From Paris to Peking, Fission Is Still in Fashion

By Charles P. Alexander

Despite the deepening troubles in the U.S., the rest of the world looks to the atom for fuel

The U.S. nuclear industry may be struggling, but the allure of the atom remains strong elsewhere in the world.

For many advanced countries, nuclear power is a ticket to greater energy independence and national security. For developing countries, the sight of a mammoth reactor going up can also be a sign of industrial maturity and a source of national pride. To be sure, nuclear power faces the same obstacles abroad that it does in the U.S.: surging costs, construction snafus, protests from environmental groups, public jitters about safety, and problems with waste disposal. Moreover, the world economy is only beginning to recover from a recession that slashed demand for electricity and thus reduced the immediate need for atomic power. As a result, many countries have postponed nuclear projects or stretched construction timetables. But the atom is already a major force in world energy. Belgium generates 45% of its electric power from six nuclear reactors.

Sweden, Taiwan and Finland rely on atomic energy for 40% of their electricity. Among the largest industrial nations, France is the nuclear leader. Its atomic plants produce 48% of the country's electricity, compared with 13% for the U.S.

The French government hopes that by 1990, 70% of electric power will come from reactors. In Japan, where the atom generates 19% of the electricity, the target for 1990 is 27%. Many nations that lack abundant coal, oil or hydroelectric power regard nuclear energy as a necessity. Despite its rising costs, atomic power is often a cheaper alternative to imported fuel. In Japan a kilowatt of nuclear energy costs 5.2-c-, compared with 5.8-c- for the same amount of electricity generated by coal and 7.3-c- for power from oil. Nuclear plants have an impressive worldwide safety record. Government inspections abroad are generally just as tough as in the U.S., and often tougher. Very few accidents like the near meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island in 1979 have been reported anywhere else in the world, and no mishap has received comparable publicity.

The woes of the U.S. nuclear industry have not discouraged other countries from pursuing their plans for the atom. A survey of some major nuclear programs:

FRANCE. For its size, France has the most ambitious nuclear industry of any nation. It has 32 functioning reactors and is building 27 more. During the heyday of the French nuclear drive under President Valery Giscard d'Estaing in the late 1970s, construction started on four or five reactors a year.

In the presidential campaign of 1981, Franc,ois Mitterrand sharply criticized that pell-mell pace, partly because a sluggish economy had dampened demand for electricity.

Since his victory, Mitterrand has slowed down the atomic program, although he has approved plans to start two new nuclear plants this year. Mitterrand is pressing ahead despite predictions that France may not need all the electricity that the nuclear reactors could generate. To spur demand for atomic power, the state-run electric company is offering low prices to businesses that switch from oil and gas heat to electricity. Currently, petroleum accounts for 46.5% of France's total energy consumption, and nuclear reactors supply 23%. According to government projections, by the year 2000, nuclear power will provide 30% of the country's energy, and petroleum only 27%. Some time this year France will start up Super-Phenix, the world's first commercial breeder reactor. Using advanced nuclear technology, it will be able to produce 60 times as much energy from a given amount of uranium as the present generation of reactors.

WEST GERMANY. Nowhere has nuclear energy aroused more public opposition than in West Germany. For more than a decade, environmental groups like the radical Green Party have spearheaded huge antinuke rallies, protest marches and sit-ins. In March 1981, 80,000 demonstrators stormed a nuclear construction site north of Hamburg. Some tossed rocks and Molotov cocktails, and 15,000 helmeted police fought back with water cannons and tear gas. Undeterred by such confrontations, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government is pushing nuclear power as a way of cutting West Germany's dependence on imported fuel for 60% of its energy supplies. The country has 15 reactors in operation and twelve under construction. German nuclear plants are unusually well designed and efficient. Between 1975 and 1982 they operated at about 82% of their capacity, compared with an average of 64% in the U.S. The Bonn government predicts that atomic power will provide 17% of West Germany's total energy needs by 1995, up from 6% today.

BRITAIN. Nuclear power is a cornerstone of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's energy strategy. She is eager to stretch out Britain's North Sea oil reserves and reduce the clout of leftist-led coal miners' unions. Britain has 37 reactors on line and is building ten more. The portion of the nation's electricity generated by atom power is expected to rise from 16% at present to 20% by the end of the year. So far, Britain has relied on domestically designed gas-cooled reactors. Experience has shown, however, that the British nuclear plants are 15% to 20% more expensive to operate than the so-called pressurized-water reactors (PWRs) used in most other countries. In 1982 the government's Central Electricity Generating Board decided that Britain should begin building PWRs based on designs developed by Westinghouse in the U.S. But plans to build the first PWR at Sizewell, a village near Britain's east coast, created a public furor. Protesters ranged from the National Union of Mineworkers and the Aldeburgh Fisherman's Guild to Friends of the Earth and the Council for the Protection of Rural England. The Thatcher government has appointed a committee of inquiry, composed of technical experts, to hear evidence on whether the Sizewell PWR should be built. The committee is expected to finish its work some time next year. Its verdict, which Thatcher will probably accept, could be a green light or a stop sign for nuclear energy in Britain.

JAPAN. In the only country ever attacked with nuclear weapons, much of the population is understandably nervous about atomic energy. Ever since the Japanese nuclear program got under way in 1966, small armies of protesters have clashed with riot police at reactor construction sites.

Despite the controversies, the Japanese government considers nuclear energy crucial for a country that imports 99.8% of its oil and 83.4% of its coal. Japan has 24 reactors in operation, 13 under construction and seven more planned. The Japanese can build a typical nuclear plant within seven years, while in the U.S. the time needed can be as much as 14 years. One reason for the difference: Japan's relatively simple, efficient legal system makes it hard for nuclear opponents to bottle up projects with court challenges. The Japanese nuclear industry considers its business a crusade. Says Ikuo Kokubu, director of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum: "Nuclear power is the only way we can assure our survival and prosperity into the 21st century."

SOVIET UNION. The U.S.S.R. has rich deposits of oil, gas and coal in Siberia, but it is expensive to transport those fuels to the more populated and industrialized western part of the country. The Kremlin is convinced that nuclear energy is the cheapest source of electric power for Soviet cities. Since the 1960s the Soviets have completed 40 reactors, which generate 6.5% of the country's electricity. The current five-year plan (1981-85) calls for the nuclear share of electric power production to rise to 12%, but the program is well behind schedule. To meet their goal, the Soviets would have to bring 15 plants on line in two years. Last year they finished only two facilities. Bureaucratic bungling and shoddy construction have plagued the drive. For nine years, the Soviets have worked on a $4 billion factory called Atommash in southern Russia. Still unfinished, the plant is supposed to produce eight atomic reactors a year. The official in charge of the construction, Gennadi Fomin, was dismissed last summer amid reports of defects and delays at Atommash.

Many less advanced nations are racing hard behind the nuclear front runners. South Korea has three reactors, which provide 13% of the country's electric power. The South Koreans are building six more nuclear plants, using technology from the U.S. and France. India has four nuclear plants in operation, one under construction and eight planned. Bombay already gets most of its electricity from a reactor at nearby Tarapur. U.S. companies helped India launch its program in the 1960s, but after the country exploded "a peaceful atomic device" in 1974, Washington sharply curtailed the flow of uranium and nuclear technology. Since then France has become the major Western supplier to India's atomic program.

The financial crisis in Brazil, which is struggling with a $93 billion foreign-debt load, has virtually stalled that country's plans to have eight nuclear power plants by the year 2000. The Brazilians have one commercial reactor, a Westinghouse model. A second one, built by West Germany's Kraftwerk, will not be finished until 1989. Argentina also has a staggering foreign debt ($40 billion) that endangers its goal of completing seven nuclear power plants by the turn of the century. The two reactors now in operation generate nearly 10% of Argentina's electricity.

Several nations are poised to join the nuclear energy club. South Africa plans to bring its first atomic plant on line later this year. The reactor is expected to supply 10% of the country's electric power. The Philippines has nearly completed a nuclear station at Bataan that will be powered by a Westinghouse reactor. It should start generating next year and provide 16% of the nation's electricity.

Though China has nuclear weapons, it has lagged badly in developing atomic energy. The country has no operational reactors, mainly because it refused for many years to import foreign technology. Now the Chinese are looking outward. They have started a joint venture with the government of Hong Kong to build two French-designed reactors by 1991 in Guangdong province. China has also signed a preliminary agreement with France to buy two more reactors. Executives from Westinghouse and General Electric have paid several visits to China in recent months, but deals must await the signing of a U.S.-China nuclear cooperation treaty, which may take place on President Reagan's visit to Peking in April.

With the nuclear programs of such populous giants as China and India largely undeveloped, the potential demand for reactors has barely been tapped. Until a much cheaper technology can be perfected, the boundless power of the atom is almost certain to be a key source of world energy.

With reporting by William Dowell, S. Chang