Pros and Cons of Nuclear Power
Advantages of Nuclear Power- Nuclear power provides an emissions free energy source
- No greenhouse gasses emitted
- Not a contributor to global warming
- Not a contributor to acid rain
- There is a lower volume of waste than traditional sources of energy generation
- Nuclear plants help regions to meet standards on air pollution and help to reduce the cost of air pollution control
- Nuclear energy generation is the most efficient power source per unit area
- There is a very low risk of work related injury. There has not been a single fatality in the past 40 years of day-to-day running of nuclear plants.
- There are no harmful pollutants are discharged into water
- Areas around plants can be used for development of wetlands
- There is less than 20 tons of high level waste produced per nuclear plant annually
- Nuclear can leverage a high degree of future price stability as compared with fluctuating prices for fossil fuels as used, for example, in standard coal fired plants
- It is easy to transport new fuel
Disadvantages of Nuclear Power
- Nuclear power plants require a larger capital cost due to emergency, containment, radioactive waste and storage systems involved in the process
- There needs to be a resolution of the long-term high level waste storage issue in many countries
- There is a potential nuclear proliferation problem
Advantages of Nuclear Power (in more depth)
Efficiency of Uranium – Uranium-235 is the isotope of uranium that is used in nuclear reactors. Uranium-235 can produce 3.7 million times as much energy as the same amount of coal. For example, 7 trucks, each carrying 6 cases of 2-12 foot high fuel assemblies, can fuel a 1000 Megawatt-electrical (MWe) reactor for 1.5 years. During this period, ~ 2 metric tons of Uranium-235 (of the 100 metric tons of fuel - uranium dioxide) would be consumed. In order to operate a coal plant of the same output would require 1 train of 90-100 ton coal cars every day. Over 350,000 tons of ash would be produced and approximately 4 million tons of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides would be released into the atmosphere.
Fuel Costs – The use of Uranium-235 in nuclear power generation is cost competitive with other forms of electricity generation, except where there is a direct access to low cost fossil fuels. Also, the use of nuclear power generation removes the dependence of particular countries for fossil fuel production and the inherent volatility in the price.
Abundance of Uranium - Uranium ore is the raw material used to make the uranium fuel necessary for nuclear power generation. Countries that are rich in uranium ore are; United States, South Africa, Canada, Nigeria, Australia - with resources between 270 and 2400 thousand tons each.
Emissions free energy source - Nuclear power can be employed as part of a strategy to address carbon emissions. Nuclear power plants do not emit carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, or nitrous oxides. In order for Europe to meet the emission targets outlined in the Kyoto Protocol to reduce global warming, the European Commission concluded that Europe would need at least 85 new nuclear power plants.
Safety - According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the number of incidents at
Nuclear power plants that may trigger any of a number of safety systems have dropped from 2.37 in 1985 to .03 in 2000. In addition, recent research shows that the frequency of accidents and the number of deaths from nuclear power production is less than for energy production from coal, oil, natural gas, or hydropower.
Fuel Reprocessing – The reprocessing of nuclear fuel reduces the waste that must be
disposed to three per cent of the original amount. If nuclear fuel is reprocessed, the
radioactivity declines to that of coal ash in 400 years. The United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and France all reprocess spent fuel, which involves separates out plutonium from the waste.
Disadvantages of Nuclear Power (in more depth)
Risk of accidents - Accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear power plants confirmed a long held fear that nuclear power was not a safe source of energy production. The result of these two accidents meant that utilities cancelled a number of proposed and partially constructed nuclear generating plants. Since the accidents, industry and government has worked to improve safety and reduce the risk of accident, but there is still the risk of catastrophe especially when one considers growing terrorist threats.
Waste storage plan – Reports by the Natural Research Council (NRC), suggest that the growing volume of nuclear waste stored on site at nuclear power plants requires attention. The NRC notes that both geological disposal and monitored storage on or near the earth’s surface are safe and feasible storage options. However, there are currently significant technical and non-governmental group opposition to this form of storage.
Costs of start-up – Although the costs to create energy from nuclear power are lower when compared to most other forms of energy production from a fuel perspective, the costs to construct, monitor, insure and ultimately decommission are higher than those from an equivalent fossil fuel based power plant.
posted by Admin @ 12:45
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