Friday, July 5, 2013

Why don't we like Nuclear Power?

My first encounter with nuclear power, along with many in my generation, was in a little town called Springfield. A place where the fish have three eyes, the power plant is run by a greedy old man and the control room is under the watchful eye of a loveable oaf. I am, of course, referring to The Simpsons and the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant which has had relatively few incidents considering the nature of the show. It wasn't Chernobyl or Three Mile Island that would be my first experience with nuclear energy but a cartoon where fuel rods bounced around the streets and nuclear disasters were averted by an inanimate carbon rod. This kind of fun experience effectively eliminated the fearful element of nuclear power that has existed in previous generations. I have developed such a positive view that if there were to be a nuclear power plant built in my community I wouldn't be protesting or screaming "think of the children!" I would be relaxing, happy in the knowledge that my electricity would be coming from an object that has more potential energy than anything else on Earth, the nucleus of an atom.

Look at all that potential energy
Source: www.nscl.msu.edu


So that brings me to a question I often dwell on, why isn't nuclear power more prevalent in America? As a country we have finally come to the consensus than fossil fuels are not good for the environment and are now desperately looking everywhere for "green" energy but our search seems to be neglecting nuclear power. We have the technology to make it almost 100% safe and have developed newer types of reactors that don't rely on fissionable material, such as Thorium molten salt reactors (which I'll cover another day.) In my search for answers I will be lucky enough to have sources such as The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the European Nuclear Society to provide information for me to delve in to and there is quite a bit of new research on nuclear physics coming out all the time so I'll never be without data on this subject.

Why aren't we #1?
Source: www.euronuclear.org


I also tend to wonder why we, as a nation, do not use nuclear power as a larger portion of our total energy production like other countries do? I'd also like to find out why nuclear power isn't as popular as coal, natural gas, wind energy, or any of the other "green" energy sources. There has to be a reason why nuclear energy isn't more prevalent in this country.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 5, 2013 at 9:02 PM

    Nuclear fission isn't exactly green, as massive amounts of energy are needed to produce relatively little amounts of useable power (most of the power, as I understand it, is to keep the reactors cool). Also, the decaying elements produced harming radioactive waste that is impossible to dispose of without the use of a mountain-sized storage facilities.

    I will concede that aside from properly harnessing solar energy, or developing a way to stabilize fusion reactions, fission is a great source of power compared to any fossil fuel.

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    1. RHPetersonJuly 7, 2013 at 2:10 AM

      I guess when I talk about green energy I'm thinking about energy with a relatively low carbon footprint and by no means do I want to say, or imply, that nuclear power is a renewable resource.

      I do want to explore energy output of a nuclear power plant compared to say a coal or natural gas plant. Obviously a standard U-235 fission reaction puts out significantly more energy than any fossil fuel possibly could, seeing as the fission reaction of U-235 at the scale of 1 atom releases about 200 MeV (with a little math this can be brought up to a more reasonable scale for comparison.) I do think it is important to find out how much of this energy gets out to the "grid" and how much is used to keep the reaction under control.

      Every form of energy production will produce some sort of waste product, be it carbon, slowly decaying isotopes or old solar panels. The question of which source of energy is best for this country or the world is simply beyond my understanding.

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  2. AnonymousJuly 6, 2013 at 7:29 AM

    This is a good, relevant question, and I really like the personal element you included in your post with the Simpsons reference. That goes to show how out of touch most of us are when it comes to nuclear energy. It's just not something we have to think about much, or see in our backyards (yet).

    Along with the government sources you listed, you should find good articles in popular magazines and newspapers. See my most recent blog post for a list of such publications by political leaning.

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