For some years, every incoming Minister of Energy/National Infrastructures has fallen into the populist trap laid for him by various advisors and has hurried to announce that he would promote the construction of a nuclear power plant. Every one of those ministers and experts forgot one critical detail Israel has not signed, and for the foreseeable future will not sign, the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
For this reason, Israel is totally unable to purchase nuclear power reactors. It’s obvious that Israel can only sign such a convention when Arab and Muslim countries no longer threaten its security, and in all probability, this will not happen for at least another generation.
The matter was well put by former Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) CEO Rafi Peled, who some years ago said, “The decision will in any case be political, and there will probably no nuclear power plant for the next 20 years.”
Nuclear energy has developed worldwide, and is considered the energy of the future, in view of the fact that natural gas reserves are expected to run out in a few decades, while coal is more expensive. The IEC has still not begun exploiting the gas reserves offered by Israeli, Egyptian, and Palestinian Authority suppliers. It is reasonable to assume that these reserves will last for 20 years.
A year ago, Peled said that the cost of construction a nuclear power plant, double the construction cost of a coal-fired plant, and six times the cost of a natural gas plant, should be taken into account. He noted that opposition by environmental organizations had paralyzed nuclear technology worldwide, and the option could only be reconsidered in the distant future.
Recent international energy conferences delivered a clear message that the world will use less and less nuclear energy, because of both the campaign by the environmental organizations and the additional gas reserves discovered in recent years.
There have been various reports in recent years concerning plans to construct a nuclear power plant in Israel. Immediately after the report, however, all those concerned, including the IEC, hurried to announce that the issue was not really on the agenda.
This can also be anticipated in this case, since nothing has really happened lately to change the situation, except for the appointment of a new minister, who also wants to get into the history books as someone who grandly about the nuclear power plant that would be constructed in the Negev very soon.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 27, 2002