Nuclear Power: Pros & Cons

Group Members:

Darrel Anderson

Nicholas Azadian

Richard Klimas Jr.

Origins Nuclear Power

• First Controlled Chain Reaction under University Chicago Football field

• First reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory 1942

• Originally designed production of weapons grade plutonium

• First Civilian Reactor in Obinsk, Russia 1952

Fission

• Typical element used is Uranium 235• Uranium 235 unstable • Forms Uranium 236 with neutron• Breaks down to Krypton 92, Barium 141• High energy release and neutrons• http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/nuclear-u

ranium.swf U235 n U236

U236 Kr92 Ba141 Energy

Nuclear Power Cycle (Simplified)

• Functions Similarly to any fossil fuel power plant

• http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/nuclear-power-reactor.swf

Pros

• Economic

• Environmental

• Portability & Productivity

Economic

• Net external Costs are much cheaper then other forms of production

• As of 2005 Nuclear power was :– 3/4 the cost of coal– 1/5 the cost of gas

Cost Comparison

Efficiency

• Average thermal efficiency 35%– Comparable to Coal, Natural Gas

• 1 Uranium Pellet can produce:

• Equivalent to:• 1780 lbs of coal • 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas• 149 gallons of oil

1.742 107

BTU

Portability and Productivity

• Wide range of uses

• Various military and civilian applications

• Relative large amount of energy produced per land area

Environmental

• Lowest impact on the environment

• No combustion thus Zero emissions of greenhouse gases– Only external product is

Steam

• Water used for cooling can be interchanged with the environment

Cons

• Waste storage

• Accidents

• National Security

• Ease of peaceful usage to weapons program

Waste Storage

• U 235 and Pu 239 half lives are:

U235 7.13 108 years

Pu239 2.411 104 years

Waste Storage

• Store in cool dry place

• Radioactive indefinitely

• Difficult to store

• Has deadly

Radiation

Safety

• Always potential for meltdown– Human error, Mechanical Failure

• Materials are still fissile after thousands of years

• In the past there have been many accidents but few that caused environmental contamination

Radiation and You

Meltdown

• The various mechanical/ structural failures include:

• Pumps breakage

• Turbine/Tank rupture

• http://www.ida.liu.se/~her/npp/demo.html

Disasters

• Chernobyl– Worst nuclear

accident

• Three Mile island– Worst US Nuclear

accident

• Most recent Dimitrovgrod in 1996

• Most deadly recently Japan in 1994

National Security

• Waste storage sites, Plants, various aspects of transporting fissile material are “targets” to hostiles

• Not enough is being done to protect these sites

Summary• History Synopsis

• Economic Potential

• Safety

• Questions?