Nuclear news in Bangladesh and Finland

The Bangladeshis really need power; nuclear can fill that need and they've got a plant on order. It won't come a moment too soon:

'Living Hell' in energy-deprived Dhaka [Bangladesh]

This South Asian nation of 144 million people is experiencing what one newspaper called "the world's worst peacetime utilities crisis," with power, gas and water shortages driving even middle-class residents such as Mamota to despair.

"Our life is hell," she said, a sentiment shared by many of Dhaka's 13 million residents, thousands of whom have protested against the chronic utilities shortages in the streets, prompting the government to scramble to respond.

Dhaka has a daily shortfall of 2,000 megawatts of power, which is half of the entire country's average daily production.

The capital needs 2.2 billion litres of water a day, but the city's water authorities can supply just 1.9 billion litres, according to official figures, with many public pumps operating below capacity because of the gas shortage.

With the city's 550 public pumps struggling to meet demand, the army was deployed last week to protect "key installations" including water treatment plants, said Taqsen Khan, chief of Dhaka's water supply authority.

Bangladesh's gas supplies, crucial for cooking, running cars and generating electricity, are also massively overburdened -- with demand of 2,400 million cubic feet of gas per day and supply of 1,900 million cubic feet.

As a stopgap, they're going to try to build some plants quick that are powered by diesel fuel. Great plan.

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Finnish government says it wants two new nuclear plants

"We will support the building of two nuclear power plants," Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told reporters after a cabinet session.

Three utility groups -- Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), Fennovoima and Fortum -- each applied for a permit to build a new reactor, and Vanhanen said TVO and Fennovoima would be given the green light.

Parliament still needs to approve the permits, and the government proposal would be presented for debate on May 6 at earliest, according to Economic Affairs Minister Mauri Pekkarinen, who drafted the plan.

Finland's four existing nuclear reactors were built in the 1970s, and a fifth unit, a 1,600-megawatt third-generation reactor, is being built on TVO's site in southwestern Finland by France's Areva and Germany's Siemens in a project plagued by delays and ballooning costs.

but wait:

"Recent polls, however, indicate that opposition to nuclear power is rising among Finns, with opponents pointing to risks related to accidents and the handling and storage of nuclear waste. Labour Minister Anni Sinnemaeki of the Green League fell into this category, saying the proposal, which she opposed, "was a disappointment", and insisting Finland's energy needs would be best secured through energy efficiency measures and renewables."

Maybe a few Finns opposed to nuke power should visit Dhaka during the summer...