OK, I’ve got a little more info about the proposed nuclear power plants to be built here in Yemen. Apparently it is a company called “Powered” based in Houston, Texas that is doing the construction and also arranging the financing of the 5(!) nuclear power plants. A member of the Yemeni government talked with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and according to the paper (Yemen Times), the only worry raised was how to dispose of the nuclear waste. Huh? Granted, that’s a serious problem, but first I would worry about the government’s ability to run and maintain the plants (Chernobyl anyone?) not to mention securing the things. Greenpeace of all things is the only organization that I have heard to raise the issues of political stability as being a problem with uranium in Yemen. It isn’t just Yemen’s stability, but the entire area’s that has some people worried. Now I just wish that someone that people can take seriously would raise these issues…
I’m still confused why they want nuclear plants here. I assume that they would be the most expensive to build. And even if they can provide electricity at lower costs, getting uranium to Yemen will always be a dicy proposition. Things can change, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if within the next 10 years people will refuse to make that kind of shipment to this part of the world at all. Yemen has decent natural gas supplies, why not build more power plants based on that? They just started one in Marib based on LNG last month. In addition, they are in the heart of one of the most oil rich areas of the world, surely some sort of deal could be worked out with one of their friendly neighbors. They don’t even need the “light sweet” crude for this, they could use the worse qualities with no problem… Yemen says that it has plans for the extra power, including desalinization plants. I don’t know why any type of power would be better than any other…
In any case, I find this rather alarming. The first plant is supposed to go online in 2012, is everyone just going to let it happen?