Chemistry 2010-2011

sporadic incidents when compared to the rate of accidents which occur in fossil fuel industries, coal mines and gas pipelines

uranium and this is available in abundance in the crust of the Earth

because most nuclear reactors have a life cycle of 40 years

is an extremely reliable source of power

this form of power is virtually inexhaustible.

nium in spent nuclear fuel, putting it into new mixed oxide fuel. This produces a reduction in long term radioactivity within the remaining waste, since this is largely short-lived fission products, and reduces its volume by over 90%. Reprocessing of civili

only considered radioactive waste because of its history.[91] Comparing radioactive waste to industrial toxic waste In countries with nuclear power, radioactive wastes comprise less than 1% of total industrial toxic wastes, much of which remains hazardous indefinitely.[76] Overall,

nt the spent fuel was removed from operation. Still, this 0,1% is dangerously radioactive.[76] After 10,000 year

power plants is spent nuclear fuel. It is primarily composed of unconverted uranium as well as significant quantities of transuranic actinides (plutonium and curium, mostly). In addition, about 3% of it is fission products from nuclear reactions. The actinides (uranium, plutonium, and curium) are responsible for the bulk of the long-term radioactivity, whereas the fission products are responsible for the bulk of the short-term radioactivity.[81]

As opposed to current light water reactors which use uranium-235 (0.7% of all natural uranium), fast breeder reactors use uranium-238 (99.3% of all natural uranium). It has been estimated that there is up to five billion years’ worth of uranium-238 for use in these power plants.[77] Breeder technology has been used in several reactors, but the high cost of reprocessing fuel safely requires uranium prices of more than 200 USD/kg before becoming justified economically.[78] As of December 2005, the only breeder reactor producing power is BN-600 in Beloyarsk, Russia. The electricity output of BN-600 is 600 MW — Russia has planned to build another unit, BN-800, at Beloyarsk nuclear power plant. Also, Japan's Monju reactor is planned for restart (having been shut down since 1995), and both China and India intend to build breeder reactors. Another alternative would be to use uranium-233 bred from thorium as fission fuel in the thorium fuel cyc

er station. Therefore the fuel's contribution to the overall cost of the electricity produced is relatively small, so even a large fuel price escalation will have relatively little effect on final price. For instance, typically a doubling of the uranium market price would increase the fuel cost for a light water reactor by 26% and the electricity cost about 7%, whereas doubling the price of natural gas would typically add 70% to the price of electricity from that source. At high enough prices, eventually extraction from sources such as granite and seawater become economically feasible.[74][75] Current light water reactors make relatively inefficient use of nuclear fuel, fissioning only the very rare uranium-235 isotope. Nuclear reprocessing can make this waste reusable and more efficient reactor designs allow better use of the available resources.[76] Breeding Main article: Breeder reactor

is then enriched using various techniques. At this point, the enriched uranium, containing more than the

decis

Soviet Union, for example lacking "robust" containment buildings.[56] Many of these reactors are still in use today. However, changes were made in both the reactors themselves (use of low e

ns related to nuclear accidents, nuclear proliferation, high cost of nuclear power plants, nuclear terrorism and radioactive waste disposal.[44] In the early 1970s, there were large protests about a proposed nuclear power plant in Wyhl, Germany. The project was cancelled in 1975 and anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired opposition to nuclear power in other parts of Europe and North America.[45][46] By the mid-1970s anti-nuc

n February 1975 and April 1979, some 280,000 people were involved in seven demonstrations at nuclear sites. Several site occupations

neutrons, and so on.[60] This nuclear chain reaction can be controlled by using neutron poisons and neutron moderators to change the portion of neutrons that will go on to cause more fissions.[60] Nuclear reactors generally have automatic an

and construction delays.[55] Unlike the Three Mile Isla

ile Island, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster played a part in stopping new plant construction in many countries,[53][54] although the public policy organization Brookings Institution suggests th