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Page Outline:

1. Basic Facts
2. Is Nuclear Power Safe?
3. How Does It Work?
4. What Is Washington Doing?
5. Sources

Basic Facts

• According to the Department of Energy, 20% of America’s electricity is produced by nuclear power-plants.¹
• There are 441 nuclear reactors worldwide supplying electricity to around 1 billion people, about 1/6 of the world’s population.² Leading the world in nuclear power is France, with 80% of its electricity generated by nuclear reactors.³

Is Nuclear Power Safe?

According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), nuclear power plants cannot “explode like a nuclear bomb” under any conditions.⁴ Furthermore, the WNA states that “the use of nuclear energy for electricity generation can be considered extremely safe. Every year several thousand people die in coal mines to provide this widely used fuel for electricity. There are also significant health and environmental effects arising from fossil fuel use.”⁵

In the past half a century, there have been two major incidents involving nuclear power plants world-wide. The information below is from the World Nuclear Association website.⁶

• Three Mile Island (USA 1979): The reactor was severely damaged but radiation was contained and there were no adverse health or environmental consequences.
• Chernobyl (Ukraine 1986): The destruction of the reactor by steam explosion and fire killed 31 people and had significant health and environmental consequences. The death toll has since increased to about 56.

How Does Nuclear Power Work?

The following information comes from the World Nuclear Association.⁷

Step 1: The uranium oxide is first mined from the ground. Much of this mining takes place in Canada and Australia, the world’s two leading producers of uranium.

Step 2: Once extracted from the ground and separated from other minerals, the uranium oxide is changed into a gas and enriched in the U-235 isotope using the process of diffusion enrichment or centrifuge enrichment.

Diffusion Enrichment “works by exploiting the different speeds at which U-235 and U-238 pass through a membrane.”

Centrifuge Enrichment “works by passing the gas through spinning cylinders, the centrifugal force moving the heavier U-238 to the outside of the cylinder, leaving a higher concentration of U-235 on the inside.”

Step 3: “Uranium dioxide pellets are produced from the enriched UF6 gas. The pellets are then encased in long metal tubes, usually made of zirconium alloy (zircalloy) or stainless steel, to form fuel rods. The rods are then sealed and assembled in clusters to form fuel assemblies for use in the core of the nuclear reactor.”

Step 4: Inside the nuclear reactor, “a U-235 atom splits (or fissions) in the reactor’s core [and] the neutrons released cause other uranium atoms to also undergo fission” This nuclear chain reaction, in turn, heats water and creates steam. The steam that is formed by the heating of the water runs a turbine that produces electricity.

One of Many Safety Measures: “The nuclear reactor uses control rods to ensure that this chain reaction occurs at a controlled rate.”

For more information on nuclear power visit the World Nuclear Association website.

What Is Washington Doing?

US Dept. of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy

The Office of Nuclear Energy is responsible for the research and development of new nuclear technologies for the US Department of Energy. Below are the goals of the Office of Nuclear Energy’s goals as is listed on the USDE website.

Develop new nuclear generation technologies – that foster the diversity of the domestic energy supply through public-private partnerships that are aimed in the near-term (2015) at the deployment of advanced, proliferation-resistant light water reactor and fuel cycle technologies and in the longer-term (2025) at the development and deployment of next-generation advanced reactors and fuel cycles.

Maintain, enhance, and safeguard the Nation’s nuclear infrastructure capability – to meet the Nation’s energy, environmental, medical research, space exploration, and national security needs.⁸

Generation IV Nuclear Technology

Currently, the US Department of Energy is working to develop new “Generation IV” nuclear reactors that will be safer and more efficient than previous ones.⁹

Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative

According to the US Department of Energy, the purpose of this project is “to demonstrate the economic, commercial-scale production of hydrogen using nuclear energy.”¹⁰ After being produced, this hydrogen could in turn be used to fuel hydrogen powered vehicles and or other devices. While it is clear that many years of research and development will supersede practical implementation of a nuclear/hydrogen system, the USDE appears confident that it will eventually become a reality. On it’s website, the USDE projects that by the year 2019, it will be able to “initiate demonstration of commercial-scale hydrogen production.”¹¹

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