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Nuclear Power – Energy for the Future

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Presentation on theme: "Nuclear Power – Energy for the Future"— Presentation transcript:

1 Nuclear Power – Energy for the Future
Brittany Williamson, P.E. 2017 SSNI

2 Nuclear Power Is… Reliable Economical Safe Environmentally Responsible
But what about the waste?

3 Nuclear Power in the U.S. 99 reactors at 64 locations
~20% of the nation’s electric energy generation No nuclear power plants have been started and completed since Three Mile Island The next three units to come online: Watts Bar 2 (2016) Vogtle 3 (2019) V.C. Summer 2 (2019)

4 Nuclear Power in the U.S.

5 Nuclear Power in SC & GA South Carolina Georgia
51% of electricity generation 4 nuclear power plants Catawba (York, SC) – 2 units H.B. Robinson (Hartsville, SC) – 1 unit Oconee (Seneca, SC) – 3 units V.C. Summer (Columbia, SC) – 1 unit Georgia 26% of electricity generation 2 nuclear power plants Vogtle (Augusta, GA) – 2 units Hatch (Baxley, GA) – 2 units

6 Artist rendering of the Voglte Nuclear Station located on the Savannah River in Burke County, GA. The first site to receive approval from NRC to construct new plants in more than 30 years.

7 Nuclear Power Worldwide
440 commercial power reactors in 31 countries 11% of the world’s electricity Civilian nuclear power can now boast over 16,000 reactor years of experience France has the highest % nuclear at 77% (58 reactors) Other top nuclear countries are Russia, Japan, and the UK China has 30 reactors and 24 more under construction Older presentation (2013), said 326 commercial power reactors in 30 countries Older presentation (2015), said 435 commercial power reactors in 31 countries

8 Nuclear Power Is… Reliable

9 Nuclear Power Is… Economical

10 Nuclear Power Is… Environmentally Responsible
Emission-free sources of electricity CO2 Emissions avoided ( ) =~11 Million Metric Tons

11 Nuclear Power Is… Environmentally Responsible
Wind Solar Capacity Factor 90% 33% 25% Land Use (per 1,800 MW) 1.7 square miles 570 square miles 93 square miles Cost 2 cents/kWh 12 cents/kWh 10-14 cents/kWh

12 Nuclear Power Is… Environmentally Responsible
Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, is now a nuclear advocate “Imagine if the ratio of coal to nuclear were reversed so that only 20 percent of our electricity was generated from coal and 60 percent from nuclear. This would go a long way toward cleaning the air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Every responsible environmentalist should support a move in that direction.”

13 Immediate fatalities 1970-92
Nuclear Power Is… Safe Fuel Immediate fatalities Who? Normalised to deaths per TWy* electricity Coal 6400 workers 342 Natural gas 1200 workers & public 85 Hydro 4000 public 883 Nuclear 31 8

14 Next Gen – Our Safest Reactors Ever!

15 Nuclear Waste During the nuclear reaction inside a reactor, the fissile isotopes in nuclear fuel are consumed, producing “fission products” most of which are considered radioactive waste. Over about 18 months, the buildup of fission products and consumption of fissile isotopes eventually stops the nuclear reaction. The fuel is then considered spent or used fuel. 97 % of spent fuel is still usable as a fuel. Only 3% of the spent fuel is made up of fission products (waste). Spent fuel is stored in spent fuel pools in order to cool following removal from the reactor core. The fuel can be stored in dry storage casks after a few years.

16 Nuclear Waste – A National Treasure
Energy value ~ 6 billion barrels of oil (2 years of US imports). 1 g of Pu produces more heat than complete combustion of 1 ton of oil. Over 1/3 of the energy from a nuclear plant is produced by plutonium over the full fuel cycle * Pete V. Domenici, “A Brighter Tomorrow”, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, MD(2004).

17 Nuclear Waste - Options
Wet storage Dry storage Reprocessing Geological Disposal

18 Nuclear Fuel Recycling
The separation of used nuclear fuel into potentially useful product materials and waste. Can be a combination of mechanical, chemical and physical processes Primary motivation Conservation of natural resources Waste management

19 Nuclear Waste – Yucca Mountain
Nevada Test Site, ~80 miles NW of Las Vegas 20 years of science experiments “The Most Studied Real Estate on the Planet” Stringent dose requirements 2001 – EPA set dose limit at 15 mrem/year for 10,000 years 2004 – court says 10,000 years isn’t long enough 2009 – EPA set dose limit at 15 mrem/year for 10,000 years & 100 mrem/year for 1,000,000 years Analysis shows dose <1 mrem/year out through 1,000,000 years

20 How Long Should We Store Waste?

21 Yucca Mountain Update http://www.wrdw.com/video?videoid=2655907

22 What Other Countries Do
Direct Disposal Canada Finland South Korea Spain Sweden Reprocessing Belgium China France Germany India Japan Switzerland The Netherlands United Kingdom

23 The Netherlands

24 Nuclear Waste - Transportation

25 Nuclear Power Is… Reliable Economical Safe Environmentally Responsible
Remember: The waste issue is not a technical issue.


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