Nuclear Power

Lindsey Garst
Jay Nargundkar
Jonah Richmond
 Nuclear Power Today
• Provides almost 20% of world’s
electricity (8% in U.S.)
• 69% of U.S. non-carbon electricity
generation
• More than 100 plants in U.S.
– None built since the 1970s
• 200+ plants in the Europe
– Leader is France
• About 80% of its power from nuclear
Early History of Nuclear
Power in the U.S.
 Origins
• After World War II,
development of
civilian nuclear
program
• Atlantic Energy Act
of 1946
• 1954: first
commercial nuclear
power program
 The Vision
• “It is not too much to expect that our
children will enjoy in their homes
[nuclear generated] electrical energy too
cheap to meter.”

– Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the U.S.

Atomic Energy Commission (1954)
 Manhattan Project
• Secret government project to create
atomic weapons during World War II

• After the war, the government encouraged

“the development of nuclear energy for
peaceful civilian purposes.”

• This led to the technology used in nuclear

plants today
 Early Beginnings

• Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) established by

Congress in 1946 as part of the Atomic Energy Act

• AEC authorized the construction of

Experimental Breeder Reactor I ( EBR-1) at a site in
Idaho in 1949

• in August of 1951, criticality (a controlled, self-

sustained, chain reaction) was reached using
uranium

• A football sized core was created and kept at

low power for four months until December 20,
1951
• power was gradually increased until the first
usable amount of electricity was generated,
lighting four light bulbs and introducing nuclear
generated power for the first time

• In 1953, the EBR-1 was creating one new atom of

nuclear fuel for every atom burned, thus the
reactor could sustain its own operation

• With this creation of new cores, enough energy was

created to fuel additional reactors

• A few years later, the town of Arco, Idaho became

the world's first community to get its entire power
supply from a nuclear reactor

• This was achieved by temporarily attaching the

town’s power grid to the reactor’s turbines
 Atoms for Peace

• Began in 1953 and was designed by Eisenhower

specifically to promote peaceful, commercial
applications of atomic energy after the Manhattan
Project and atomic bombings on Japan

• Public support for nuclear energy grew, federal

nuclear energy programs shifted their focus to
advancing reactor technologies

• With this came the support of utility companies,

which saw nuclear energy as a cheap and
environmentally safe alternative energy choice
 Shippingport Atomic
Power Station
• Department of Energy and the Duquesne Light Company
broke ground in Shippingport, Pennsylvania in 1954 for the
first commercial electric-generating station in the U.S. to
use nuclear energy

• Opened on May 26, 1958, as part of Eisenhower’s “Atoms for

Peace” program

• Three years later, it began supplying electricity for the

Pittsburgh area

• It was by far the world’s largest commercial nuclear

power plant, surpassing those already in place in the Soviet
Union and Great Britain
 Uranium Mining
There are three main methods:

• Underground mining

• Open pit mining

• In Situ Leaching (ISL)

 Underground Mining

The Case of the Olympic Dam Mine

• Olympic Dam mine is
located in South Australia

• Most of the mine’s profit

actually comes from the
copper that they mine as
well

• Tunnels are dug into the

earth, where ore is
extracted

• The ore is crushed into a

powder, then soaked in a
lake. The impurities
precipitate and the rest is
dried by heat.
 Ya Got Trouble….
• Lake uses an intense
amount of water

• Rabbit popluation has

crashed as a result of
drinking from the lake

The Western Mining

Corporation (WMC) is
owned by BP
 In Situ Leaching
• Wells are drilled into aquifers, the water is
removed, and a solvent, such as hydrogen
peroxide, is pumped in

• The peroxide dissolves the uranium, and the

solution is pumped back up

• An ion exchange system causes the uranium

to precipitate in the form of UO42H2O
(uranium peroxide)
In Situ Leaching
 ISL has its woes
• Ground water supply has radioactive
residues

• There are ISL mines in Texas,

Wyoming, and Nebraska that share the
same aquifers as residents
From Where Does It Come?
• Australia has 30% of the world’s uranium
below its topsoil, and it is all for export
• Canada (mostly
Saskatchewan) is
the next largest
source
• The True North,
strong and free, has
20% of the world’s
supply
Nuclear Governance in the
U.S.
• Energy Reorganization Act of 1974
– Created NRC and DoE
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission
– Regulates reactors; use of nuclear
materials; movement, storage, and
disposal of nuclear materials and waste
• Department of Energy
– Oversight of nuclear weapons; public
relations side of nuclear energy
 Int’l Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA)
• Part of U.N.
– Oversees global energy security, scientific
concerns
• Origin
– Eisenhower’s “Atoms for
Peace”
– Formed in 1957
– Promote peaceful
nuclear use
 IAEA Today
– Forum for scientific cooperation
– Institutes safety measures
– Promotes non-proliferation
– Featured prominently in recent news
• Iraq inspections
– Mohammed El Baradei
• Head of IAEA
• 2005 Nobel Peace
Prize Winner
 Major Problems of
Nuclear Energy:
• Cost
• Safety
• Proliferation
• Waste Disposal
 Cost
• More expensive than coal and
natural gas, but could be made
cheaper with carbon credits

• New nuclear plants could generate

power at $31-$46/MWh

• It would take 3-4 new plants to

absorb the the early costs of these
new plants
 Safety
• Public remains wary of nuclear
power due to Chernobyl and three
mile island accidents

• Nuclear plants vulnerable to

terrorist attacks

• Safer, more efficient, and more

secure plants planned for the
future
Three Mile Isle
 March 28, 1979, 4:00 am
• Secondary cooling loop stops pumping.
• Rising temperatures caused emergency
valve to open to release pressure, but
indicator light malfunctioned
• Due to loss of steam, water level drops,
water overheats and burns out pump
• Reactor core overheats and begins to
melt (a “meltdown”)
 March 28, 1979, 6:30 am
• Overheated water contains 350 times
normal level of melted down radioactive
matter
• A worker sees the open valve and
closes it
• To prevent an explosion, he reopens it,
releasing radioactive steam into the
atmosphere
 March 28, 1979, 8:00 am
• Nuclear Regulatory commission is
notified
• White House is notified
• TMI is evacuated
• All small children and pregnant women
within a five mile radius are evacuated
• A fifteen-year clean up project awaits
 Waste Disposal
• Yucca mountain

• Use breeder reactors

instead

• Alternative storage site

 Yucca Mountain

The Future of Nuclear Waste

Storage
Current Waste Disposal
• At this time, radioactive wastes are being
stored at the Department of Energy’s
facilities around the country

• High level wastes are stored in

underground carbon or stainless steel
tanks

• Spent nuclear fuel is put in above-

ground dry storage facilities and in
water-filled pools
 Yucca Mountain
• Storage sites becoming full, waste may be
transported to Yucca Mountain

• Located on government land, about 100 miles

northwest of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert

• It is a 6 mile long, 1,200-foot high flat-topped

volcanic ridge

• Will be able to house 70,000 tons of radioactive

material
 Problems with Yucca
Mountain
• The nuclear waste currently sitting
around is enough to fill the repository

• At the earliest, the repository will be open

in 2010, which seems unlikely

• NRC has found 293 technical issues with

the repository that must be fixed

• Danger to the public with the

transportation of the waste to yucca
mountain
 Still More Problems

• Possible health risks to those living near

Yucca Mountain

• Eventual corrosion of the metal barrels

which the waste is stored in

• Located in an earthquake region and

contains many interconnected faults and
fractures

• These could move groundwater and any

escaping radioactive material through the
repository to the aquifer below and then
Oops!
• At right is a map
of the Yucca
Mountain site

• The area within

the dotted line is
the burial site

• Two faults run

directly through
the site
 Current Situation
• The Government maintains that Yucca
Mountain will open on time, in 2010

• Those in the nuclear energy industry put

that date closer to 2015 or not at all

• It has been suggested that the

construction of concrete and steel cask
fields will add additional waste storage
space to nuclear plants

• This would allow several additional

decades for the government to put
together a permanent nuclear waste
storage facility
 Proliferation
• Fuel cycles that involve the chemical
reprocessing of spent fuel to separate
weapons-usable plutonium and uranium
enrichment technologies are of obvious
concern

• Once-through cycle sends discharged

fuel directly to disposal, thus allowing
the used fuels to be broken down,
leaving no options for proliferation
Nuclear Power Countries
 Threat of Proliferation
• North Korea (DPRK)
part of “Axis of Evil”
• 2003 admission of
nuclear weapons
• Kim Jong-Il* justifies
nukes as defense Kimmy Neutron
against the U.S.
• Other potential *Not to be confused with Jeong Kim,
namesake of the beautiful new
threats? Engineering building at UMD
Decline of Nuclear Power

• The public began growing fearful of

possible meltdowns, especially after the
disaster at Three Mile Island

• Nearly 2/3 of all orders for new plants

were cancelled in the late 1970’s

• No new plants having been built in the past

twenty-five years
The Anti-Nuclear Movement
• Rachel Carson
started it all in Silent
Spring

• She was the first to

bring to light the
harmful externalities
of nuclear energy,
including the risks of
genetic mutations
November 1974: Silkwood
• Karen Silkwood was a worker at the Kerr-
McGee plant in Cimarron, Oklahoma, where
the workers were not being protected from
the radioactive materials
• When she raised a stink about this problem,
she was mysteriously struck by a car
• As a result, NOW (National Organization of
Women) and OCAW (Oil, Coal, and Atom
Workers) joined the struggle against the
corruption in the nuclear industry
July 16, 1979: Church Rock
• One hundred million gallons of nuclear waste
were accidentally spilled on the Navajo Indian
reservation in Church Rock, New Mexico
• The waste ran into the Rio Puerco
• The towns of Gallup, Lupton, and Saunders
had to truck in drinking water, and all of the
grazing livestock were slaughtered
• Very little media coverage due to Three Mile
Island
The Seabrook Occupation
 Seabrook: Sunday, April 30, 1977

• 18,000 people protested the building of a

nuclear reactor in Seabrook, New
Hampshire
• National Guard and State Troopers called
in by Gov. Meldrim Thomson
• 1,414 of them were arrested and denied
due process
• They refused to pay bail, and were
incarcerated for a week
• This was a struggle between the people
and the corporate/government structure
No Nukes Words: Pat DeCou, Music: Tex LaMountain, ©1977, ASCAP

Look across the sky from your home, Can you see the tower blinking while you sit a spell at home?
Can you see the branches growing? Can you feel the awesome power?
Can you sense its evil purpose and its doom?
It grows in ways we all can understand, And its limbs are spreading all across the land.
The leaves they look like dollars and the sap it ain’t so sweet.
It rests upon the profits hungry people cannot eat.
With promises of quiet, comfort, and peace, The hanging tree can lure to its side.
But the darkness of its shadow gives us warning of the greed
That tries to sell us more electric power than we need.
No nukes for me, ‘cause I want my air to be Free from radiation poison falling over me.
These reactors that they’re building are a giant hanging tree. Don’t you build a hanging tree over me.
People soon will stop this money tree, And we’ll stop its hangin’ people, you and me.
And as we struggle all together all the powers that be will go down with their own hanging tree.
And out of this struggle we can plant a seedling tree, A tree that lets the sunlight share its space.
A tree in tune with living, whose branches lift the soul, When you’re watching from a distance and you’re
sitting all alone.
 Case Study:
Different Attitudes on Nuclear
Power
United States:
• Stigma of “unsafe” after Three Mile Island
• NIMBY attitude toward siting
France:
• Impact of “oil shock” during 1970s
• Advantage of strong centralized gov’t
• Huge lobbying campaign
• Trust in technology
• Today, France is energy exporter!
The Future of Nuclear
Power
Nuclear Power 2010 Program

• A joint government-industry cost-shared

effort that will be used to identify new
nuclear power plant sites, develop
advanced nuclear plant technologies,
and to evaluate the business case for
building new nuclear plants

• In early 2005, it was announced that two

sites and Mississippi and Alabama have been
selected as locations for these
advanced power plants
Energy Policy Act of 2005
• Signed by the president in August 2005

• Government would cover cost

overruns due to delays, up to $500
million each for the first two new
nuclear reactors, and up to $250 million
for the next four reactors

• Delays in construction due to vastly

increased regulations were a primary
cause of the high cost of some earlier
plants.
• A production tax credit of 1.8 cents per
kilowatt-hour for the first 6,000 megawatt-
hours from new nuclear power plants for
the first eight years of their operation

• Would put nuclear energy on par with

other sources of emission-free power,
including wind and closed-loop biomass