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Giovanni Fiorillo
Mrs. Grant
UWRT 1103
10 November 2014
Future Energy: The Imminent Nuclear Era
It is not new information that our natural resources are currently dwindling away as our
needs for energy continue to grow. Future societies will need to rely on the alternative sources
that are currently being used but on a much larger scale. The population of the world
continuously gets larger, while coal and other fossil fuels are diminishing rapidly. The answer of
when the world will run out is a toss-up, but whether or not we will is not. The globe will need to
focus its sciences and advancements in alternatives like wind, solar, and hydro to ready
themselves to sustain the world when our coal resources are gone. However, it currently doesnt
seem like they will be able to take on the task completely. This is where nuclear era will need to
begin. Nuclear is the only energy source that shows the full potential of being able to replace the
fossil fuels as a power source. Nuclear resources are abundant and re-usable to certain extents in
which other resources are not. I will show how nuclear energy can replace fossil fuels and out
power the alternatives in the imminent nuclear era.

How Nuclear Reactors Work

There is a large misconception on how nuclear reactors work within the majority of the
population. Nuclear energy isnt directly harnessed from the fission process, and it is a rather
simple process in the large scheme of things. Simply, the fission process of an atom releases
energy in the form of heat. This heat is used to steam water and this steam is then guided via

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pipes towards a steam turbine. The steam will turn the turbine which will then produce the
energy. It does go a bit deeper than that though. There are many different fuels that can be used,
the most common being U-238 and U-235, which are both a form of uranium. The favorable of
the two is U-235 due to its unstable structure. This means that in a nuclear reactor it will undergo
fission much easier than U-238 would. When the atoms actually split they release neutrons along
with the energy that can collide with other atoms causing them to undergo fission as well. This
chain of events causes a domino effect, making the reaction more self-sustaining. This reaction
can be slowed if necessary though, or even sped up if it were required. The fuel source is in what
are called control rods. These control rods can be inserted or withdrawn to either speed up or
slow down the reaction respectively. This a great safety feature to slow down a reaction that may
be growing out of control. The production of nuclear energy should be seen as a bit simpler now
and safer as well.

Why Nuclear?
To understand why nuclear is a great choice for energy production we must first look at
the alternatives. Along with fossil fuels, some other big names in energy production are hydro,
solar, and wind. There are a few variables that are important when deeming an energy source as
effective or not. These would be the costs, the hazards, reliability, and the actual energy
production. The 3 alternative energy sources, wind, solar, and hydro, are all great in terms of
emissions. Over the span of their energy production they produce significantly less emissions
compared to fossil fuels. However, they come up short in the other categories. They are not a
reliable source of energy. Solar can only produce energy during the day with minimum cloud
coverage. Winds energy production depends on the weather which isnt always consistent. If

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wind speeds are to low or even to high, energy cannot be produced. Hydro energy can suffer
during a drought or even just during the dry season. They are slightly more expensive than
conventional methods. Lastly, they cannot produce the amount of energy that is required to run a
society. For example, in a study done by the U.S. Energy Information Administration of 2013
showed the 3 alternatives combined only produced 11.36% of Americas energy. This clearly
shows these are not capable of taking on the full responsibility of powering future societies.
Fossil fuels, as you may already know, was the number one source of energy in America,
producing 66% of the total. Energy can continually be produced year round and at a rapid rate.
Burning the carbon based fuel does produce a lot of CO2 emissions, which can cause climate
changes, and is not good for our environment. Now lets compare these results to nuclear energy.
Nuclear power plants are relatively cheap to maintain, and can also produce energy year round
reliably and predictably. Nuclear energy also produces less emissions than fossil fuel energy.
The next section will further explain some of the hazards with nuclear power. Finally, nuclear is
responsible for producing 19% of Americas total energy. Fossil fuels generate over 3 times as
much energy as nuclear power did in 2013. So it seems as though fossil fuels still have the
advantage in energy production, but this isnt the whole picture. There are nearly 20,000 fossil
fuel generators that were used to generate this 66%. Having that many generators is costly to
maintain and operate. It took only 100 nuclear reactors to generate the 19%. Further explanation
is unnecessary because the numbers can speak for themselves. If nuclear reactors were utilized
more, the energy production from them could easily outweigh that of the fossil fuels. It can
clearly be seen that nuclear energy is a great option for powering our future societies.

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Hazards of Nuclear Energy
One major issue with nuclear energy is the radioactive waste that is produced as a byproduct during the reaction process. If society were to rely on this source of energy more in the
future there will obviously be more waste produced. One of the ways of dealing with it now is to
store it and let it decay, which usually only takes a few decades. A danger that comes with this
isnt the radiation from the waste, but using the waste for an act of terrorism. These radioactive
materials could be used to make what is referred to as a dirty bomb. This is a typical bomb that
releases the radioactive material upon explosion. If this got into the wrong hands there could be
drastic ramifications. However, after noticing the threat the government increased security
around this material, which makes it highly unlikely that the radioactive by product could be
attained by a terrorist. This is something that cannot be ignored when evaluating the safety of
nuclear energy production though. One alternative method to avoid having this waste build up is
to reuse the radioactive material as fuel for other nuclear reactors, after being processed.
Building reactors that have this happen is difficult but can be done, and is a great alternative to
letting the waste accumulate. To reiterate, this isnt a major issue, but something that must be
considered when choosing nuclear as a primary energy source.

Future Nuclear Reactors

The future of nuclear reactors is actually beginning. India has proposed a plan in which
they will utilize the ideas of producing energy why also producing fuel for other reactors. This is
a three step process that follows:

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1. Pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) and light water reactors fuelled by natural
uranium producing plutonium that is separated for use in fuels in its fast reactors and
indigenous advanced heavy water reactors.

2. Fast breeder reactors (FBRs) will use plutonium-based fuel to extend their plutonium
inventory. The blanket around the core will have uranium as well as thorium, so that
further plutonium (particularly Pu-239) is produced as well as U-233.

3. Advanced heavy water reactors (AHWRs) will burn thorium-plutonium fuels in such a
manner that breeds U-233 which can eventually be used as a self-sustaining fissile driver
for a fleet of breeding AHWRs.
The terminology may be a bit hard to understand but that isnt point, the fact that nuclear
energy will become a big part of Indias energy production is. They will be utilizing new ways of
producing energy while also producing fuel through the method mentioned in the previous
section. One of the ways they are doing so is by using a thorium reactor. Thorium reactors are a
better alternative for nuclear energy production. Thorium is more abundant in nature than
uranium, and therefore a better fuel source. Thorium is fertile substance though, this meaning it
does not undergo fission easily. It needs a fissile material to accompany it during the reaction,
like uranium, U-233 specifically in Indias proposed plan. Thorium reactors can be designed to
use U-233 as the fissile material, but actually produce more U-233 than is used during the
reaction. This process is called thermal breeding and can occur if the reactor has a very good
neutron economy. This is a unique property of thorium reactors which make them a great reactor
for the future. Be able to produce fuel for energy while also producing energy is something that

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is unheard of in other energy production methods, making it a considerable source of future
energy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it seems evident that the world will soon enter the nuclear era. Nuclear
energy is the best alternative for energy production when fossil fuels run out, or even before.
Nuclear bested the alternatives and seems to also beat fossil fuels. It is cleaner, cheaper, and
more easily producible for society. The future of nuclear reactors is beginning to happen India
utilizing the amazing feature that thorium reactors offer. As of right now, there doesnt seem to
be any other alternative to power our future societies.

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"Electricity Generation - what are the options?" World Nuclear Association. Total Web Solutions
Ltd. n.d. Web. Nov. 2014

"How Nuclear Reactors Work". Nuclear Energy Institute. n.p., n.d. Web. Oct 2014

"Nuclear Energy Issues" CSA. n.p., Mar. 2002. Web. Oct. 2014
"Thorium" World Nuclear Association. Total Web Solutions Ltd. Sept. 2012. Web. Oct. 2012

U.S. Energy Information Administration, n.p., n.d. Web. Nov. 2014