Kristy
02-14-2008, 10:58 PM
URANIUM AND NUCLEAR ENGERY FACTSHEET
The public policy issues of clean energy from uranium
How natural?
Uranium is a natural part of many rocks and is barely radioactive ? very much less so than many of the other elements usually found with it. However, it provides the main heat sources inside the Earth, causing convection and continental drift.
The first nuclear reactors started up and operated naturally about 2000 million years ago, in a uranium ore body, in west Africa1.
How much from Australia?
Australia provides about 20 per cent of the world?s uranium, representing almost half (42%) of Australia?s energy exports in thermal terms. Australia has 28 per cent of world U reserves.
How sufficient and sustainable?
Uranium supplies, using currently proven but not yet widely used reactor technology, are sufficient for hundreds of years, even at much increased levels of use.
When uranium is used to generate electricity it produced no pollution or greenhouse gases.
How significant?
Nuclear energy provides 16 per cent of world electricity (24 per cent in developed countries). Today there is as much electricity generated by nuclear power as f4rom all sources worldwide in 1961 (2525 billion kWh in 2003). Now, 11,500 reactor years of operation.
France gets over 75 per cent of its electricty from nuclear power. It is the world?s largest electricity exporter, and gains some $4.6 billion Australian dollars from that.
There are some 440 nuclear reactors in 31 countries, 363 Gwe, 2525 TWh I 2002 (13 times Australian total). 56 countries operate more than 280 research reactors. Over 200 are used for naval propulsion.
Uranium as exported from Australia contains 20,000 times as much energy per kg as coal.
To supply Australia?s gross electricity production, 6,00 tonnes U3O8 per year would be needed.
A 1,000 Mwe reactor producing 7 TWh per year supplies 780,000 people (@ 9,000 kWh each).
What potential?
To produce all today?s base load power2 worldwide would require about 1,700 nuclear reactors. Double this in 2030!
Nuclear energy is widely considered the most promising means of making hydrogen, initially by electrolysis, but later by thermochemical means.
If in 2050 nuclear reactors also produce most of the world?s hydrogen which by then is the main transport fuel, consider over 8,000 reactors for electricity, plus 1,300 units for the hydrogen: say 9,500 total3 worldwide.
1 Due to natural changes in the uranium, this can no longer happen.
2 Assuming base load 75 per cent of total, and using 1,000 Mwe units.
3 1,000 Mwe units.
How secure?
All Australian uranium is used for electricity, though Australia is almost the only developed country not using any electricity generated by nuclear power.
How competitive?
Very! Today nuclear power is competitive in many places ? which is why 30 or so reactors are under construction and more are planned. If the costs of carbon emissions are factored in to fossil fuels, it becomes universally competitive.
What about wastes?
Nuclear power is the only energy producing industry which takes full responsibility for all its wastes, and fully costs this into the product4. High level civil wastes ? mostly spent fuel ? are contained and managed safely, and have been virtually without incident for 50 years. Heat and radioactivity from spent fuel decay significantly, eg. to less than 0.1 per cent of original by 50 years.
There are multiple barriers for waste disposal: immobilise, seal, bury deep in stable rock formations. Two broad strategies: direct disposal and reprocessing. Either way, net cost is about 5 per cent of electricity generation.
Plutonium??
When uranium is ?burned? in a reactor, some plutonium is formed. Much of this is a valuable energy source like the fissile portion of the uranium (ie U-235). Reprocessing spent fuel with recycle of plutonium into fresh mixed oxide (MOX) fuel extracts about 30 per cent more energy from the original fuel. Currently 10 ? 12 tonnes Pu is used in MOX fuel each year (of about 100 tonnes generated). This reactor plutonium is very different from weapons Pu.
Megatonnes to Megawatts
Ex weapons uranium is now well established as a source of fuel for power generation. One tenth of US electricity (ie half of the nuclear electricity) is generated from Russian ex weapon uranium. Maybe military plutonium will also follow in next few year, as MOX. This is an important disposal option since the plutonium will be permanently denatured.
Greenhouse significance?
Nuclear energy emits no carbon dioxide, and worldwide it avoids the emission of about 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 per year (relative to coal). Other electricity generation emits over 7 billion tonnes per year5. Every 22 tonnes of uranium (26 tonnes U3O8) used for generating electricity saves about one million tonnes of CO2 relative to coal6.
A carbon value or tax of $37 per tonne C on black coal or $29 per tonne C on brown coal would lift electricity generation costs from those sources by one cent per kWh. (= taxes of $10/t CO2).
Safety?
Nuclear power has an excellent and arguably unmatched safety record, considering 11,500 reactor years of nuclear power generation. Some early Russian reactors remain a concern.
Proliferation of weapons?
Avoiding nuclear weapons proliferation has been a high priority from the inception of nuclear power ? which in at least three countries arose from weapons programs. No uranium traded for electricity production has every been diverted fro military use. Civil plutonium is unsuitable for weapons, but is also subject to accounting and auditing under the international safeguards system.
4 Adding about 5 per cent to the generating cost. This is met by levy, eg 0.1 c/kWh in USA, giving a $20+ billion fund in USA. Decommissioning cost is also c 5 percent of electricity.
5 1 TWh from coal = > 1 Mt CO2 ie 1 kWh = . 1 kg.
6 500 GJ/kg, Coal @26.4 MJ/kg, 67% C and 33% thermal efficiency.
The public policy issues of clean energy from uranium
How natural?
Uranium is a natural part of many rocks and is barely radioactive ? very much less so than many of the other elements usually found with it. However, it provides the main heat sources inside the Earth, causing convection and continental drift.
The first nuclear reactors started up and operated naturally about 2000 million years ago, in a uranium ore body, in west Africa1.
How much from Australia?
Australia provides about 20 per cent of the world?s uranium, representing almost half (42%) of Australia?s energy exports in thermal terms. Australia has 28 per cent of world U reserves.
How sufficient and sustainable?
Uranium supplies, using currently proven but not yet widely used reactor technology, are sufficient for hundreds of years, even at much increased levels of use.
When uranium is used to generate electricity it produced no pollution or greenhouse gases.
How significant?
Nuclear energy provides 16 per cent of world electricity (24 per cent in developed countries). Today there is as much electricity generated by nuclear power as f4rom all sources worldwide in 1961 (2525 billion kWh in 2003). Now, 11,500 reactor years of operation.
France gets over 75 per cent of its electricty from nuclear power. It is the world?s largest electricity exporter, and gains some $4.6 billion Australian dollars from that.
There are some 440 nuclear reactors in 31 countries, 363 Gwe, 2525 TWh I 2002 (13 times Australian total). 56 countries operate more than 280 research reactors. Over 200 are used for naval propulsion.
Uranium as exported from Australia contains 20,000 times as much energy per kg as coal.
To supply Australia?s gross electricity production, 6,00 tonnes U3O8 per year would be needed.
A 1,000 Mwe reactor producing 7 TWh per year supplies 780,000 people (@ 9,000 kWh each).
What potential?
To produce all today?s base load power2 worldwide would require about 1,700 nuclear reactors. Double this in 2030!
Nuclear energy is widely considered the most promising means of making hydrogen, initially by electrolysis, but later by thermochemical means.
If in 2050 nuclear reactors also produce most of the world?s hydrogen which by then is the main transport fuel, consider over 8,000 reactors for electricity, plus 1,300 units for the hydrogen: say 9,500 total3 worldwide.
1 Due to natural changes in the uranium, this can no longer happen.
2 Assuming base load 75 per cent of total, and using 1,000 Mwe units.
3 1,000 Mwe units.
How secure?
All Australian uranium is used for electricity, though Australia is almost the only developed country not using any electricity generated by nuclear power.
How competitive?
Very! Today nuclear power is competitive in many places ? which is why 30 or so reactors are under construction and more are planned. If the costs of carbon emissions are factored in to fossil fuels, it becomes universally competitive.
What about wastes?
Nuclear power is the only energy producing industry which takes full responsibility for all its wastes, and fully costs this into the product4. High level civil wastes ? mostly spent fuel ? are contained and managed safely, and have been virtually without incident for 50 years. Heat and radioactivity from spent fuel decay significantly, eg. to less than 0.1 per cent of original by 50 years.
There are multiple barriers for waste disposal: immobilise, seal, bury deep in stable rock formations. Two broad strategies: direct disposal and reprocessing. Either way, net cost is about 5 per cent of electricity generation.
Plutonium??
When uranium is ?burned? in a reactor, some plutonium is formed. Much of this is a valuable energy source like the fissile portion of the uranium (ie U-235). Reprocessing spent fuel with recycle of plutonium into fresh mixed oxide (MOX) fuel extracts about 30 per cent more energy from the original fuel. Currently 10 ? 12 tonnes Pu is used in MOX fuel each year (of about 100 tonnes generated). This reactor plutonium is very different from weapons Pu.
Megatonnes to Megawatts
Ex weapons uranium is now well established as a source of fuel for power generation. One tenth of US electricity (ie half of the nuclear electricity) is generated from Russian ex weapon uranium. Maybe military plutonium will also follow in next few year, as MOX. This is an important disposal option since the plutonium will be permanently denatured.
Greenhouse significance?
Nuclear energy emits no carbon dioxide, and worldwide it avoids the emission of about 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 per year (relative to coal). Other electricity generation emits over 7 billion tonnes per year5. Every 22 tonnes of uranium (26 tonnes U3O8) used for generating electricity saves about one million tonnes of CO2 relative to coal6.
A carbon value or tax of $37 per tonne C on black coal or $29 per tonne C on brown coal would lift electricity generation costs from those sources by one cent per kWh. (= taxes of $10/t CO2).
Safety?
Nuclear power has an excellent and arguably unmatched safety record, considering 11,500 reactor years of nuclear power generation. Some early Russian reactors remain a concern.
Proliferation of weapons?
Avoiding nuclear weapons proliferation has been a high priority from the inception of nuclear power ? which in at least three countries arose from weapons programs. No uranium traded for electricity production has every been diverted fro military use. Civil plutonium is unsuitable for weapons, but is also subject to accounting and auditing under the international safeguards system.
4 Adding about 5 per cent to the generating cost. This is met by levy, eg 0.1 c/kWh in USA, giving a $20+ billion fund in USA. Decommissioning cost is also c 5 percent of electricity.
5 1 TWh from coal = > 1 Mt CO2 ie 1 kWh = . 1 kg.
6 500 GJ/kg, Coal @26.4 MJ/kg, 67% C and 33% thermal efficiency.