Nuclear

Nuclear power plants use the heat of nuclear fission to heat a fluid (usually water) to spin a large turbine that generates electricity. They provide the only large, scaleable,  reliable, virtually carbon-free energy source.

Nuclear is the most scalable, reliable, efficient, land-conserving, material sparing, zero emission source of energy ever created.

Nuclear power plants have the smallest environmental impact of low-carbon energy sources when measured by land left undisturbed for nature, material consumption, and emissions.  They require hundreds to thousands of times less land than diffuse unreliable renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which also require 100% backup using reliable power sources, further increasing their environmental footprint and costs.  Solar and wind power also require dozens of times more material than nuclear, leading to massive mining.  While uranium used to run nuclear power plants is a finite source, breeder reactors that consume spent nuclear fuel, eliminate concerns over nuclear fuel supply for many thousands of years.  For a thorough review of nuclear energy check out the website www.whatisnuclear.com, and for a quick review of key issues continue with this section.

• Nuclear power is the sole large-scale, highly scalable, and dependable energy source with virtually no carbon emissions.
• Nuclear power has the smallest environmental impact of low-carbon energy sources when measured by land left undisturbed for nature, material consumption, and emissions.
  • Nuclear requires hundreds to thousands of times less land to produce the same amount of power as wind and solar.
  • Nuclear requires dozens of times less material than wind and solar.
• Countries rapidly dropping their carbon footprint in electricity generation always use nuclear and/or hydro.
• The fear and cost of nuclear energy are the biggest threats to slowing down global warming.
• People in developing countries don’t want electricity ONLY when the weather cooperates, they want it to be there 24/7, and they want it to be affordable. If affordable nuclear or hydro isn’t available they will use coal or gas to escape energy poverty.

Background

Nuclear power plants use the heat of nuclear fission to heat a fluid (usually water) to spin a large turbine that generates electricity. They provide the only large, scaleable, reliable, virtually carbon-free energy source.  While hydro can provide huge amounts of energy, up to 22 GW for the Three Gorges Dam in China during the peak flows, generation varies with hydrological cycles, and appropriate locations are limited.  Geothermal energy production, which uses heat from the Earth’s core to generate electricity, is more reliable than hydro,  but even less scalable than hydropower due to ground requirements.   There are few locations where water or rock temperatures close to the Earth’s surface are high enough to economically generate electricity.   

Countries rapidly dropping their carbon footprint for electricity production have depended on nuclear and/or hydro.   

The war on nuclear waged by environmentalist groups, politicians, and special interests, such as natural gas producers, is one of the biggest enemies to decarbonizing industrialized societies.  Superficial thinking or Google thought with fanboy articles replacing analysis of hard data, is the biggest enemy of the environment and economy.

For a more comprehensive review of Nuclear Energy visit the Environmental Progress website.  

Nuclear explained

Nuclear power plants generate tremendous amounts of power from tiny amounts of fuel, 2 to 3 million times as much by weight than coal, by splitting sub-atomic particles from an atom.  The process, called fission, differs from fusion which involves fusing atoms together, which creates even more energy per reaction than fission.

The most common commercial reactor is based on a design developed for the US Navy submarines, called a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR).   

From Wikipedia, ” In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) is pumped under high pressure to the reactor core where it is heated by the energy released by the fission of atoms. The heated, high-pressure water then flows to a steam generator, where it transfers its thermal energy to lower pressure water of a secondary system where steam is generated. The steam then drives turbines, which spin an electric generator. In contrast to a boiling water reactor (BWR), pressure in the primary coolant loop prevents the water from boiling within the reactor. All light-water reactors use ordinary water as both coolant and neutron moderator. Most use anywhere from two to four vertically mounted steam generators; VVER reactors use horizontal steam generators.”

Fear

Fear of nuclear energy is one of the biggest threats to slowing down global warming since it is the only reliable source of close to carbon-free electricity with wide-scale availability.  For you, fanboys of unreliable renewables (wind and solar) check the data from Germany,  The poster boys for Greenism with hundreds of billions of dollars spent on solar panels and wind turbines that stop producing power when the sun and wind fail to cooperate fully. which occurs EVERY day of the year. 

While accidents are very rare, there are two extreme examples of the worst imaginable outcome.  One in Ukraine, at Chornobyl, and the other in Fukushima, Japan.  

Chernobyl

The Chernobyl accident was due to a flawed Soviet reactor design combined with poor training,  The reactor core lacked a containment dome to capture radiation leakage.  The catastrophic accident, occurring in 1986, resulted in a remarkably low death count.  According to the United Nations study twenty years later, a mere 100 people died from the massive release of radiation.  About half from thyroid cancers.  Projections of an additional 110 deaths due to future thyroid cancers are in stark contrast to original predictions for 10,000 future deaths, which anti-nuclear protestors cling to like a child holding onto their safety blanket.  

Radiation appears to be like other body stressors, with a small amount providing health benefits as it acts similar to a vaccine by enabling your body’s defenses.  This follows the adage that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  

The Environmental Progress organization, founded by Michael Schellenberger, looked into the radiation exposure from Chernobyl based on a United Nations report. 

Fukushima

While the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident was a legacy of shoddy Soviet Union design practices, the Fukushima accident was primarily due to executive indecision.  

On March 22,  2011, a tsunami, possibly the fourth largest in the past 100 years, killed over 15,000 people.  The 15-meter wave it generated knocked out the primary and backup diesel generator power when it flooded the basement of 3 nuclear reactors in Japan.  Power for pumps to provide cooling water to the reactors.  These reactors were designed in the 1960’s assuming a much smaller maximum tsunami height.  Design changes to address the risk of a taller tsunami were implemented on similar reactors which successfully shut down with no damage.  Executive foot-dragging on simple plant modifications left the three reactors suffering partial meltdowns vulnerable to this known risk.  

Amazingly only one possible radiation-related death was identified. The ensuing panic, however, led to an unwise forced evacuation contributing to 2,202 deaths.  

Safety

Even with the Chernobyl accident, which artificially inflates the death rate for nuclear power due to a reckless Soviet-era reactor design, nuclear still kills the fewest relative to the power produced.  Reliable power that does not require a duplicate backup source.  

Cost

The biggest problem with nuclear power is cost.  Out-of-control construction and regulatory costs for nuclear power plants are one of the biggest threats to fighting climate change through electrification.  

Developing World

People in developing countries don’t want electricity ONLY when the weather cooperates, they want it to be there 24/7, and they want it to be affordable. This is why many parts of the developing world are pursuing an increase in electricity generation from coal, and natural gas.  If the developed world wishes to avoid accelerating greenhouse gas emissions, they need to put money into developing much cheaper nuclear power to export to Africa and Asia.   Otherwise, it’s more coal plants, like in China.