Advantages
Pressurized Water Reactor
-Nuclear is unique for its ability to process used fuel to provide fresh fuel to power plants
-Reactors in the 2020s will be fourth generation fast neutron reactors
-These will give us access to using depleted uranium from the past (1.5 million tons total in 2015)
- 230 year supply available now
- not considering new technologies to access more
- A single plant can generate a lot of energy
- "A typical large nuclear energy facility produces enough electricity for nearly 723,000 homes while using only 20 metric tons of uranium fuel each year"
- Source: NIE
- Environmentally beneficial
- Compliance to Clean Air Act
- Assist in improving electric transportation
- Waste can be reused
Limitations
How It Works
Nuclear Fission
Nuclear Fission
Most Commonly Used
Pressurized Water Reactor (PRW)
Boiling Water Reactor (BWR)
- High building costs
- Vulnerable to public rejection
- Deaths per trillion kWh:
- Coal – global average 100,000
- Oil 36,000
- Hydro – global avg 1,400
- Nuclear – global avg 90
- Source: NIE
Job creation
Job Creation
- Smaller than current base load plants
- 300 MWe vs 1,000 MWe
- The compact design makes the SMR highly flexible
- Makes up for some of the traditional models faults
- Still remains safe
- The nuclear energy industry currently employs about 100,000 people
- Will provide 20,000 additional jobs by 2018 just for currently operating plants
- Operating a nuclear power plant generates 400-700 permanent jobs that pay 36% more than average local salaries.
Nuclear Energy
How does nuclear
cost compare?
- High construction costs
- Coal/gas combination plant overnight cost: $900 per kWh
- Higher power output
- Nuclear power plants generate electricity 24/7 at 92% capacity, while coal plants operate at 60.9%
- Low fuel, external and system costs makes it a cost competitive source
- System costs for renewable are much higher ($15-80/MWh vs $1-3)
- Cheaper external costs for everything except hydro power
Nuclear Plants in the US: The Battle Group
How Much Does it Cost?
- Calvert Cliffs: contributes approximately $397 million to state gross domestic product, accounts for about 2,300 in-state full time jobs. $15 million in net state tax revenues
- Nuclear plants operating in Pennsylvania contribute approximately $2.36 billion to state gross domestic product, account for 15,600 in-state full time jobs, and are responsible for $81 million in net state tax revenues annually.
- Nuclear plants operating in New York contribute approximately $2.47 billion to state gross domestic product, account for 18,000 in-state full time jobs, are responsible for $113 million in net state tax revenues and avoid 26 million tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Economic Benefits
- 1 nuclear power plant generates $470 million in sales of services, pays about $40 million in salaries, generates $67 million in federal taxes, and $16 million in state and local taxes annually
- Construction of a new nuclear power plant generates 3,500 jobs at peak construction
- Building a nuclear power plant requires 400,000 cubic yards of concrete, 66,000 tons of steel, 44 miles of piping, 300 miles of electric wiring, and 130,000 electrical components
Cost components:
- Capital
- overnight cost: $5,000 per kWh
- System
- $1-3 per MWh
- Tax
- Many countries place a tax on nuclear power plant (as high as 1/3 of the cost in Sweden)
- External
Cost of fuel from nuclear energy:
0.52 c/kWh
- "Current nuclear plants — all 104 of them — have a Baby Boomer crisis coming in which they are going to have a huge exodus of the workforce," - Richard Coe, Thomas Edison State College
- Nationwide, universities are expanding their nuclear training programs
- The government offers grants and scholarships to encourage students to go to the field
This resource provides a clean, reliable option for our nation's high demands of energy. Its ability to supply large amounts of energy with a very small carbon footprint makes it an economic and environmentally beneficial source for the modern time.
Fukushima Accident 2011
- Fits the criteria for electricity production
- Very little contribution to greenhouse effect
- Cost effective
- Safe
- Good for economy
- Future for Nuclear is bright
- Following a 9.0 earthquake all 11 reactors in the region shut down automatically and received no damage.
- The resulting 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident on 11 March 2011. All three cores largely melted in the first three days.
- The accident was rated 7 on the INES scale, due to high radioactive releases over days 4 to 6.
- Four reactors were written off due to damage in the accident.
- After two weeks, the three reactors (units 1-3) were stable with water addition and by July they were being cooled with recycled water from the new treatment plant. Official 'cold shutdown condition' was announced in mid-December.
- Apart from cooling, the basic ongoing task was to prevent release of radioactive materials, particularly in contaminated water leaked from the three units.
- There have been no deaths or cases of radiation sickness from the nuclear accident, but over 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes to ensure this. Nervous government officails delay the return of many.
Chernobyl Accident 1986
- The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel.
- The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere and downwind.
- Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning.
- UNSCEAR says that apart from increased thyroid cancers, "there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident."
- Resettlement of areas from which people were relocated is ongoing. In 2011 Chernobyl was officially declared a tourist attraction.
Three Mile Island 1979
Works Cited
"Advantages Of Nuclear Energy." ConserveEnergyFuture. N.p., 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 09 June 2016.
"Advantages Of Nuclear Energy." ConserveEnergyFuture. N.p., 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 09 June 2016.
"Environmental Impacts of Coal Power: Wastes Generated." Union of Concerned Scientists. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2016.
"Fact Sheets." Nuclear Power Plants Benefit State and Local Economies. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2016.
"Javascript Required!" Radioactive Waste Management. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2016.
N.p., n.d. Web. 9 June 2016.
"Recycling Nuclear Waste and Breeder Reactors." What Is Nuclear Recycling? N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2016.
- 1979 the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in USA had a cooling malfunction that caused part of the core to melt in the #2 reactor. The TMI-2 reactor was destroyed.
- Some radioactive gas was released a couple of days after the accident, but not enough to cause any dose above background levels to local residents.
- There were no injuries or adverse health effects from the Three Mile Island accident due in large part to the money provided by the Nuclear industry's insurance
- Deficient control room instrumentation and inadequate emergency response training proved to be root causes of the accident
Breeder Reactors
Government Support and Funding
With this system the Uranium we can easily access can last us for tens of thousands of years
Nuclear Waste
Price Anderson Act
- Nuclear Energy’s liability insurance
- First tier provides $375 million per incident through a group of private insurance companies
- Second tier provides up to $13.6 billion per incident
- Every plant pays a premium of up to $121.3 million in the event of an incident
- Nuclear power is the only energy-producing technology which takes full responsibility for all of its waste
- about 210,00 m3 of waste a year (World Nuclear Association)
- 310,000 tons for fossil fuels (Union of Concerned Scientists)
- Nuclear Fuel can be recycled
- can be made even more efficient by using Thorium reactors
- other more common recycling methods
- Gives grants to nuclear power research labs
- Run government R&D labs
- Starting programs at universities for nuclear R&D
- Incentives for building new plants
- loan guarantees and tax credits
- Energy Policy act of 2005
- Price Anderson Act
Energy Policy Act 2005
- Production tax credit of 1.8 or 2.1 ¢/kWh from the first 6,000 MWe of new nuclear capacity in their first eight years of operation (the same rate as available to wind power on an unlimited basis).
- Federal risk insurance of $2 billion to cover regulatory delays in full-power operation of the first six advanced new plants
- Rationalized tax on decommissioning funds
- Federal loan guarantees for advanced nuclear reactors or other emission-free technologies up to 80% of the project cost
- Extends the Price Anderson Act for nuclear liability protection for another 20 years
Nuclear Energy