The Future of Nuclear Power
credit: Reuters
After an unmitigated natural disaster in Japan, the future of nuclear power faces not only safety challenges, but the specter of public distrust.
After decades of regulatory-induced slumber, power providers in the US were beginning to examine their nuclear options as a way to meet carbon reduction goals. Specifically, Duke Energy planned the addition of two new nuclear facilities in North Carolina over the next two decades to meet demand in a low-carbon economy.
Did a 9.0 earthquake fundamentally alter the world’s energy future?
Nuclear energy is like religion or politics. Almost no one, it seems, can separate their biases and emotional attachments from an objective assessment of the worth of this energy source. I count myself among the non-objective, too.
What do you think?
Update: Here are a couple of interesting links about the Japanese nuclear reactor and the reality of future problems.
Why a nuclear reactor will never become a bomb
So how does a chain reaction work? Let’s consider the one involving uranium-235, which is the chain reaction used in nuclear reactors and many nuclear weapons. A free neutron hits a slow-moving uranium-235 isotope and is absorbed into it. Here one of two things can happen: the uranium will fission into two lighter, faster-moving isotopes, typically krypton-92 and barium-141, as well as some gamma radiation. The nuclear reactor is then able to absorb this energy, which is about three million times the energy the same amount of coal can produce in conventional burning.
Is it Possible to Build a Disaster-Proof Nuclear Power Plant?
Overall safety features in newer models are passive: They implement “core-catchers”-systems designed to contain full-scale meltdowns; they rely on convection, gravity and resistance to high temperatures in a pinch instead of on things that might fail, like power.
All via Gizmodo
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