Switching all Nuclear Power Plants into Pebble bed Reactors Introduction There is a lot of demand for energy, and to supply all those demands the environment tends to suffer from the pollution. Burning coal, oil, and natural gases releases harmful chemicals such as sulfur dioxide (cause of acid rain), Carbon dioxide (causing the greenhouse effect increasing the average temperature of the Earth), and many more. In order to address this problem, world leaders met in Kyoto, Japan in December of 1997 to establish the limits of emission allowed for fossil fuels. Even with the limits being set, the world still demanded more and more energy. The solution ideally was to use other sources such as nuclear power plants, and renewable resources. One successful advances in technology is the development of pebble bed reactors. Basics of Pebble Bed Reactors To advance the safety of nuclear power plants, a small pebble bed reactor that was cooled by the use of helium was formed. A gas turbine was attached to the reactor to generate electricity. The efficiency of this new reactor would be as high as 45% to 50% compared to the previous output of 35%, and estimated about 10% more efficient than the conventional light-water reactor. To create a safer nuclear power source, the modular reactor was about ten times smaller than size of a regular nuclear reactor. Because of the smaller size, it made the ease of use much simpler, allowing no operators to be needed. The 110-Megawatt electric size made the plant essentially the safest it can be. Even in the worse case scenario, the reactor has an automatic shut down whenever a chance a melt could occur. Concept of the pebble bed reactors Pebble bed reactors consist of a little smaller than baseball si... ... middle of paper ... ...eatures. However there are still limits to the reactor, with all the safety features added on to the reactor, once it melts down, the contamination of the surrounding area of harmful radioactive chemicals are great. That concern has always been a major set back for all nuclear power plants, but the pebble bed reactors are currently the safest nuclear power plant reactors scientist have created. Bibliography http://web.mit.edu/pebble-bed/background.pdf http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/3657-alternative-nuclear-power-pebble-bed-reactor https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Pebble_bed_reactor.html http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/advanced/pbmr.html http://pebblebedreactor.blogspot.com http://bravenewclimate.com/2010/08/25/pb-ahtr/ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/energy-environment/25chinanuke.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Nuclear power has grown to be a big percentage of the world’s energy. As of January 18, 2013 in 31 countries 437 nuclear power plant units with an installed electric net capacity of about 372 GW are in operation and 68 plants with an installed capacity of 65 GW are in 15 countries under construction. As of end 2011 the total electricity production since 1951 amounts to 69,760 billion kWh. The cumulative operating experience amounted to 15, 15,080 years by end of 2012. (European Nuclear Society) The change that nuclear power has brought to the world has led to benefits in today’s energy’s usage.
Leading the disaster, Nuclear reactors require an element cooling with a particular finished objective to uproot the created warmth delivered by radioactive rote. Despite when not delivering power, reactors still make some warmth, which must be cleared with a specific end goal to forestall harm to the reactor center. Cooling is by and large refined through fluid stream, water in Chernobyl s case. The issue at the Chernobyl plant was that taking after an emergency shutdown of all force, diesel generators were expected to run the cooling pumps. These generators took around a minute to fulfill full speed, which was respected an inadmissible long time for the reactor to be without cooling. It was recommended that the rotational power of the backing off steam
Central Idea: Nuclear energy only contributes a small amount to the world’s electricity yet it has hazards and dangers that far out-way its benefits. There are many other alternative power producing sources that can produce energy more efficiently and more safely than nuclear power plants can.
The seemingly limitless power of the atom has been exploited by scientist around the world ever since the Enola Gay flew over Hiroshima on August 6th 1945 and dropped the second atomic bomb, revealing to the world this new form of energy. The key to harnessing the energy from nuclear fission in a stable reaction soon followed, starting the Nuclear age. Russia, emerging as a superpower and major industrial center found special needs for nuclear fission. From the period of 1980-1990, the Russian Federation’s Gross Democratic Product grew 2.8% each year, comparable to the United State’s 2.9% each year. To fuel this growth, the only cheap, affordable, efficient energy production means was nuclear energy. The fission of 1 lb of uranium-235 produces as much energy as 1,500 tons of coal. The Cold War only escalated this demand, and soon, reactors served dual purposes of providing energy, as well as producing weapons grade plutonium. In fact, the first reactors were designed to manufacture plutonium, not to generate electricity. Everything has its flaws though, and nuclear energy was no exception, with one of the heaviest reprucussions in the event of an accident. April 26th, 1986 is an excellent example of that. Chernobyl was not the first nuclear reactor mishap the world has encountered, but it was definitely the worst for many years to come. Previous accidents such as Three Mile Island in the United States, Indian Point near New York, and a partial meltdown at Leningrad predated Chernobyl. However, the 100 million curies of radiation emitted by the RMBK-1000 reactor put Chernobyl on an entirely different scale compared to the previous accidents. Failure to effectively prevent, contain, and effectively respond to the radiation emit...
The purpose of this report is to investigate the different views and opinions on the safeness and cost effectiveness of nuclear power compared to other forms of energy. This report will explain the issues and background of the debate, the importance of the issue, and the parties who are involved in this debate with their thoughts.
When people burn fossil fuels to accumulate and produce energy a substance called carbon is produced. Carbon is released into the air in a form known as carbon dioxide. Carbon moves throughout the biosphere on the planet as it is recycled and reused. Carbon exists in the earth’s atmosphere in two common forms which are methane and carbon monoxide. These gases absorb and retain heat in a process known as the greenhouse effect. The Planets natural greenhouse effect makes life possible by regulating our temperature. It turns out that adding too much to the greenhouse effect can have horrible consequences on the environment. Each year, five and a half billion tons of carbon is released by burning fossil fuels and of that three billion tons enters the atmosphere. The remaining carbon usually gets absorbed by the oceans.
The world is facing an energy crisis and many are unaware of this growing problem. Sustainability is avoiding depletion of our natural resources in order to provide for future generations, and the only way to ensure that resources are available into the future is to find alternative sources to meet the world’s energy needs. Nuclear energy is just one source of alternative energy being implemented today in an effort to support the needs of the population and mitigate global climate change. Nuclear energy holds the necessary benefits in order to continue being used globally as an alternative solution.
The “World Nuclear Power Plants in Operation”. Nuclear Energy Institute. April. The. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
The effects of using fossil fuels are starker than their timelines. Humans release approximately two billion metric tons of pollution annually, mostly from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas; this pollution is destroying our environment and the ozone layer. Ozone and smog damage forests, crops, and other plant life, and reduces visibility. Other pollutants have the same
Humans and animals breathe out Carbon Dioxide, often referred to as the greenhouse gas, as a waste product. Plants take in this CO2 and use it to make food. This is called photosynthesis. During this process oxygen is released which is then breathed in by humans and animals. This procedure is repeated over and over and a natural balance is obtained. However this natural balance is disrupted by human activity. People of the world are putting more than 5.5 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. 75% of this is caused from the burning of fossil fuels. These fuels are burnt all the time to run factories, power plants and vehicles. The main sources of CO2 emissions are electric utilities, residential buildings, industry and transportation. The other 25% is induced by the destruction of the world's forests. The reason for this is that there are less trees and plants to take in the CO2 but there is just as many, if not more, humans and animals to breathe it out.
The commonly debated “greenhouse effect” refers to “the global average temperature increase that has been observed over the last one hundred years or more” (Spencer). President Barack Obama addressed the issue in an effort to highlight its severity, "We have to all shoulder the responsibility for keeping the planet habitable, or we’re going to suffer the consequences – together” (Leader). The earth’s increasing atmospheric and oceanic temperatures result in climate changes due to cumulative amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. As an outcome, researchers around the globe have established that the by-product of burning fossil fuels is the main culprit of the increasing temperatures. Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have significantly increased since 1900, as shown above from a study carried out by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center.
Nuclear power, the use of exothermic nuclear processes to produce an enormous amount of electricity and heat for domestic, medical, military and industrial purposes i.e. “By the end of 2012 2346.3 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity was generated by nuclear reactors around the world” (International atomic energy agency Vienna, 2013, p.13). However, with that been said it is evident that the process of generating electricity from a nuclear reactor has numerous health and environmental safety issues.
The most destructive human contribution to climate change is fossil fuels combustion, which results in the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Increased carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons levels in the atmosphere cause an imbalance in the earth’s energy. This is because the gases alter solar radiation and thermal radiation which regulate the earth’s energy. Research indicates that anthropogenic climate change is the cause of the increased global warming over the last fifty years. 57 % of the carbon dioxide emitted is absorbed into the atmosphere while the rest is absorbed into the oceans. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the most central greenhouse gas that is associated with global warming (Eby, Zickfield, Montenegro, Archer, Meissner, & Weaver,
The burning of fossil fuels has greatly harmed our environment and is a leading cause as to why climate change has become such a threat to our way of living. In May of 2013, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached 400 parts per million, an increase of more than 40 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This could cause the Arctic Ocean to be nearly ice-free during the summer by 2020(Overland and Wang, 2013).
The greatest disadvantages of nuclear energy are the risks posed to mankind and the environment by radioactive materials. ‘On average a nuclear plant annually generates 20 metric tons of used nuclear fuel cla...