Nuclear Power

Situation 1 (far-fetched): Pipe breaks, gas is still flowing right until the break. Inert gas flows out, and air flows in. When the system reaches 1600°C (which would admittedly take awhile: days/weeks?) the coating starts to degrade. It should be fairly easy for them to limit the amount of flow after a break though.

Situation 2 (More likely): By either an act of terrorism, or some other accident, the containment vessel is ruptured a exposed to a fire. Basically you can crash a jetliner into a nuclear plant and still have a good chance at containment. A large truck bomb could take this out.

 

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They already explained that the silicon carbide coating does not degrade tell it reaches temps of 2000°C. The other situation those is a problem. Of course we could put containment dome around it but that would increase the price 10-fold.

 

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Russia is keeping nuclear reactor development alive. I'm not sure this is so great. They have the worst record for safety and environmental concern but Chernobyl taught them a lot. Recently they began building floating reactors for selling internationally.
There are some revolutionary new concepts for reactors which are incredibly safe. One I know of uses a cyclotron and can be switched on and off easily. Trouble is that its too expensive to scrap all the existing plants and build new largely untested designs. Unless the US keeps pursuing its new plants policy we are unlikely to see anything different emerge. One plant has passed its 60th birthday. Many are over 40 years old and have had their licenses extended to 50 years. The main reason they are so costly is that waste isn't recycled. Originally it was planned to recycle all waste. Getting rid of it which would save on storage costs and increasing production by renewing the fuel over and over almost indefinately. By now the technology would have become very efficient indeed. Its ironic that bloody so called "environmentalists" are ripping their hair out and complaining about the waste problem THEY created.

 

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I believe the main concern with recycling the waste was terrorists hijacking a shipment and using the plutonium to build a bomb.

 

Gifted,

It would be very difficult to separate the waste from a pebble bed reactor pebble, also these reactors are much more efficient and much less fissionables are left over.

 

How much waste is thier and where does it go?

 

Salty,

About a truck load of used pebbles a year, or under 1ton of actual radioactive waste. In the pebble bed reactor the waste will be stored on site tell the reactor is closed after its 40 year life span. After that a place is needed to store it for at least 300,000 years until most of the waste as fissiled. The silicon carbide coating on the pebbles will last for 1 million years so the waste is already pre-stored all that is needed is a place to barrier them

 

Thats the dumb reason for Jimmy Carter signing off on a halt to recycling. The dumbass. Almost killed the nuclear industry in one pen stroke. Thank god it kept going or we would be choking from even more coal smoke than we are already. Probably 20% more atleast. One in four kids now have asthma as it is. Those idiot greens pressured him into signing.
So instead of recycling waste and paying guards with guns to protect the plants and shoot terrorists we now drive tons of waste all around the country or ferry it overseas before finally burying it. All of which is incredibly expensive and drives up the cost of nuclear power to ludicrous heights. Thanks a lot you jerkoff greens. Recycling would have meant more energy for any weight of fuel as it is perpetually recycled and no storage. Cheap electricity.
As far as I know NO nuclear missiles have ever been stolen. Security issues should be handed over to security experts. Station military guards at nuclear bases. Security issues are not a sane argument against clean cheap electricity production. Thats like closing reservoirs and forcing everyone to buy rainwater tanks because terrorists MIGHT pour arsenic into our water supply.

 

The major hurdle in getting nuclear power plants built in the USA is the lowest common denominator ignorance and attitude of the American public. Thanks to our wonderful media, sub-standard educational system, and noisy misinformed liberals, people in this country have gotten to the point where they want everything handed to them on a silver platter and NO RISK WHATSOEVER.

That last point is the real killer. Nuclear power has risks. No matter how well the safety systems are designed, how many redundancies there are, or how good of a safety culture the plant has, nuclear power still has that tiny tiny tiny catastrophic potential that John and Jane Public can't handle any more.

On the subject of nuclear waste, you once again have the scientific geniuses of left leaning politics to thank for that one. We could produce energy for less, drastically reduce the amount of nuclear waste, and eliminate potential bomb making material if we could recycle our waste.

FYI, pebble bed reactor designs that work do exist. There are a few running over in South Africa with more in development. I'd like to see them here since they're better in many ways than the light water cooled and moderated designs.

 

I'm old enough to remember the claims of unlimited, and ( this is the important bit) 'CHEAP' electricity when the expansion of the UK nuclear sector was announced in the late 1960's. Problem was that they did not take the decommisioning costs into consideration. In the 1980's if the UK coal industry had had the same level of subsidy that was given to the nuclear sector they could have given the coal away for free and still made a profit. The UK's first generation reactors are all due to be closed in the next 10 years and the cost is going to be massive.

It may be OK and I could be persuaded if it is in public control, but I not trust any private company anywhere in the world to spend the money required to maintain safety standards when profit and reducing costs is the only real priority in our business dominated world. Lets go down the renewable energy road first eh.

By the way 'somewhere in Scotland' is a nice line of decommisioned Royal Navy nuclear powered submarines still with reactors, and no one has the slightest idea what we are going to do with the reactor's for the next 170,000 years.

Mind you the Iraqi desert is a big place to lose things, mmmm, Would 6 submarines be noticed amongst the Depleted Uranium shells that every one is getting worked up about. I wonder?

 

Emfuser,

The really sad part is that coal and oil power is killing us more then any nuclear power plant would! Did you know a 500MW coal power plant spews 11tons of Uranium into that atmosphere every year??? That more nuclear waste release by just one coal power plant then has every been released by all the worlds nuclear power plants!

 

wooT! i just wrote a huge paper on why we Nukes are good! here it is, this is only the rough draft, but i got my sources if you need them =) I got an "a" btw its a bit long, but if you skim through, it covers most if not all, and more!, aspects of what was discussed.

The Future of Atomic Power


Two decades after the worst nuclear disaster in history at Chernobyl

in what is now the Ukraine, the world still lives in fear beneath the monstrous

behemoths of tell-tale cooling towers which have become associated with the plants.

Nuclear plants have been presented in many ways via the media, from the shoddy,

run down Springfield Nuclear Powerplant in the legendary Fox cartoon The Simpsons

to upgraded security checks at the San Onofre Plant in the evening news, they portray

the fear that the word "nuclear" comes with. Dr. Robert L. Dupont, a nationally known
psychiatrist with much experience in the media, points out, "If all you have to know
about the automobile is that you can get killed by it, then you do away with the
automobile. Or,if all you have to know about the airplane is that it can crash and kill you
and that once you are on the plane there is nothing you can do to protect yourself, you
would not go up in the air. If all you had to know about food is that you can get fat and
have diabetes and heart attacks, you would, I suppose, do away with food. This is a
very strange way to look at any issue. You can understand how absurd this position is
if you think about water instead of nuclear energy. I can see the television picture
closing in on a swimming pool, and the voice-over saying, "Do you realize that there is
enough water in this pool to drown 100,000 people?" It is true, and it is the kind of
statement we often hear today about nuclear energy. All these statements magnify our
fears and remove meaningful perspective. This is a powerful technique of persuasion."


Regardless of public opinion, cynical critics, and media disparagement,

nuclear power has proven itself as a resilient form of power production, unrivaled

by any other, yet the benefits downplayed due to fears of radioactivity. With no

new plants built since the 1970's, these reliable energy producers are not given the

credit they deserve for supplying the nation with clean power without an incident for

over three decades.

Constant outcries from the public, as well as private groups such as

Greenpeace, have wrongly presented nuclear power plants as a dangerous and

harmful source of electricity, prone to frequent meltdowns. At the end of World War 2,

the United States and Soviet Union became rivals over Europe. That rivalry became

more heated when the Soviet Union detonated it's first nuclear bomb in 1949

(Bahr), causing an uproar among the American public and government, who had

seen the horrible pictures and stories from Hiroshima. Since 1949, "the Bomb" has

been associated with nuclear power as the word "nuclear" brings about visions of

destruction. As bomb after bomb rolled off the assembly line, reaching an

approximate total of 30,000 warheads (IAE) on both sides, scientists

experimented with new varieties, increasing both explosive power and radiation yield

of their mass produced weapons of mass destruction. While the Soviets built extensive

underground shelters, the American goverment embarked on a program of "civil

defense", most notably in their endorsement of so called "duck and cover" drills and

other inadequate means of protection, resolving that in an all out nuclear war, there

would be no winners.

Those years and two noteable accidents would lead the American public to fear

the sight of the dreaded reactors. Previous accidents have instilled much fear in the

public, though progress has been made in safety and engineering. Through trial and

error, mistakes made are easily rectified through new safety precautions. These

modification of regulatory procedure have been in place since the Three Mile Island

incident and as of today there have been no further problems(Lilienthal). New methods

safer than pre-existing reactor designs are in their final stages, and improved

construction and material along with more experience will make future nuclear plants in

the United States, if built, the safest in the world.

With cancer leading death rates in the United States behind heart disease, fear

of carcinogenic radiation is the main fear from opponents of nuclear power. Little

realize however, that in everyday life, more radiation is absorbed than was exposed

during the Three Mile Island incident(Adams). Radiation is measured in "rads." The

average amount of "rads" abosrbed in a year in the U.S. vary by person, place, and

location, but an average amount is obtaineable. From gamma rays found in rocks, 28

rads are absorbed yearly, from food and drink we absorb 39 rads, from medical

procedures we take in 53, from cosmic radiation(ultraviolet) we are exposed to 27 rads,

from radon 200 rads, reaching a total of 347 rads(Adams). From miscellaneous

sources, Chernobyl fallout (worldwide average exposure), nuclear powerplants, and

occupational exposure, we obtain a grand total of 10.01 on average (Adams).

The sheer numbers of rad's of radiation absorbed in normal life is monumental

compared with the risk of living next door to a nuclear powerplant power plant.

The key components of a succesful electrical generating plant : reliability,

safety, economics, power, and efficiency, are all superior in a nuclear facility than to

that of a conventional non-nuclear source. The environment is harmed much more by

conventional power plants than the nuclear variety. Nuclear waste is much reduced in

volume than the sludge, air pollution, and toxic waste that eminates from the

smokestacks of fossil fuel burning generators. From nuclear plants, clean steam is the

only by-product released into the environment. The toxic waste, air pollution, and

sludge released by fossil burning power plants contains mercury, lead, and other

dangerous chemicals easily absorbed into the water table as well as the

environment (Adams). In total volume of waste, there are 2,000 tons of nuclear waste

produced annually, compared with 100,000,000 tons of ash and sludge from coal, and

36,000,000 tons of hazardous waste from American industries (Adams). Spent

nuclear fuel can be safely stored for hundreds of years in a solid state, not easily

damageable orable to leak into its surroundings by cementing the waste within

concrete and embedding it within stable mountains, such as Yucca Mountain in

Nevada, for hundreds of years. Contrary to public belief, nuclear fuel can be recycled

almost entirely into new fuel, however, the new fuel produced can be used to make

nuclear weapons, instilling fear within the government to forbid the recycling of spent

atomic fuel leaving but one option: storage, a simple option, for in fact, all the high level

waste produced over the past thirty years can fit onto a single football field stacked one

layer thick of properly sealed containers(EPA).

Nuclear power plants are more economical than conventional plants.

Compared with other "clean" energy sources such as geothermal, wind, and solar,

the sheer efficiency and reliability is wholly unmatched. The energy produced from one

nuclear powerplant is about 1,500 megawatts on average(Cozic). A wind turbine

generates 50 MW on a windy day, meaning you need to build and maintain about 100

wind generators at medium capacity to provide a city with the same amount of energy

as that single plant. Unlike fossil fuel power plants, nuclear fuel is spent slowly

compared to burning coal which must be replaced daily and which generate enourmous

amounts of waste per day, approximately 1,500 tons(3,000,000 pounds) of coal ash

hauled away in 33 large freight cars(Adams). Unlike coal and oil, Uranium is in very

short supply, but alternate sources such as using existing stockpiles from nuclear

weapons and using "breeder" reactors which actually create more fuel than they use,

can prolong the life of nuclear reactors for many hundreds of years. The warheads in

nuclear weapons provide enough weapons grade fuel to provide energy for 2.26

billion days, or about 6 million years(Adams). The raw materials needed to power a

nuclear plant is far short of the quantity combusted in fossil plants, though the

availeability lowers the cost of coal to make it more economically feasible as the

country's dirty, yet most abundant source of energy.

Nuclear energy is unrivaled in its reliability versus every type of existant

energy source. The average capacity exhibited by nuclear plants are usually at

seventy-five percent, which is equivelant to every other source of electricity. In fact, in a

recent five year survey by the Utility Data Institute, five of the top twenty five electrical

power plants in the country are heated by uranium fuel, though there are much more

non-uranium power plants than nuclear plants. Other "clean" energy sources are

dependant on the sun, wind, or unreliable mechanical parts in geothermal plants,

electrical generators which harness the internal heat of the earth, which must be

changed often. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission regularly shuts down reactors for

thourough checkups and yet capacity still remains high despite those shutdowns.

Ignorance and fear play a key part in the declining usage of nuclear power,

brought about through years of ignorance. The Cold War era accidents at

Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, much progress has been made. A proper review

of safety precautions, or lack of, exhibited during the previous accidents have

taught technicians a lesson in safety and given the world experience in what not to

do. What happened at Three Mile Island can be summed up as mechanical failure,

a simple problem of gauges incorrectly reading the water level(PBS). With

technicians believing the water level is normal, they do not realize the core is

overheating from the lack of water, so they do not release any further water to

cool the reactor. At Chernobyl, the problem was much more complicated. Soviet

technicians were about to do a test on one of the reactors, foolishly shutting down

safety procedures resulting in a chain of events which in the end became

uncontrollable. Further accidents involving nuclear plants have not occured, because

scientists and nuclear safety technicians have learned much about how to avoid the

ciritcal decisions made in 1979 and 1986. This should be viewed as evidence in the

newfound safety and reliability found in todays methods of regulatin the nuclear industry.

Since September 11, apparent terrorist threats toward nuclear power plants

have caused widespread fear among the public. This fear is the product of the

media showing the devastation presented from large airliners crashing into

buildings.However, the buildings were un-armored commercial structures,

designed to be flexible and lightweight in the wind. The core of a nuclear reactor

is pre-stressed to increase its potential for stress. Engineers argue that the

reactor shell could easily withstand the impact from a 747 Jumbo Jet, the

largest commercial plane in the world. Infilitrations of power plants is practically

impossible from a logical stand point as the security forces of power plants are now

on alert. Regarding hijacking, the new doors in cockpits render the pilots invincible

from small arms and any availeable weapon found aboard or able to be smuggled

aboard an airliner.

Regarding the nuclear industry, the public is largely ignorant aside from the

negative impacts. Most publicity of power plants have been negative, brought to

attention via some type of incident or accident involving the plant. Generalized

information from anti-nuclear propagandists spout misinformation and ignorance

spread by opponents too happy to spread lies and disparage the energy source.

Lastly, most knowledge regarding nuclear power plants are from the 1970's and 80's,

the last time new plants were proposed but not built.

In the long run, nuclear power has offered overwhelming benefits with relatively

low risks. The newest form of commercial electricity, nuclear energy used as a

power source dates back to post-WW2, where the options for civilian uses for

nuclear powers first began to be explored. During the 1950's, the nuclear age

was ushered in with the birth of the Cold War and the ensuing nuclear arms race.

However, with the demise of the Cold War, nuclear energy and nuclear weapons

have become more distant from everyday life, thought to be a remnant from days

long past. With no new plants being contructed or proposed, these ill-portrayed

power plants may someday be just another relic of the Cold War.

 

Nice - shame you handed it in already - this comment would have been a good addition "Did you know a 500MW coal power plant spews 11tons of Uranium into that atmosphere every year??? That more nuclear waste release by just one coal power plant then has every been released by all the worlds nuclear power plants!"

 

Good Job!

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Here are some minor corrections I advice:

-you measurements are in milli-rads (1/1000 of a rad) not rads. Yearly rad exposure is .3-.4rads at sea level.

-You should mention how coal power plants in one year pump out more radioactive waste then all the nuclear power plants have in history! go here for more info: http://www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html

shutupandshave,
If your going to quote me put in it brackets and say at the bottom "All hail the great fetus!"

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oi, thanks for the corrections, wish i could have fixed that before i handed it in =\ And thanks for reading it =) Maybe next time i have a paper to write ill run it through Sci-forums and cite sources such as (Fetus)

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:m:

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If you're going to use my name, the please speak to my lawyers, my wife, my children, my parents, my uncles and aunts, and your local police department, to obtain permission.

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Not true

WellCookedFetus wrote:
"-You should mention how coal power plants in one year pump out more radioactive waste then all the nuclear power plants have in history! "

This is absolutely untrue. The opposite is true by orders of magnitude.

Both coal combustion and atomic power have large negatives. However, lower comparative radioactive emissions are not a factor in favor of atomic power.

BTW - I think you intended to say radioactive environmental "EMISSIONS" (which was the topic of the Oak Ridge essay you linked), rather than radioactive "waste".
Obviously, an atomic reactor produces infinitely greater radioactive wastes than coal burning.
The US reactor fleet produces FAR in excess of 10,000,000,000,000 millicuries of radioactive wastes EACH YEAR, dwarfing coal off the radar screen.

But, as I said previously, just comparing EMISSIONS, as in the article, atomic power still is greater by huge margins.

 

I agree with what someone else said about people fearing the word "nuclear". There is reasoning behind that fear, though. Humans are lazy. Even if you have the best trained staff running the plant, there is still room for error. I'm pretty sure it was the people running the plant at Chernobyl who were responsible for the accident. Their cooling system alarm was going on but they just ignored it because it had been giving them a lot of false alarms lately. So it was partly the faulty equiptment, but it was also partly human error.

No one would want to take that chance by building plants across America. Unfortunately, it's probably likely that we'll be getting energy from nuclear fusion before the US turns to building more nuclear power plants.

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Re: Not true

coal plants Burn Uranium, it exists naturally in coal in miniscule amounts, but the sheer tonnage of coal burned daily puts out far more uranium/radioactive emissions into the atmosphere.
Nuke plants DO NOT let out radioactive emissions. They have radioactive waste sure, but that is safely containeable...

"all the high level waste produced over the past thirty years can fit onto a single football field stacked one layer thick of properly sealed containers(EPA)."

low level waste is easily manageable but since the government is scared it will be stolen to make nuclear weapons, they are overwhelming the Nuke plants storage system. The big fuss about storage is that until yucca mountain, no real place was set aside to store all that, so I expect to hear the hubbub die down.

But lets be clear about this, Nuke Plants by themselves do not release radioactive emissions into the atmosphere, nor do they produce the Hundreds of Thousands of Tons of Ash, Lead, Mercury, and other toxic substances into the air and water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year....

hey nebulae that was me

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... What Carnuth said, morningsideqld,

Lets look at this way: which release more radioactive "material" into the environment, COAL!!! Which release more radiation (unshielded or absorbed, indirectly) COAL!!! Which one cause more cancer and disease world wide… COAL!!!