Nuclear Power Brianne, D’mari, Dimitrios

What is Nuclear Power?  Similar to a coal burning power plant  Heats water into a pressurized stream which drives a turbine generator  Different method of heating up water

Characteristics of Nuclear Power  No air emissions  Requires high amounts of water  Water discharge may have contaminants  Future disposal sites is a possibility

Uranium  Undergoes fission, which causes a free neutron to fire into the nucleus  Decay of single U-235 atom releases 200 MeV, although a.45 kg of uranium = 1 million gallons of gas

Biological Effects of Nuclear Contamination by Chernobyl & Fukushima  Radionuclides, or radioactive isotopes, are atoms with unstable nuclei and excess energy that give off ionizing radiation, such as gamma waves and alpha and beta particles  These atoms are produced both naturally and artificially  Exposure is associated with birth defects, cancers, growth retardation and many other detrimental biological effects to both humans and wildlife

The Culprit: 137 Cesium  Major byproduct of nuclear power production  Half life ≈ 30 years  Readily absorbed by the skeletal system and distributed throughout the soft tissues  Extremely strong uptake by soils  Bioaccumulative effects increase from one trophic level to the next  Largest deposit on earth: the soils of Chernobyl Ratnapradipa et al. (2011) Jour. Of Env. Health

Biological Effects of Chernobyl: Native Bird Populations Aspermy in male birds  14% aspermy rate - 8.9x normal rate  Overall decline in sperm quality Partial Albinism  5 to 10 times the rate of partial albinism than a control group Møller et al. (2014) PLoS ONE Møller & Mousseau (2013) Bio Rev.

Biological Effects of Fukushima: The Pale Grass Blue Butterfly  Rates of Morphological Abnormalities  Field-caught two months after spill ⇢ 12.4%  Their offspring ⇢ 18.3%  Field-caught six months after spill ⇢ 28.1%  Conclusion: Transgenerational accumulation of genetic defects Hiyama et al. (2012) Scientific Reports

The molten salt reactor (MSR) in generation IV A tritium watch, now banned.

Rationale  Since the Fukushima disaster, researchers have been studying new reactor designs  To find a safer, more efficient nuclear reactor Fig. 4. BLANKA probe in LR-0 reactor for measurement of salt neutronics. Serp, J. et. al. (2014)

Ishiguro, T., et al. (2014)

Drain tank effects Fig. 10. Temperature reactivity feedback (Guo, Zhangpeng, et al.)

Conclusion  Molten Salt Reactors reduce amount of hazardous wastes  Low pressure system leads to less risks during catastrophes  May produce long time problems, more research required

References Guo, Zhangpeng, et al. "Simulations of unprotected loss of heat sink and combination of events accidents for a molten salt reactor." Annals of Nuclear Energy 53 (2013): Hiyama, A., Nohara, C., Kinjo, S., Taira, W., Gima, S., Tanahara, A., & Otaki, J. M (2012). The biological impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the pale grass blue butterfly. Scientific reports, 2. Ishiguro, T., et al. "Design of a passive residual heat removal system for the FUJI-233Um molten salt reactor system.” Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014): Møller, A., Bonisoli-Alquati, A., Mousseau, T., & Rudolfsen, G. (2014). Aspermy, sperm quality and radiation in Chernobyl birds. Public Library of Science ONE, 9(6): e Møller, A., & Mousseau, T. (2013). The effects of natural variation in background radioactivity on humans, animals and other organisms. Biological Reviews, 88(1), Serp, J., Allibert, M., Beneš, O., Delpech, S., Feynberg, O., Ghetta, V.,… & Zhimin, D. (2014). The molten salt reactor (MSR) in generation IV: Overview and perspectives. Progress in Nuclear Energy.