The Use of Nuclear Energy Today

Hayam Mahmoud-Ahmed
January 6th, 2014
Physics 11IB
Mr. B. Dalzell
Word count: 2,002

In the world we live in today, almost everything runs on some form of

electricity.

Most of this electricity goes to homes, office building, and

schools. In 2011, the nations energy consumption 1.4 million terajoules (1.4
x 1018 Joules) of energy, almost 4% more than the consumption in 2007. 37%
of this energy is used by Ontario, because of their large population whereas
Nova Scotia is only 3% of this usage. Ontario is littered with apartment
houses, which use a considerably less amount of energy then the single
detached units.

Nova Scotia may have a lower populace but there fewer

apartments in the province; most people live in single detached dwellings,

energy consumptions in these units are much higher. However, with all this
talk of energy consumption, where does this energy come from?
At first, wood was used for heat, which was soon replaced with coal.
The

coal

industry

then

collapsed

due

to

the

discovery

of

other

environmentally friendly solutions such as solar power, or geothermal

energy. Even though these are considered greener, they are time consuming.
For example for solar power, the panels must be left out in the sun for a
period of time in order for them to store enough energy. Another problem
with solar power is the location; you cannot build a solar park in northern
Canada because they receive sunlight for half the year and are in darkness
for the other half. Solar power is very efficient but it has its limits, and so
does geothermal energy. In order to accomplish this, a hole must be drilled
with a depth of hundreds of meters to reach the warm air to heat litres and
liters of water. These methods maybe good for the environment but they are
not efficient enough. Nevertheless, there is one more source that produces
15% of todays power, nuclear energy.
Today, when people hear nuclear power they think of nuclear weapons;
the media has changed peoples perception of nuclear energy. It is seen as
very destructive, but if used in the correct way it can be good for the society.
The discovery of nuclear energy was by accident; Antoine Henri Becquerel
discovered it. He discovered through his work with phosphorescence and
Hayam Mahmoud-A

uranium salts, that the uranium salts had these unstable nuclei, which
contained high levels of energy.

Marie Curie and Pierre Curie and others

continued his work.

The process that creates this energy is called nuclear fission. This is a
very tedious and precise procedure because very dangerous materials are
involved. The process starts with a Uranium-235 neutron colliding with
another Uranium-235 atom causing them to split; this is called a chain
reaction. The slow moving neutron is absorbed by the uranium causing other
nucleus to split because of the unstable core, creating more lighter free
neutrons. Rods made of cadmium or boron are lowered in between the
uranium rods, these control rods absorb the neutrons, and shields the
uranium from each other to control the reaction being created. The chain
reaction creates both kinetic energy from the movement of the splitting of
the atoms and releases thermal energy. The thermal energy is used to heat
water to a boil to create steam to turn turbines in turn to create electricity.
This is all happening with in a building with meters thick walls called the
nuclear reactor. The nuclear reactor is filled with water this is called the
primary coolant because it prevents the core from melting. As the primary
coolant absorbs the heat, it gets warmer making it less efficient so the
primary coolant has to cool by using the secondary coolant. The secondary
coolant is a series of pipes that bring in cool water that absorbs a lot of the
heat. As the pipes leave the building, the water that was once flowed when
the pipes entered the building has turned in to a blasting force of steam. The
pipes are connected to a turbine that is also connected to a generator. The
steam turns the turbine blades in return turns the generator creating the
electricity. The steam is then making its way to the cooling towers where
they steam is cooled and returns to its liquid water form and is reused to cool
down the core. If the reactor is not properly cooled, it can melt through the
concrete and into the earth creating a nuclear meltdown.

Hayam Mahmoud-A

Figure 1 Diagram showing a simplified nuclear power

plant (not to scale)

This is an

environmentally friendly source of energy because there is no carbon dioxide

emission. Also, the fact that a pellet about the size of a finger can produce
the same amount of energy as a ton of coal, and one ton of uranium can do
the same as a couple millions of barrels of oil. Even though there is no
carbon dioxide being emitted, there is radioactive waste. After the uranium
has lived out its usefulness, the rods are placed in pools of water where they
rest for 10 years to decay. Even after 10 years, the rods are still radioactive;
it takes centuries for the radioactive waste to completely decay. Another
problem is where to get this uranium from; uranium is found naturally in the
rocks, but to mine these rocks takes a lot of drilling which is harmful to the
environment. It is dangerous for the environment but to the people who are
drilling. Uranium is highly radioactive, once it gets into your system it is
difficult to remove. It takes generations for it to fade away.
Another good thing about these power plants is the space it takes up, a
nuclear power plant takes up roughly 4 km 2. This is actually very small
compared to a solar park, which needs 20 to 50 km 2 or a wind farm, 50-150
km2, which needs about triple that of a solar park, almost 40 times more
than a nuclear power plant. These kinds of renewable energy plants have to
be built in specific places; you cannot build a solar park in say in the very
northern parts of Canada where they receive sunlight for only half the year,
or a wind farm in a windless place. However, nuclear plants do not have any
specific demands; they can be built almost anywhere. However, it would be
Hayam Mahmoud-A

the safest to build these plants in stable locations free of any earthquakes,
tsunamis, or other such disasters. It is not necessary but it could prevent
catastrophes like the Fukushima power plant.

Mother Nature is very

unpredictable, even with all the technology that we possess today, she still
surprises us with her earthquakes and hurricanes. It is difficult to protect a
nuclear power plant against earthquakes, no matter how much concrete or
bricks are used, natures destructive forces still can tear it down.
Even though nuclear energy may be efficient, it carries many risks with
it. A recent example is Fukushima, Japan 2011; the nuclear power plant had a
major meltdown caused by a massive earthquake that devastated the
nation. The radioactive waste is seeping into Pacific Ocean little by little each
day. This is contaminating the sea life, and in particularly the fish. The
supermarkets have place safety measures in place like having radioactive
sensors to detect the radioactivity in the fish, but this is not enough. This
clean up is being continued and the government is struggling to fix this.
However, Mother Nature is not the only blame but the system itself can
fail; this is the case for the Three Mile Island incident. The water pumps shut
down causing the reactor core to heat up rapidly. The workers opened the
pressure valves to allow the pressures subside. Once the pressure was
relieved, orders were sent to close the valve. The monitors in the control
room said the valve was shut yet the valve was still open. 42 hours earlier,
there was a test, and a valve in the emergency water tank was left closed
preventing the system from functioning properly. With the steam generators
no longer receiving water, heat and pressure started to build up in the
primary coolant causing the reactor to perform an emergency shutdown. The
control rods were inserted in the core to stop the reaction, but the generator
continued to create decayed heat, and without the steam turning the
turbines, heat was not being removed from the primary coolant. The
pressurized door was opened to relieve the pressure, but due to the water
Hayam Mahmoud-A

over heating and turning to steam, the top of the reactor was exposed,
causing it to have a reaction with hydrogen and radioactive gasses. The
operators were able to get the backup system online and the core was
cooled off. Part of the reactor core had melted and an estimate of 2.5 mega
curies of radioactive gases was released. Residents within a 33km radius
were evacuated. This accident was not caused by a natural disaster but by
the technology failure. There is no perfect system, as everyone would like to
believe. This was a failure in humankinds creation, a flaw in the system that
was assumed perfect.
There are approximately 400 nuclear power plants in the world; almost
100 of them are located in the US, a country that has a population of 317
million.

That is another risk, if one of these plants had a meltdown like

Japan, this could possibly be seen as an even bigger disaster than

Fukushima. It is true that the meltdown will not affect the entire country, but
this radioactive waste will harm our bodies and it will take generations and
generations for this to fade away from our genes, or it may not fade away
and future generations must deal with these diseases that have been
developed from this toxic waste. Future lives are at risk here.
Even though nuclear power is seen as a helpful source, it is very
dangerous. Future generations may have more luck with this, due to
technological advancements and better understanding altogether of this
source of energy. Alternatively, nuclear power maybe discontinued, because
of the of a discovery of a less harmful way of harnessing energy. The earth is
constantly changing, earthquakes and tsunamis hit Japan quite a bit but they
still built a nuclear power perhaps underestimating these factors. Global
Warming is increasing slowly, it may not be a major concern at the time
being but future generations will be effected by this. Sea levels will rise
causing dangerous zones across the sea coasts, tsunamis might occur more
frequently, traveling further inland; it could hit a nuclear facility that is. The
future is uncertain, there may be a solution to global warming and then we
Hayam Mahmoud-A

do not need to worry about tsunamis going further inland. The nuclear power
can go either way for the future; they may learn from our mistakes and
discontinue these power plants, or they may discover a safer way to use this
energy source more efficiently then we have.
Nuclear energy is a very dangerous source of power if it is not used
correctly. It can cause many to loss their lives, there have been incidents
where nuclear energy was not used for creating electricity but used to show
dominance of ones nation. That is the image that the media has created, but
few do see the good that comes from this powerful source. Nuclear power
can really benefit society but it is just as destructive to society. Fukushima,
Three Mile Island, is just a few of the incidents where nuclear energy was
more harmful then beneficial to society. No matter how much time we
dedicate to perfecting our systems, we can never out match Mother Nature.
The enormous amount of money, bricks, or time we spend in trying to create
these dangerous power plants, she can always surprise us with one of her
tricks. Nuclear power can be good but also harmful, we do not know if there
is still a future for nuclear energy. It has caused so much destruction, but
only the future can decide that.

Hayam Mahmoud-A

Sites used:
Brain M., Lamb R. (2013) How Nuclear Power Works, date retrieved 17/10/13
[Link]
Bryant, BJ (2007) Nuclear power, date retrieved 17/10/13
[Link]
Canadian Nuclear Association (2013) Nuclear Facts- what does nuclear
energy mean to Canada, date retrieved 22/11/13
[Link]
Graber. K (2011) Nuclear Energy, the real truth about the green energy,
date retrieved 17/10/13
[Link]
Kempf, B (2005) Nuclear Energy, date retrieved 17/10/13
[Link]

Japan's Fukushima crisis: How did we get to this point? Hume, T. CNN. 2013.
News Report. Date retrieved 28/11/13
[Link]

McCann, C. (2013) Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for October 8th to

October 10th, 2013, date retrieved 01/12/12
[Link]
Smithsonian (n.d) Three Mile Island: The Inside Story, date retrieved
28/11/13
[Link]
Saito, M. (2013) Operator of wrecked Japan nuclear plant pledges
improvements, date retrieved 01/12/13
Hayam Mahmoud-A

[Link]
Statistics Canada (2012) Analysis, date retrieved 20/11/13
[Link]
Tourman, N. (2013) What is nuclear waste, date retrieved 01/12/13
[Link]
World Nuclear Association (2013) How a nuclear reactor makes electricity,
date retrieved 22/11/13
[Link]

Hayam Mahmoud-A