Today I’m gonna talk about nuclear power plants.
So I’m gonna talk about how they work, the environmental aspects around them,
the usage and costs and their sustainability.
We’ll start with functionality.
A nuclear power plant contains a reactor, control rods, a turbine, a generator
and a condenser. To generate electricity, rods with uranium 235 are lowered into
the reactor along with control rods. This creates a reaction called fission,
which splits the atomic cores in the uranium and in turn creates heat energy.
This energy boils the water, creating steam that gets fed to the turbine and
spins it. The turbine is connected to the generator, which produces electricity.
The steam then gets cooled down by the condenser, and the coolant used to cool
it goes out to a nearby lake or ocean.
Now for some pros and cons.
Nuclear power plants produce much more energy than any other plant, creating
around 75 giga watt hours. They’re also high in energy density, which means that
the uranium fuel used can last a long time and requires little energy to split.
Nuclear power plants are also highly reliable and weather does not impact how
they function. They also provide many research opportunities for technologies
like better reactors, more reliable fuel sources, etc. Nuclear power plants also
don’t produce any carbon dioxide during operation and they provide jobs since
working at these plants is in high demand.
However, the cons are that they leave behind radioactive waste that can take
thousands of years before it’s safe again. They’re also very expensive to build
and have a potentially catastrophic risk factor if something were to go wrong.
They’re also non-renewable, and the public perception of nuclear power plants
has been going bad since accidents like chernobyl.
Now I’m gonna talk about the environmental aspects.
As I said before, no greenhouse gas emissions come from operation. They do come
during the construction of the plant, though. Also like I said, they’re
non-renewable. But uranium has a very long lifetime, and since it’s only used in
very small amounts, one chunk could last a very long time. As I said before,
research is also currently being done on how to for instance re use uranium and
better the efficiency.
Locally, coolant leaks into lakes and oceans are a common problem for
ecosystems. Large areas around the plants are often occupied for security
factors and the mining of uranium emits harmful particles. Globally, nuclear
power plants have a very low carbon footprint. But they do have slightly higher
uranium emissions. And as I said before, the risk factor is extremely high.
Now I’m gonna talk about some problems and solutions to ecological
sustainability.
The first problem is coolant being drained into nearby water. This raises the
water temperature and causes negative side effects, like invasive species taking
over and causing an imbalance. We could solve this by building water towers that
contain already made coolant. This would reduce the amount of coolant needed and
protect the ecosystem, but this would be more expensive and require a bit of the
energy produced from the plants.
Another problem is the mining of uranium. Mining uranium can contaminate
groundwater and release radioactive fumes. We can solve this by implementing
stricter rules and advance in the technology to re use uranium. This would lead
to less nuclear waste and reduced mining, but there are technical challenges
since reusing uranium is currently impossible. It would also require
international cooperation, which is difficult.
Now for some usage and cost.
Sweden has 6 reactors in use. They make up 40 percent of Sweden’s electricity
production. As I said earlier, coolant impacts nearby water. A lot of
underground area has to be occupied to store nuclear waste.
Globally there are 440 reactors that make up 10 percent of all electricity
production. No greenhouse gases get released during operation, but uranium fumes
are a common problem. Like I said, jobs also become available.
To build a nuclear power plant it would cost around five to ten billion dollars.
Costs have risen due to stricter regulations and renewable sources becoming more
popular.
To operate, they require around 500 to 1000 workers. Regular maintenance is also
required. In total, it costs around 25 to 50 million dollars per year to run.
Now, sustainability.
The original design of nuclear power plants used to last 30 to 40 years, but
with the modernising of old reactors they can last up to fifty years.
Thanks for listening.