What if . . .
There was a power source with an
abundant fuel supply?
 A source that created no CO2 in
generating electricity?


What if . . . .
What if . . .that power was nuclear?
Comparison of coal vs. nuclear



Coal
Domestic fuel
Combustion of coal =
CO2, SOx, NOx,
particulates, Hg






Nuclear
Domestic fuel
No combustion = no
air pollutants
Mining/processing/
transporting of fuel
does create CO2
Waste products highly
dangerous
Risk of nuclear
accident
The fission reaction – interpret this
diagram
Compare/contrast to WA Parish –
“Lightwater” reactors
Controlling the chain reaction
1. Fuel is 97% U-238, only 3% U-235
 2. Control rods stop movement of
neutrons
 3. Moderating fluid contains Boron

South Texas Project power plant

Photo
slide
show!
Reactor core & fuel rod assembly
Check for understanding
Explain the fission reaction
 What is the difference between fission and
fusion?
 How is a nuclear power plant the same as
a coal-fired power plant?
 How is a nuclear power plant different
from a coal-fired power plant?
 How is moderating fluid used to control
the fission reaction?

Comparison of coal vs. nuclear



Coal
Domestic fuel
Combustion of coal =
CO2, SOx, NOx,
particulates, Hg






Nuclear
Domestic fuel
No combustion = no
air pollutants
Mining/processing/
transporting of fuel
does create CO2
Waste products highly
dangerous
Risk of nuclear
accident
Radiation – the dose makes the poison








Background radiation from planet .1-.2/yr
X-ray 1 rem
Upper limit for job exposure 5 rems/yr
10 rem/incident – embryo show abnormalities
100/incident – probable leukemia
1,000/incident – nausea, harm to intestines,
death in 2 weeks
10,000/incident – coma, death in two days
100,000/incident – immediate death
104 Nuclear power plants in the US
Nuclear waste

Low level waste

High Level waste
Two kinds of nuclear waste

Low level waste





Protective gear
X-ray wastes
Medical wastes
Stored in nearsurface waste
facilities
Remains radioactive
about 100 years
Management of low level waste
Management of low level waste – Andrews county Texas
to accept waste from 36 states
Second kind of nuclear waste

High Level waste



Radioactive 10,000
years
Spent fuel rods
Currently stored
on-site in the US
How long will it remain dangerous?

High Level waste




Radioactive 10,000
years
Spent fuel rods
Currently stored on-site






Half-life: the amount
of time required for
half of the nuclei in a
radioisotope to emit
its radiation.
Potassium-42 12hrs
Iodine-131 8 days
Strontium-90 28 yrs
Carbon-14 5,370 yrs
U-235 710 million yrs
U-238 4.5 billion yrs
Half life – how long will it last?
Iodine-131 (8 days)
 If you had 1kg of
Iodine-131, how
much radioactive
material would you
have in 32 days?

Radioactive decay of Uranium
104 Nuclear reactors (at 65 sites)in the US
Yucca Mountain, Nevada –
cancelled project
Alternatives?
Develop reactors that use 99.9% of fuels
– “4th generation” reactors – won’t be
ready until 2030
 ****Big need for engineers and creative
thinkers!!!

Alternatives?
Reprocessing – France shut last coal
power plant in 2004. 56 nuclear reactors.
Reprocessed fuel is used again; waste is
stored in chunks of glass in stainless steel
containers a few meters underground and
loses radioactivity quickly.
 Recovers 25% unused Uranium and
Plutonium
 Reduces volume of waste to 20% of
original volume

One nuclear accident can really ruin your whole day.
NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS
Three Mile Island



1979 Pennsylvania
Mechanical and
human failure
Lost coolant water,
only partial meltdown
104 Nuclear power plants in the US –
possible fallout effects
Chernobyl
April 26, 1986
 Human error led to meltdown
 116,000 people evacuated
 Area the size of Florida contaminated
 Cesium 137 and Iodine 131 released –
reactive carcinogen
 Thyroid cancer rates in children in Belarus
are 100 times higher than preaccident
levels

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI
Fukushima Daiichi
Tsunami of March 11, 2011 destabilized
plant
 Full meltdown in three reactors due to
inability to cool reactor cores
 Seawater used to cool cores, ruined
reactors; loss of moderating fluid
 Released about 1/10 of radioactive
material as Chernobyl (Cesium-137)
 Japanese still concerned about food supply
(US fisheries?)
 20 km exclusion zone currently in place

Current Fukishima status (CNN: Some residents to 'come
home' to Fukushima nuclear disaster zone 2/24/14)



April 1, some 350 people from the Miyakoji district of
Tamura city will be allowed to head back to their homes
permanently, according to the country's Reconstruction
Agency. Some 31,000 people could eventually return home,
it added.
The government says about 138,000 Fukushima residents
are still living in temporary accommodation.
Areas are declared suitable for habitation if residents are
exposed to a maximum of 20 millisieverts of radiation per
year. Officials have said they would like to get radiation
exposure down to one millisievert a year.

The containment effort at the wrecked
Fukushima-Daichi plant has been beset by
problems, with regular reports of leaks of
contaminated material. Last week, an
estimated 100 metric tons of highly
contaminated water flowed over a barrier
around a containment tank and is being
absorbed into the ground, plant operators,
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO),
said in a statement -- though it denied
there was any leakage into the nearby
Pacific Ocean.
National Geographic returns to
Chernobyl

national geographic video