Protons for Breakfast
Do we need Nuclear Power
Week 6
December2012
In the event of an attack of giant squids…
Andrew
Hanson
Who
is helping?
Andy Knott
Averil Horton
Bufa Zhang
Cat Fitzpatrick
Chantal Mustoe
Claire Greenwell
David Clay
Deborah Lea
Edward Brightman
Emma Woolliams
Gianluca Memoli
Jacquie Elkin
James Claverley
James Miall
Jane Burston
Jane Scott
Jeff Flowers
Jenny Hully
Jenny Wilkinson
John Gallop
John Makepeace
John Mountford
Jonathan Pearce
Jordan Tompkins
Joseph Thom
Kate Wilkinson
Laurie Winkless
Lindsay
Chapman
Lloyd England
Louise Brown
Marta Doval
Minarro
Paul Carroll
Paul Green
Peter Benson
Peter Edmead
Peter NisbetJones
Peter Quested
Peter Woolliams
Rainer Winkler
Ralf Mouthaan
Robert Goddard
Ruth
Montgomery
Ruth Pearce
Eeeee - lec- tric-ity
Part 2!
Electricity generation in the UK
• How is electricity generated?
• How much electricity does the UK need ?
Where does it come from?
• Nuclear Power Stations are due for closure
How to replace the lost generating capacity?
• Nuclear Power
Radioactivity & Nuclear Fission
Pros and Cons
Does Britian need nuclear power?
How is electricity generated? (1)
Type of
station
Electricity
made by…
What makes coil
turn?
Energy
Source
Coal
Coil turning in a
magnetic field
Turbine driven by
hot steam
Chemical
C + O2  CO2
Gas
Coil turning in a
magnetic field
Turbines driven by
hot gas and steam
Chemical
CH4 + 2O2 
CO2 + 2H20
Nuclear
Coil turning in a
magnetic field
Turbine driven by
hot steam
Nuclear Fission
U + n ???
Stellar
Wind/Wave
Coil turning in a
magnetic field
Turbine driven by
air or water
Nuclear Fusion
4H  He
Solar
Ultimate Source
Solar
Solar
Only
‘solar’
powerwould
is renewable
& sustainable
0.01 % of
solar
energy
meet all
energy demands
Mamod
Mamod
Coil turning in a
magnetic field
Pistons driven by
steam
Chemical
C + O2  CO2
?
While the station powers up…
• Please take 10 minutes to fill out the forms.
• This helps us decide what to change and what to
keep the same
Ticking the boxes is important, but
your comments are especially valuable.
How much electricity do we need?
A family home
Nationally
Average ~1 kilowatt (kW)
~24 kWh per day
Peak~5 kilowatt (kW)
Average ~40 gigawatt (GW)
~1 TWh per day
Peak~60 gigawatt (GW)
× 40 million =
gigawatt (GW)
billion watts =109 W
= 1000000000 W
=10 Million Light bulbs
Electricity Generation in UK
Daily variations in 2001/2002
60
Actual National Grid Demand (GW)
Actual National Grid Demand (GW)
60
50
Typical Summer Demand
40
30
20
Minimum Summer Demand
10
Sleep
0
0.00
6.00
Work
12.00
18.00
Time of day
24.00
Maximum Winter Demand
50
40
30
Typical Winter Demand
20
10
Sleep
0
0.00
6.00
Work
12.00
18.00
Time of day
24.00
Electricity Demand
2001-2009
Mmmm. Looks near to
60 GW peak demand!
Energy Consumption Right Now!
How do we meet this demand?
Daily Variation in Supply Source
Typical Winter Demand
Figure 2.5(b) - Typical Winter Demand (Thursday 6th December 2001)
Thursday 6th December 2001
Power
Other
60
(GW)
Imports
50
40
40
MW
50
30
30
20
20
Coal
Gas (Combined Cycle)
10
10
Nuclear
Time
Time of Day
Nuclear
CCGTs
Outside Sources
Large Coal
Other Coal
Oil
Pumped Storage
Other
23:00
22:00
21:00
18:00
20:00
19:00
18:00
17:00
16:00
15:00
12:00
14:00
13:00
12:00
11:00
10:00
09:00
6:00
08:00
07:00
06:00
05:00
04:00
03:00
0:00
02:00
01:00
0
00:00
0
24:00
Evolution of Supply Sources
50
Average Electricity COnsumption
(GW)
45
40
35
Gas (Combined Cycle)
30
Net Imports
Other fuels
Wind
25
Hydro
Nuclear
20
Gas
Oil
Coal
Coal
15
10
5
0
1980
Nuclear
1990
2000
UK Nuclear Capacity
History and Future
Energy Gap?
Installed Nuclear Capacity (GWe)
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
Year
2010
2020
2030
2040
2050
What will happen in the future?
• No shortage of coal and gas
See BP Energy Review
Cost?
Security of supply?
• Renewables will increase
but by how much?
• Nuclear will decline
Nuclear
Coal
Oil
Gas
Hydro
Wind
Other fuels
Net Imports
Simplified picture
Nuclear
Coal
Oil Nuclear
GasCoal
Gas
Hydro
Wind
Wind
Other fuels
Net Imports
Electricity Generation in UK: 3 Options: Total Capacity kept constant = 330 TWh
2010
Option 1: Do almost nothing
Nuclear
Nuclear
Coal
Coal
Gas
Gas
Wind
Wind
Option 2: More Wind: Rebuild
Nuclear
Option 3: No Nuclear:
Nuclear
Nuclear
Coal
Coal
Gas
Gas
Wind
Wind
‘Concerned ‘of Tedddington
I hate nuclear Power! Couldn’t we…
• Reduce Demand
• Use More Wind
• Store some energy
• Install Solar PV Panels
• Exploit Tidal Power
• Make Nuclear Fusion work?
Could we reduce demand?
Reduce
Electricity
Demand
• My family’s electricity usage for the last four years
• Can we force people and businesses to use less?
Price
Rationing
Annualised Electricity Consumption
10000
2005
2006
2007
2008
9000
8000
7000
kWh
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
2000 kWh
20% reduction
£260 a year
Universal use of CF light bulbs will
eliminate the need for
1 large power station
Electricity Usage in UK
2004
Lighting
• Several easy wins
Commercial
18%
Losses
8%
Domestic
29%
Fuel
Industries
8%
Public
Adminsitration
5%
Transport 2% Agriculture 1%
Industry
29%
Yes, we could reduce demand.
Could we use more wind energy?
UK Wind
Some of the best sites in Europe
2011
2012
Projects
Turbines
Power
314
3425
5.8 GW
4158
5.1 onshore
2.7 offshore
=7.8
362
18 GW target
Divide numbers
by 3 to get
average power
•Wind has problems of
18 GW!!!!
–availability
• 10,000 of the largest turbines
–variability
• Sometimes No Power at all!
• Sometimes 18 GW !
• Average power ~6 GW
6 GW
Back Up
18 GW headline
6 GW average
~10 – 15% of UK Supply
Could we store some power?
The National Grid
• Electricity needs to be generated at
exactly the time it is needed.
• Storage is possible, but difficult:
• Variability limits likely maximum wind
contribution to about…
10%? Yes
20%? Arguably
30%? Unlikely
Photo Credit Spencer Jarvis
0 to 1.3 GW
in 12 seconds
Pumped Storage
1.5
Pumped Storage (GW)
Energy Use
1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
Energy Storage
-1.5
0
6
12
Time of Day
18
24
What about Solar Power?
Solar
Photo Voltaic
• 9 m2
• Twickenham
Solar
Photo Voltaic
Daily generation rate
10.00
kWh/day
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
w eek #
• Average: 3.5 kWh/day (1277.5 kWh/year)
• Saving:
3.5 x 13 pence per kWh = 46 p/day (£166 / year)
• Cost in: 2005: £9000
• Return on investment: 1.8 %
62
58
54
50
46
42
38
34
30
26
22
18
14
10
0.00
Solar power can help
•
•
More expensive than conventional electricity
Investment can be incremental
What about Tidal Power?
Severn Tidal Barrage
Could generate
10% of UK
demand
5 GW
£15B
Nuclear Fusion?
How are atoms made?
Electrical Repulsion
proton
Interact by the short range
‘strong’ force – not electrical
How are atoms made?
Nuclear Fusion
What is it?
100,000,000
1,000,000
10,000 ºC
deuterium
nucleus
neutron
proton
Fusion
JET
http://www.jet.efda.org/
ITER
http://www.iter.org/
Probability of Success by 2025…
????25%????
Probability of Engineering Feasibility by 2100…
???? 5%????
Nuclear Fusion could change things…
….if it could be made to work.
Nuclear Power
The UK Context
‘Concerned ‘of Tedddington
Mmmm…
So all these things can help, but
there is still a problem
O.K. Tell me about Nuclear Power!
To understand nuclear power
and how it works
we first need to understand about
Radioactivity
Some radioactive things…
Detectors
Cloud Chamber
Supermarket Radioactivity
Remember this…
‘Nuclear’ refers
to the
nucleus
of atoms
Electricity
Atoms
Heat
Electromagnetic waves
What is Radioactivity?
• Normally nuclei act as heavy
point-like centres for atoms
• More than 99.9% of the mass of
every atom is made of nuclear matter
• More than 99.9% of the mass of your
breakfast is made of nuclear matter
Nucleus
Protons & neutrons
The number of protons (+) in the
nucleus determines the number of
electrons(-) required to make the atom
neutral
Determines the chemical and physical
properties of the atom
But the number of neutrons in a nucleus can vary.
Example 39K, 40K and
41K
Same number of protons
Different numbers of neutrons
• Potassium is 2.4% of the Earth’s crust
• Natural potassium (symbol K) has three isotopes
39K
40K
41K
19 protons
20 neutrons
20 + 19 = 39
19 protons
21 neutrons
21 + 19 = 40
19 protons
22 neutrons
22 + 19 = 41
93.3%
0.01%
Radioactive
6.7%
Three types of radioactivity
• Named with the Greek a, b, c
a alpha, b beta, g gamma
• Nuclei with a ‘balanced’ number of protons and neutrons are stable
Isotopes with
too many protons
Isotopes with
too many neutrons
Alpha decay
Beta decay
Emission of fast moving
helium nucleus
Emission of fast moving
electron
And gamma radiation
And gamma radiation
Alpha (a) Decay
Nucleus with too
many protons
Alpha
particle
gamma ray
Charge oscillations
in nucleus
Beta (b) Decay
Nucleus with too
many neutrons
Beta
particle
gamma ray
Charge oscillations
in nucleus
Radioactivity
What are the health risks
of ionising radiation?
Radioactive health risks
• Radioactive emissions
a alpha, b beta, g gamma
• If they pass living cells, they interact electrically and cause
damage.
• Cells are killed
• Can cause mutations and cancer
• Very bad for you
• Fortunately we have evolved in a radioactive world
Measurement units
Many ways of measuring radioactive dose
• Optimal measure for effect on human health is the
Sievert
UK doses
Average UK dose per year
• Average 0.0026 Sieverts
• Average 2.6 milliSieverts
Average UK dose rate
• About 7 microSieverts /day
• About 0.3 microSieverts /hour
Dental X-ray scan
• About 5 microSieverts
Chest CT scan
• About 7 milliSieverts
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/pdf/sfty_xray.pdf
Radon
50%
Occupatio
nal
0%
Medical
14%
Cosmic
10%
Gamma
Internal rays
14%
12%
Fallout
0%
Products
0%
Discharge
s
0%
Sources
Internal and External
From the sky
About 100,000 cosmic ray
neutrons and 400,000
secondary cosmic rays
penetrate the average
individual every hour
From food
About 15 million
potassium 40 atoms and
7000 natural uranium
atoms disintegrate inside
us each hour
From the air
About 30,000 atoms
disintegrate each hour in
our lungs and give of
alpha, beta, and gamma
radiation
From soil and building materials
Over 200 million gamma rays pass through the
average individual each hour
What is Nuclear Power?
Nuclear Power
How does it work?
Uranium
• Uranium has two common isotopes 238U and 235U
Uranium has 92 protons
The 238 or 235 is the total number of protons and neutrons
238U
235U
neutrons
238 – 92 = 146
235 – 92 = 143
natural
uranium.
99.3%
0.7%
Fissile?
No
Yes
Fission means splitting’
• Some heavy nuclei can be
induced to fission i.e. split in
two - by the addition of a single
neutron
• Nuclear fragments move very
fast. As they interact with nearby
atoms they cause tremendous
heating
One more ‘wafer thin’ neutron, Sir?
Uranium Fission
•
235U
+ n >>> 236U + n
• After a short while
•
236U
>>> fragments + 3 n
Sustained chain reaction
•
235U
+ n >>> 236U >>> Fragments + 3n
Uncontrolled chain reaction
•
235U
+ n >>> 236U >>> Fragments + 3n
Nuclear Power Stations
Nuclear Positives
Picture Credit http://www.peakoilblues.org/
Nuclear Positives
• 1 kg natural uranium has a volume of 50 cm3
Produces 40 thousand kWh
Equivalent to 16 tons of coal
• Nuclear energy is cleaner than coal
Lower radioactive emissions
Much less radioactive waste
• Conventional Power Stations
Cheaper than nuclear because they don’t pay to clean up their waste (CO2)
• Safety & Reliability
One fifth of UK electricity supply for last 30 years
Many fewer deaths attributable to Nuclear Power than to Coal
Nuclear Negatives
Chernobyl
•
•
•
•
26 April 1986
31 dead Immediately
Many cancers caused
Ultimate death toll
100?
15,000?
Chernobyl Effect on UK
Fall out from
atmospheric
atomic weapons
testing
Total radiation dose was
20 times less than the
dose from the
atmospheric bomb tests
from 1945 to 1963.
Annual
dose
(micro
Sieverts)
Chernobyl
1951
Year
1988
Fukushima
• 11 March 2011
• 0 dead Immediately
• Ultimate death toll
0?
What happened?
Fukushima
H2
BANG!
Earthquake Warning!
1500 MW heating ~ 500 °C
100 MW heating and cooling
>2000 °C
Origin of Nuclear Waste
•
235U
+ n >>> 236U >>> Fragments + 3n
These fragments
are intensely
radioactive
Neutrons make other materials radioactive too
Radioactive waste
• UK: No permanent solution for high level waste
• Finland: Problem Solved
• Data from NDA: http://www.nda.gov.uk/ukinventory/
UK Data
Type of Waste
Year
2010
Low
4,400,000
Intermediate
290,000
High
1,000
Amounts in
cubic metres
Carbon versus Nuclear
Cost
Worldwide Physical
Mass
Manageable
Radioactive
Waste
Carbon Waste
(CO2)
Large, but
calculable
Incalculable
<1 million tonnes >30 billion tonnes
cumulative total
per year
Probably
Probably not
The Nuclear Age
• Nuclear phenomena have
always been associated
with great hopes and great
fears.
• Chicago
• 3:25 P.M. December 2,
1942
• Nuclear Age began
• Gain = 1.0006
The Nuclear Age
I shook hands with Fermi and I
said that I thought this day would
go down as a black day in the
history of mankind.
Leo Szillard
I remember best of all the face
of Crawford Greenewalt. His
eyes were shining. He had seen
a miracle, and a miracle it was
indeed. The dawn of a new age.
Arthur Compton
Do we need nuclear power?
• We face a possible Energy Gap in the years to come.
• We need to reduce Carbon emissions!
• Difficult to see how we will sustain current levels of
consumption without building new nuclear power.
• But we still have a choice…
What do other countries do?
40 GW
• France, Germany and the UK
• Three different solutions to a
similar problem
60 GW
Data from IEA 2009
55 GW
Do we need nuclear power?
Does Britian need nuclear power?
Please find an answer!
The answer?
• Collect interstellar hydrogen and turn it into helium
• Build a fusion reactor bigger than the Earth!
• Position the reactor about 93 million miles away
• Call it the Super Universal Neutrino machine
The End
Thanks for coming to
the course.
If you enjoyed it,
please tell your
friends and
colleagues
The Pub
The Abercorn
The Abercorn Arms
Church Road, Teddington
Sustainable
Development
Commission
Sustainable Development Commission
The government’s independent watchdog on sustainable development
Report March 2006
“The two overriding concerns for Government are the need to:
• reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as part of efforts to
tackle climate change, and
• increase confidence in the security of energy supply.”
“Nuclear power is not the answer to tackling
climate change or security of supply”
Cost
Cost
8
7
Pence per KWh
6
5
With CO2 at £30/ton
20%increase in fuel
20%increase
Inc. Backup
in fuel
Inc. Backup
Inc. Backup
Cost Cost
Cost
Cost
4
3
2
1
0
Gas
Coal
Nuclear
Onshore
Wind
Source The Cost of Generating
Electricity by the Royal Academy of Engineering
Offshore
Wind
Pros and Cons
Coal
Gas
Nuclear
Wind
Cost
Cheap
Availability
Plentiful
Constrained
?
Intermittent
Carbon
1
0.5
0.01
0.01
Downside
Dirty
Still emits
carbon
Unpopular
Unpopular
Investment
Kg/kWh
An ‘eco’ –doll’s house