant for? A small, crowded country, surrounded by enemies pointing missiles at it, and vulnerable to earthquakes it sounds like a surefire recipe for trouble when it comes to nuclear power. An economic assessment is also not supportive of the idea. The cost of constructing a nuclear power plant is much higher than the cost of any other type, coal or gas-fired, or solar. According to US Department of Energy figures, a nuclear reactor with a 1,200 megawatt output will cost over $6 billion, compared with about $2.5 billion for a coal fired plant of similar capacity, and $1.5 billion for a gas-fired plant. According to the same source, the cost of constructing a nuclear plant has risen 37% since 2009, while the cost of a solar plant has fallen by a quarter. The rising cost trend will presumably continue, after the lessons of the Japan disaster are learned.
Dr. Wald, even if you give us the world's safest nuclear reactor, why should sun-drenched Israel, drowning in natural gas, build a nuclear plant?
"Because we must not rely on one energy source. This is an existential interest of the country, because today, energy means water and food. The sun is not a stable energy source. The natural gas is wonderful, but vulnerable to breakdowns. We could find ourselves cut off from natural gas for months on end, and if we don’t want coal, then nuclear power is the only choice."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 17, 2011
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