NUCLEAR POWER

1. NUCLEAR POWER The Fading Dream? Or Our Hope for the Future?

2. Key Questions Human Error Sank It. Unsinkable? • Are scientists responsible? • How do we perceive risk? • Are we well-informed and do we understand what we hear? • What about mixed Messages, like Global Warming? • When should we act, when should we do more research and when should we panic? • Remember the Titanic!

3. The Key Elements of the Equation • Science • Risk and • Policy

4. January 30, 2007 NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING SAFETY STUDIES DIVISION, RE-10 PRELIMINARY* MONTHLY SUMMARY U. S. CIVIL AVIATION ACCIDENTS MONTH OF DECEMBER YEAR THROUGH THE END OF DECEMBER ----------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- 2006 2005 2006 2005 ------------------- ------------------- ------------------- ------------------- Accidents Accidents Accidents Accidents ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Fatal- Fatal- Fatal- Fatal- Total Fatal ities Total Fatal ities Total Fatal ities Total Fatal ities ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- US CIVI AVIATION** 94 35 76 110 25 67 1571 314 764 1780 334 601 Perception of Risk is Reality Total Air Fatalities USA 2006 = 746 Total Road Fatalities USA 2006 = 43,200 • The Human Perception of RISK  • There is a considerable difference between the real risk posed by something and the way that risk is perceived by the subject. You will tolerate a much higher risk from your own actions than you will tolerate from the actions of others.

5. Perception Problem • Say “Nuclear” to almost anyone, and this is the image that comes to their mind: Even though it is totally impossible for a nuclear power plant to explode like this.

6. Policy “problems” of Nuclear Power •   The capital cost of the individual power plant is extremely high. Marble Hill was $4,000,000,000, and never even opened. • The technology is seen as potentially “catastrophic” causing eternal damage and so, making large parts of the world unusable • This is the same technology used for making bombs • Mining uranium produces radioactive wastes • We will never be able safely to store the waste products of the nuclear power industry

7. The Dream • How the Sun shines • Nuclear fusion is the energy source of stars – just like our own Sun. • It has a nuclear fusion reactor at its core. • The immense pressure and a temperature of 16 million degrees C force atomic nuclei to fuse and liberate energy. • About four million tonnes of matter is converted into sunlight every second.

8. 25,000 years • The problem is we have nuclear fission reactors; we have not evolved fusion reactors yet because of temp. problem. • It is the case with every nuclear reactor that there is, as a by-product, the production of radioactive waste with a deadly half life of How on earth do you manage something like that?

9. The Nuclear Industry Argument • Quotes form the Nuclear Industry: • “In 1988 US crude oil production fell to its lowest level in 12 years. At the same time, US oil consumption reached its highest level since 1979. To meet this new demand, and make up for lost domestic production, oil imports have soared to 50% of the oil we use…” • “The shift to nuclear electricity has saved the American consumers over $50 billion since 1973…. Nuclear electricity and coal help assure energy independence.” • “The 1973 oil crisis proved we cannot afford to rely so much on a politically unstable region of the world [as the Middle East] for our energy.”

10. Europe’s Commitment to Nuclear

11. National Dependence on Nuclear

12. The Plus Factor • Nuclear Energy Pluses • It produces, per unit of raw material. One ton of Uranium is equal to 24,000 railcars of coal! Hence, it is very “efficient” • It is “clean” in the sense it produces little pollution into the air or water—especially CO2, and is the only energy source about which you can say that. • The raw material is relatively abundant

13. The Minus Arguments • The “waste” (spent rods, irradiated water) remains dangerous for around 25,000 years and we have no experience of handling anything like that • The potential for accidents, such as Chernobyl, Three-Mile Island, and 1999 in Japan, is alarming because the consequences can be so enormous. Whom can we trust? Once more: Remember the “Titanic”

14. We associate nuclear energy with “iconic” catastrophes Both the United States and the Soviet Union knowingly carried out tests on the results of exposure to nuclear radiation. Principally it causes cancer and genetic disorders. Chernobyl

15. The Ultimate Image

16. The Dream: Fusion With fusion, there is no long-lasting radioactive waste to create a burden on future generations. The basic fuels - deuterium and lithium, and the reaction product - helium - are not radioactive. The intermediate fuel, tritium, is radioactive but decays quickly. • How the Sun shines • Nuclear fusion is the energy source of stars – just like our own Sun. • It has a nuclear fusion reactor at its core. • The immense pressure and a temperature of 16 million degrees C force atomic nuclei to fuse and liberate energy. • Can this be replicated on Earth? Tuesday, 28 June, 2005, 07:57 GMT 08:57 UK France gets nuclear fusion plant To produce fusion energy, temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius must be generated and controlled. This is achieved by creating a magnetic cage with strong magnetic fields, which prevent the particles from escaping.

17. Please note the temperature at the core. Yes, that is 100,000,000º C, Basically the temperature of the surface of the sun.

18. The Thing to Avoid • We should not drift into an energy crisis as a result of using up other fossil fuels without an alternative prepared well in advance. • That should be paid for now, perhaps by a specific tax on fossil energy? • Otherwise, we have “crisis management” and make hasty, ill-informed decisions.