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Nuclear Power

Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant is a BWR-type nuclear power station located about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) southeast of Cofrentes, Spain. Cofrentes NPP entered service on October 14, 1984, with an installed power capacity of 992 MWe.

Nuclear power is a significant form of energy production that uses nuclear reactions to create heat, which heats water until it reaches its boiling point. The steam then powers a turbine and in turn creates electricity to power houses, buildings, infrastructure etc. Nuclear power is one of the cleanest forms of energy and is one of, if not the most capable and highest performing energy producers. Based on data from the NEI it takes 149 gallons of oil to produce as much energy as one pellet of uranium, which is roughly the size of a fingertip. Not only are they better performers than fossil fuels, they also emit much less pollution, a nuclear power plant produces around 5 to 7gm per kW hour, compared to gases 350-450gm per kW hour and coals 900+gm per kW hour. The nuclear industry is heavily scrutinized due to the volatile and dangerous materials being used including the significant disasters that have happened. The fears of safety issues have undermined the growth of the nuclear industry and has destroyed many beneficial projects. Many of these disasters could have been avoided, and are improbable of happening again, due to increased knowledge, training, and technological improvements. Nuclear power is incredibly valuable to the clean energy movement due to its pollution free means of producing energy.

Nuclear Disasters

Three Mile Island

The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor which was located in Pennsylvania was one of the first major nuclear disasters. Prior to the disaster many anti-nuclear activists warned of possible accidents that would have harmful environmental effects, and the disaster ignited many protests throughout the US. After years of investigations, lawsuits, and cleanup projects the plant continued to operate until 2019. Even though the disaster only substantiated the already negative views of nuclear energy, a study showed that the environmental and health effects of the disaster was negligible. Some of the major causes of this incident was user error and a lack of proper training with the computer systems in place. "The operators were unable to diagnose or respond properly to the unplanned automatic shutdown of the reactor. Deficient control room instrumentation and inadequate emergency response training proved to be root causes of the accident". During the incident the instrumentation failed to show that the relief valve did not close properly which led to the primary coolant to almost entirely drain, which had a major effect on the heat of the reactor core. This, along with improper training which caused the operators to incorrectly respond to the situation led to the cores meltdown. In response to this incident, many new regulations were put into place, along with major improvements to training. The creation of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and their National Academy for Nuclear Training led to vast training improvements and contributed greatly to the success and safety of nuclear power plants operations to this day.

Fukushima

Fukushima was also a notable disaster mainly due to the environmental impact and the following outcome. While the impact was significant environmentally, major clean ups have cleared large swathes of radioactive soil, and luckily injuries were minimal with only 1 death was attributed to the incident. Evacuations in response to the disaster was a major contributor to the few casualties. One of the major fallouts of the disaster was the impact to the nuclear industry as a whole, with Germany decommissioning all of their nuclear reactors out of fears of more disasters. Some of these fears are definitely reasonable but given Germany's geographical location, a natural disaster that would cause a Fukushima like accident is improbable. A significant factor that caused Fukushima was negligence by the owners and operators of the power plant. Prior to the tsunami that hit, the power plant required many safety measures specifically for tsunamis and earthquakes. These safety improvements were not completed in order to save money, and given the location of Fukushima being close to the shore, these improvements were integral. Many nuclear organizations were held under scrutiny after this disaster and were criticized by the lack of evaluations and proper safety installments that were ignored. Currently, Fukushima has undergone major clean up projects and citizens are beginning to return many years after the disaster.

Chernobyl

Likely the largest and most disastrous nuclear accident took place on the 26th of April 1986 in Pripyat, Ukraine. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reactor meltdown, like the Three Mile Island disaster, was caused by user error and also some glaring design flaws. These notable causes led to devastating environmental and health problems that are continuing to this day. One of the notable differences of design between the Chernobyl reactor and the more common type of reactors in use, Pressurized Water Reactors which uses, as it's name implies, pressurized water as a coolant and moderator to slow the fission reaction in the reactor, Chernobyl also used water as a coolant but instead of water used graphite control rods as the moderator. In PWRs the steam from the heated water slows down the fission process, which reduces the energy being created. But in the Chernobyl reactor "The variations in the reactor design allowed it to use less-enriched fuel than usual and to be refueled while running. But with the coolant and moderator roles separated, the negative feedback loop of "more steam, less reactivity," was broken. Instead, RBMK reactors have what's called a "positive void coefficient." When a reactor has a positive void coefficient, the fission reaction speeds up as the coolant water turns to steam, rather than slowing down." After this, the reaction becomes greater and the core becomes hotter, until the reactor melts down, which is what led to the disaster. Today, none of these type of reactors exist outside of Russia, and the ones that do exist have improved designs to make sure this kind of disaster doesn't happen again.

Combating Climate Change

Climate change has become a major issue within the last few decades and even though there has been a major push for green energy there still has yet to be found an energy source that can handle the significant amounts energy supply that our world currently needs. With energy sources like wind and solar, which are beneficial and mostly safe for the environment, they still have many drawbacks such as solar not being able to operate during nighttime and wind only being able to operate in locations that have substantial amounts of wind. Drawbacks such as these and many others proves that we can't rely on them on a larger scale and are only beneficial as a secondary source. Energy production is where nuclear power excels and is unmatched compared to not only clean energy sources but also energy sources like coal and gas. Solar and wind energy requires up to 75 and 350 times more land to produce as much energy as a single nuclear reactor, which means less environmental destruction and less land clearing. Although nuclear energy is not a purely renewable energy source the low amounts of fuel needed and the fuel supply amount we have considers it to be a sustainable energy source. Regarding toxic emissions coal and gas lead the way in this department. To many peoples surprise coal actually produces a significantly larger amounts of radioactive material into the environment than nuclear power plants which produces such an insignificant amount that it is not considered harmful to the environment. The push to replace coal and gas with nuclear is imperative for the environment and should be a major consideration of any environmental conservation group.

Modern Safety Measures

Nuclear power is proven to be the safest clean energy source.

One of the major reasons why people are opposed to nuclear energy is the safety of nuclear power plants. These fears are not irrational because nuclear materials are very volatile and dangerous. But with many safety regulations, and the creation of organizations like the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations these safety concerns have been addressed by developing much better training programs and frequently examining and evaluating nuclear power plants to make sure no safety violations have happened. The World Association of Nuclear Operators is another international organization that reviews and studies nuclear power plants throughout the world, and after the Fukushima incident these reviews now take place every 4 years. Countries throughout the world, including the US, the case for a nuclear disaster happening is incredibly low, due to the technological nature of these reactors and at least a dozen safety measures. Coal and gas power plants aren't immune to devastating disasters harming the environmental and health either and in fact many studies have shown that nuclear is the safest energy source. Government reactions to disasters are a contributing factor to the fears of nuclear power, mainly because rather than calming the populaces worry they ignore it, which leads to lack of trust, especially when nuclear experts and officials claim areas hit by nuclear disasters are live-able and harmless after clean ups and studies. Instilling trust can help mitigate these fears and rather than ignoring them, addressing them can help soothe the minds.