The Benefits of Nuclear Power Plants

Autumn Ferdig
English 1010
Mrs. Trealese
13 April 2017
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Autumn Ferdig

English 1010

Mrs. Trealese

4/13/2017

The Benefits of Nuclear Power Plants

Statement of topic

In this paper, I will be looking at the use of nuclear power around the world. I chose this

topic because as an engineering student I am fascinated by the potential of nuclear energy and

why people are for or against it. I also want to see the effect it has on the environment compared

with fossil fuels.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to justify the use of nuclear power to replace fossil fuels.

Scope

I will be talking about the history of nuclear science, the state of nuclear power in the US

and the rest of the developed world, how nuclear power effects the environment, and the

different types of reactors, the fuels they use. I will not be looking at renewable energy as a

replacement for fossil fuels.

Research section
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History of nuclear energy

Uranium was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth. He named it after the planet

Uranus. In 1902 Ernest Rutherford identified alpha and beta particles come from nucleus during

decay of Uranium. Alpha particles are made up of two protons and two neutrons. Beta particles

are neutrons that decay into a proton and an electron. Building on that knowledge, in 1911

Frederick Soddy discovered additional radioactive isotopes. During an experiment, he showed

that Uranium decays into radium and that elements can have more than one atomic mass because

there may be a different amount of neutrons.

The most critical achievement and subsequent discovery was when in 1917, Ernest

Rutherford split the atom. This was a critical moment because, in that action heat is released and

he realized that the heat could be harnessed as a form of energy and nuclear power became a

possibility in that moment.

The first nuclear reactor proof in concept was part of the Manhattan Project and was built

in 1942. It was not until December of 1951 however that the first nuclear reactor in the world

came on-line just outside of Arco, Idaho. First nuclear reactor to produce electricity was known

as Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 or EBR-1. It was only used to power the building that it was

in and to perform experiments with the new technology. From those critical discoveries and

experiments we now know about and can harness the nuclear energy from radioactive elements.
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What is nuclear energy

Nuclear energy is the energy that released during nuclear decay of radioactive elements.

Nuclear decay is the process of the nucleus of the atoms breaking down. This releases heat

energy that we can harness in our power plants. Radioactive elements are present in the Earths

crust, and can be mined with other natural resources, because radioactive elements usually occur

with other elements, they have to be isolated to utilize their energy. The mechanism that causes

the breakdown within the elements is still not completely understood, but we do know that it

occurs as the elements try to move to a more stable state. Nuclear power plants harness this

energy by using the heat released by decay to make steam that in then is used to turn turbines

generating electrical power.

The element that is commonly used in reactors is Uranium the two isotopes that uranium

comes in are 235 and 238. Uranium-238 is the most common isotope because it is more stable

The more stable an element is the less potential energy it has but it is safer and easier it is to

work with. Enrichment can be used to maximize the energy while slightly reducing the risks.

Enrichment when scientists increase the proportion of U-235 to that of 238 this increases the

energy that is released during fission. Nuclear fission is the prosses of a nucleus of an atom splits

spontaneously or after collision with other particles this is also known as nuclear decay.

The state of nuclear power in the US and the rest of the developed world.

The first nuclear power plant that was used to supply power into the electrical grid came

online June 26, 1954 in Obninsk, Russia. It produced at the rate of 5 megawatts. MWe is the

electric output of a power plant. This is calculated by the amount of heat produced by the
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reaction multiplied but the efficiency of the plant. The efficiency is determined by how little

energy is lost in the transfer of power. The efficiency of that fist plant was 16%.

The first reactor that came online as part of the power grid in the United States was

used to power Shippingport on the Ohio River in December of 1957. It had a 60 Megawatt

capacity, and an efficiency of 25%. Many other countries followed with nuclear power plants.

. Today there are 488 nuclear reactors in operation in 31 countries. The oldest that is still

in operation is in Tarapur, India. It is 47 years old and since it came online it has produced

40,074 gigawatt/hours of electricity. The newest reactor to come online is in Yang Jiang, China

in January of this year. It has a 1000 megawatt capacity and is 34% efficient so you can see the

significant improvement in nuclear technology over the 63 years it has been in use. Most people

would probably be surprised that there are so many reactors that supply so much of the worlds

power. Many people have only ever heard of three (World Nuclear Association).

Nuclear power plants accidents

One of the most famous reactors that everyone has heard of is Chernobyl. This is the site

of one of the largest nuclear disasters ever. It happened on April 26, 1986 in the USSR in modern

day Ukraine close to the border of Belarus. It happened when reactor 4 blew up during a safety

test. The ironic thing is that the melt down occurred because of the safety test of the facility. The

safety test was designed to figure out what would happen if power was cut to the reactors water

supply pumps. The problem was that Reactor 4 should not have been in operation because it was

not up to safety codes.

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The second problem is that the test they ran should have been run between 700-1000

megawatts the test was run at 200 megawatts. An engineering flaw in the reactor made it

unstable at low power. When they started the test they had to drop the power down but it dropped

to zero megawatts. After this, the boron control rods were taken out to start up the reactor.

Because the Boron gathers up the energy that is released during nuclear decay. After starting the

test the they had trouble getting water to the reactor causing a hot spot to form at the bottom of

the reactor. This caused steam to build up which then caused a power surge. To try to keep the

power surge under control they dropped the boron rods back in, but it made the unstable reactor

more unstable, which made the reactor explode. This melt down caused an environmental

disaster in the entire surrounding area that still exists today.

The second reactor that people may have heard of is Three-mile island. In Harrisburg,

Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1979. Unit two had a minor problem in an electrical system when a

single circuit in the secondary cooling system failed. This made the reactor automatically shut

down. The problem occurred during the shutdown when valve that was supposed to close down

didnt close fully and the reactor coolant leaked out. When the coolant leaked the reactor

overheated. The second failure came because the gauges that should have alerted the engineers

did not indicate the problem, but the safety systems began to operate and the engineers thought

that the safety mechanisms were malfunctioning and shut those down. It wasnt until later that

they realized the problem. The good news was that this reactor had enough safety built in that

there was no environmental disaster, the plant was just too damaged to bring it back on line.

Most of the hysteria about the malfunction came because of how the media was informed and

because, ironically, there was a movie about a nuclear disaster coverup that was released that

same week called The China Syndrome.

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The third power plant disaster that happened occurred in Fukushima Daiichi, Japan on

March 11, 2011. It happened after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami hit Japan. The

earthquake caused the reactors to go into immediate shut down. The reactor was partially

damaged in the quake, but all nuclear material was safely contained. Everything was fine until

the tsunami hit. The tsunami wave measured 15 meters which is about 50 feet high struck the

power plant and caused the backup generators to fail causing a power outage in the critical

cooling system causing meltdown in three of the four reactors at Daiichi. Though they had

planned for the earthquake and even a tsunami it was the sheer size of the event that they could

not have anticipated. The primary environmental impact occurred in the ocean where irradiated

water was released and in the area surrounding the power to the north and west. 81,000 were

originally displaced, however the government has been actively working to remove the

contamination so that the residents can return.

To date there have been 610 nuclear power plants brought on line and only three have

ever had a serious accident, and they are the only three that get talked about. People focus on the

potential for harm without realizing the extraordinary potential for good that they represent. By

comparison over the same period of time there have been over 188 oil spills that I found listed

on the internet.

The nuclear reactor isnt perfect but neither are other forms there are many more oil and

gas related disasters. But we cant look back and say nuclear power wont work because of the

events at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima. They were freak accidents that occurred

only 3 out of 610 times a plant was built and technology has moved forward since then. The 610

power plants does not include the very many nuclear reactors that are being used in other ways to
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generate power. The United States Navy has been using nuclear reactors in their subs since 1954

with the USS Nautilus. They are converting their full fleet over to nuclear power.

Why not other forms and environment

Nuclear power is cleaner and more

USS Nautilus Jan. 21, 1954 (Amdur)
efficient than fossil fuels not as clean as solar or

wind. It is the most efficient power source as you can

see in the diagram. The amount of energy one

Kilogram of uranium produces compared to the

(European Nuculear Society)

amount of coal and oil. In the UAE they are working

on developing nuclear power plants the first is set to open this year. In an interview with the

Bulletin the UAE leading nuclear engineer Hamad Alkaabi was asked why the UAE wasnt

working on developing solar power The UAE is probably one of the most aggressive countries

in terms of developing the renewable sector. However, by our assessment, renewables can only

meet a small portion of the demand in the future. Our expectation is it would reach maximum by

2020 (Alkaabi).

One ton of coal equals 2 megawatts of energy. If you compare that to the 1000

megawatts of the new China reactor it would 500 tons of coal to produce the same result and the

nuclear plant, and it is energy that is completely free of carbon emissions. NASA calculated that

nuclear power prevented and average of 64 gigatons of CO2 emissions from being released into

the atmosphere between 1971 and 2009. They estimate that that is the equivalent the last 35

years worth of carbon emissions in the US. (Kharecha and Hansen)

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Ethics summery

The ethics of this situation are environmental because nuclear power plants dont release

carbon emissions it is a clean energy. It is efficient and becoming more economical. It has a

small footprint and is relatively safe. The use of this energy removes the need for moving oil at

great risk to the environment and the need for oil fracking which is damaging to the environment

and causing tectonic movement. Though not renewable it is very long lasting.

Proposal of action

First we need to lift all moratoriums on building new Nuclear plants. Then over the next

ten years we should start converting old power plants to nuclear plants. Next we should fund

research and development not just nuclear but other sustainable forms of energy.

Conclusion

If we can move past the hysteria of three nuclear incidents there is a great deal to be

gained from this technology. It is not only long lasting and efficient, but also very sustainable.

More over if explored, its applications could go far beyond that of power plants and fleets of

ships to the roadways of the world eliminating CO2 emissions and other pollutants from our

environment. We should trust the science and move forward with nuclear energy.
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Works Cited

Amdur, Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin. USS Nautilus Christening Launches a Naval Warfare Revolution.
20 January 2014. page. <http://navylive.dodlive.mil/2014/01/20/uss-nautilus-christening-
launches-a-naval-warfare-revolution/>.
European Nuculear Society. Fuel Comparison. n.d. internet.
. MWe. n.d.
Kharecha, Pushker and James Hansen. Coal and gas are far more harmful than nuclear power.
n.d. <https://climate.nasa.gov/news/903/coal-and-gas-are-far-more-harmful-than-nuclear-
power/>.
Pass My Exams. Radioactivity. n.d. <http://www.passmyexams.co.uk/GCSE/physics/alpha-beta-
gamma-rays.html>.
World Nuclear Association. Chernobyl Accident 1986. November 2016.
. Fukushima Accident. January 2017.
. Reactor Database. n.d.
. Three Mile Island . January 2012.
Zero Hour: Disaster at Chernobyl. Dir. Renny Bartlett. Perf. David Morrissey. Prod. Tom Lasica.
2004. Internet video . <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITEXGdht3y8>.

"New Generation of Scientists Work on Generators That Run on Nuclear Waste." Nuclear Waste

News, vol. 35, no. 16, 02 Oct. 2015, p. 4. EBSCOhost,

Mecklin, John. "UAE Ambassador and Nuclear Power Expert Hamad Alkaabi." Bulletin of the

Atomic Scientists, vol. 72, no. 1, Jan. 2016, p. 25. EBSCOhost,

Kang, Jungmin, et al. "Hot Potato in South Korea: The Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage

Dilemma." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 71, no. 3, May 2015, p. 76. EBSCOhost

Wood, Jeffrey H., et al. "Moving Targets: Nuclear Power as a Component of EPA's Clean Power

Plan." Natural Resources & Environment, vol. 30, no. 4, Spring2016, p. 40. EBSCOhost,

Featherstone, Steven. "The Swallows of Fukushima." Scientific American, vol. 312, no. 2, Feb.

2015, p. 74. EBSCOhost,

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Pearson, John and Chuck Goodwin. "Point: Nuclear Power Plants Are Safe, Clean, and Cost

Effective." Points of View: Nuclear Power, 3/1/2016, p. 2. EBSCOhost,

Dupea, Robert and David C. Morley. "Counterpoint: Nuclear Power Is Not Worth the

Risk." Points of View: Nuclear Power, 3/1/2016, p. 3. EBSCOhost,

Pearson, John. "Counterpoint: The Risks of Nuclear Power Outweigh the Benefits." Points of

View: Nuclear Power, 3/1/2016, p. 5. EBSCOhost