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.