Heavy Metal Fission - A Reason for Optimism

Energy Pulse - Insight, Analysis, & Commentary on the Global Power Industry ^ | November 4, 2004 | Rodney Adams

[mvpel]

Casual observers to nuclear power debates are often intrigued by the vehemence with which the participants present their arguments. They also frequently note that the debate seems to produce some strange alliances. As a veteran of numerous exchanges over more than 25 years, I would like to share some insights that might be valuable for people new to the fray.

I am not a neutral participant when it comes to atomic energy. My comments on the subject are rather easy to find; I started sharing them on the Internet in 1990. In essence, my view is that nuclear fission is the most important discovery of the 20th century, with the potential for more positive impact on human prosperity than the automobile, air travel, television, personal computers, or the Internet. On my personal scale of important technologies, it ranks right next to fire.

[Trepz]

An interesting article.

[steveyp]

PingDong

[Wiz]

Let's see if the world will succeed like Sim City, with microwave plants and fusion plants replacing fission power. Meanwhile, there are less chance of awful accidents and less half year of radioactive waste, the bad news would be it will take another few decades for testing the ITER before it can satisfy the industry and replace fission. I wonder how tidal wave power, ocean thermal difference power generator, methane hydrate, and the hydrogen fuel cell power at home will impact the ratio sharing with fission power plant.

[Jack of all Trades]

mark

[mvpel]

Meanwhile, actually, fusion power production is still forty years away, just like it was forty years ago.

It will satisfy the industry when it gets well past the experimental government-funded white-elephant stage. Its "perpetual forty year plan" development paints a stark contrast with fission, which first took place in a gymnasium in Chicago a bit over sixty years ago and now supplies 20% of US electricity and propels gargantuan floating cities around the globe.

[BigBobber]

They seem to ignore the obvious fact that humans have always known that the wind and the sun are sources of energy that can be captured. People began using fire long ago to overcome the limitations imposed by relying on these weather dependent energy sources.

Great point from the article. Thanks for posting.

[Carry_Okie]

What he doesn't understand is that the "fossil fuel" interests that fund the anti-nuclear "industry" also buy a significant fraction of Federal debt with their politically inflated profits.

A Faustian bargain indeed.

[FrankRepublican]

What about pebble bed reactors?

Less waste, safer, lower cost, no meltdowns??

The DOE is also working on bacteria that can digest and make radioactive waste safe (?)

[beavus]

Another point he could have made is that if electric or hydrogen fueled cars are ever to become commonplace, there will have to be an explosion of nuclear power plant production.

It's true. The same ignorant and irrational Rifkinite fears that hinder topics like genetic engineering and cloning also struggle to keep man's knuckles dragging on nuclear energy as well. It's not safety they seek, but darkness.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

IIRC, his Adams' Atomic Engines were/are pebble bed reactors. Scalable, compact and mostly forgotten - unfortunately.

[mvpel]

Pebble-bed reactor designs are still in development. South Africa, as I recall, is doing work in that field, and there was a very interesting article in Wired a couple of months ago about Chinese efforts in that field.

[nuke rocketeer]

"I wonder how tidal wave power, ocean thermal difference power generator, methane hydrate, and the hydrogen fuel cell power at home will impact the ratio sharing with fission power plant."

OTEC plants are still unviable despite the large amount of money invested in building the plants. Not one of the demonstrator plants has proved reliable and probably will become reliable when fusion plants do. Methane hydrate use will involve combustion and therefore the production of air pollution and the hydrate deposits are notoriously unstable. Profitable mining of these deposits is a long way off. Hydrogen fuel cells need hydrogen and there are two ways to get hydrogen, cracking natural gas or cracking water. Both sources require large amounts of electricity and that can come from a fossil power plant or a nuke. Tidal production shows some promise, but again, there is the problem of reliability and the extreme initial capital cost for a relatively small production.

Whether you like it or not, fission power is here to stay. If you want to keep the advantages of a modern industrial society, you have a choice on your electricity production, fossil, gas, or nuclear. All economically viable hydro sites in the US have been developed, solar and wind are too expensive and and don't have the necessary density to be economically viable.

[Boiler Plate]

A little Nukie never hurt anyone.

[endthematrix]

Had to read that twice. LOL!

[endthematrix]

This is the Wired article

[red flanker]

And a little addendum to all your points: the US has been consistently building and deploying nuclear power plants for the last 50 years.

The public just doesn't notice them because they are enclosed in ballistic submarines and gigantic aircraft carriers helping America watch its back without fail. Its time to get ready to roll out next gen nuke plants to help keep the USA an economic powerhouse as long as the sun shines in the sky.

[rmlew]

Instead of containing radioactive steam, these plants wil contain radioactive helium, without a dome?

[endthematrix]

Is that from the article? I didn't read it, just posted for posterity.

[rmlew]

It is my take on a paragraph from the article

In the air-conditioned chill of the visitors' area, a grad student runs through the basics. Instead of the white-hot fuel rods that fire the heart of a conventional reactor, HTR-10 is powered by 27,000 billiards-sized graphite balls packed with tiny flecks of uranium. Instead of superhot water - intensely corrosive and highly radioactive - the core is bathed in inert helium. The gas can reach much higher temperatures without bursting pipes, which means a third more energy pushing the turbine. No water means no nasty steam, and no billion-dollar pressure dome to contain it in the event of a leak. And with the fuel sealed inside layers of graphite and impermeable silicon carbide - designed to last 1 million years - there's no steaming pool for spent fuel rods. Depleted balls can go straight into lead-lined steel bins in the basement.

I'm no nuclear scientist, but I'd preffer a lead dome.