A COMEBACK FOR
nuclear power
Technology advancements and cost competitiveness give nuclear a new edge By Scott Gates
N
uclear power in the United States has experienced a roller coaster ride of booms and busts. When the first wave of commercial reactors was built in the 1950s, Lewis Strauss, then-chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission—forerunner of today’s federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission—envisioned a future where nuclear energy would be “too cheap to meter.”
Four Generations of Nuclear Power
12 AUGUST 2009 Carolina Country
The vast amounts of electricity produced by nuclear plants seemed to offer a perfect, home-grown solution to the nation’s skyrocketing power needs, especially when the federal government restricted use of natural gas for electricity generation during the energy crisis of the 1970s and early 1980s. Nuclear power plants were built by the dozens, but by the mid-1980s the worldwide plunge of energy prices, slower-than-expected growth in electricity demand, and, following the accident at Three Mile Island, expensive safety mandates imposed on new reactors had taken the competitive edge off nuclear power. Yet today, nuclear power seems poised for what some call a renaissance. Driving the renewed interest is a growing demand for electricity coupled with federal climate change legislation that will likely boost the price for every kilowatt generated by fuels that emit carbon dioxide—notably coal and natural gas. “As a zero-carbon energy source, nuclear power must be part of our energy mix as we work toward energy independence and meeting the challenge of global warming,” U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu recently noted. Since 1993, increases in generation capacity and improved efficiencies at the nation’s 104 commercial nuclear power plants have accounted for one-third of voluntary carbon dioxide reductions from U.S. industries, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Energy Institute. In 2007, nuclear power accounted for about 74 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions-free electric generation. The basic principle of nuclear power is the same as with other types of power plants: use heat to boil water, create steam, and turn a turbine attached to an electric generator. With nuclear power the heat comes not from burning a combustible material such as coal, but from releasing energy stored in uranium atoms. In 1934, it was discovered that when tiny particles called neutrons were fired at a uranium atom, the atom split into parts that didn’t equal the original atom’s mass. At the time the result provided a mystery: where did that missing mass go? Using Einstein’s famous formula—E=mc2—researchers soon realized the mass had been converted to energy. Within eight years the world’s first nuclear reactor was constructed on a squash court at the University of Chicago. On Dec. 2, 1942, a self-sustaining nuclear reaction was triggered, and the age of nuclear power began. Today’s nuclear reactors, while utilizing the same physics, are far more sophisticated. Called “light water reactors”