nuclear technolo gy

The emergence of the new age fuel problem with its

Costs of buying radioactive elements, building power plants and The initial cost can to establish a maintenence nuclear plants require a nuclear power be very high.
High Capital intensiv e

high level technology and plant is very a major initial capital high. investment. Its abandonment cost is also veryto high. Abandonment cost refers the cost to
get rid, control and safely transport excess radioactive elements after the generator has been shut down.

Accidents

Unfortunately, safety margins are continuously challenged. Equipment can wear out faster than expected. And pressure to remain competitive can result in cost cutting, which can in turn lead to poor safety monitoring or slow response to known problems. Suffice to conclude that nuke power draws not only security threat from terrorists, but also from its lack of

Running such complex system, anything can go wrong. To maintain safety margins, constant vigilance is greatly needed Inspectors and tests must identify faulty equipment, and accurate procedures must guide workers so that they do not make errors.

Result of Nuke accidents. Human error or natural disasters can wreak just as much havoc at

a nuclear power plant site. The Chernobyl (1986) disaster in Ukraine formerly known as Pripyat, forced the evacuation and resettlement of nearly 400,000 people, with thousands poisoned by radiation.

Mutation

Children with genetic mutation due to radiation

What happened in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant

Simple explanation Earthquake caused power plant to shut down; killing power to the main pumps. External power grid went offline due to the earthquake, causing tsunamis that took out the diesel generators. Although substitute batteries work, but the severity of the situation took out most of the reserved energy. Over heating of the generator core causes it to explode, which in turn leads to more overheating and radiation leakge.

The plants at Fukushima are Boiling Water Reactors (BWR for short). The reactor operates at about 285 C.

The nuclear fuel used in the Fukushima Diichi Nuclear Reactor is uranium oxide; a ceramic with a very high melting point of about 2800 C

The fuel is manufactured in pellets cylinders of 1cm tall and 1cm in diameter. These pellets are then put into a long tube made of Zircaloy (an alloy of zirconium) with a failure temperature of 1200 C

These fuel rods are then put together to form assemblies, of which several hundred make up the reactor core.

On March 11 2011, an earthquake of a scale 8.9 hit Japan; and was several times more powerful than the ones that usually hit a nuclear reactor.

When the earthquake hit, the nuclear reactors all automatically shutdown

The earthquake destroyed the external power supply of the nuclear reactor. Also known to nuclear plant engineers as 'loss of offsite power.
The backup diesel fuel quickly came online for the first hour. However when a tsunami, greater than the anticipated one arrived, it flooded the diesel generator and hence failing the whole system.

When the diesel generators failed after the tsunami, the reactor operators switched to emergency battery power. The batteries were designed as one of the backup systems to provide power for cooling the core for 8 hours. And they did.

As the water in the generator heats up, it creates a very high pressure within the reactor. The pressure buildup causes the reactor to blowup, sending tonnes of radioactive material to the atmosphere, water and land.

However, a few conclusions had been drawn upon the crepuscle of the event. - The plant is safe now and will stay safe. - A very small amount of Cesium was released, as well as Iodine. - There was some limited damage to the first containment. There are facilities for treating the cooling water inside the third containment. The radioactive Cesium and Iodine will be removed there and eventually stored as radioactive waste in terminal storage. - There will be some low level of activation of the seawater, which will also be removed by the treatment facilities.

- The safety systems on all Japanese plants will be upgraded to withstand a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami (or worse). - The most significant problem will probably be a prolonged power shortage. About half of Japans nuclear reactors will probably have to be inspected, reducing the nations power generating capacity by 15%. This will probably be covered by running gas power plants that are usually only used for peak loads to cover some of the base load as well. That will increase your electricity bill, as well as lead to potential power shortages during peak demand, in Japan."

Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident after a tsunami hit *11 March 2011

Civiliannuclear andradiological accidents primarily involve nuclear power plants. Most common are nuclear leaks that expose workers to hazardous material. Anuclear meltdown refers to the more serious hazard of releasing nuclear material into the surrounding environment. The most significant meltdowns occurred atThree Mile Island inPennsylvania andChernobyl in theSoviet Ukraine . The earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 caused serious damage to three nuclear reactors and a spent fuel storage pond at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Military reactors that experienced similar accidents wereWindscale in theUnited Kingdom andSL-1 in the United States.

Nuclear waste
Its untenable now to secure and store all of the waste from the plants that exist. To imagine the amount of radioactive waste is unthinkable. The waste from nuclear power plants will be toxic for humans for more than 100,000 years

The U.S.A. proposed a solution to THEIR nuclear waste storage facility to Yucca Mountain in the Nevada. Not only is it overbudget, this sought out solution isn't the safest due to health regulations. Although nuclear proponents are clearly on the hike to put ideas to control nuclear waste, the idea of transporting them across Mount Yuca (Nevada) is unjustifiable.

Nuclear reactors represent a clear national security risk, and an attractive target for terrorists.

Nuclear Weapons Threat.

In researching the security around nuclear power plants, Robert Kennedy, Jr. from the U.S.A. found that there are at least eight relatively easy ways to cause a major meltdown at a nuclear power plant, in the U.S.A only

He himself had succeded in infiltrating the nuclear power plant in the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant on the Hudson River outside of New York City, TWICE.

Imagine what the international security would do, crossing it with a Chernobyl like disaster.

A nuclear weapon test

How the atomic bomb works

A typical atomic bomb

Cancer
There are growing concerns that living near nuclear plants increases the risk for childhood leukemia and other forms of Texas study cancer even whenOne a plant has an found increased cancer rates in north central Texas accident-free track record.

since the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant was established in 1990, and a recent German study found childhood leukemia clusters near several nuclear power sites in Europe.

Iodine 131
induce tyroid cancer

Strontium 90
breast cancer, leukemia

induce

Cesium 137 induce

malignant muscle cancer (sarcoma)

Plutoniu m - carcinogens

Concluding slide

Concluding slide

Till date, the emergence of nuclear power still remains controversial. Proponents of the nuclear power has indeed brought in a Drastic actions should whole bargainable be taken forthwith; benefits assuring not to hinder the the people of the growing utilization of bitter truth is the nuclear power, under control