PublicWire | Emerging Market Stock News
  •  Home
  • Technology
  • Medical
  • Energy
  • Cannabis
  • Finance
  • Retail
  • General
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Services
  •  Home
  • Technology
  • Medical
  • Energy
  • Cannabis
  • Finance
  • Retail
  • General
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Services
No Result
View All Result
PublicWire
No Result
View All Result

Home » Energy » Ensuring A Safe Future For Nuclear Power

Ensuring A Safe Future For Nuclear Power

by PublicWire
September 14, 2022
in Energy
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0

The world needs to expand global nuclear power generation to help curb global carbon emissions. That conclusion is based on numerous models and projections that indicate that renewables can’t do it alone.

But there is a significant caveat. We simply can’t have major nuclear incidents such as those that took place at Chernobyl, Ukraine and Fukushima, Japan. These are what I consider low-risk, but high-consequence events.

In the history of nuclear power, there have been few serious incidents. But nuclear power plants have the unique potential to permanently displace entire cities in the event of a serious accident.

The Chernobyl accident ultimately displaced some 350,000 people from their homes. Thousands of square kilometers were set aside as an uninhabited exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Many people were also displaced as a result of the Fukushima accident, albeit it not as many as with Chernobyl.

If nuclear power is to realize its potential for reducing carbon emissions, we must ensure that such accidents are no longer possible.

Building Safer Nuclear Plants

I recently had a chance to speak about these issues with Dr. Kathryn Huff, the Assistant Secretary at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

Dr. Huff explained that passive safety systems are the key to ensuring that in the case of an accident, workers could walk away from a nuclear plant and it would shut down in a safe state.

There is an important distinction to be made here. The public may expect nuclear designs to be fail-proof, but there are many reasons why that metric will never be achieved. You simply can’t guard against every possible incident that could occur. Thus, we try to mitigate possible consequences, and implement fail-safe designs.

A simple example of a fail-safe design is an electrical fuse. It doesn’t prevent an incident where too much current tries to flow across the fuse. But if that happens, the connection melts and stops the flow of electricity — a fail-safe condition. Neither Chernobyl nor Fukushima were fail-safe designs.

But how can such fail-safe designs be realized? Dr. Huff pointed out two examples.

The first is the new AP1000® pressurized water reactor (PWR) from Westinghouse. The problem in Fukushima was that after the shutdown, power needed to be available to circulate water to cool the reactor. When power was lost, the ability to cool the reactor core was gone.

The new APR reactor relies on natural forces like gravity, natural circulation, and compressed gases to circulate water and keep the core and the containment from overheating.

In addition to passive cooling, there have been innovations in developing next generation fuel types that are accident tolerant. For example, tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel is made of a uranium, carbon, and oxygen fuel kernel. Each particle is its own containment system thanks to triple-coated layers. TRISO particles can withstand much higher temperatures than current nuclear fuels, and simply can’t melt in a reactor.

Dr. Huff said that an advanced reactor demo will be online by the end of the decade, featuring a pebble bed full of TRISO particles.

These two innovations may ensure that future nuclear plants never experience a major accident. But there are additional questions that need to be addressed, such as disposal of nuclear waste. I will address that — as well as what the U.S. is doing to promote nuclear power — in Part II of my conversation with Dr. Huff.


This post was originally published on this site

Tags: businessEnergy
Previous Post

Barclays vs DB

Next Post

EVs Won’t Overload The Power Grid, In Fact EVs (And Ice) Are Its Salvation

PublicWire

At PublicWire, we know the vast majority of all investors conduct their due diligence and get their news online in a variety of ways including email, social media, financial websites, text messages, RSS feeds and audio/video podcasts. PublicWire’s financial communications program is uniquely positioned to reach these investors throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as on a global scale.

Related Posts

Energy

Finally Some Good News On Energy: Steve Forbes Praises Major Liz Truss Reform

September 15, 2022
0
Energy

How The Inflation Reduction Act Could Cause A Lithium Crunch

September 15, 2022
0
Energy

Texas Is Primed To Be Our Nation’s Direct Air Capture Hub

September 15, 2022
0
Energy

How Sanctions And Policies Ensure The Energy Crisis Will Only Worsen From Here

September 13, 2022
0
Energy

Research Shows That Renewable Jobs Can Replace Those From Coal

September 13, 2022
0
Energy

Dow Jumps 200 Points As Investors Brace For August Inflation Report And More Fed Rate Hikes

September 13, 2022
0
Next Post

EVs Won’t Overload The Power Grid, In Fact EVs (And Ice) Are Its Salvation

Please login to join discussion

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Loading
Ad
PublicWire | Emerging Market Stock News 24/7 | Investor Relations US Stock Market

© Copyright 2022 publicwire.com

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Watch LIVE
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Services
  • Contributors

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • LIVE Investor News Channel
  • Cannabis
  • Energy
  • Finance
  • General
  • Medical
  • Podcasts
  • Retail
  • Technology
  • Videos

© Copyright 2022 publicwire.com

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.