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A
satellite image of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility
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The
question of whether or not countries have the explicit right to peaceful nuclear
energy has been raised in light of the 2005 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
Review Conference which is being held in the United Nations headquarters in New
York from May 2 to May 27, 2005. Some countries believe that preventing the
development of nuclear energy in certain countries is a part of the movement
towards non-proliferation. However, the question remains about whether it is
correct to deny countries the right to the development of peaceful nuclear
energy.
There
are more than 440 commercial nuclear reactors around the world and another 30
under construction. 31 countries, including the nuclear superpowers (USA,
Federal Russia, France, Britain and China), own commercial nuclear reactors. Nuclear power provides over 16% of the world's electricity, almost 24% of the
electricity in OECD countries, and 35% in the EU. 77% of France’s
electricity is provided by nuclear reactors, the remainder being hydroelectric. In Japan, which has little coal and no oil, nuclear power provides nearly 30% of
its electrical energy needs. Australia, which has abundant and accessible
domestic coal resources does not own any nuclear power plants but owns a
research plant. Most of the planned reactors will be constructed in Asia
due to increased electricity demands due to its fast growing economies. According to the Uranium Information Centre, fifteen countries depend on nuclear
power for at least a quarter of their electricity. France and Lithuania
get around three quarters of their power from nuclear energy, while Belgium,
Bulgaria, Hungary, Japan, Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia
and Ukraine get one third or more.
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Nuclear
bomb
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There
are two types of nuclear reactors: research reactors and power reactors.
Research reactors are used for scientific research, and for the production of
isotopes for medicinal and industrial purposes. These types of reactors
are not used for energy production. There are 284 research reactors found
in 56 countries around the world. Power reactors are used to generate
electricity. In addition to the previous uses, nuclear reactors are also
used as nuclear weapons production facilities in countries that possess nuclear
military programs. The first large-scale commercial nuclear power plant
was commissioned in 1957 in the USA.
Nuclear
reactors work on the principle of nuclear fission. During nuclear fission, the
nuclei of atoms are split which leads to the release of heat energy.
Uranium-235 is the main fuel used in nuclear reactors; plutonium-239 can also be
used. The nuclear fission of uranium atoms can be achieved by shooting
neutrons at them. As some of the atoms are being split they release
neutrons, and when these neutrons strike other atoms they cause them to split as
well, which releases even more neutrons. This causes a chain reaction that
generates huge amounts of heat energy. The rate of nuclear fission in the
reactor is controlled using ‘control rods’ which absorb some of the released
neutrons. The rods allow the safe management and regulation of the fission
process. A water-cooling system is used to remove the excess heat produced
during the process and the generated steam is used to drive the turbines that
generate the electricity. The main supply countries of uranium are Canada,
the United States, South Africa, Australia, and Nigeria.
There
are several advantages of nuclear energy over other forms of energy:
-
The
amount of nuclear fuel required to produce large amounts of electric energy
is much less than the amount of coal or oil needed to generate the same
amount of energy. For example, one ton of uranium would generate more
energy than several million barrels of oil or several million tons of coal.
Solar energy would also be significantly more costly than nuclear energy if
it were to be relied upon for most of the world’s energy.
Well-operated
nuclear power plants produce the least amount of waste when compared to any
other energy generating process. No harmful gases are expelled into the air
such as CO2, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide, which cause global warming,
acid rain and smog.
Uranium
ore is an abundant, low volume, easily extracted and transported fuel
source, whereas the Earth has limited supplies of coal and oil. Nuclear power plants could still supply energy well after coal and oil
supplies become insufficient.
Nuclear
power plants take up relatively small areas of land for as compared to solar
and wind farms. “To build the equivalent of a 1,000-megawatt nuclear
plant, a solar park would have to be larger than 35,000 acres, and a wind
farm would have to be 150,000 acres or larger. By contrast, the Millstone
Units 2 and 3 nuclear power plants in Connecticut have an installed capacity
of over 1,900 megawatts of power on a 500-acre site designed for three
nuclear plants” (Nuclear Regulatory Commission).
Disadvantages
of Nuclear Energy
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A
partial nuclear meltdown occurred in the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor
in 1979
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The
main disadvantage of using nuclear energy is that highly radioactive wastes are
produced in the process. After most of the usable uranium has fissioned,
it is called spent fuel. Spent fuel is removed from the reactor and stored
in cooling pools at the reactor site, which absorb the heat and reduce the
radioactivity. The re-processing of spent fuel for the recovery of
unfissioned uranium and plutonium leads to the production of high-level
radioactive waste (HLW). After re-processing, the recovered uranium and
plutonium can be used as fuel for the reactor. Spent fuel is re-processed
routinely at defence program reactors for use in the production of nuclear
weapons, and according to the EPA, defence-related HLW comprises greater than
ninety-nine percent of the volume of HLW in the USA. France, Belgium, Russia,
and the UK all own reprocessing plants and Japan uses fuel reprocessed in
Europe. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at the
end of 1997, more than 130,000 tonnes of spent fuel from power reactors were
estimated to be stored worldwide containing about 1000 tonnes of plutonium.
Certain elements of HLW and spent fuel such as plutonium are highly radioactive
and remain so for thousands of years. There is currently no safe disposal
system for these wastes. Projected plans for the disposal and storage of
HLW do not ensure adequate protection of ground water or individuals from
radioactive contamination.
A
number of accidents have occurred involving nuclear reactors. In 1979, a
partial nuclear meltdown occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in
Pennsylvania. A nuclear meltdown occurs when the fission reaction goes out
of control leading to an explosion, with the release of huge amounts of
radiation. The radiation in the Three Mile Island reactor meltdown was
contained within the structure and there were no deaths, however a similar
incident that occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Russia
was not so fortunate. 31 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of
people were exposed to radiation. The harmful effects of radiation may
continue to effect future generations.
Nuclear
Facilities May Have Dual Use
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Many
children were deformed due to Chernobyl’s nuclear disaster
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Commercial
nuclear reactors could be used for nuclear weapons research and for the
production of nuclear weapons. Different plutonium isotopes are produced in the
reactor. Plutonium-239 is produced when Uranium-238 in the reactor absorbs
a neutron and then quickly decays to plutonium. Nuclear reactors that are
run specifically for creating nuclear weapons use this Plutonium-239, since it
is the ideal isotope of plutonium for this purpose. In commercial
reactors, other isotopes of plutonium such as Pu-240, Pu-241 and Pu-238 are
produced since the reactor fuel is subjected to longer periods of neutron
radiation. These other isotopes are not ideal for weapons production,
however they can still be used to produce a nuclear explosive. The
explosive would not be as stable as that produced from weapons grade plutonium
and could blow up prematurely, however even if that was the case the explosive
yield would have at least a radius of destruction roughly one-third that of the
Hiroshima weapon, making it a potentially fearsome explosive (National Academy
of Sciences).
As
for now, the extension of nuclear power depends considerably on politics, and
these politics have been very different in different countries. Which
countries wish to own nuclear reactors or need them does not seem to be the key
issue in many cases.
Sources:
The
Economics of Nuclear Power.
2002
UIC.
Plans
for New Reactors Worldwide.
2002
UIC.
World
Energy Needs and Nuclear Power.
2002
Oi,
Noboru. PLUTONIUM
CHALLENGES Changing Dimensions of Global Cooperation.
IAEA.
Abdel
Salam, Mohammed. ACPSS. THE
PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST: STRATEGIC
DIMENSIONS.
1999
ActewAGL.
Electricity
generation using nuclear energy.
2000
Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License
Renewal of Nuclear Plants, NUREG-1437,
1996.
Nuclear
Energy Institute. Environmental
Preservation.
2003
Thinkquest.
Nuclear
Energy.
National
Academy of Sciences. Management
and Disposition of Excess Weapons Plutonium National Academy Press.
1994
Analytical
center. Greenpeace:
Importing Radioactive Waste to Russia - a Deadly Business.
2001
Greenpeace.
Nuclear
Waste.
Greenpeace.
Different
reactor types.
**
Aisha El-Awady has
a bachelor’s degree in medicine from Cairo University and is currently
working as instructor of Parasitology in the Faculty of Medicine. She
may be contacted at aawady@islam-online.net.
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