Discussion Notes – Nuclear Energy – March 4, 2008
Social
-People don’t like nuclear – scary
-Huge social stigmatism associated with nuclear energy
following Three Mile Island in
-Nuclear energy upwards of 20% of total energy output already
-Concerns date to Cold War – concerns over nuclear weapons transferred into concerns over nuclear power
-Reactors can take over 10 years and $5 billion to build
-There are 103 nuclear reactors delivering 20% of
Political
-Companies getting “in line” for permits, but are waiting on gov’t “go ahead”
-In 1960s, took approx. 5-8 years to build after getting gov’t contract
-Security threat
-Approx. 400 nuclear plants worldwide,
-Land use à very small (good for cities)
Economics
-Cost per power plant?
-How long do they last?
-Current gov’t total cost is $342 million
-Projected $35 billion by 2018 out of treasury
-Currently competitive in market
-Nuclear energy at current plants cheap, but sold at market rates so consumers don’t benefit
-Uranium stocks now up
Scientific
-Fusion – tokomak
-Delta E = delta MC^2 – huge energy %
-Fusion makes no waste, 10,000 yr half life, not in practice yet, 100,000,000 Kelvin to work, 10 g water + 15 g Lithium = 1 person’s energy for life
-1 lb high grade uranium = 1 mil gal gasoline
-French pressurized H2O reactor technology
Environmental
-Waste?
-Effects of fusion?
-Purely electromagnetic radiation – no particulate, i.e. x-ray – easily contained
-3 Mile
***
Fusion vs Fission
Fusion- have reactors, but not operating yet, comes from E=mc^2, taking deuterium isotope and tritium isotope, smash them together, unstable, shoots out neutron, creates huge amount of energy, Lithium used to get tritium
Requires superheated plasma gases, that’s why it’s super experimental now, output energy greater than input, but as soon as you turn off the reactor, it stops
No waste, helium and a neutron
