Establishing nuclear power plants is positive, if these plants can control their radioactive waste !!!!
But the nuclear industry has shown us many times lately that it does not always mastered the management of radioactive waste, or the accidental release of radioactivity into the environment
Nuclear plants are safe except for the disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima, when things cannot be controlled. Also the problem with the nuclear waste. What should be done? Here is a good pros and cons of nuclear energy.
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/10-pros-cons-nuclear-power.htm
Agreed Massakib, it is the best. However in the current situation the economics do not favor them as such. Only when the fossil fuels become more expensive then people will go for renewable such as Solar and Wind.
It is an undisputed reality that the energy production and their sustained growth constitute indispensable elements to ensure the economic and social progress of any country. For this reason, the use of all type of energy available in the country should be included in its energy mix in order to ensure its future economic and social development.
However, there are certain factors that need to be considered by the competent authorities of a country during the selection of the most economic energy sources for the generation of electricity. For instance the use of fossil fuels is a major and growing contributor to the emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This is a greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming and to produce a significant change in the climate all over the world. These changes are affecting almost all countries in all regions ones in one way and another in others.
Considering the different available energy sources that the world can use now to satisfy the foresee increase in energy demand in the coming years, there should be no doubt that, at least for the next decades, there are only a few realistic options available to reduce further the CO2 emissions as result of the electricity generation. These options are, among others, the following:
1. Increase efficiency in electricity generation and use;
2. Expand use of all available renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal, among others;
3. Massive introduction of new advanced technology like the capture carbon dioxide emissions technology at fossil-fueled (especially coal) electric generating plants, with the purpose to permanently sequester the carbon produced by these plants;
4. Increase use of new types of nuclear power reactors that are inherent safe and proliferation risk-free,
5. Increase energy saving.
Undoubtedly, one of the available types of energy sources that have probed in the past that can be effectively used for the generation of electricity is nuclear energy. Can be stated that nuclear energy could be safely used for electricity generation in the future despite the serious accidents occurred in nuclear power plants since 1979? The answer to this question is yes, nuclear energy can play again an important role in the energy balance of several countries from almost all regions, as it did in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, if important additional safety measures are introduced in all nuclear power reactors currently in operation in all countries without exception. These additional measures will reduce to the minimum the possibility of having a new serious nuclear accident similar to the ones occurred in the USA in 1979, Ukraine in 1986, and in Japan in 2011.
The International Energy Outlook for 2011 (IEO 2011) indicated that electricity
generation from nuclear power worldwide is expected to increase from 2.6 trillion kWh in 2008 to 4.9 trillion kWh in 2035, an increase of 88 %. However, there is a great concern about building new nuclear capacity due to construction costs, energy security and greenhouse gas emissions. The Fukushima nuclear accident could reduce the role that nuclear energy could play in several countries in the generation of electricity. In others the role of nuclear energy will continue to an important component of thier energy mix. For more information on the role of nuclear energy in the generation of electricity you can read my book entitled Nuclear Power:Current and Future Role in the World Electricity Generation and my paper entitled Is Nuclear Power a Realistic Alternative for the Production of Electricity After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident?
Thanks Jorge for a nice analysis. I think we all must realize that a right energy mix is the best choice for tomorrow. A very natural thing to observe that any energy resources (fossil fuel and nuclear energy) which have potential to meet mass demand comes with its own adverse impact on the nature. Renewables on the other hand have less impact on environment but they have limitation to meet the large scale commercial capacity. Hope in future "Fusion Reactor" technology will be made available commercially with no radioactive waste and will enable us harness energy in a more sustainable basis.
Thank you so much to everyone giving us useful information about types of energy systems, but nobody speaking about hydrogen energy for near future, the only one environmentally safe energy. So, nowadays in some countries test production of hydrogen energy is going on. On the other hand, what do you think about hydrogen energy? Wind and solar energy system are not going steadily because of up and down ratio of energy changing every time. In my opinion, all types of energy too important for every countries because of the conditions and suitability to produce them. As a result that sustainability and costs are too important for production of energy steadily to every countries.
The approaches to produced energy in sustainable way are too many. However is extremely difficult to characterize any new energy source as “sustainable”. Is not always easy to check all sustainability pillars and mostly social cultural beside of environment and economic. Citizens are overcome by fear when the scientific community talk or promote nuclear power plants and thus due to the results of a nuclear accident. The phenomenon is irreversible. On the other hand we know that (from the economic site of view) when a nuclear power plant need specific maintenance, this is not or may be not really happen as is extremely expensive and the owner (government authorities – politicians) don't really understood the importance of those issues. They try to find several others economically solution which usually takes time….
One the other hand since now there is no any research results (published – I am working on that with my team) focuses on the total impact on the environment of the production of solar panel and what are the main issues and aspects during the solar panel (or other renewable energy source) life.
Dear Subhasish. The potential use of the new nuclear energy technologiescan be found in my paper entitled New Technologies Associated to the Construction of Nucear Power Plants.
In the case of the use hydrogen as fuel my comments are the following: One of the current limiting factors in the use of hydrogen as energy source is, according with AEC’s experts, the weight and cost of the hydrogen’s batteries, particularly due to the use of platinum, which is a very expense raw material. Materials used in the fuel cell system are not very expensive but required significant research investments in order to improve fuel cell durability, hydrogen storage densities and simplify the integration of these systems in existing cars. Industrial processes and volumes are not yet there to optimize production costs, and it will certainly take years if not decades to get there. However, in the last seven years, the weight and cost of the special badges of hydrogen’s batteries diminished in 90%, making possible the use of hydrogen as an important energy source in the near future.
Another limiting factors in the use of hydrogen worldwide as energy source is the need to use other energy source to produce it. A key attraction of hydrogen as an energy vector is that can be produced from a variety of sources, including renewables, nuclear and fossil sources. The production of hydrogen today is mainly performed by steam reforming, partial oxidation of gaseous or liquid fuels or the gasification of coal. Electrolysis is used when a small amount of pure hydrogen is required at a specific site. The purification of hydrogen rich gases is an important step in improving the quality of hydrogen produced, depending on eventual use. Certain fuel types require very high purity hydrogen. Distribution of hydrogen is done through pipelines, or using trucks carrying hydrogen in high-pressure gas cylinders or cryogenic tanks. The latter involves an energy-intensive liquefaction step, though the energy required just to compress gaseous hydrogen is itself significant. In the short- to-medium term, the lack of readily available non-fossil sources means that the bulk of hydrogen produced will come from fossil fuels, firstly without carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), and then with CCS in the medium term. The long-term goal is to produce hydrogen from indigenous carbon-free and carbon-clean energy sources. It is important to stress that if we use fossil fuels with this purpose, then the production of hydrogen will not be clean, because CO2 will be release to the atmosphere. The only possibility to produce hydrogen without the emission of CO2 is to use renewable energies, which could not be always available and competitive or nuclear energy.
There is already today a major worldwide industry that provides hydrogen as a chemical used in making nitrogen fertilizers and in converting low-grade crude oils into transport fuels, but this hydrogen is made from natural gas, giving rise to emissions of CO2. To make hydrogen cleanly and on a large scale, two nuclear- powered processes are conceivable. In the short term, hydrogen can be produced economically by electrolysis of water using off-peak nuclear power. In future, a major possibility is direct thermo-chemical conversion of water using high-temperature reactors.
The shift to a hydrogen economy will, of course, require a major support from government in the form of mandated usages of this new type of energy, or by limiting the use of carbon or any other energy sources more contaminant from the point of view of the environment.
Iceland is implementing a project replacing the fuel of its cars and their fishing fleet by hydrogen, bearing in mind that this country is rich in geothermal and hydroelectric sources. In Luxembourg, three fuel cell buses run on the city’s streets as part of the Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) project, an initiative of the EU. The project that runs from 2003 until the end of 2006 has been developed in order to gain experience on how fuel cell technology really works on a day-to-day operation in a challenging environment. The same type of project run in the Netherlands as part as the EU initiative in the transport sector.
In other parts of the world, there is an increase in the use of renewable sources to produce hydrogen at moments of excess of electricity generation, with the purpose to extract later on its energy in deficit generation situations.
Nuclear power plant somehow offers a reliable and alternative sources compared to conventional power plant that using fossil-based sources as the generating agent. However, highly safety maintenance is required and overall feasibility studies on the development is really essentiall and important. Renewable energy plant is climate-dependent and be specific application based on the local avaibility of the energy, Malaysia for example is having highly solar radiation exposure about 4-6 hours daily but have no reliable wind to support wind turbine. Overall, the power plant type shoud be considering the local climatic and engineering culture for it best and optimum output.
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