Nuclear energy, a better and cleaner energy for the future??

So, after 3-4 week of informative nuclear information has been given, what do you all readers think about nuclear? Some say green, some say nay, some say yeay and lots more. But the point to ponder upon here is will nuclear today create better future tomorrow?  

As engineer, we do our best to improve human quality life by adding the comfort they are enjoying. On the other hand, we also try our very best to sustain the environment, so that our future generation will be able to enjoy what we enjoy today. Today, the most serious environmental issues we faced is global warming. U may not want to admit this, but we know the coldness of yesteryear have been long gone, and today we suffer severe heating at even 11am-4pm in Malaysia!! To prove this statement, the star paper have once publish that the sales of air conditioning over the last few years has increased. Hence, we need to over come this problem first, as soon as possible.

Some people might be worried about nuclear radiation. Throughout nuclear history, there are 2 most severe case which is the three-mile-island and also Chernobyl. Both cases have shown that nuclear power generation is deadly. Hence, I believe that, some might not be able to sleep peacefully knowing that the nuclear power plant is operating. This is because, we cant predict when accident could happen, and our lecturers have warned us that an accident anywhere is an accident everywhere. This imply that, this is our last nuclear power chance. 1 more accident like Chernobyl will cause the whole world nuclear power plant to shut down for good. However, despite the odds, until we can reduce the global carbon dioxide emission in the world to below 450ppm with other method, nuclear is still one of the best possibility available. This is on par with the resolution come out in the Copenhagen Summit.

In fact, aside from the accident, some might worry bout the nuclear waste, nuclear radiation and also the Malaysian "tak apa lah" attitude in handling the nuclear power plant. Nuclear waste is seriously not a joke. A lecturer whom just got back training from Japan, clearly mention to me indirectly that the nuclear waste is costing a bomb to be cleared. Aside from that, it is highly radioactive and very dangerous to human. However this waste is very little compare with the toxic waste factory produces. As for nuclear radiation, it is proven, a nuclear power plant emits less radiation than a smoker produce when he smokes. 


So, be responsible to yourselves and to the future of your kids, you would want them to live in a better environment than you do now.

Chow Down Da Radioactive Gasses XP

Radiation, radiation, radiation and radiation..... This is what people would think of when the sensitive words like nuclear and uranium are being spoke of. As we all know, spent nuclear fuel is radioactive.... they too emit radioactive gas that would be easily spread to the surroundings if not contained properly.....


But hei.... good news have arrived.... Apparently, a group of researchers have found something that would be able to capture and remove volatile radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuel. This idea would be achieved by using MOF.... not to be mistaken for Ministry of Food but metal-organic frameworks.


MOFs are crystalline, porous materials in which a metal center is bound to organic molecules by mid self-assembly chemical synthesis. Since iodine has half-life of 16 million years and would be created from spent nuclear fuels, MOF would be used to help seperate one molecule of iodine from a stream of molecules. Then the MOF and pore-trapped iodine gas can then be placed into a glass waste for long-term storage.


Well..... Lets hope that there would be more to come in order to make the use of nuclear fuel in our society to be an even more safe resource for the benefit of mankind ^^


Below is a picture of a lady holding some of the samples of MOFs

Uranium = Renewable Resource????

We've always heard of different energy sources being renewable...... Wind energy, hydroelectric and also the solar energy are some of the renewable energy sources. These renewable energy sources are clean and of the abundance in our beautiful earth.

However, what if I would like to say that the heart and core of the nuclear reactor, URANIUM!!! is also one of the renewable resource for us to exploit. Apparently, the supply of uranium on earth would still be there even after the earth has become uninhabitable... Unless everyone of us suddenly starts going green and preserving the environment of the world... Then that would be a different story.... But from the looks of things, the humans would have long left the earth or the worst case scenario dead before the supply of uranium would be depleted....

Apparently, a japanese guy with the name of Masao Tamada from the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency stated that there is an extremely huge amount of uranium dissolved in the seawater. There are around 4.5 billion tons of uranium dissolved in the seawater in which is equivalent to a thousand times of the amount found in terrestrial ores. Soon, the uranium which is from the seawater would be used as resources for the demand of the ever energy craving society in the future.

Tamada pointed out that there were researches on uranium absorbing materials that has been going on since quite some time ago which can be traced back into the 1960's. However, one should note that 'mining' uranium from the sea is more expansive than mining uranium from the ground which is as expensive as 300 dollar per kg. However, if the mined uranium is being used for power generation, it would still be considered as inexpensive.

It should be noted that new uranium would constantly be flowing into the sea whether through rivets and also through under water sources. Therefore, should harvesting of uranium from the sea becomes a major bloom of the industry, the constant amount of uranium being channeled into the sea would be able to replace the uranium that has been harvested.

Therefore, URANIUM IS A RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCE!!!!


Anyways, below is a graphical flow chart showing the process of uranium being mined from the earth

Nuclear Waste : Safer Than You Think.

          One of the most concerning issues pertaining to nuclear energy generation is the waste management strategies. In other words, this matter can be simplified in one single question “What do we do with the all nuclear wastes?”. The general understanding of these wastes are that they are radioactive, and this raises concerns of their effects towards the surrounding environment should they be exposed through improper waste disposal or leakage from their containments. Thus, much research and effort has been done to find a viable solution to this problem, which then leads to the fact that nuclear power being the only large scale energy producing technology which takes full responsibility for all of its wastes and even fully costs them into the product.

            However, the truth is that the amount of waste produced by nuclear power generation is much smaller when compared to other power generation types. In comparison, a 1000MW nuclear power plant produces 27 tonnes of nuclear waste per year where as a typical 1000MW coal plant produces 7 million tonnes of waste. In addition, out of the 27 tonnes of nuclear waste produced (which are actually used nuclear fuels) , 97% of it is recycled, which then leaves only 700kg of hazardous high-level radioactive waste to be disposed.

           The reason for such a relatively small amount of waste produced by nuclear power plants is due to the amount of fuel it consumes. A coal power plant requires up to 3 million tonnes of coal per year where as a nuclear power plant only requires 25 tonnes of Uranium per year, and this is because the energy conversion value for coal fuel averages at 24MJ/kg whereas a Uranium fuel has a value of 500000MJ/kg.

           To make matters worse, the ash that is released to the atmosphere during the operation of coal power plants are found to be radioactive, and it poses great health concerns when inhaled into the body from the contaminated air. A U.S. NCRP report made in the 1993 displayed a more concerning fact, that the radioactive emission of a coal power plant is actually greater than a nuclear power plant, in which it found that a 1000MW coal power plant emits 490 person-rem/year of radioactive exposure where as an equally powered nuclear plant only emits up to 136 person-rem/year.

          Unlike other industrial wastes, the degree of hazard imposed by these radioactive nuclear wastes actually decreases over time due to the nature of its half-life, and in countries which utilize nuclear power, the produced radioactive waste from these plants only make up 1% of the total industrial toxic wastes (for which the 99% remains hazardous indefinitely).

References:
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf04.html
http://www.world-nuclear.org/education/whyu.htm
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs163-97/FS-163-97.html
http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html

Safety of a nuclear power plant

Nuclear safety cover the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. Safety is concerned with both radiation risks under normal circumstances and radiation risks as a consequence of incidents, as well as with other possible direct consequences of a loss of control over a nuclear reactor core, nuclear chain reaction, radioactive source or any other source of radiation. ‘Radiation’ in this context means ionizing radiation. ‘Incidents’ includes initiating events, accident precursors, near misses, accidents and unauthorized acts (including malicious and non-malicious acts). ‘Safety measures’ include actions to prevent incidents and arrangements put in place to mitigate their consequences if they were to occur. ‘Nuclear security’ denotes the prevention and detection of, and response to, theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear material, other radioactive substances or their associated facilities. Safety measures and security measures have in common the aim of protecting human life and health and the environment. The safety standards concern the security of facilities and activities to the extent that they require ‘security for safety’ measures that contribute to both safety and security, such as;

1. Appropriate provisions in the design and construction of nuclear installations and other facilities
2. Controls on access to nuclear installations and other facilities to prevent the loss of, and the unauthorized removal, possession, transfer and use of radioactive material
3. Arrangements for mitigating the consequences of accidents and failures,which also facilitate measures for dealing with breaches in security that give rise to radiation risks
4. Measures for the security of the management of radioactive sources and radioactive material

A Step Into The Future

A journey of life is ever challenging....... We start as a baby, crying our way into the world. Then we would start to crawl, stand, eventually walking and finally running.... In the process of learning how to walk, a baby would definitely fall down, cry a little, then would contemplate whether to try to walk again or not. Eventually, that little toddler would stand up again and start to walk again. I am pretty sure, in the baby's language, he or she would be thinking of what should be done to make sure that the next step of the walk to be a successful one. After some baby maths and risk assessment, the next step would be done and voila...... The baby DID IT!!!!! The baby has successfully started to walk..... And the next thing you would notice is the tear filled eyes of the baby's parents knowing that their baby is taking the next step into his or her growth.

Well to a baby, the hurt of falling is very risky since it would be painful since the floor is not sofa. However, due to the baby's desire to walk knowing that through walking, he or she would be able to reach places and most importantly, his or her toy, the risk is definitely worth it. Therefore, no risk no gain........

The majority of nuclear reactors in the world now are 2nd generation nuclear reactors in which has around 30 to 40 years of lifespan.... the reactors' lifespan would be able to be extended to up to 80 years with the right steps taken. The 2nd generation nuclear reactors operate under standard safety and operational standards ensuring that the reactor would operate safely and would not cost mushroom clouds for the viewing pleasure of people nearby. Up until now, out of so many operating nuclear reactors, only 3 notable catastrophe happened which are the chernobyl nuclear reactor, the fukushima nuclear reactor and also the 3 mile island nuclear reactor. Considering the amount of accident compared to the amount of nuclear reactors in the world, statistically speaking, power generation through nuclear means is very safe.

Like a baby, the understanding and the improvements being done on nuclear reactor designs are ever growing. We have now entered the age of the 3rd generation nuclear reactors.

The 3rd generation nuclear reactor has a more standard design leading to better efficiency in acquiring license since the current nuclear reactors would need years to get the license for building and operation. Not only that, since the design is standard, the construction cost and time would be decreased as well.

Due to the simpler and rugged design of the nuclear reactor, there would be less chance for the reactor to experience operational error since the operational difficulty would be way less than the current nuclear reactors.  The technological advancement of this generation of nuclear reactors also would mean that the operational lifetime of the reactor to be longer which can last up to 60 years and up to 120 years with extension. The melting of the core would mean that the reactor would start to release radioactive waste into the environment. The 3rd generation nuclear power plant would be designed so as to make sure that it would further reduce the possibility of core melt accidents.

Due to the happening of the 911 incident in which that planes were being crashed onto the world trade centre in the United States of America, the 3rd generation nuclear reactor would be designed so as to ensure that the reactor would be resistant to serious damage that would cause the radioactive substance to be released into the atmosphere should some crazy 'thrill seekers' who want to get into the history books by crashing planes into any nuclear reactors in the world. Since the radioactive waste is one of the major problem of nuclear reactors these days, the 3rd generation nuclear reactor addresses this problem by having a decrease in nuclear waste per mass of fuel by operating more efficiently resulting in the generation of more energy per mass of fuel being used.

Therefore, in my opinion, nuclear generation through the use of 3rd generation nuclear reactor is the future of  power generation of the world. I am sure, with more interest and financial support being poured into supporting the new generation of nuclear power plants, it would emerge as a safe and yet effective power generating tool (^_^)

The Double Miracle of a Nuclear Reaction

In the previous post, we discussed on how nuclear fission can be controlled, and thereby, avoiding cathostrophe. But the question asked is, how can nuclear fission cause such devastation? When we talk about devastation, we are reminded of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings of 1945 and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

We first answer that question with another question, "How does a nuclear reaction work?"

There are two types of nuclear reactions, a Fusion reaction and a Fission reaction. Fusion reaction is the act of fusing two atoms to create energy where as fission is the act of splitting one atom to create energy. In nuclear power plants, the type of reaction that is used is a fission reaction.

Nuclear reaction is in itself, a double miracle. If not for this double miracle, nuclear reactions could not bring so much devastation as mentioned earlier.

The first miracle is that in fusing or splitting an atomic nuclei, energy is released equivalent to the "missing mass" which results from this reaction. What this means is that, in a time when nuclear reaction was first discovered, scientists were puzzled as to why the total mass of the atoms before and after a nuclear reaction are never equivalent.

What they found is that the total mass of atoms after the reaction are always lesser than the total mass of atoms before the reaction, and hence the term "missing mass" or "mass defect".

It was only later when Einstein came up with his famous equation of E=MC^2 to explain this phenomenon. He theorized that the missing mass was directly transformed into pure energy as a result of the reaction, an energy equivalent to the missing mass times a certain constant value, the speed of light squared. Further experiments done later proved the validity of his equation.

In short, the first miracle is the release of raw energy (a direct conversion from mass to energy) as a result of a nuclear reaction. Further expanding this idea implies that a small amount of nuclear fuel can be converted to extensive amounts of pure power, which sounds as fascinating as it is terrifying.

The second miracle is the chain reaction tendency of a nuclear reaction. For example, in a nuclear fission reaction, all that is needed to split one atom is one single neutron. However, such a reaction would create not only one, but two and sometimes three neutrons. These high energy neutrons released will then split other neighbouring atoms which will in turn create even more neutrons. This is the chain reaction as mentioned earlier and it will continue to happen until either all atoms are split or when there isn't any high energy neutrons left. This means that once when a nuclear reaction is initiated, the reaction rate will continue to increase at a ridiculously tremendous rate.

Combining both these miracles, you will get a reaction that not only releases huge amounts of raw energy, but at a release rate so fast that it is just.. MINDBLOWING!!! *ba dum tsss*

Back to a serious note, the blast from the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on that day was so powerful, that it imprinted the shadows of its victim on the floors and walls everywhere in that place, and these shadows are called atomic shadows. True story my fellow readers.

For pictures of these atomic shadows, click here:
http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/atomic-shadows/

After witnessing the use of nuclear weapons in World War 2, Einstein was quoted to have said "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker." (If Einstein didnt pursue his career in physics, he would have followed his fathers footsteps in being a watchmaker)

We are all too familiar with the famous phrase "With great power comes great responsibility" and clearly, nuclear energy brings so much potential in power generation. As discussed in the previous post, with the advancements of technology in the present age, a safe control of nuclear power generation is more than possible. Therefore, it is very true that the future is nuclear power.