Title: Nuclear energy at a crossroads
1Nuclear energy at a crossroads
2Benefits
Pool type breeder reactor
- Reactors generate electricity without adding to
global warming/air pollution. - Small amt. of U gives off large amts. of energy
- 150 lbs. of U 235 30 000 000lbs TNT
- U.S. has more energy in known U reserves than
coal or gas.
3Problems
- Reactors and nuclear missiles create
radioactive waste with very long half-lives - Plutonium is highly toxic
- Waste must be stored safely for at least 20 000
years
Canister burial deep underground
4Low level waste
- Source medical procedures, research, cleanup
materials. - 10 years in storage 100 X less radiation
- May be removed later to landfills.
Maxey Flats storage facility, KY
5High level waste
- From N power plants and N missiles
- Material takes
- 720 000years to decay
- Best option deep burial underground
- Prevents escape into air or ground water.
Yucca mountain, NV
6Disposal options
7Why not..
- Bury it under the ocean floor?
- too expensive
- Blast it into space?
- too expensive, could leak into
atmosphere, could explode on takeoff - Recycle it?
- already being done
-
8Transmutation/ recycling N fuel
- Changes high level waste to elements w/shorter ½
lives - Breeder reactor spent fuel is reprocessed to
convert Pu to U for reuse - Hybrid reactor uses neutrons to convert U to
smaller, less toxic elements (experimental)
Fast breeder reactor, Japan
9The H bomb
- Exploded 1952 on Eniwetok island, S. Pacific
- 9 countries now have nuclear weapons.
10Nuclear proliferation
Fast breeder reactor
US Peacekeeper nuclear missile
- N power plants/ U refineries create Plutonium
that can be used to make N bombs. - When a country builds a N power plant, it causes
international concern. - Are they using it for electricity, or for war?
111954 H bomb
Humans have unlocked the power inside an
atom What we do with that power is a question we
must all ask and answer for ourselves.
12Bravo Hydrogen bomb crater, 1956 Bikini atoll