Tests For Generator

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31118, 22 July 1966, Page 8

Tests For Generator

/Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, July 20. A London firm of engineering consultants is "well advanced” in making investigations, surveys and tests necessary for preparation of designs and specifications for the £5O million coalfired power station in New Zealand, informed sources said today.

The recommended site is New Plymouth. The plant could be in full operation by 1972.

The sources said the plant would be a starting point for a larger development plan which might include an atomic power station.

Nine countries are already using nuclear power stations. Most of these, including Britain, which pioneered the use of nuclear power for generating purposes, have found that they are not economic unless used at peak capacity continuously. In Britain, the United States, Canada and Russia, where the first atomic-powered generating stations were built, it was found that they were uneconomic until power demands caught up with possible supply. In Belgium, France, Sweden, West Germany, and Japan however—where a “new generation” of nuclear plants have come into operation it has been found that they are capable of producing electricity as cheaply as thermal stations similar to the one proposed for New Plymouth. New Zealand’s demand for

power at the present time is not considered high enough to support even a small nuclear station. By 1976, however, when power demands will have doubled, an atomic plant will become a virtual necessity. Although the demand for electricity in developed countries is expected to level during the next 10 to 15 years, informed sources believe that in 10 years the New Plymouth station, with a 600 megawatt capacity, would be unable to meet New Zealand’s demands. Should this prove to be the case, said the sources, a nuclear plant—which the Government has been considering building on the shores of Kaipara Harbour at an estimated cost of £l5O million—becomes the obvious answer, if the country is to keep abreast of development elesewhere and maintain her plans for industrial expansion.