1. Energy from Nuclear Power

2. Nuclear energy Benefits Concerns: Status Nuclear fission
Nuclear fusion
Benefits
Concerns:
Cost
HealthSafety
Waste disposal
Weapons
Status

3. NUCLEAR FISSION “fission” = splitting of uranium atoms
widely used for producing electricity

4. Nuclear Fission: Stages & Problems
Mining of uranium
High incidence of lung cancer among miners
Radioactive tailings and debris nearby
2) Milling (extracting) uranium from the ore (rock)
Piles of debris
Equipment can’t be decontaminated
3) Enrichment of uranium: Increases % of usable uranium from 0.7% to 2.5%. Much uranium waste. Energy intensive.

5. Nuclear Fission: after enrichment: Step 4) Manufacture fuel pellets Each: energy of a ton of coal (half a train car)

6. Nuclear Fission Step 5) Fill 12’ fuel rods with pellets in reactor core
Fuel rods last 3-6 years
Then radioactive waste that needs disposal

7. Step 6) Produce electricity using uranium fuel in power plant

8. Step 7. (Sometimes) Reprocessing of Used Fuel
Gets more energy from used nuclear fuel and reduces waste
But produces weapons-ready plutonium
Extracts fissionable plutonium from spent fuel
In Japan and Europe; not US (cost ahd risk)

9. Step 8. Storage & Disposal of Radioactive Waste
……………But where?

10. Nuclear fusion (vs. Nuclear fission)
Fuses nuclei of abundant deuterium and tritium, abundant in sea water
Doesn’t require uranium!
We want this to work! No waste.
But more energy used than produced …but:
New experimental technologies to create necessary high temperatures with stability

11. Nuclear fusion: experimental technologies under investigation
Tokamak technology: biggest experiment:
$18 billion fusion reactor, ITER, planned since 2008, is under construction in France
$$ from France, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, EU, USA.

12. Nuclear energy Benefits Concerns: Status Nuclear fission
Nuclear fusion
Benefits
Concerns:
Cost
HealthSafety
Waste disposal
Weapons
Status

13. Nuclear Power: Benefits
Energy in one pound uranium = 15 freight cars of coal
No NOX, SOX, mercury, SPM
Virtually no greenhouse gases

14. Benefits of Nuclear Power Minimal carbon emissions Many smart, prominent environmentalists and scientists: nuclear power is essential to fight global warming

15. Lives Saved by Nuclear Power Prominent study: low death rate compared with fossil fuels
Peer-reviewed article by renowned climate scientist James Hansen, 2013.

16. Nuclear Power MAJOR CONCERNS: Cost Safety & health Waste
Nuclear proliferation (weapons)
Protest in France, March 18, 2014

17. Concern #1 Re: Nuclear Power: Expense
Expensive to build reactor, mine & enrich uranium, manufacture fuel rods, operate reactor
Cost 4X as much as energy fr/coal or wind
USA has spent $150 billion (subsidies) in 50 years (vs. $5 billion on renewable research and development)
Private industry interest is very low, even with new government incentives (like exemption from liability).
AND: costs of waste management: hard to estimate in absence of solutions
Accidents are very costly to clean up

18. Concern #2 About Nuclear Power: Human Health and Safety Radioactivity causes cancer
Mining & mill tailings
Enrichment by-products
Transporting uranium
Power plant accidents & terrorist attacks
Safe waste disposal difficult
NOTE: modern nuclear plant design quite safe

19. Nuclear Power Plant: Major Accidents
Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, 1979
Clean up cost so far $1.2 billion; cost $700 million to build
Chernobyl, Ukraine: 1986
Gas explosions and fire in core
,000 deaths plus 500,000 exposed
Thyroid cancer 100x pre-accident levels
62,000 sq miles contaminated (size of Florida)
Cost $358 billion
Fukushima , Japan: 2011

20. Nuclear Power – Fukushima Disaster
Earthquake: worst ever for Japan.
power lost, automatic shutdown, backup generators kicked in
Huge tsunami: 30’ (seawall designed for 20’)
generators failed; cooling system stopped; heat built up; explosion

21. Disposal of nuclear waste No satisfactory solution
Temporary storage facilities at power plants
Are these sites secure from terrorism?
Is permanent storage possible?
If we doubled nuclear energy: need a huge new repository every 4 years
But we have NO long-term secure storage facilities
NIMBY
Yucca Mountain, Nevada, designated by Congress 1987…but:

22. Yucca Mountain, Nevada Proposed Radioactive Waste Disposal Site Tectonically unstable; not in crystalline rock Rejected by Obama 2009.

23. Disposal of nuclear waste No satisfactory solution
Low-level radioactive wastes: ocean dumping until 1970; now two landfills. Dangerous years
High-level radioactive wastes: liquids & spent fuel rods: high cancer danger 10,000 years

24. Status of Nuclear Power 2012

27. Status of Nuclear Energy After Fukushima: Recent Policy Changes
Many nations: banned or stopped construction; some are closing existing reactors
USA:
Permit for building new reactors: 2012
US encouraged new reactors, offering liability protection and subsidies
But in 2013: 6 proposed new reactors cancelled; 5 old reactors closed

28. Nuclear energy Benefits: Concerns: Virtually no carbon emissions
Energy from small volume of materials
Concerns:
Cost
Health and safety at each stage of the fuel chain
No solution for waste disposal
Which is more dangerous: global warming or nuclear power?