Nuclear power is the most efficient, safest and most environment friendly source of energy.

Welcome

This blog compiles facts that make nuclear energy the clear choice for powering our future.


I have NO connection with the nuclear power industry and I have never had any connection with the nuclear power industry.


I have created this blog because I believe we are in dire need of drastically reducing our carbon emissions. Coal fired power plants are the single largest producer of CO2. Nuclear power is the most efficient, safest and most environmentally friendly source of energy available.


Coal Is Bad

Alex Gabbard makes it clear in this ORNL article. Coal fired power plants are a bigger danger to your health and the future of our planet than nuclear power plants. Coal fired power plants release more radiation and more CO2 into the atmosphere than a nuclear power plant. Yet 52% of our energy comes form coal fired power plants, while only 15% is created by nuclear energy.


The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the Department of Energy’s largest science and energy laboratory.

Books

  • "Power to Save the World; The Truth About Nuclear Energy" by Gwyneth Cravens, 2007 Finally a truthful book about nuclear power. This book is very easy to read and understand.
  • ENVIRONMENTALISTS FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY book: http://www.comby.org/livres/livresen.htm Fossil fuels such as coal oil, and gas, massively pollute the Earth's atmosphere (CO, CO2, SOX, NOX...), provoking acid rains and changeing the global climate by increasing the greenhouse effect, while nuclear energy does not participate in these pollutions and presents well-founded environmental benefits. Renewable energies (solar, wind) not being able to deliver the amount of energy required by populations in developing and developed countries, nuclear energy is in fact the only clean and safe energy available to protect the planet during the XXI st century. This book answers essential questions about nuclear safety, the Chernobyl accident, the public health problems our society has to face, viable solutions for nuclear waste, the benefits of clean nuclear energy for the environment, and important information about the future of our planet. Back cover - Table of contents - Introduction by James Lovelock - Review of this book by the American Health Physics Society http://www.comby.org/media/articles/articles.in.english/HealthPhysics-NUC-July2002.htm   Book Review   Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, by B. Comby English edition, 2001, 345 pp. (soft cover), 38 Euros TNR Editions, 266 avenue Daumesnil, 75012 Paris, France; ISBN 2-914190-02-6 www.ecolo.org
  • "The Long Summer" by Brian Fagan
  • "Collapse" by Jared Diamond

Mass Extinction

The largest mass extinction of life occurred 251 million years ago when the atmospheric carbon levels rose to near 1000 parts per million, the ocean became anoxic (lacking oxygen). This allowed hydrogen sulfide gas to bubbled up from the bottom of the ocean and 95% of all life on earth died.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Pebble Bed Reactors Explained

The pebble bed reactor (PBR) is a graphite-moderated, gas-cooled,nuclear reactor. It is a type of Very high temperature reactor (VHTR), that uses TRISO fuel particles, which allows for high outlet temperatures and passive safety.

The PBR's unique design is based on tennis ball-sized, spherical fuel elements called "pebbles" that are made of pyrolytic graphite. Each pebble contains thousands of micro fuel particles called TRISO particles. The 360,000 pebbles in the PBR core are cooled by an inert or semi-inert gas such as helium, nitrogen or carbon dioxide. This gas circulates through the spaces between the fuel pebbles to carry heat away from the reactor. Ideally, the heated gas is run directly through a turbine. However, it may be brought instead to a heat exchanger where it heats another gas or produces steam. The exhaust of the turbine is quite warm and may be used to warm buildings or chemical plants, or even run another heat engine.

The coolant is fireproof (it cannot have a steam explosion as a light-water reactor can) and it has no phase transitions—it starts as a gas and remains a gas. Similarly, the moderator is solid carbon, it does not move or have phase transitions (i.e. between liquid and gas) as the light water in conventional reactors does.

A pebble-bed reactor thus can have all of its supporting machinery fail, and the reactor will not crack, melt, explode or spew hazardous wastes. It simply goes up to a designed "idle" temperature, and stays there. In that state, the reactor vessel radiates heat, but the vessel and fuel spheres remain intact and undamaged. The machinery can be repaired or the fuel can be removed. These safety features were tested (and filmed) with the German AVR reactor. All the control rods were removed, and the coolant flow was halted. Afterward, the fuel balls were sampled and examined for damage and there was none.

The passive safety design eliminates many of the postulated accident scenarios associated with traditional nuclear power plants, which are cooled with active safety systems. In these scenarios, which may raise the temperature of a pebble bed reactor to 1600°C, the reactor is designed to remain intact and passively cool by natural circulation. The design for high temperatures also allows a turbine to extract more mechanical energy from the same amount of thermal energy. Therefore a PBR uses less fuel per kilowatt-hour than a traditional nuclear power plant.

Pebble-bed reactors have numerous, reinforcing levels of containment to prevent contact between the radioactive materials and the biosphere. The fission fuel, in the form of metal oxides or carbides, is sealed inside pyrolytic graphite pebbles/balls. Pyrolytic graphite will not change state until it reaches 4000 °C, more than double the design temperature of most reactors. It slows neutrons very effectively, is strong, inexpensive, and has a long history of use in reactors. Each pebble is coated with a fireproof silicon carbide. The pebbles are contained in a sealed bin which is inside a room with two-meter-thick walls and doors that can be sealed. This room can be filled with water to cool the reactor vessel. Finally, the reactor system is enclosed in a containment building designed to resist aircraft crashes and earthquakes.

The simplicity of the passive safety system makes pebble bed reactors more safe, much less expensive to build and more efficient to operate than traditional, water cooled nuclear reactors.


source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor

No comments:

Post a Comment