1. Nuclear Power Brianne, D’mari, Dimitrios

2. 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

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

4. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. The molten salt reactor (MSR) in generation IV A tritium watch, now banned. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Tritium-watch.jpg

12. 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)

13. Ishiguro, T., et al. (2014)

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

15. 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

16. 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): 309-319. 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): 398-407. 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): e100296. Møller, A., & Mousseau, T. (2013). The effects of natural variation in background radioactivity on humans, animals and other organisms. Biological Reviews, 88(1), 226-254. 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.