Vallana Hill, Contributed
Nuclear Energy has never had a good reputation, it is deemed dangerous and expensive and highly environmentally toxic; so then why is it in the past two years the interest in nuclear energy has peaked. Even some of the world's most influential environmentalists have had a reversal of opinion on nuclear power, in supporting rather than opposing it and as at 2005; twenty three new plants were being constructed around the world.
The world is, and has been for too long entirely too dependent on oil, especially when more then two thirds of the global oil supply is wrapped up in Middle East conflict and political propaganda. Oil prices have always been controlled by the basic economics of supply and demand, however with OPEC manipulating this by either increasing or decreasing its production output. The worlds largest states, basically drive most of the demand to meet their economic needs, while developing countries such as the Caribbean are left in the balance riding the tidal wave of prices, thwarting growth and development. With this there has been a renewed effort to explore other sources of energy other than carbon-based fuels, which include: wind, hydro and solar, coal, biogas, and nuclear. Of all mentioned only one has the ability to provide continued load-based power supply that is eco-friendly, sustainable and economical; the time has come for nuclear energy to return.
This has already been in consideration in the past of the Jamaican Government, which commissioned the establishment of the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS) is a multdisciplinary research centre located on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies. Here houses the only nuclear reactor in the Caribbean (SLOWPOKE) and is run by the chief operator - Charles Grant. He maintains that Jamaica has the capability to pursue nuclear power generation at a lower cost and more efficiency than oil, and more reliable than the existing wind, and hydro plants in production across the island; the following are highlights from a paper written by him and presented at the Scientific Research Council Annual Conference: 'Nuclear Power Generation in Small Nations'.
In 2002, Jamaica produced 6.3 TWh of electricity, 97.4 per cent of which was generated from oil. Renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, tides and waves do not to provide directly either continuous base-load power, or peak-load power when it is needed and our potential for hydropower (118 MW) 8 is not sufficient for current demand. The Wigton Wind Farm project in Manchester has 23 wind turbines installed with a capacity of 900 kW each, for a total capacity of 20.7 MW (potential for 70 MW). The wind farm is expected to run at an average capacity factor of 35 per cent, 9 of which would supply approximately 62,000 MWh of electricity per year. The use of biomass in Jamaica is in the region of 1.2 million barrels fuel oil equivalent. However, none of the biomass processes are used for electricity generation. Renewable energy sources are therefore limited to some 10-20 per cent of the capacity of our electricity grid, so other sources seem necessary to reduce dependence upon fossil fuels.
Nuclear Energy
During his energy bill speech,
president Bush said, "Of all our nation's energy sources, only nuclear power plants can generate massive amounts of electricity without emitting an ounce of air pollution or greenhouse gases." Much to the chagrin of many anti-nuclear environmentalists, some of the world's most influential greens have had a reversal of opinion on nuclear power. These include Gaia theorist James Lovelock, Green-peace cofounder Patrick Moore, and Britain's Bishop Hugh Montefiore, a long-time board member of Friends of the Earth. Many persons now see nuclear power as the only way, at present, to drastically reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Globally, there are 440 operating nuclear power plants, with 24 under construction.
Over the past five years the United States although not publicly pushing nuclear energy has granted extensions of the operating lifetimes of their nuclear power plants from 40 to 60 years. To date 32 reactors have been granted extensions and a further 16 reactors are under evaluation. In addition, letters of intent to extend the reactor lifetime for a further 27 reactors have been sent 11. The U.S. reactors are now typically running at 90 per cent of capacity compared to 72 per cent capacity in 1990.
The Future of Nuclear Energy
In the initial phases of nuclear power generation, scales of economy had encouraged large nuclear power plants, typically 1,000 MWe, too large for a country of our size to manage, or indeed fund. Today, due partly to the high capital cost of large power reactors generating electricity via the steam cycle and partly to consideration of public perception, there is a move to develop smaller units. An international consortium of 11 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, European Union, France, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States) has selected six such reactor types, the so-called Generation IV reactors that will be developed over the next 30 to 50 years. These reactors are typically less than 200MWe and should cost less than 300 million dollars each to construct 12. The Generation IV initiative is aimed at developing nuclear energy systems that can supply future worldwide needs for electricity, hydrogen, and other products. This class of reactor would have significant improvements in sustainability, safety, and economics over present-day reactors. The six accepted technologies were selected following the evaluation of 100 or so different nuclear energy concepts by more than 100 expert scientists and engineers from more than a dozen countries.
The Generation IV reactors rely on safety features that are inherent within the design rather than complex additional safety systems and human intervention. Unlike the incidences at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986, if a fault occurs during reactor operations, the system, at worst, will come to a standstill and merely dissipate heat without core failure or release of radioactivity to the environment.
While present day reactors operate at coolant temperatures of typically 340 ĄC, Generation IV very high temperature reactors, such as the Pebble Bed Modular reactors, are designed to achieve at least 900 ĄC 13. This higher temperature will give a thermal efficiency of up to 44 per cent, which translates into roughly one-third more output than conventional reactors' 13. The high operating temperature of these reactors also makes possible thermo-chemical hydrogen production. The only feeds to the process are water and high-temperature heat, typically 900 ĄC, and the only products are hydrogen, oxygen, and low-grade heat. Nuclear power is particularly well suited to hydrogen production by such a process because of its near-zero emissions.
The relatively low-initial capital cost, manageable size and modular nature of the Generation IV reactors make them more suitable for small and developing countries with not enough infrastructure to handle nuclear plants in their present day form.
The first power-generating demonstration plant of this Generation of reactor will be a 110 Mw Pebble Bed Modular Reactor 14 scheduled to begin construction in 2007 and hand over to the South African Power Company Eskom in 2010. The first commercial power plants are expected to be available in 2013.
The reactor is said to set new standards in safety, with spent fuel products that are proliferation proof. The reactor is designed to store all the spent fuel generated during the operational lifetime of the reactor in the facility for final processing as desired at special reprocessing facilities.
Generally, nuclear power plants are a viable option for producing energy in Jamaica, it cost about half the cost to run, the fuel is more efficient, there are little to no pollution and virtually no risk. So what's the hold up? According to Professor Lalor - the director
general of ICENS, it is about planning. Nuclear power is not something that is achieved in a year or two years, if the Government were to seriously look at nuclear power for the future, like about 2015 then planning needs to begin now. The biggest hurdle he sees in a fully functional nuclear power plant in Jamaica is not the cost, or the size or a location, but rather finding skilled workers to operate the plant. Imagine an electricity bill that's not tens of thousands of dollars, and pump prices that cost about a gallon of water, isn't worth at least a second thought?
