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Nuclear energy at a crossroads

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Title: Nuclear energy at a crossroads


1
Nuclear energy at a crossroads
2
Benefits
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.

3
Problems
  • 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
4
Low 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
5
High 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
6
Disposal options
7
Why 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

8
Transmutation/ 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
9
The H bomb
  • Exploded 1952 on Eniwetok island, S. Pacific
  • 9 countries now have nuclear weapons.

10
Nuclear 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?

11
1954 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.
12
Bravo Hydrogen bomb crater, 1956 Bikini atoll
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