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Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction
Safety
Safety
Nuclear has a bad reputation after a few famous plants had their safety features disabled, or suffered damage from earthquakes, but historically speaking they have caused far fewer deaths by energy production than most other types of energy.
With new innovations this technology is becoming increasingly safe, even at the end of life options appear to be improving.
Hydrogen (despite being advertised as clean) is generally created using fossil fuels, and has not caught on as well as other energy types, but could be an important solution for vehicles including ships. By using renewable energies and nuclear we may be able to ween ourselves off oil much faster.
Terms
Terms
Advanced Reactors (non-LWR designs) "The NRC refers to non-light water reactor (non-LWR) designs as advanced reactors. These reactors will use different technologies from existing operating reactors such as passive safety features, using different fuel or coolant, or scaling the entire reactor smaller."
Fusion Systems "harness the energy released in a controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction in which two nuclei combine to form a new nucleus. This process occurs in our Sun and other stars. Creating and sustaining the high temperature and pressure conditions for fusion on Earth has been a major technological challenge since the first controlled fusion in 1958. Significant progress has been made in recent decades."
Large Light Water Reactors (LWR) "are reactors generating at least 700 MWe using ordinary water as coolant. This includes boiling water reactors (BWRs) and pressurized water reactors (PWRs), the most common types of operating reactors in the United States."
Benefits of Nuclear
Benefits of Nuclear
Dangers of Nuclear
Dangers of Nuclear
Radioactive Waste Dumping & Leaks
Radioactive Waste Dumping & Leaks
Recycling Is Possible, But Expensive
Recycling Is Possible, But Expensive
Uranium is cheaper to mine than to recycle, even with the cost of uranium rising.
Currently very few countries have the facilities or knowledge to recycle their waste, with the top recyclers currently being
France - 1,100 tons per year
Russia - 130 tons per year
India - 115 tons per year
China - (36) has one demonstration plants with plans on building more.
UK - used to recycle, but stopped due to high cost.
Solutions
Solutions
Cleaner & Newer Nuclear Technology
Cleaner & Newer Nuclear Technology
Nuclear Recycling
Nuclear Recycling
"A nuclear fuel rod is used for 3-6 years. After that, it’s taken out of the reactor and then continues to stay radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. Talk about inefficiency. But French nuclear fuel company ORANO is one of the very few companies recycling nuclear fuel on a commercial scale – and has led this field for decades. We went there to find out why."
Advance the Science of Nuclear Recycling
Advance the Science of Nuclear Recycling
"Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have used 3D printing to create a new method of reusing nuclear waste, which could allow up to 97 percent to be recycled.
The novel process could increase the percentage of fuel that scientists are able to reuse from 95 percent under existing processes, to 97 percent. While this may not initially appear to represent major progress, it could significantly reduce the amount of used fuel that needs to be stored, and the time it remains hazardous for.
“Rather than store five percent for hundreds of thousands of years, the remaining three percent needs to be stored at a maximum of about one thousand years,” said Andrew Breshears, an Argonne nuclear chemist, and co-author. “In other words, this additional step may reduce the length of storage almost one thousandfold.” - Argonne Scientists Use 3D Printing to Recycle 97% of Used Nuclear Fuel
In the United States, a new company plans to use a new method of recycling. Specifically, Curio’s technology will be different from an existing process called PUREX (plutonium uranium reduction extraction), “which among other things separates and extracts plutonium in a pure stream,” which can be a problem under nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaties.
“We have a process where we never separate out pure plutonium,” McGinnis said. “We’re never going to do that because we want to have a proliferation security-hardened process. We have self-protection built in.” - CNBC: Curio Led by Energy Dept Veteran Aims to Recycle Nuclear Waste
Dams
Dams
Dams pose a danger to people and wildlife both when they are built (communities are surrendered while any wildlife such as plants and any animals that aren't able to escape) end up drowning. Dams can cause habitat and species loss by changing aquatic ecosystems. For example, fish that need shallow, fast running water die off in deep, slow moving water, while migratory fish like salmon and eels can't reproduce due to waterway blockage.
Heavy rains, aging infrastructure, and other circumstances may cause dams to fail which can also cause deaths. As climate change ramps up, heavier storm and rain events increase the risk of dam failures.
Decaying matter inside dams produces methane and other greenhouse gases, making dams one of the less-eco-friendly options.
Types of Energy Storage
Types of Energy Storage
We often think of batteries when we thing of storage, as well as the environmental issues such as mining and end-of-life pollution. However there are more options for energy storage than many people realize.
Click the Battery Technology button to learn more about these options and as well as which companies are already offering these solutions.
Resources
Resources
Climate Change
Climate Change
En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator "is a fast, powerful climate solutions scenario tool for understanding how we can achieve our climate goals through changes in energy, land use, consumption, agriculture, and other policies. The simulator focuses on how changes in global GDP, energy efficiency, technological innovation, and carbon price influence carbon emissions, global temperature, and other factors. It is designed to provide a synthesis of the best available science on climate solutions and put it at the fingertips of groups in policy workshops and roleplaying games. These experiences enable people to explore the long-term climate impacts of global policy and investment decisions.
En-ROADS is being developed by Climate Interactive, Ventana Systems, UML Climate Change Initiative, and MIT Sloan.
This guide provides background on the dynamics of En-ROADS, tips for using the simulator, general descriptions, real-world examples, slider settings, and model structure notes for the different sliders in En-ROADS."
North America
North America
USA
USA
US NRC: Basic References This page includes information and guides on many topics, even including a "Student Corner"
US NRC: Licensing Dashboards This page contains "links to pages across the site for Advanced Reactors Project Status and Dashboards."
Organizations
Organizations
International
International
EnergySolutions "is an international nuclear services company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and Charlotte, North Carolina, with operations throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe. We are an industry leader in the safe transportation, processing, recycling, and disposal of radiologic material."
List of top 20 Nuclear Waste Companies
List of top 20 Nuclear Waste Companies
Augean PLC
US Ecology
JGC Corporation
Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc
Stericycle, Inc
Veolia Environmental Services
Wood plc
Orano
Bechtel Corporation
BHI Energy
Cabrera Services
Chase Environmental Group
DMT GmbH & Co.
Ecology Services Inc.
EnergySolutions
Holtec International
Nuclear Research and Consulting Group
Swedish Nuclear Energy Fuel and waste Management
Westinghouse Electric Company
Waste Control Specialists
Europe
Europe
France
France
ORANO "As the world's leader in reprocessing and recycling, Orano’s expertise provides its customers with efficient, safe and responsible management of used nuclear fuels. By recovering the 96% of re-useable materials (95% uranium and 1% plutonium) in used fuel, Orano can recycle the material and manufacture new fuel, such as mixed oxide fuel (MOX), for nuclear reactors."
UK
UK
Augean PLC "With a deep commitment to sustainability, we offer waste management services to the Renewable Energy, Infrastructure & Construction, Nuclear & Radioactive, Process & Manufacturing, and Oil & Gas sectors."
North America
North America
USA
USA
CURIO "we are dedicated to ushering in THE SECOND NUCLEAR ERA by unleashing the full potential of the atom. This means clean energy, substantially lower environmental footprint, and advanced technologies.
Energy use remains the foremost indicator of economic prosperity and energy access promotes human rights. We envision a future of plenty that is powered with clean, sustainable nuclear energy.”
"Curio Solutions is at the forefront of nuclear technology innovation, specializing in advanced nuclear recycling solutions. With its revolutionary NuCycle® process, Curio is dedicated to closing the nuclear fuel cycle, dramatically reducing nuclear waste, and unleashing the full potential of nuclear energy for a cleaner, more sustainable future." - Nano Nuclear EnergyNANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) "is an advanced technology-driven nuclear energy company seeking to become a commercially focused, diversified, and vertically integrated company across four business lines: (i) cutting edge portable microreactor technology, (ii) nuclear fuel fabrication, (iii) nuclear fuel transportation and (iv) nuclear industry consulting services. NANO Nuclear believes it is the first portable nuclear microreactor company to be listed publicly in the U.S.
Led by a world-class nuclear engineering team, NANO Nuclear’s products in technical development are “ZEUS”, a solid core battery reactor, and “ODIN”, a low-pressure coolant reactor, each representing advanced developments in clean energy solutions that are portable, on-demand capable, advanced nuclear microreactors."
Grants & Funding
Grants & Funding
Anything currently listed is merely a suggestion and hasn't been confirmed as a definite source of funding for nuclear.
North America
North America
USA
USA
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) Program "provides $5 billion in grants to states, local governments, tribes, and territories to develop and implement ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution. Authorized under Section 60114 of the Inflation Reduction Act, this two-phase program provides $250 million for noncompetitive planning grants, and approximately $4.6 billion for competitive implementation grants."
DOE Awards $38 Million For Projects Leading Used Nuclear Fuel Recycling Initiative
Maps
Maps
International
International
The Global Integrated Power Tracker (GIPT) (Interactive) is a multi-sector dataset of power stations and facilities worldwide. The tracker provides unit-level information on thermal power (coal, oil, gas, nuclear, geothermal, bioenergy) and renewables (solar, wind, hydro). The tracker includes data on unit capacity, status, ownership, fuel type, start year, retirement date, geolocation, and more. Each power facility is linked to a profile page, hosted on GEM.wiki, that provides further information.
Global Energy Monitor’s eight power sector trackers provide the source of underlying data: the Global Coal Plant Tracker, Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker, Global Solar Power Tracker, Global Wind Power Tracker, Global Hydropower Tracker, Global Geothermal Power Tracker, Global Bioenergy Power Tracker, Global Nuclear Power Tracker."
The Global Nuclear Power Tracker (GNPT) (Interactive) is a worldwide dataset of nuclear power facilities.
The GNPT catalogs every nuclear power plant unit of any capacity and of any status, including operating, announced, pre-construction, under construction, shelved, cancelled, mothballed, or retired.
A nuclear power plant may consist of a single unit or of several units, which may be constructed simultaneously or at different times.
Nuclear plants of various technology types are tracked in the dataset, including pressurized water reactors, boiling water reactors, fast breeder reactors, and others.
Each nuclear power plant included in the tracker is linked to a wiki page on the GEM wiki."KFW: Interactive World Map of Renewable Energy Interactive map shows the solar, wind, and hydropower usage of each country. Just click a country on the map, or select the name via the dropdown. Data accurate as of (at least) 2017.
Our World In Data: Share of Primary Energy from Renewable Sources, 2021 "Renewable energy sources include hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal, bioenergy, wave, and tidal. They don't include traditional biofuels, which can be a key energy source, especially in lower-income settings." Interactive maps shows current and historical renewables use with a pop up graph for each country.
Be careful with the pop up graphs on this page because they only go as high as the maximum current or historical percent level, meaning some graphs only go as high as 17% or 50% renewable energy in the grid mix, but will look much higher if you glance at them with the assumption each is set with a maximum of 100%."
Europe
Europe
Nuclear Power Generation in 2020
Wind Energy Generation percent by country in 2021
North America
North America
DOE Waste Incidental to Reprocessing Locations "There are seven U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) Locations. As defined in Section 3116 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (NDAA), only DOE sites in Idaho and South Carolina are under the NDAA, so only Idaho and South Carolina are NDAA-Covered States. All other states are non-NDAA states. The NRC does not have regulatory or enforcement authority over DOE at any WIR location in any state."
Map of Power Generation in the Northwest interactive map allows you to see the types and sizes of projects 1898 to present (2023), and slide the timeline handles to see what types of energy production where built during which time periods.
Further Reading
Further Reading
We try to focus on available technology and solutions that are already in use, but if you want to read about emerging technologies on the horizon, or maybe even being tested somewhere near you, then the article Novel Renewable Technologies That Could Power the Future lists a number that we haven't heard about anywhere else.
You may also be interested in some of our other pages covering related topics.
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