NUCLEAR ENERGY

The nuclear energy industry

Almost every country that has a nuclear energy industry, the government plays a role in the industry. But the nature and extent of the government’s role vary greatly among countries. In most industrialized countries and in several developing countries, nuclear reactors provide a part of the total electric energy production. In a few countries, such as France, Belgium and 

Sweden, most of the electricity energy is produced by nuclear power. One of the main reasons for the switch to nuclear power in these countries was to avoid dependence on oil-exporting countries that are politically unstable. Some countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, do not operate nuclear power stations.

About one-fifth of all Britain’s electricity comes from 14 nuclear power stations. The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) controls 12 of them. The South of Scotland Electricity Board controls the other two. Two prototype reactors run the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and two run by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) also provide a small amount of electricity for public use.

In the United States, private utility companies own most of the nuclear power plants. About 280 plants in 25 countries produce approximately 2 percent of the world’s energy. but the growth of nuclear energy has been slowed down by rising costs.

The industry and the economy. The main economic advantage claimed for nuclear power plants is that the fuel is cheaper and so they cost less to operate than fossil-fuel plants do. But nuclear plants cost more to build and to dismantle after their useful life than do fossil-fuel plants.

Under normal economic conditions, a nuclear plant’s savings in fuel eventually make up for its higher construction expenses. At first, these expenses add to the cost of producing electricity. But after some years, a plant will have paid off its construction costs. It ca then produce electricity more cheaply than a fossil-fuel plant can. But two main problems – sharply higher costs and equipment failures – have somewhat lessened this long-run economic advantage of nuclear power plants. Many nuclear plants have to be shut down for months at a time because of equipment failures. Such losses of operating time add to the cost of producing electricity.

The industry and the development. A nuclear plant releases small amounts of radioactive gas into the air. In addition, the cooling water used in pressurized water plants picks up a small amount of tritium (radioactive hydrogen) in the steam condenser. The tritium remains in this water when it is returned to a river or lake. But these small amounts of radiation released into the environment are not believed to be harmful. Thermal pollution remains a problem at some nuclear plants. But cooling towers help correct this problem.

Unlike fossil-fuel plants, nuclear plants do not release solid or chemical pollutants into the atmosphere. However, when a serious accident occurs, radioactivity can be released into the atmosphere and endanger people in surrounding areas. Such and accident occurred in Ukraine in 1986. Critics of nuclear power believe that the possibility of a serious accident increases with the number of nuclear plants. The subsection Hazards and safeguards later in this article discusses the main methods of guarding against accidents.

Critics of nuclear power also fear another danger to the environment. As power production increases, the creation of high-level radioactive wastes also increases. These wastes remain extremely radioactive for about 600 years because they contain the isotopes strontium 90 and caesium 137. The wastes also contain plutonium and other artificially created heavy elements, so they will remain strongly radioactive for thousand of years. The problem of storing radioactive wastes is discussed in the subsection Wastes and waste disposal.

How A Nuclear Power Plant Works?

Uploaded on Aug 3, 2008

A visual understanding of how energy is harvested during a Nuclear Reaction.

The development of nuclear energy

1n 1972, scientists discover that a natural chain reaction had occurred nearly 2 billion  years ago in a uranium deposits in west-central Africa. Two billion years ago, radioactive decay had not progressed so far as it has today. The uranium ore therefore contained enough U-235 to start a chain reaction. An accumulation of ground water acted as a moderator to begin the reaction. As heat from the reaction changed the water into stream, less and less water was available to serve as a moderator and the reaction died out. Except for such rare natural occurrences, nuclear energy was not released on a large scale on the earth until 1942. That year, scientists produced the first artificially created chain reaction. Scientific discoveries that took place within the last 100 years made the large-scale release of nuclear energy possible.

Early developments

In 1896, the French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel found that uranium gives off energy in the form of invisible rays. He thus became the discoverer of natural radioactivity. Other scientists soon began experiments to learn more about this mysterious form of energy.

The beginning of nuclear physics. Between 1899 and 1903, the great British physicist Ernest Rutherford found that some radioactive rays consist of higher-energy particles. He discovered two kinds of radioactive particles, which he named alpha and beta particles. Experiments with these particles then led Rutherford to discover the atom’s nucleus. This achievement, which Rutherford announced in 1911, marked the beginning of a new science – nuclear physics.

About 1914, scientists began trying to split light nuclei with particles from naturally radioactive materials. Lights nuclei do not repel positively charged particles, such as alpha particles, as strongly as heavy nuclei do. In 1919, Rutherford changed nitrogen into oxygen by this method. He thus achieved the first artificially created transmutation of one element into another. Oxygen weighs more than nitrogen. The reaction therefore consumed more energy, in the form of the alpha particle, than it produced. Although Rutherford did not succeed in producing fission, he showed that the structure of a nucleus can be changed.

The first artificially created fission reaction. To produce fission, a particle was needed that heavy nuclei would not repel. In 1932, the British physicist James Chadwick discovered such a particle – the neutron. In 1938, two German radiochemists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, reported they had produced the element barium by bombarding uranium with neutrons.

At first, scientists could not explain how uranium had produced barium, which is much lighter than uranium. All previous transmutations had resulted in an element about as heavy as the original one. Then in 1939, the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch showed that Hahn and Strassmann had in fact produced the first known artificially created fission reaction. A uranium nucleus had split into two nearly equal fragments, one of which consisted of a barium nucleus. Two neutrons were also emitted. The other fragments consisted of a nucleus of krypton, a somewhat lighter element that barium. These two nuclei, together with the emitted neutrons, weigh less than a uranium nucleus and a neutron. The reaction had therefore produced more energy than it consumed.

Scientists soon realized that if uranium produced a chain reaction, it would release tremendous amount energy. To find how much energy a chain reaction would release, scientists used a theory developed by the great German born physicist Albert Einstein in 1905. The theory states that matter is a form of energy and that matter and energy are related by the equation, E=mc². This equation states that the energy (E) in a substance equals the mass (m) of that substance multiplied by the speed of light squared (c²). Light travel 299,792 kilometres per second. The speed of light squared is obtained by multiplying the speed of light by itself. Using this equation, scientists determined that the fissioning of 0.45 kilogram of uranium would release as much energy as 7,300 metric tons of TNT. Uranium could therefore be used to make a powerful bomb.

Diagram: How A Nuclear Power Plant Works?

Nuclear Power - How Does It Works?

Uploaded on Nov 11, 2010

How a nuclear generating station works.

The beginning of the nuclear age.

The development of nuclear weapons. World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939. The month before, Einstein had written to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging him to commit the United States to developing an atomic bomb. Einstein had fled to the United States from Germany to escape Nazi persecution. He warned Roosevelt that German scientists might already be working on a nuclear bomb. Roosevelt acted on Einstein’s urging and early in 1940 scientists received the first funds for uranium research in the United States. They sought to discover a method of preparing enough plutonium or greatly enriched uranium for a bomb. The United States entered World War II in 1941. The U.S. government then ordered an all-out effort to perfect an atomic bomb and established the top-secret Manhattan Project to achieve this goal.

A group of scientists at the University of Chicago had charge of producing plutonium for the Manhattan Project.  The group included such noted physicists as Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner all of whom had been born in Europe and had settled in the United States. Fermi headed the group. Under the scientists’ direction, workers built an atomic pile, or reactor, beneath the stands of the university athletic field. The pile consisted of 45 metric tons of natural uranium embedded in 450 metric tons of graphite. The graphite served as a moderator. The pile was designed to start a chain reaction in the uranium which would then produce plutonium by radioactive decay. Cadmium rods controlled the reaction. On Dec 2, 1942, this primitive reactor produced the first artificially created chain reaction.

The success of the University of Chicago project led the U.S. government to built a plutonium-producing plant in Hanford, Washington. The government also built a uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Plutonium and greatly enriched uranium from these plants were used in the atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States in August 1945. The bombs ended the war.

After World War II, scientists began work on developing a hydrogen bomb. The United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb in 1952 and so achieved the world’s first large-scale thermonuclear reaction. The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb in 1949 and its first full-scale hydrogen bomb in 1953. China, France, Great Britain and India have also exploded nuclear weapons.

The first peaceful uses. While research on nuclear weapons continued, various countries also began experimenting with nuclear reactors. The United States and the Soviet Union had built uranium enrichment plants during the war. Both countries therefore started to developed light water reactors, which require enriched uranium fuel. Canada, France and Great Britain began work on reactors moderated by graphite or heavy water. These reactors cost more to build than light water reactors but they use unenriched uranium.

The U.S. Congress set up the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1946 to direct and control all aspects of nuclear energy developments in the United States. In 1954, Congress allowed private industry to take over most aspects of commercial nuclear power development. But the AEC became responsible for regulating the nuclear energy industry. It also kept control in such areas as uranium enrichment and waste disposal.

The United States made the world’s first full-scale use of controlled nuclear energy in 1954. that year, the U.S. Nave launched the first nuclear-powered vessel, the submarimne Nautilus.

The first full-scale nuclear power plant began operations in 1956 at Calder Hall in north-Western England. In 1957, the first large-scale nuclear plant in the United States opened in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. It supplied electricity to the Pittsburgh area until 1982, when the plant was closed. Canada opened its first full-scale plant in 1962 at Rolphton, Ontario.

The successful start of the nuclear power industry convinced world leaders of the need for international cooperation in the field. In 1957, the United Nations (UN) established the International Atomic Energy Agency to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Also in 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany formed the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). The organization encourages the development of nuclear power among its member  countries. Denmark, Britain and Ireland 
joined Euratom in 1973.

President Obama: Investing in Clean, Safe Nuclear energy

Published on Sep 16, 2012 / February 16, 2010 | 10:41 | Public Domain
       President Obama announces more than $8 billion in loan guarantees for 
two new nuclear reactors as part of the Administration's commitment to providing 
clean energy and creating new jobs.

Nuclear Power Plant Safety / Tomorrow Today

Uploaded on Mar 21, 2011

Many countries are relying on nuclear power as a vital part of their energy mix.
At least 60 new nuclear power stations are being built or planned world-wide. 
But the disaster in Japan has raised awareness of the risks posed by the technology.

Nuclear energy today

The spread of nuclear capability. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s, a number of countries acquired reactors and used them to start nuclear power development. Progress was also made during this period toward limiting nuclear weapons tests and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. In 1970, for example, a nuclear non-proliferation treaty went into effect. The treaty prohibits the nuclear powers that signed and ratified the document from giving nuclear weapons to nations that do not already have them. The nonproliferation treaty also prohibits nations without nuclear weapons from acquiring such weapon.

But the nonproliferation treaty does not prohibit nations from selling or buying nuclear reactors. A reactor can be used not only for peaceful purposes but also to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. India used a research reactor for this purpose and in 1974 exploded its first atomic bomb. Canada had supplied the reactor to India with the understanding it would be used for peaceful purposes only. Canada has signed the non-proliferation treaty but India has not. Critics of India’s action question the wisdom of supplying reactors to countries that do not already have them.

Meanwhile, the United States had been greatly increasing its nuclear power capacity. But opposition to nuclear power development also increased in the United States and other countries during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Critics began to question nearly every aspect of nuclear power production from the cost of uranium enrichment to the problems of waste disposal. Many critics of nuclear programmes charged that the governments overlooked various safety risks at nuclear plants to promote nuclear power development.

Research on new types of reactors was sparked by fears of a shortage of U-235 to fuel fission reactors. However, during the 1970’s, nuclear power production increased less rapidly than anticipated and the expected shortage did not occur. Today, scientists seek to developed safer and more efficient reactors. Researchers have concentrated their efforts on the development of a fusion reactor and commercial breeder reactor.

Experimental fusion devices. Most experimental efforts to produce energy from nuclear energy from nuclear fusion have concentrated on using a superhot plasma of heavy hydrogen as the fuel. Heavy hydrogen could supply almost unlimited amounts of power because it is obtained from ordinary water. Some scientists have hydrogen at room temperatures. But the experiments have been met with disbelief. Few experts believe that any kind of workable fusion device can be perfected in the 1900’s.

The most successful fusion reactor, called a tokamak, was originally designed by Soviet scientists. Tokamak means strong current in Russian. Like other experimental fusion reactors, a tokamak uses a magnetic field to push plama away from its containing walls. It also passes a strong current through the plasma. The current acts with the magnetic field to help confine the plasma.

Scientists in the United States and other countries also have developed tokamaks. But no tokamak has yet produced usable amounts of energy. Plasma must be heated to at least 100,000,000°C to produce a controlled thermonuclear reaction. But plasmas are difficult to contain at such temperatures.

Another experimental method to achieved fusion uses beams of laser light to compress and heat tiny pellets of frozen deuterium and tritium. This process creates miniature thermonuclear explosions that released energy before pellets reach the containing walls. But all experiments with this method have not yet produced usable amounts of energy.

Experimental breeder reactors. The most important type of experiment breeder uses plentiful uranium isotope U-238 as its basic fuel. The reactor changes the U-238 into the isotope plutonium 239 (Pu-239) by radioactive decay. Like U-235, Pu-239 can create a chain reaction and so can be used for energy production. Another breeder uses the natural element thorium as its basic fuel. It changes the thorium into the isotope U-233, which can also produce a chain reaction.

Several countries have built experimental breeders. The French breeder called the Phenix is the most successful. It regularly produces 250,000 kilowatts of electricity. But no country yet has a breeder suitable for large-scale commercial use. 

Safety concerns. There have been a number of accidents at nuclear power plants. Most of them have not been serious. However, concerns about the safety of nuclear power production increased after the serious accident in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the United States. Mechanical and human failures resulted in a breakdown of the reactors’s cooling system and the destruction of the reactor’s core. Scientists and technicians succeeded in preventing a total core meltdown that might have released large amounts of radioactive isotopes into the area surrounding the plant. Cleanup of the plant continued in the late 1980’s.

The worst nuclear accident in history occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Kiev in Ukraine which was then part of Soviet Union. An explosion and fire ripped apart the reactor and released large amounts of radioactive isotope into the atmosphere. Unlike most Western reactors, the Chernobyl reactors lacked an enclosure to prevent radioactive isotopes from escaping. Clouds of radioactive debris drifted across Europe.

Thirty-one people died from radiation sickness or burns and more than 200 others were seriously injured. The radioactivity spread over the eastern part of what was then the Soviet Union and was carried by wind into northern and central Europe. Experts expected a significant increase in the number of cancer deaths among those near the reactor. But they predicted that the health effects outside the Chernobyl area would be slight.

As a result of the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, opposition to nuclear power increased in many countries during the late 1980’s. Many experts believed the safety problems could be solved and some countries planned to expand their nuclear power facilities.

Nuclear Vs Renewable Energy

Uploaded on Oct 14, 2010

This information is brought to you by Brayton Energy Canada. 

Research continued on the development of safer reactors. For example, engineers were working on a reactor that used graphite as a moderator and layers of ceramics and carbon, rather than metal, to enclose the fuel rods. The engineers claimed that such a reactor could not melt down.

Smart Energy Consumption

By Shahino Mah Abdullah/nst.com.my/May 26. 2017

ENERGY plays an important role in our lives. It comes in several forms that can be utilised to keep people warm during cold weather, provide food, improve transportation and increase productivity. When energy is utilised efficiently, it will bring great comfort to our lives. However, energy consumption has been increasing in recent decades as the world population keeps growing.

According to the United Nations (UN) report, the current world population of 7.4 billion in 2016 is projected to increase by one billion over the next 10 years and reach 9.6 billion by 2050.

Besides population, the standard of living for many people in developing countries is increasing, which in turn results in the growing energy demand.

As a developing country, Malaysia is not immune to the trend as the Energy Commission reported that energy consumption was increasing year by year.

This activity does not only impact the the environment, but incurs great cost to the country that relies heavily on this resource.
It was reported on April 1 that Malaysia’s power generation industry spent RM15.1 billion to generate 120,059 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity for 8.45 million customers in Peninsular Malaysia....

Why Nuclear Could Become The Next ‘Fossil Fuel’

Technology

By AFP/28 May 2017/5.49am

A gray dinosaur statue outside south Florida’s largest power plant is meant to symbolize two decommissioned fossil fuel reactors, but it also could be seen to represent a nuclear industry crumpling under mounting costs.

Almost a decade ago, Turkey Point was aiming to become one of the country’s largest nuclear plants.
Florida Power and Light had argued that such expansion was needed to maintain diverse energy sources and to supply Florida’s booming population for years to come, while touting nuclear as a clean form of energy....read more>>

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Nuclear Security Summit 2012 - Published on Apr 2, 2012 - http://thefilmarchive.org/ 

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Nuclear Security Summit: Presidential Press Conference - Uploaded on Apr 13, 2010 President Obama takes questions from the media about nuclear security, non-proliferation and the threat of nuclear terrorism at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC. April 13, 2010.
What Will The Nuclear Summit Produce? - Uploaded on Apr 12, 2010. Today began the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC, with nations from all over the world coming together to discuss nuclear weapons. The conference is intended to stop nuclear weapons from getting into the hands of terrorists who would undoubtedly use them to destroy innocent lives. This summit is viewed by many as a major step in curbing not only a US threat but a global threat.
Nuclear Power Plant - Published on Oct 11, 2012 - This video show working principles of pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor.

Powering America: How a Nuclear Power Plant Works - Published on Nov 5, 2012 - The Fukushima nuclear reactor accident in March 2011 challenged the public's perception of nuclear power. However, much of this disillusionment simply stems from a lack of understanding of how a nuclear power plant functions. Watch the full documentary at http://www.poweringamericafilm.com.

First Commercial Nuclear Reactor - Tour of the first commercial nuclear power plant.

Inside Chernobyl (2012) - A short film based on current conditions in Chernobyl & Pripyat. 

Read more:
Nuclear Power Plant -  The basic function of nuclear power plant is to use the released energy of nuclear reaction for generating power. The nuclear reactions are reaction in which splitting of large nuclei or combining of small nuclei with releasing energy. Nuclear fission reactions involve radioactive decay of uranium with releasing specific amount of energy which is used to produce the electrical energy.

Koreans near investment in new Cumbrian nuclear plant

Kepco in talks to join consortium to build Moorside facility

A South Korean energy group is closing in on a multibillion investment in a new nuclear power station near Sellafield in the latest sign of Asian interest in Britain’s energy industry.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) is in talks about joining the NuGen consortium planning a £10bn plant at Moorside on the Cumbrian coast alongside existing owners Toshiba of Japan and Engie of France…

Russia, China and South Korea 'should be invited to build UK nuclear ...

The proposed Hinckley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset is ... contracts to build reactors in the UK if they are cheaper than other projects ...