The Economist 20010519 SEARCH RESEARCH TOOLS Economist.com Choose a research tool... advanced search » Subscribe Activate RS Friday July 20th 2007 Welcome = requires subscription My Account » Manage my newsletters LO » PRINT EDITION Print Edition May 19th 2001 Previous print editions Subscribe A new dawn for nuclear power? George Bush wants to revive nuclear energy … More on this May 12th 2001 Subscribe to the prin week's lead article May 5th 2001 Or buy a Web subsc Apr 28th 2001 full access online Apr 21st 2001 The world this week Apr 14th 2001 RSS feeds Receive this page by Full contents Subscribe Business this week More print editions and covers » Enlarge current cover Politics this week Past issues/regional covers Leaders NEWS ANALYSIS Nuclear power POLITICS THIS WEEK A new dawn for nuclear power? BUSINESS THIS WEEK Italy’s election OPINION So, Mr Berlusconi . . . Leaders Nationalism and defence in Japan Letters to the editor Blogs A normal country Columns Kallery Macedonia Last piece in the Balkan tragedy WORLD Conflicts of interest United States Going for gold The Americas Asia West Africa Middle East & Africa The war that spread Europe Britain International Letters Country Briefings A survey of European Union enlargement Cities Guide On war crimes, Britain’s election, Sudan, football, Europe’s Council of Ministers, drugs, old girls Europe’s magnetic attraction SPECIAL REPORTS BUSINESS Special Report Reasons of state Management Joining the west Business Education A renaissance that may not come The wealth effect FINANCE & ECONOMICS United States Economics Focus End-game Economics A-Z George Bush’s record The limits of Europe The Texan parable SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Offer to readers Technology Quarterly The economy Another shot in the arm BOOKS & ARTS Business Apology – American justice and the FBI Style Guide E-strategy Brief: General Electric Lexington PEOPLE While Welch waited God and man in Washington Obituary B2B exchanges Medical marijuana MARKETS & DATA Time to rebuild Please let us Weekly Indicators Spain’s Zara Alaska and the cruise ships Currencies Floating on air Big Mac Index The things they leave behind Chart Gallery Face value Energy policy Foundry father DIVERSIONS Not half bad Correspondent’s Diary Prescription drugs The Americas Protection racket RESEARCH TOOLS Coffee-shop chains Mexico AUDIO Abuzz Slowing economy, quickening politics DELIVERY OPTIONS Polish superstores Cuba’s debt E-mail Newsletters Hype on the Vistula Slippery, shapeless and slow to be repaid Mobile Edition RSS Feeds Consumer electronics Venezuelan politics Screensaver Let the games begin Chavez signals to the left CLASSIFIED ADS Brazil and AIDS drugs Finance & Economics A cure for high prices Economist Intelligence Unit China’s state banks Economist Conferences Asia An outbreak of honesty The World In Intelligent Life Wall Street Japan CFO Mopping up the mess A turn to the right? Roll Call European Voice Foreign listings in America EuroFinance Conferences Japan’s new foreign minister A long arm for securities law Economist Diaries and A new broom in the Gaimusho Business Gifts Economics focus India’s elections Fuelling discontent Hope and glory for Congress A human trading error Asian economies Rogue blunderer The east is in the red Advertisement New trends in accounting Taiwan Touchy-feely Beginners on trial Securities settlement in Europe The Philippines’ elections Clearstream and muddy waters Middle-class rage America and North Korea Science & Technology Ready, steady, talk Conflicts of interest China’s press Outrageous fortune Let a hundred papers boom Embryonic development Chipping away at the truth Douglas Adams So long, and thanks for all the fish Electricity from waves Power buoys Books & Arts Music festivals The sounds of summer American history Dear Mr President British politics Strong but themeless Bike messengers Death defying Europe Japanese writing Tokyo blues Italy’s election Berlusconi wins. And now? Literary lives Only omit Italy’s voters and Italy’s democracy Berlusconi or Brussels Global capitalism The third way (an encore) Spain’s Basque election Aznar hurt, ETA clobbered American spying Getting an earful Charlemagne Ilir Meta Obituary Turkey’s economy Harsh medicine Nicos Sampson Pluralism in Russia The bill’s on me, says Berezovsky Economic and Financial Indicators The German economy Overview Sputtering, but not dying Output, demand and jobs Britain Prices and wages General election World music sales The politics of Bedpan man Campaign diary Official reserves On the trail The Economist commodity price index Poll Wrong issues, wrong leader Stockmarkets Self-help books Trade, exchange rates and budgets The road well trodden Money and interest rates Bagehot Promises, promises Emerging-Market Indicators Politics and the weather Praying for rain Overview The West Country Foreign investments Yellow in peril Financial markets Tax and spending War of numbers Economy Drug prices Small is vulnerable Articles flagged with this icon are printed only in the British edition of The Economist International Israel’s army A new, perhaps dangerous, freedom Sierra Leone’s civil war Peace-building or appeasement? Nigerian crime Beware the Bakassi Boys Senegal’s new government A win for Wade’s men and women Angola’s civil war Never say never Advertisement Classified ads Sponsors' feature About sp Jobs Business / Tenders Jobs Business / Tenders Consumer Consumer International public Request for Specialist Advisory REQUEST FOR health specialist 100-year anniversary proposals - Audit Position - Education #1 rated internet EXPRESSION OF Chemonics seeks a The Swiss National Services SPECIALIST business looking for INTEREST FROM public health Bank 1907–2007 .... REQUEST FOR ADVISORY professional STRATEGIC professional with PROPOSALS - POSITION – consultants No INVESTORS sectoral expertise AUDIT SERVICES 1. EDUCATION PORT previous technical GOVERNMENT OF and ext.... The Science and MORESBY, PAP.... experience required. GHANA GHANA Techn.... TELECOMMUNICATI.. About Economist.com | About The Economist | Media Directory | Staff Books | Advertising info | Career opportunities | Contact us Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007. All rights reserved. Advertising Info | Legal disclaimer | Accessibility | Privacy policy | Terms & Conditions | Help Produced by = ECO PDF TEAM = Thanks xxmama Business this week May 17th 2001 From The Economist print edition Going down As expected, America’s Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point to 4%, the fifth cut this year, taking the rate to its lowest level for seven years. The Fed is continuing to respond assertively to more evidence of the American economy’s slide. Industrial production was down by 0.3% in April compared with March, more than predicted. The consumer- price index rose unexpectedly slowly, by 0.3% in April and 3.3% year-on- year. See article: The Fed’s interest-rate cut The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 11,000 for the first time since September, after the Fed’s latest interest-rate cut. After Turkey’s parliament agreed to sell off the state telecoms company and reform the banking system, the IMF approved an $8 billion stand-by credit. Inflation in the euro area rose to 2.9% in the year to April. The news was released less than a week after the European Central Bank had surprised markets with a quarter-point cut in interest rates. Hit by weaker exports to the United States, Mexico’s economy slowed sharply in the first three months of this year, according to figures that were released this week. The government of Vicente Fox has responded to the slowdown with budget cuts. See article: Problems begin for President Vicente Fox of Mexico President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela denied reports that he was planning currency controls, but said he might seek emergency legislative powers. See article: Is Venezuela’s Chavez turning left? In the markets The London Stock Exchange took a nose dive, with the FTSE 100 falling by 2.2%, at the end of trading on May 14th, and then largely recovered the next day. The reason for the volatility: an extra zero accidentally added to a £30m ($43m) sell order at an investment bank, thought to be Lehman Brothers. An investigation is taking place. See article: A trading cockup sends London’s market Scrutiny of the dodgy dealings in the bull market carries on. America’s Securities and Exchange Commission charged Sunbeam, an appliance maker, and its auditor, Arthur Andersen, with rigging financial reports to beef up sales figures. Another case alleged insider dealing by a prominent Mexican family. Inquiries continued into Wall Street practices in the market for initial public offerings. See article: A spate of investigations on Wall Street André Lussi, chief executive of Clearstream, a large European clearing bank, temporarily stepped aside to deal with legal inquiries. His departure prompted speculation about a possible rationalisation of Europe’s plethora of clearing and settlement agencies. See article: Troubles at a European clearing organisation The rich are getting richer, according to a report from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Merrill Lynch. The wealth of dollar millionaires—those with over $1m to invest—rose by 6% to $27 trillion in 2000 despite crumbling stockmarkets around the world. The number of millionaires grew by 2.9% to 7.2m, but 80,000 “minute millionaires” appeared and then disappeared with the dotcom boom and bust. Dial M for merger Telenor, Norway’s state-controlled telecoms company, said it was in talks on a merger with Tele Danmark through the acquisition of 42% of the company owned by America’s SBC Communications. Danish law would require Telenor to buy the rest of the Danish company, which would create a Nordic telecoms giant worth some euro18 billion ($16 billion). AT&T and BT again raised the possibility of integrating their business-telecoms services as part of a restructuring at both firms. But BT has not ruled out selling its stake in Concert, the pair’s business- telecoms joint-venture, as a better solution to its debt problems. BT’s intention to be the first to launch a third-generation mobile telephone service, albeit on the Isle of Man, suffered a blow. Technical problems with handsets will keep tech-savvy Manx residents from the mobile Internet for another three months. NTT DoCoMo ran into similar problems and recently announced the delay of its service on a slightly bigger island: Japan. Cable & Wireless, a previously dormant British telecoms company, made inroads into its £6 billion ($8.6 billion) mountain of cash. It bought Digital Island, a struggling American Internet company, for $340m and promised to inject up to $700m more as part of a strategy to become a leading Internet- services firm. Sony, a Japanese electronics giant, gained allies to play alongside with against rivals, Nintendo and Microsoft, which is soon to launch its Xbox gaming system. The creators of the PlayStation 2 unveiled several alliances including ones with America Online, to provide Internet services through its console and RealNetworks, a streaming media firm. See article: Video-game wars Gun culture Tomkins, a British conglomerate hit last year by accusations of corporate excess, is to get shot of Smith & Wesson, an American handgun maker, to Saf-T-Hammer, an American gun-parts company, for $15m. Tomkins paid around $112m for the gun maker but will sell a firm suffering from falling sales and with contingent liabilities. Smith & Wesson’s .44 magnum starred in several films with Clint Eastwood. Bertelsmann, a German publishing giant, accepted that Amazon had won Europe’s online bookselling battle. It announced that BOL, its attempt to compete with the American e-tailer on Bertelsmann’s side of the Atlantic, would be folded into its book club rather than go public. Despite months of gloom among the world’s car makers, Japan’s Toyota unveiled record profits and sales for the year to March 31st. Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved. Politics this week May 17th 2001 From The Economist print edition Con brio Silvio Berlusconi and his centre-right coalition won majorities in EPA both the lower house and the Senate in Italy. He promised radical solutions to the country’s problems—of which (though no promises here) his own conflicts of interest are one. See article: Berlusconi’s triumph, and after America’s president, George Bush, unveiled a national energy strategy. It called for more coal mines, oil refineries and nuclear reactors. Critics said he had neglected conservation. See article: Mr Bush’s new energy plan The United States and Britain drafted a new resolution on sanctions against Iraq, to limit imports with a military use even more strictly but allowing all others to enter freely while retaining financial control. China, France and Russia, all critical of the current sanctions, seemed likely to support the new plan in the UN Security Council. Battling on Palestinians marked the anniversary of Israel’s creation with protests. Four Palestinians and an Israeli woman were killed. The Israeli army came close to admitting that it had earlier killed five Palestinian policemen in error. See article: Giving Israel’s army its head An Iranian airliner crashed in the country’s mountainous north. Iran’s minister of transport, his two deputies and several members of parliament were among the dead. Amr Musa, who has been a forceful foreign minister of Egypt, became secretary-general of the torpid Arab League. A new government of national unity in Macedonia gave ethnic-Albanian rebels a “final warning” to end their uprising, but was met by renewed gun battles in the north of the country. Representatives of the government and rebels in Sierra Leone signed a tentative agreement in Freetown. The rebels said they would disarm if the pro- government militia did so too. They also released 198 child-soldiers and said more would follow. See article: A pause in Sierra Leone’s war Court reports The execution of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was postponed until June 11th when it emerged that the FBI had failed to disclose thousands of pages of evidence. Louis Freeh, the bureau’s boss, admitted to Congress that a “serious error” had been made. See article: An apology to the FBI General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland’s last communist leader, went on trial in Warsaw, accused of ordering soldiers to fire on shipyard workers in 1970, when he was defence minister. An Iranian appeals court cut a ten-year sentence imposed on Akbar Ganji in January to six months. Mr Ganji, convicted for undermining national security, is a campaigning journalist who named a former intelligence minister as being behind the murder of dissident intellectuals. No to violence Electing a regional parliament, Basque voters clobbered the separatist gunmen of ETA, but snubbed Spain’s prime minister too by strongly supporting the non-violent nationalists. See article: After Spain’s Basque election Talks between the EU and the most advanced applicant countries have been postponed. Germany wants to limit movement of workers from Eastern Europe, and Spain fears losing regional funds to the new members. Canada’s opposition Alliance split. Eight of its 66 members of Parliament called for Stockwell Day, the Alliance’s embattled leader, to resign, and said they would meet as a separate parliamentary group. Supporters of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippines’ new AP president, have won control of the Senate, according to exit polls. See article: The Philippines’ elections As a “reward” to the military government in Myanmar for having talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, Japan offered a grant of $29m towards the cost of a hydro-electric plant in the east of the country. Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved. Nuclear power A new dawn for nuclear power? May 17th 2001 From The Economist print edition George Bush wants to revive nuclear energy Get article background THIS week looks the brightest in 25 years for nuclear power. On May 17th President George Bush unveiled his long-awaited national energy strategy, to fanfares but also furore. Much of the furore was about Arctic drilling and $3-a-gallon petrol (see “Mr Bush's new energy plan” and “Britain's remarkable petrol tax”), but in the long run the more notable feature of the new plan will be its strong support for nuclear power. This came on the heels of other good news for the nuclear cause: the Japanese government approved two new nuclear plants; and British Energy announced a path-breaking deal to take over the operation of a number of nuclear reactors in Canada. Not one nuclear plant has been built in the United States since the infamous accident at the plant at Three Mile Island in 1979. The far more serious accident in 1986 at Chernobyl, in the-then Soviet Union, boosted an already growing anti-nuclear sentiment in Europe. Nagging doubts about safety and the environment were destined, it seemed, to doom nuclear power to the dustbin of history. Yet now the industry may get a new lease on life. Safer, but no more popular The whole notion of a nuclear renaissance will prompt howls of angry protest. It is not just radical greens and technophobes who fret about catastrophic accidents. Activists in countries such as Germany and Sweden are still demanding the closure of today’s plants, never mind building new ones—and their governments are naturally sensitive to electoral pressures. Yet concerns about operational safety, though understandable, do not add up to a damning case against nuclear power. On the contrary: the nuclear industry has learnt a lot about running its plants safely over the past two decades. The existing technology is now mature and well-understood. On the whole, nuclear-power plants (at least in the western world) are today safe and well-run. Admittedly, minor accidents and slip-ups, such as those at Britain’s BNFL or in Japan’s Tokaimura prefecture two years ago, continue to shake public confidence. Given the unquantifiable risks that nuclear power carries, it is only right that the industry be subjected to the test of public opinion and due political process. However, this argues for exceptional vigilance, regulatory scrutiny and accountability—and not for bans or shut-downs. Those nuclear operators with a good safety record deserve to have their licences renewed, so that existing plants may run to the end of their useful lives. The Bush administration’s enthusiastic support goes a lot further than this, however. It also wants to see new plants. Proponents of new nuclear-power stations make three arguments in their favour. They will enhance energy security by lessening dependence on fossil fuels; far from being environmentally harmful, they will be beneficial because they will reduce the output of greenhouse gases; and, most crucially, the economics of nuclear power has improved from the days when it was wholly dependent on bail-out and subsidy. Yet these arguments do not stand up to scrutiny. The claim that governments should support nuclear power to reduce their vulnerability to the OPEC oil cartel is doubly absurd. Little oil is used in power generation: what nuclear power displaces is mostly natural gas and coal, which are not only more plentiful than oil but also geographically better distributed. Security is enhanced not by seeking energy self-sufficiency but through diversification of supplies. Creating lots of fissile material that might be pinched by terrorists or rogue states is an odd way to look for security anyway. What about the argument that climate change might be the great saviour of nuclear power? Global warming is indeed a risk that should be taken more seriously than the Bush administration has so far done. Nuclear plants do not produce any carbon dioxide, which is the principal greenhouse gas. However, rushing in response to build dozens of new nuclear plants would be both needlessly expensive and environmentally unsound. It would make far more sense to adopt a carbon tax, which would put clean energy sources such as solar and wind on an equal footing with nuclear, whose waste poses an undeniable (if remote) environmental threat of its own for aeons to come. Governments should also dismantle all subsidies on fossil fuels— especially for coal, the dirtiest of all. They should adopt reforms that send proper price signals to those who use power, and so reduce emissions. Global warming certainly provides one argument in favour of nuclear power: but it is not sufficient on its own to justify a nuclear renaissance. A sunset industry That is why the real argument over nuclear’s future should rest on economics. Given the industry’s history of cost overruns and wasted billions, the claim of dramatically improved economics would, if true, support a revival. Alas, as our special report makes clear (see article), the claim is dubious. The industry has certainly learnt how to run existing plants efficiently; but, like the Concorde aircraft, this depends on the capital costs having long been forgotten. And nuclear plants continue to depend on vast (and largely hidden) subsidies. Why in the world should such a mature, well-capitalised industry receive subsidies, such as government liability insurance or help with the costs of waste disposal and decommissioning? Given the world’s move to freer markets in energy, the time has surely come for governments to stop coddling this business. At a minimum, officials should make the existing subsidies more transparent. Then, if they believe some national goal is served only by nuclear power, they should ensure that all future government support is explicit—enabling it to be challenged in a democratic debate. If the private sector wishes to build new nuclear plants in an open and competitive energy market, more power to it. As subsidies are withdrawn, however, that possibility will become ever less likely. Nuclear power, which early advocates thought would be “too cheap to meter”, is more likely to be remembered as too costly to matter. Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.