Clean Nuclear Energy And its future in The U.S.

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Clean Nuclear Energy And its future in The U.S.

• PRESENTED BY
• KAYLA ROONEY, MIKE MORRISON, SHAUN PIERRE

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Why do we need a repository?

• Spent nuclear fuel and waste are hazardous
• Remain toxic for thousands of years
• Environmental damage
• Cause cancer
• Other harmful effects/threats

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How much is there?

• 75,000 metric tons
• Produced from 80 sites throughout 35 states
• Expected to be doubled by 2055

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Where is it now?

• Interim
• Temporary designated areas
• On-site storage
• Plants have storage areas

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On-Site Storage Problems

• Plants generally commissioned for 40 years
• Some recommission for 20
• Storage areas reaching capacity
• Reracking/organization
• 60 years to safely decommission a plant
• Storage considered safe for another 60 years
  after that

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Permanent Repository Options

• Space
• High costs
• Risks associated with launch failure
• Transmutation to harmless materials
• High costs
• Not necessarily 100 effective
• Geological

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Geological Repositories

• Nuclear Waste Policy Act, 1982
• Yucca Mountain, 1987
• Funding shut down in 2010
• Political reasons
• Locals unsatisfied

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Nuclear power does not have a future without a
central waste repository.

• VIEWPOINT 1

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Currently?

• Nuclear waste generated in the U.S. is stored at
  or near one of the 121 facilities across the
  country where it is generated

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On Site Storage?

• In the short term, irradiated reactor fuel should
  be stored as safely as possible on site or as
  close to the point of generation as possible for
  an interim period.

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On-site storage is not a sound strategy for the
long term

• Possibility of reprocessing
• Leaks and accidents
• Requires constant monitoring
• Destruction of waste storage containers by
  natural disasters or terrorism

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On-site storage is not a sound strategy for the
long term

• The temporary casks are only licensed to hold
  radioactive waste for 20 years.

Another 49,000 metric tons is being held in
spent-fuel pools, waiting to be placed in vessels.
More than 800 filled casks await a final
destination, holding 14,000 metric tons of waste.
A further 2,000 metric tons of nuclear reactor
waste is created every year.
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Maine Yankee Facility

• Nuclear power plant built in Wiscasset, Maine
• Operated from 1972-1996
• Decommissioned and dismantled between 1997-2005
• Left behind 64 steel and concrete casks that
  hold 542 metric tons of radioactive waste
• Protected by barbed wire, cameras, and a security
  force

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Federal Governments Obligation to Remove and
Dispose of Nuclear Waste

• More than 10 years behind schedule
• Has paid nuclear utilities 565 million in
  compensation for costs incurred because of its
  failure to meet that schedule.
• DOE currently estimates that liabilities to
  electric utilities for such damages will total
  more than 12 billion if the department begins to
  accept nuclear waste by 2020.

-Kim Cawley, chief of the Natural and Physical
Resources Cost Estimates Unit
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Viewpoint 2 Is there a future?Yes.

• Nuclear Energy is a modern energy
• Still Being debated to use or not
• Is it safe
• Is it manageable
• Will it sustain our growing energy needs

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The Building of New Nuclear

• In 2005, 30 nations declare first nuclear
  installs plus 65 claim interests plus 30 already
  running
• 14 Global Electricity (2012)
• 20 apps have been filed with Nuclear Regulatory
  Commission,18 Col Apps
• 28 Reactors/ 18 sites in US

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Slow But Sure Progress

• Bureaucratic Approval/ Re-approvals
• Focus on Form and Function
• Safety measurements built-in
• Cooperation between Govt., Privet, and Safety
• This assures the best plants possible
• Prepared for all possible scenarios

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Remy Carle(SES) French ElectricsNuclear Power
(presses Universitaires de France 1994)

• Accident prevention, from the initial design
  stage, through careful sizing of all
  installations, the taking into account of
  possible equipment failures and human error, the
  taking into account of external hazards, the
  implementation of safety systems, and the quality
  control of the design and execution of equipment
  and work
• Continuous monitoring during operation, according
  to procedures monitored by national authorities
• Implementation of safety systems to maintain the
  cooling of nuclear fuel and prevent the release
  of radioactive products in the event of abnormal
  operation
• De?nition of emergency planning and procedures to
  deal with the highly improbably event of a
  serious accident

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Looking Ahead Fast Reactors

• Gen IV, much more efficient
• Large cut in waste volume
• To this date Safer than current Reactors
• Universal Push ( US, Japan, France)

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Aggressive Govt. Support

• Govt. loans
• Incentives for early investors
• Adding a CO2 tax on coal and Natural Gas
• Ensures competitive cost to Nuclear
• Pushes Privet investors towards Nuclear

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Gallup Polls show support rising
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Our consensus

• A central repository is necessary for nuclear
  powers future

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Work-sited

• Ahearne, John F, Albert V. Carr, JR. Harold A
  Felveson, Daniel Ingersoll, Andrew C Klein,
  Stephen Maloney, Ivan Oelrich, Sharon Swuassoni,
  and Richard Wolfson. "The Future Of Nuclear Power
  In The United States." Ed. Charles C Ferguson and
  Frank A Settle. Federation Of American
  Scientists/ Wahsington and Lee University, 1 Jan.
  2012. Web. Nov. 2014. lthttp//fas.org/pubs/_docs/
  Nuclear_Energy_Report-lowres.pdfgt.
• "Fast Neutron Reactors." World Nuclear
  Association. World Nuclear Association, 1 Jan.
  2014. Web. Nov. 2014. lthttp//www.world-nuclear.o
  rg/info/Current-and-Future-Generation/Fast-Neutron
  -Reactors/gt.
• http//www.greenamerica.org/programs/climate/dirty
  energy/nuclear.cfm
• http//ieer.org/resource/factsheets/yucca-mountain
  /
• http//www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/nuclea
  r-faq.html
• http//www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/tickin
  g-time-bombs-what-should-we-do-with-nuclear-waste/
  ?tagcontent3Bcol1
• http//ansnuclearcafe.org/2014/09/16/surface-stora
  ge-of-used-nuclear-fuel-safe-cost-effective-and-fl
  exible/