Oil boffins go nuclear

Driving a nuclear-powered car may sound a bit like something out of Thunderbirds, but it could soon be a reality if the oil industry’s nuclear overtures come to anything. That’s one prediction in Trading Climate Change, JP Morgan’s latest contribution to the City’s voluminous output on the impact of global warming.

Chris Rogers, the utilities analyst at JP Morgan, believes nuclear-fuelled hydrogen could be “the ethanol of 2017″ as the industry enjoys a new lease of life. The resurgence of nuclear, he believes, is a key element in the global drive to reduce carbon emissions from power generation and create the zero-emissions hydrogen transport of the future.
The JP Morgan report is the latest indication that nuclear, for long the “renewable that dared not speak its name”, is back in vogue. The renaissance, driven by growth in the energy-hungry markets of the US and China, is fuelling an explosion in the cost of uranium and attracting the interest of hedge funds in search of the next big thing.

The British Government has expressed its support for nuclear and its enthusiasm should be made clearer when its Energy White Paper finally sees the light of day, probably in May. Now, despite the danger of stepping into a PR minefield, even Big Oil is having a look, with French oil giant Total declaring recently that it “will certainly one day have to be part of the nuclear adventure”. Total chairman Thierry Desmarest told Bloomberg last week: “We are interested, if there are opportunities, in having a bigger position in nuclear.”

According to Rogers, the discussion on hydrogen as a viable alternative to hydrocarbons for transport has focused on the thorny “well-to-tank” issue of getting hydrogen from where it is sourced to where it is needed, the filling station. Doing that in a cost effective way remains an unsolved challenge.

“More importantly though, from an environmental perspective, is sourcing the hydrogen in a CO2-free manner as well,” Rogers says. “Main methods of production require significant sources of electricity and heat. Most renewables are either too erratic or small scale. Step forward nuclear power.”

It is easy to see why the oil companies should be interested. They are increasingly looking to replace existing hydrocarbon sources with cleaner fuel – so far the focus has been on biofuels, but there are growing question marks over ethanol and biodiesel. They are hungry for land, which would otherwise be used to grow food, and they can encourage deforestation, adding to the CO2 problem they are supposed to address.

Telegraph