Nuclear Power – Past Current and Future

Whenever we speak about nuclear power, the first incident that comes to our mind is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the end of World War II, that killed millions. Even today there are many who are facing the after effects of the incident. This has been the prime cause of opposition for nuclear energy around the world. But the technology in itself is not good or bad. It is only the way the it is used by the human beings that makes it good or bad. Let me give you an example. You can use a match stick to light a stove and cook food. But you can also use the same match stick to burn your house. Now if somebody uses the matchstick to burn the house, then can we blame the matchstick?????????  No – Right??????. Well same is the case with nuclear technology.

Nuclear Power is any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nuclei via controlled nuclear reactions. The most common method used is nuclear fission, though other methods like nuclear fusion and radio active decay are also used.

History

Enrico Fermi was the first person to acheive nuclear fission experimentally. Image Courtesy:- atomicarchive.com

Nuclear fission was first expermentally acheived by Enrico Fermi in 1934 when his team bombarded uranmium with neutrons. In 1938, German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, along with Austrian physicists Lise Meitner and Meitner’s nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, conducted experiments with products of neutron bombarded uranium. They concluded that the relatively tiny neutron split the nucleus of the massive uranium atoms into two roughly equal pieces. Numerous scientists, including Leo Szilard, recognised that if fission reactions released additonal neutrons, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction could result. This spurred scientists in many countries including USA, The UK, France, Germany and USSR to petition their government for support of nuclear fission research.

In the US, where Fermi and Szilard had both migrated, this lead to the creation of the first man made reactor, known as Chicago Pile 1, which acheived criticallity on December 2, 1942. This work became the part of Manhattan project which bulit large reactors at the Hanford site (formerly the town of Hanford, Washington) to breed plutonium for the use in the first nuclear wapons. A parallel uranium enrichment effort was also pursued.

Electricity was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951 at the EBR I experimental station near Arco, Idaho, which initially produced about 100 kW of power.

Calder Hall nuclear power station in England was the world's first nuclear power station to produce electricity in commercial quantities

On June 27, 1954,  the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant of USSR, became the worlds first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid and produced around 5 megawatts  electric power.

The world’s first commerical nuclear power station, Calder Hall in Sellafield, England was opened in 1956. The first commericial  nuclear generator to become operational in the US was the Shippingport Reactor (Pennsylvania, December, 1957).

Development

During the 1970s and 1980s rising economic costs (related to extended construction times largely due to regulatory changes and pressure group litigations) and falling fossil fuel prices made nuclear power plants then under construction less attractive. In the 1980s (US) and 1990s (Europe), flat load growth and electricity liberalization also made the additon of large new baseload unattractive. The 1973 oil crisis had a significant effect on countries, such as France and Japan which had relied more heavily on oil for electric generation to invest in nuclear power.

A general movement against nuclear power arose during the last third of the 20th century, based on the fear of a pssible nuclear accident, fears of radiation, nuclear proliferation and the opposition to nuclear waste production, transport and storage. The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island and 1986 Chernobyl disaster played a part in stopping new plant construction in many countries.

Future of the Industry.

As of 2007, Watts Bar 1, which came online in 7 February 1996 was the last US commercial nuclear reactor to go online. This is often quoted as evidence of a successful worldwide campaign for nuclear power phase out. But this has been successful in New Zealand and parts of Europe and the Philipines.  Many countries remain active in developing nuclear power, including Japan, China and India, all actively developing both fast and thermal technology, South Korea and the US, developing thermal technology only and South Africa and China developing versions of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) technology. Several EU members actively pursue  nuclear programs, while some other member states continue to have a ban for the nuclear energy use.

Pros and Cons

Managing Radioactive Wastes

The safe storage and disposal of nuclear waste is a significant challenge. The most important waste stream from nuclear power plants is spent fuel. A large nuclear reactor produces 3 cubic meters (about 25-30 tonnes ) of spent fuel each year. Spent fuel is highly reactive and needs to be handled with great care and forethought.

Spent fuels are stored in sheilded basins of water usually located on site. Water provides both cooling for the still decaying fission products and shielding from the continuing radioactivity. After a few decades some on site storage involves moving the now cooler, less radioactive fuel to a dry-storage facility or dry cask storage, where the fuel is stored in steel and concrete containers until its radioactivity decreases naturally to levels safe enough for other processing. Most US waste is currently stored in temporary storage sites requiring oversight, while suitable disposal methods are discussed. After 10000 years of radioactive decay, according to US Environmental Protection Agency standards, the spent nuclear fuel will no longer pose a threat to public health and safety.

Economics

Nuclear power generally involves huge amounts of money. The construction of a reactor generally takes years to complete as compared to others. Also huge amounts is required to keep these reactors running and to look after other safety aspects.

Environmental Effects

This is again a cause of huge debate. Thye primary environmental impacts of neuclear power include Uranium mining, radioactive effluent emissions and waste heat. Under normal generating conditions, nuclear power doesnot produce green house gases such Carbon dioxide or Nitrous Oxide directly. Even though the nuclear fuel cycle produces them indirectly, the amount is very very less when compared to fossil fuels.

Accidents

Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Just After the accident in 1986

The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is used to communicate the severity of nuclear accidents on a scale of 0 to 7. The two most well-known events are the Three Mile Island accident and the Chernobyl disaster.

The Chernobyl Nuclear disaster occured in 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Ukraine). It occured due to both – faulty reactor operations and critical design flaw in Soviet made RBMK reactors. This is the only incident that has received an INES score of 7

The accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2 occured in 1979 and was the worst civilian nuclear accident outside the Soviet Union (INES Score of 5). The reactor experienced a partial core meltdown. However the reactor vessel and the containment building were not breached and little radiation was released into the atmosphere.

Health Effects On population near nuclear plants and workers

Most human exposure to radiation comes from natural background radiation. Most other exposure comes from medical procedures. Several studies have found no evidence of increase in cancer mortaility amongst people living near nuclear facilities.

Nuclear Waste Vs. Industrial Toxic Waste

In countries with nuclear power, radioactive wastes comprise less than 1% of total industrial toxic wastes, which remain hazardous indefinitely unless they decompose or a treated so they are less toxic or ideally completely non toxic. Overall nuclear power produces far less waste material than fossil fuel based power plants.

Radioactive Accident Emissions Vs. Industrial Emissions

Cliams exist that the problems of nuclear waste donot come anywhere close to approaching the problems of fossil fuel waste. A 2004 article from the BBC states that according to WHO almost 3 million people are killed worldwide by outdoor air pollution annually from vehicles and industrial emissions, and 1.6 millions indoors through using solid fuel. A coal powered plant releases almost 100 times more radiation than a nuclear plant of similar wattage.

Nuclear Proliferation and Terrorism Concerns

Nuclear proflieration is the spread of nuclear weapons and related technology to nations not recognised as Nuclear Weapon States by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. A major concern since early days of nuclear power was that these reactors could be used for producing nuclear weapons. This is because the operation of nuclear reactor converts Uranium into Plutonium.

Vulnerablitly of plants to attack.

Nuclear plants also need high security to ward off any possible attacks on them. In the US,plants are surrounded by a double row of tall fences which are electronically monitored and the plant grounds are patrolled by a sizeable force of armed guards.

Use of Waste byproduct as a weapon

Nuclear by products and wastes are themselves very dangerous. If they were to be unprotected it could be used as radilogical weapon (dirty bomb). Also transportation of these waste by road or rail opens up the threat of a potential theft and the radioactive material falling into the hands of terrorists. The UN has since called upon world leaders to improve security in order to prevent radioactive material falling into the hands of terrorists and such fears have been used as justifications for centralised, permanent and secure waste repositores and increased security along transportation routes.

Conclusion

Today more than 15 percentage of worlds electricity comes from nuclear power. As of 2005, nuclear power provided 6.3 percent of the worlds energy and 15 percentage of the worlds electricity. The US produces the most nuclear energy with nuclear power providing 19 percentage of the electricity it consumes, while France produces the highest percentage of its electrical energy from nuclear reactors – 78 percentage.

In todays world, when the concerns about greenhouse effects, global warming and limited oil reserves are top most, an alternative and clean method like that of nuclear power needs to be explored. Like they say “Necessity is the mother of Inventions”

Filed under: Nuclear Power - Past Current and Future , chernobyl, enrico fermi, IAEA, leo szilard, nuclear energy, nuclear power, otto hahn fritz strassmann, otto robert frisch