16. Nuclear Reactor Construction and Operation
16. Nuclear Reactor Construction and Operation
MIT 22.01 Introduction to Nuclear Engineering and Ionizing Radiation, Fall 2016
Instructor: Ka-Yen Yau
View the complete course: https://ocw.mit.edu/22-01F16
YouTube Playlist: • MIT 22.01 Introduction to Nuclear Eng…
Prof. Short goes to Russia, and Ka-Yen (our TA) explains in detail how nuclear reactors work. Concepts from the course thus far are blended with previews of future courses to physically explain how current and future nuclear reactors produce heat and energy. Aspects of safety are discussed between different designs, and the details of major reactor accidents are explained.
License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
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21.7 -> so if you guys don't remember me I'm one
23.77 -> of your TAS I'm Tina number three that's
25.36 -> what I call myself I'm Kayne and I'll be
28.09 -> teaching your lesson today because well
29.47 -> mics in Russia so yeah yeah so I know
33.01 -> you guys had your first exam a couple of
35.14 -> days ago how did that go okay sounds
40.54 -> good alright so we will talk about it
41.98 -> but because you guys just had a super
43.9 -> kind of intense exam we just want to
45.699 -> give you guys a break so today I'll be
47.68 -> teaching you guys a little bit of
48.64 -> nuclear energy so this lesson won't be
50.559 -> super in-depth there won't be a lot of
52.8 -> crazy intense math actually there won't
55.269 -> be any crazy intense not because we just
56.53 -> want to give you guys a break you guys
57.82 -> are gonna be starting up full cycle on
61.15 -> Friday with really cool topics like
62.83 -> stopping power so for now it's just kind
64.18 -> of like it's a very expression over a
66.07 -> couple fun facts I'm a couple guys might
67.93 -> already know some of the concepts I'm
69.04 -> mentioning because you guys are
69.94 -> intelligent people but I walked into MIT
71.68 -> not knowing a single thing about nuclear
73.75 -> energy and I was like I wish someone
75.43 -> could have told me these things um so
76.81 -> that's what I want to do for you today
77.65 -> okay so I'm going to be talking about
80.29 -> kind of like the functionality and the
82.63 -> benefits and the problems associated
83.68 -> nuclear but first let's start with a
85.15 -> very brief history in a nutshell so
87.039 -> between 1895 to 1945 that's one really
89.71 -> cool people were developing nuclear
91.509 -> science so people like Madame Curie or
94.18 -> like Fermi etc they were all designing
96.96 -> this nuclear science like they were
99.28 -> developing it which is pretty cool most
100.96 -> of this development happened between
102.189 -> 1939 to 1945 doesn't really want to take
104.92 -> a gander as to why why will it yeah
111.009 -> exactly but what field in Manhattan
112.479 -> Project which is what war - yeah exactly
117.219 -> so World War two was happening during
118.84 -> those times and they were trying to
120.909 -> develop the atom bomb which is why the
122.649 -> majority of nuclear science was
124.509 -> developed between these like five or six
125.799 -> years then 1945 to 1960 they entered a
129.85 -> phase of like well the war's over now at
131.86 -> what do we do with ourselves so luckily
133.54 -> they decided to redirect this science
136.27 -> into using it for energy and harnessing
138.73 -> it in a controlled fashion so mainly the
140.26 -> focus was actually for naval submarines
141.91 -> but they often realized like we can use
143.8 -> this for like energy as well free
146.29 -> electricity as well so there's a lot of
147.79 -> really cool things that happened in
148.81 -> between these years so in 1951 the first
150.97 -> nuclear reactor to produce electricity
152.62 -> was the experimental breeder reactor the
155.08 -> Eevee
155.41 -> one was developed and designed and
157.18 -> operated and actually kind of worked it
158.47 -> was created by Argonne National Labs
159.64 -> which is in Idaho and they actually
160.72 -> still exist so if you want to go work
162.37 -> there this summer you totally can boom
164.23 -> and then in 1953 President Eisenhower he
166.99 -> created something called atoms for peace
168.76 -> so this is just a program that advocated
171.01 -> using nuclear for things that were
173.17 -> peaceful such as electricity instead of
175.03 -> like nuclear weapons and stuff also 1953
178.66 -> was the creation of mark 1 so mark 1 is
181.3 -> the first prototype naval reactor that
183.1 -> was created it was created in a March
184.72 -> and then finally in 1954 the first
187.03 -> nuclear-powered submarine the USS
188.08 -> Nautilus was launched and it's up and
190.27 -> running so lots of cool things happened
191.8 -> between this time but the real heyday of
194.05 -> nuclear was actually between 1960 to
195.88 -> 1975 so during the span of 15 or so
199.42 -> years this was like the real commercial
201.16 -> energy boom
202.21 -> people like Westinghouse were creating
204.67 -> nuclear reactors I think the first one
206.35 -> was called Anki Rho is a 250 megawatt
209.41 -> electric
209.86 -> nuclear power plant which is like not
211.87 -> insignificant for like a time like the
214 -> 70s
214.84 -> so other different companies and other
217.15 -> different countries were doing this as
218.2 -> well basically there was this huge boom
220.18 -> and nuclear energy so if you look at
222.49 -> this little chart over here this is
223.54 -> nuclear reaction reaction construction
225.76 -> throughout the years so if you look in
228.55 -> this little chunk you can see what a
230.59 -> massive peak there was this is like when
232.12 -> everyone was building nuclear reactors
233.41 -> people thought oh super Jazzy and
235.12 -> everyone's tried to jump on that
236.79 -> unfortunately all good things have to
238.54 -> come to an end though from 1975 to 2002
241.51 -> which is about this chunk over here you
243.91 -> can see a massive decline and then you
245.53 -> can see that nothing really happens
247 -> between the 90s in the 2000s other than
248.74 -> the fact that we were all born but no
250.69 -> new nuclear reactors were being
252.85 -> commissioned during this time and then
255.459 -> today we're kind of I say we're back but
259.12 -> basically we're entering what people
261.13 -> like to call a nuclear Renaissance which
263.17 -> is between like this chunk over here you
264.46 -> can see that there's been a slight
265.36 -> increase in nuclear reactors being
267.76 -> produced but basically there's been a
269.17 -> whole new push for creating more
271.81 -> advanced reactors and currently China
274.57 -> India and South Korea they are the main
276.22 -> like players in this game so China
278.8 -> itself has 32 offer directors operating
281.29 -> at the moment and they have 20 more
283.09 -> Commission like literally right now
284.53 -> which is kind of insane Sam do you guys
287.05 -> have any questions about
288.639 -> this alright so what causes like nuclear
292.78 -> resurgence this is a perfect time to
295.18 -> talk about why nuclear power school
296.439 -> again you guys probably know this but
298.36 -> the main reason is sustainability so
299.919 -> right now we've entered a phase in time
301.84 -> where people are started to realize that
303.189 -> we've done damage to our environment and
305.139 -> we gotta fix this so global warming is a
307.06 -> thing I promise you it's actually saying
308.62 -> and basically we're looking for a way to
311.259 -> produce electricity without creating
312.849 -> such a large carbon footprint so if you
314.62 -> look at this chart over here you can see
315.879 -> that this is where nuclear lies in the
318.55 -> amount of carbon that it produces per
320.05 -> what's a unit per gigawatt hour of
321.969 -> electricity when you look at that in
323.86 -> comparison to a coal and natural gas
325 -> which is our two primary sources of
326.71 -> energy at the moment you can see that
328.75 -> this is definitely more attractive so
329.979 -> the statistic is actually that nuclear
331.539 -> creates 75 times less carbon emission
334.65 -> then coal does and 35 times less than
337.569 -> natural gas does which is incredible and
339.909 -> amazing so that's the main reason why
341.71 -> we're going for nuclear
342.61 -> well there's out there kind of other
344.11 -> kinds of really good reasons one is the
346.36 -> amounts power output you guys actually
347.979 -> calculated this yourself and pset1 you
349.779 -> know just how much power or energy comes
352.69 -> out from one fission reaction um so just
354.969 -> so you guys can double check to be got
356.71 -> that statistic right and a piece set it
358.12 -> turns out that you 35 40 3.5 million
360.19 -> times more energy than burning one
361.839 -> kilogram of coal does um so you can see
363.49 -> that you definitely need a lot less fuel
365.139 -> in a nuclear reactor than you do in a
367.629 -> normal like coal burning reactor and
369.99 -> then finally the last thing would be
372.069 -> energy security um so one of the good
374.77 -> things about nuclear is I can serve as a
376.24 -> good base load source of energy so if
380.439 -> you're working the energy sector you
381.49 -> probably see this chart all the time of
382.689 -> like time verses like energy that's
383.979 -> being consumed and it's kind of like
385.36 -> fluctuating like little mass that stays
387.849 -> like fairly constant about at certain
389.199 -> times of the day like you need more
390.43 -> energy than usual so this is just kind
392.56 -> of like the energy demand during the day
394.36 -> that's what this chart kind of crudely
396.009 -> depicts so nuclear power is able just to
398.529 -> provide a good base load source that
400.389 -> means like it can provide constant
401.86 -> energy at a really high level all the
403.81 -> time so this is why we kind of want to
405.639 -> replace coal and natural gas with
407.589 -> nuclear because it can take this role
409.349 -> other alternative forms of energy might
411.729 -> be better for the environment it might
412.779 -> be safer and things like that but it's
414.099 -> not really able to do this so for
415.659 -> example if you want to replace all the
417.61 -> coal burning fire plants with solar
419.289 -> panels if it's not sunny that day you're
421.509 -> kind of like
422.56 -> look right like you can't produce energy
425.08 -> if it's not something outside somewhere
426.34 -> for wind if it's not windy outside
428.169 -> you're not getting any electricity
429.94 -> luckily for nuclear it doesn't have to
431.58 -> rely on any of these factors you can
433.96 -> continuously produce energy right so you
437.53 -> guys have any questions about what I've
438.639 -> mentioned awesome so now we'll talk a
442.63 -> little bit about reactor types I'm just
444.58 -> telling you guys about some of the main
446.05 -> ones and how they work so how people
449.2 -> like to divide up the reactor types is
450.76 -> in generations so generation one which
453.28 -> is all the way over there that refers to
454.81 -> the like the trial reactors these are
457.18 -> the ones that didn't really produce all
458.44 -> that much electricity at all they're
460 -> more of proofs look they're more proof
461.56 -> of concept kind of things um so that
463.6 -> would be like the mark one that I want
465.76 -> you to guys earlier now we move on to
467.8 -> generation two so generation two is
469.81 -> actually what most of us reactors like
472.75 -> the category that most u.s. reactors
474.16 -> fall into so these were developed
476.02 -> between like the seventies and like the
477.97 -> 80s ish and these are the ones that are
480.13 -> functioning mostly today and then we
482.229 -> have generation 3 3 + & 4 so these are
484.78 -> the new types of reactors that people
485.979 -> are trying to build to create several
487.75 -> improvements but we'll talk about them a
489.039 -> little bit more later so I want to start
493 -> off with light water reactors because
494.14 -> well these are the reactors that are
495.52 -> most common in the United States so
497.5 -> light water reactors are LWR s are
499.3 -> mostly broken up into two sub categories
501.36 -> boiling water reactors and pressurized
503.35 -> water reactors so how you guys can think
505.99 -> about reactors is that honestly they're
508.6 -> just kind of glorified steam turbines
510.669 -> that's what that's what they're doing so
512.979 -> let's start with boiling water reactors
514.18 -> so boiling water reactors or PWRs
516.64 -> comprise about 21% of you reactors that
519.159 -> are located and working in the United
521.44 -> States so it's a really really simple
523.57 -> mechanism and we can walk through that
524.95 -> right now so over here this little
527.8 -> nubbin right over here so this is the
530.38 -> fuel core so this is what the inside of
532.27 -> a fuel core looks like that picture over
534.13 -> there um so the fuel core is basically
535.87 -> just a bunch of rods of like uranium
538.06 -> sometimes it's clad in something like
539.32 -> zirconium and there's also control rods
541 -> to help slow down the process so uranium
543.7 -> undergoes what
545.67 -> yassuh fission so what gets released
547.57 -> during a vision
549.73 -> and cool and neutrons awesome so those
554.23 -> three things are all like flying around
556.09 -> inside the reactor core at the moment as
558.46 -> the uranium undergoes fission
560.11 -> so the isotopes we just kind of let them
562.27 -> be like I don't I'm not completely sure
564.13 -> what we do with and we might folk to
565.18 -> them out but I think they just kind of
566.53 -> hang out there the heat obviously goes
569.23 -> to create power talked about in just a
571.84 -> second but the neutrons come flying
573.82 -> around so those other neutrons can
575.23 -> stimulate other fuse other efficient and
577.57 -> the control rods are there to prevent
578.77 -> like to make sure that there's not too
580.33 -> many fission's happening at the troll
581.44 -> rod at a certain time i and the fuel
583.84 -> core at a certain time so anyway going
586.3 -> back to the heat so the heat that gets
587.53 -> created during these nuclear fission's
589.84 -> that goes and heats up the water so this
592.33 -> is just one loop of water basically so
594.64 -> the water flows through the core and
596.11 -> heats it up it creates steam so the
597.73 -> steam goes and spins the turbine the
599.11 -> turbine create electricity and it comes
600.46 -> back and gets recognized that's
601.93 -> literally it that's all that happens
603.4 -> during a PWR
604.68 -> yeah that's that's actually just it so a
607.75 -> cool thing about the BWR is because it's
610.15 -> so simple it's also incredibly well not
612.16 -> incredibly what is the cheapest option
613.54 -> out there for creating nuclear power I'm
615.34 -> one of the downsides it's just that it
616.93 -> might not be as energy efficient as it
619.72 -> possibly could be or not be able to
621.58 -> create as much power as I possibly could
623.08 -> if it was a core technology but yeah oh
626.02 -> and another downside is that because we
628.15 -> have the nuclear material interacting
630.04 -> with the water and so this is a coolant
631.99 -> pump right I mean this is the core tube
633.4 -> so this is basically connected to a lake
635.74 -> or an ocean or some other source of cold
638.41 -> water and that runs through the primary
640.93 -> loop to cool down the water and
642.1 -> reconnect it to steam if there ever is a
643.9 -> breach between these two the chances of
645.4 -> leaking nuclear material into the
646.99 -> environment exists like it's not high
649.3 -> per se but with me wrs there is a higher
653.17 -> chance of leaking radioactive material
654.67 -> into the varmint so that's one of the
655.81 -> downsides that BW RS um do you guys have
658.39 -> any questions about this awesome
663.16 -> um so I just want to show you guys this
664.99 -> picture again because here's the
666.04 -> underside of a PWR I make it sound like
667.84 -> it's super simple and like a walk in the
669.04 -> park but this is actually the amount of
670.36 -> technology that goes into one of these
672.28 -> reactors like look at all those wires I
674.05 -> don't even know what they all do but
675.13 -> it's kind of insane so yeah so the next
679.12 -> kind of reactor that falls under the
680.77 -> light water reactor category is the
682.33 -> pressurized water reactors
683.5 -> so PWRs are actually more more important
689.41 -> if you lo the BW RS so remember BW o RS
691.78 -> comprise about 21% of the reactors in
693.58 -> the United States on PWRs comprise about
695.77 -> 60% of the reactors in the United States
697.98 -> but they are functionally essentially
700.63 -> the same and it's just slightly more
702.04 -> complicated
702.61 -> um so over here we have our fuel core
704.14 -> again and again it's all it's doing is
706.54 -> heating up water with its fission
707.62 -> reactions but this time this water is
709.36 -> pressurized so does anyone know why you
711.61 -> would want to pressurize the water yeah
715.71 -> yeah exactly
717.22 -> so when you increase the pressure you're
718.54 -> also increasing the boiling point of the
720.34 -> water and that allows you to function at
722.11 -> even higher temperatures than if you're
723.64 -> working with a BWR which gives you more
725.65 -> energy efficiency you guys will learn
726.97 -> all about that into 805 by the way so
730.06 -> yeah so it heats up this pressurized
731.95 -> water and this pressurized water goes
733.51 -> into a second loop which again just
735.43 -> heats up water that creates into steam
736.63 -> that sends a turbine that crazy
737.68 -> electricity it gets me condensed etc and
740.05 -> that's again all that there really is so
742 -> one of the upsides of using a PWRs like
744.07 -> I mentioned the higher efficiency but
745.33 -> also the chance of leaking nuclear
747.76 -> material into the environment becomes
748.9 -> mitigated because you have two separate
750.61 -> loops with the nuclear fuel being more
754 -> isolated from the environment um if
755.65 -> there is a breach between like the
756.85 -> condenser loop and the secondary loop
758.26 -> not a big deal like nothing really bad
759.7 -> happens you'd have to have breaches in
761.26 -> both the loops which is very unlikely to
762.76 -> happen yeah so do you guys have any
765.76 -> questions about those two yeah
770.86 -> I'm not completely sure but if you
772.88 -> google it you should be able to find it
774.05 -> really easily
777.04 -> so those next pictures again just to
779.21 -> show you that like I make it sound
780.23 -> really simple and like a walk in the
781.4 -> park but it's really not there's a lot
782.93 -> going on so this picture over here is
785.24 -> basically just showing that there are a
787.07 -> lot of redundancy systems inside these
789.68 -> reactors like we don't just have one
791.69 -> single primary loop and if it fails it
793.67 -> fails we actually have four at the same
795.23 -> time and this is just called the N minus
797.69 -> 2 redundancy something like that so the
802.34 -> next kind is something much cooler oh
803.99 -> it's called a heavy water reactor
804.86 -> actually it's just a little bit cooler
806.66 -> but the main heavy water reactor that
808.58 -> everyone can kind of think of on their
810.17 -> minds is can do which is the one that's
812.57 -> located in Canada the only difference
814.58 -> between heavy water reactors and the
816.02 -> light water reactors I mentioned before
817.19 -> is that it uses heavy water instead of
819.41 -> light water does anyone know what heavy
821.42 -> water is yeah exactly so it's just a
824.66 -> terraeum oxide so remember I'm sorry
827.66 -> this might seem a name but this is water
830.42 -> right um and this is heavy water where
833.84 -> the dia is just a hydrogen with two two
837.53 -> atomic particles instead so one proton
839.51 -> and one Neutron so the reason why they
844.31 -> decide to use heavy water instead of
845.72 -> light water is because heavy water has a
847.97 -> much lower absorption cross-section than
850.34 -> light water does um so what this means
853.4 -> is that when neutrons are flying around
856.01 -> in the reactor like there is a chance of
857.75 -> it hitting a fission product and under a
861.59 -> piece of fissionable material and
863.03 -> undergoing fission but there's also a
864.47 -> chance that the water that surrounds it
866.27 -> will absorb that Neutron so if that
867.92 -> Neutron gets pulled out of the system
869.12 -> you're not able to create any more
870.17 -> fission's this is actually kind of a bad
871.64 -> thing because the whole point of a
873.2 -> nuclear reactor is to create heat
874.16 -> envisioned so we don't want them to
875.63 -> neutrons to be absorbed you can see if
878.33 -> you look at those statistics um you can
880.31 -> see that the absorption cross section of
881.96 -> h2 our deuterium is like point zero zero
885.38 -> zero five two barns in comparison to h1
888.95 -> which is 0.33 two barns
890.27 -> so I'm bad at math but I think it's like
891.95 -> 680 times less right maybe anyway so you
896.72 -> can see why deuterium would be a good
898.76 -> option for this so because it's
900.32 -> absorbing less there is
902.06 -> because it has a chance of absorbing
903.32 -> less neutrons as it undergoes its
905.51 -> processes um you're actually able to use
907.22 -> a lower enriched uranium which is really
909.2 -> great because that lowers fuel cost yeah
912.2 -> but the main downside of this is that
914.66 -> even though you're lowering your fuel
916.1 -> costs deuterium is really expensive it's
917.81 -> about a thousand or so dollars per
919.43 -> kilogram which is kind of ridiculous
921.02 -> because a kilogram of water is really
922.58 -> not much at all you know so even though
925.34 -> your counter you act like you're
926.45 -> counteracting the lowered fuel cost with
927.95 -> a higher water cost also because your
931.25 -> act you're using your reactor with lower
933.59 -> in rich uranium you actually have to
934.85 -> change out your feel more often that
936.11 -> fuel gets spent more quickly I'll
939.14 -> describe that in just a second and
940.7 -> therefore you just have to keep
942.05 -> replacing it more often than you would
943.76 -> for a normal weight light water reactor
945.88 -> um questions about this one oh I forgot
949.88 -> to mention but aside from that
950.84 -> everything else with the heavy water
952.88 -> reactors and the PWRs they're the same
955.19 -> mechanisms and then finally we're going
959.09 -> to move on to breeder reactors so
960.95 -> breeder reactors are a really cool idea
962.18 -> and they were most popular between like
965.3 -> the 50s and the 60s ish at the very
967.52 -> beginning of creating nuclear reactors
970.13 -> so what breeder reactors are or again
972.38 -> there's some sure the same thing as
973.37 -> light water reactors I mentioned to you
974.54 -> guys before but instead now there's two
976.55 -> little chunks of extra material so do
978.83 -> you guys know what the difference is
979.76 -> between fits all for Tahoe and
981.47 -> fissionable materials cool all right so
986.41 -> [Music]
989.77 -> all right so let's start with the Samba
991.85 -> turn so fizzy material is basically just
1000.61 -> the material that has build me to
1002.2 -> undergo fission with a thermal Neutron
1035.55 -> so basically when the thermal Neutron
1037.78 -> gets absorbed by this fissionable
1039.699 -> material it's going to undergo a fission
1041.77 -> um makes a lot of sense right so do you
1044.89 -> guys happen to remember what the energy
1045.73 -> of a thermal Neutron is you guys
1047.14 -> calculated this in pset 1 huh lower than
1050.98 -> that yeah a point ot5 easy like super
1054.94 -> letter do and while we're at it how do
1059.53 -> you calculate this
1066.5 -> what some constant time Steve go shoot
1070.82 -> so main example with the fissile
1073.32 -> material would be u-235 and plutonium
1075.63 -> 239 there's four in total but those are
1078.539 -> the two most important ones so this is
1087.75 -> the main fuel that is inside a nuclear
1090.96 -> reactor but it's not all just u-235 like
1093.27 -> you guys have heard of oh what's
1095.28 -> called enrichment right like in Richmond
1097.47 -> is basically the amount of DES all
1099.179 -> material versus the amount of other
1100.62 -> fissionable material so moving on to
1102.57 -> fissionable material so Fischer I'm on
1111.87 -> terrible fissionable material is just
1113.94 -> material that is able to undergo fission
1116.669 -> after the absorption absorption of a
1118.77 -> more energetic Neutron um so that's all
1120.809 -> it is
1152.18 -> so that's all it is so an example of
1154.95 -> fissionable material that's inside the
1156.36 -> other reactors at the same time is u-238
1159.57 -> so if it u-238 absorbs a thermal Neutron
1163.8 -> it's probably gonna do much but if it
1165.81 -> absorbs a neutron of about like I would
1168.48 -> say like 2 MeV then it's more willing to
1170.49 -> undergo a fission and then finally we
1174.15 -> have fertile material so for a time
1177 -> material is the basis for breeder
1178.38 -> reactors but fertile material is just
1180.24 -> material that absorbs a neutron and then
1184.14 -> is able to become a piece of fissile
1186.99 -> material
1205.14 -> so for our purposes the main types of
1207.79 -> fertile material we use are u-238 and
1211.72 -> thorium-232 so if you look at these
1213.85 -> processes you can see that you - they're
1215.2 -> a absorbs a neutron becomes you 239
1217.36 -> undergoes a beta decay to come to
1218.71 -> neptunium and undergoes one more beta
1220.75 -> decay to become the beautiful plutonium
1222.94 -> 239 if we start with thorium 232 instead
1225.82 -> absorbs a neutron becomes thorium 233
1228.52 -> undergoes a beta decay to come
1229.87 -> protactinium becomes uranium 233 which
1232.96 -> is another sound material by the way
1235 -> through a series of beta decays mom so
1238.72 -> that's what breeder reactors are doing
1239.98 -> they're adding extra chunks of uranium
1241.9 -> 238 and extra chunks of thorium 232 into
1244.36 -> the reactor so if one of the neutrons so
1247.09 -> imagine okay if you're looking at the
1249.22 -> little fuel core there's a bunch of
1250.33 -> neutrons are flying around and he other
1252.34 -> isotopes and things like that so some of
1254.32 -> the neutrons will go and create other
1255.61 -> visions with the material that's hanging
1257.53 -> out in the red but other neutrons might
1259.69 -> escape and when they escape instead of
1261.37 -> going into the water and dissipating and
1262.78 -> never to be seen again or being
1263.86 -> reflected the instead create more
1265.84 -> fissile material um so you can I
1267.94 -> understand why this is a kind of an
1269.32 -> attractive idea is that you're creating
1271.09 -> your own fuel you're able to work at a
1273.34 -> higher fuel efficiency um because you
1275.14 -> don't need to add in as much fissile
1277.12 -> materials that's you would for a normal
1278.05 -> light water reactor so people were
1280.809 -> really fascinated with this idea like I
1282.61 -> said in the 50s and 60s because back in
1284.44 -> the day they legitimately thought that
1285.97 -> we would run out of u-235 but luckily in
1288.25 -> the 16 we we discovered that we have a
1289.87 -> lot more uranium ore than we thought we
1291.22 -> did we're probably not gonna run out
1292.54 -> anytime soon
1293.32 -> and after that discovery people were not
1295.63 -> nearly as interested in breeder reactors
1297.16 -> the reason being is that one because
1299.86 -> there's just this extra material that's
1302.08 -> hanging out this extra material could be
1304 -> more fissile material I creates more
1305.23 -> reactions it's not nearly as
1306.79 -> energy-efficient my part of power
1309.34 -> efficient and it's also slightly more
1311.53 -> expensive because you're not being able
1314.05 -> to be power efficient and it also is
1315.61 -> better on paper than ever is in reality
1318.309 -> so on paper you're like oh this is great
1320.86 -> because I can just create more fissile
1322.059 -> materials I never need to add more this
1323.679 -> is never really truly sustainable they
1325.12 -> always have to keep adding more fissile
1326.41 -> materials because it's not as perfect as
1328.51 -> I want it to be
1329.809 -> any questions about these things cool
1337.549 -> beans
1337.94 -> and then finally we're gonna move on to
1339.859 -> generation four reactors so generation
1341.599 -> four reactors are all the new kind of
1343.129 -> reactors that people want to build so
1345.44 -> the primary objective for these new
1347.479 -> designs of reactors like the ones I just
1349.159 -> told you guys about they're all good and
1350.69 -> well but we want to make them better
1352.009 -> right we want to make them cleaner and
1353.659 -> safer and more cost-effective keep them
1356.33 -> robust yet sustainable and also make
1358.519 -> them more resistant to people being able
1360.859 -> to divert materials into creating
1362.089 -> nuclear weapons um so yeah so here are
1364.969 -> the six kinds of generation form reactor
1367.009 -> types that were deemed to be the the
1369.619 -> most the most promising so there's gas
1372.44 -> cooled fast reactors LED cool fast
1374.059 -> reactors molten salt reactors sending
1375.859 -> cool fast reactors high temperature part
1377.749 -> of very high temperature gas reactors
1379.369 -> and supercritical water cooled reactors
1381.519 -> so I'm gonna be honest with you guys I
1383.599 -> don't know all that much about these and
1385.759 -> I don't want to like spew out
1386.899 -> information that might potentially be
1388.159 -> false so if you guys aren't interested
1389.839 -> one you can talk to other lab members
1391.549 -> people in this department I know they're
1393.669 -> mostly Mike's group actually a lot of
1395.69 -> people Mike's coop are working on what
1397.159 -> one salt reactors so you guys can like
1399.169 -> go ahead and ask them off that or if you
1401.45 -> understand you can read more about them
1402.589 -> with this hyperlink that I included over
1403.879 -> here hopefully he will post the slides
1405.229 -> online and you guys can just click it
1406.879 -> and there's a awesome source all about
1408.589 -> these different kinds of reactors any
1417.619 -> questions
1423.13 -> I'm pretty sure that they're just kind
1425.9 -> of proof of concept stage right now like
1427.46 -> there aren't any that are producing
1429.26 -> electricity and like in the United
1431.15 -> States at least good question all right
1437.44 -> so all the things that we've mentioned
1439.49 -> before that like how great nuclear yes
1441.59 -> and all the cool applications of it and
1443.39 -> how simple and easy reactors are why
1446.09 -> aren't we using more of it so currently
1448.13 -> in the u.s. there's only 99 operating
1450.56 -> reactors that are producing electricity
1451.94 -> which makes up about 19 percent or about
1455.24 -> 20 percent of the total electricity
1457.25 -> output in the United States the main
1459.14 -> players are still you would imagine coal
1461.72 -> and natural gas so this is actually even
1465.5 -> worse in other in the rest of the world
1467.42 -> and the rest of the world there's only
1468.5 -> about 440 reactors federal power three
1470.78 -> countries it produces only fourteen
1472.64 -> percent of the global electricity so
1474.89 -> these proportions are pretty low and
1476.3 -> you're wondering like why aren't we
1478.82 -> using more nuclear power
1479.78 -> what exactly is holding us back so it
1482.39 -> turns out that the main things that are
1484.1 -> holding us back is just social social
1487.12 -> economic and therefore like government
1491.12 -> has a tense to start using nuclear power
1492.74 -> or more often so the main reason why
1495.44 -> we're a little bit hesitant to start
1496.64 -> using more nuclear power is because of
1498.08 -> safety issues so nuclear weak none of us
1501.5 -> could argue that nuclear is like 100
1502.76 -> percent safe it actually does have some
1504.08 -> dangers associated with it which is why
1506.12 -> it's so important that we're doing what
1507.23 -> we're doing but if you guys look at this
1508.88 -> chart that I showed you guys in like the
1510.26 -> first or second slide um you'll notice
1512.27 -> that there are these events um listed
1514.7 -> above what are these words Three Mile
1518.24 -> Island Chernobyl Fukushima what are they
1520.42 -> yeah so there's some of our biggest
1522.44 -> nuclear accidents that we've experienced
1524.27 -> through history and you can see that
1525.71 -> after a nuclear accident you can see a
1527.21 -> pretty steep decline and the amount of
1529.31 -> nuclear reactors that are being
1530.51 -> commissioned so this is especially
1532.6 -> noticeable at Three Mile Island which is
1534.77 -> essentially the first nuclear reactor as
1537.59 -> an accident that we all had to go
1539.09 -> through and you can see that after Three
1540.77 -> Mile Island you can see this massive
1542.18 -> steep like this massive decline in the
1545.03 -> amount of nuclear actors being
1546.05 -> commissioned this is probably
1547.34 -> causational we can pretty much assume
1548.6 -> that and then you can see that in
1550.28 -> chernobyl once you know what happened
1552.08 -> you can see like this also another
1553.7 -> massive decline
1554.79 -> and again a Fukushima once again like
1556.8 -> the amount of reactors being
1558.15 -> commissioned after the accident just
1559.71 -> declines dramatically so I'm assuming
1564.24 -> you guys probably don't know exactly
1565.53 -> what happened during each of these
1566.58 -> accents like you probably know that they
1568.02 -> exist but like what happened during them
1569.31 -> so if you do know sorry but if you don't
1571.32 -> know you're about to know home so Three
1573.6 -> Mile Island which is the first one it
1575.1 -> happened in 1979 on March 28th so Three
1578.46 -> Mile Island reactor is a PWR located in
1581.19 -> Pennsylvania so during this time it
1583.35 -> underwent a core meltdown so the cause
1586.5 -> of this is just the fact that there was
1589.05 -> some kind of mechanical or electrical
1590.99 -> system that prevented coolant water from
1593.46 -> being pumped into the primary system so
1596.28 -> because there wasn't enough water coming
1599.34 -> to cool up the core the core began to
1601.41 -> overheat so as the temperature of the
1603.66 -> core Rises the pressure also Rises so
1605.79 -> they notice this and they're like oh
1606.72 -> shoot we got to fix that so luckily
1608.22 -> there is like a little emergency valve
1609.81 -> that you can see in this little
1610.74 -> animation gets opened up and pressure
1612.18 -> gets released so that's all good and
1613.92 -> well um but unfortunately after the
1616.56 -> pressures release you should close the
1617.97 -> valve again and continue operation but
1619.74 -> it became stuck so this valve became
1622.14 -> stuck and they didn't realize that
1623.37 -> became stuck because their their
1625.11 -> equipment and their instrument ation
1626.97 -> wasn't able to take that so they
1628.77 -> continue operating again but this style
1630.27 -> was open um so there's actually water
1631.71 -> that was getting leaked out of this
1633.96 -> primary this primary loop so because the
1637.08 -> water was getting leaked they noticed
1638.46 -> that oh shoot the pressure is dropping
1639.63 -> well what do you do when the pressures
1641.82 -> dropping apparently you have to make
1642.99 -> sure that there's not enough there's not
1644.37 -> too many vibrations I could damage the
1646.08 -> reactors so they shut off the coolant
1648.06 -> pumps so well they lower the operation
1650.4 -> of the quota pumps so now there's water
1652.44 -> leaking out so the core is getting
1653.7 -> hotter but then they also took out the
1655.47 -> water that's usually used to cool the
1657.48 -> reactor core so again it's also getting
1659.49 -> hotter so this combination events led to
1661.89 -> a core meltdown so the core amount of
1664.11 -> town um that's never a good thing by the
1666.99 -> way um so yeah and yeah so the core
1671.13 -> meltdown the reactor wasn't able to
1673.17 -> operate anymore but luckily at Three
1674.82 -> Mile Island there was containment that
1676.17 -> prevented radioactive isotopes from
1677.94 -> leaving the system so they actually took
1680.28 -> a brief survey when I'd be surfing I was
1682.35 -> probably a long long experience but I
1684.06 -> realized that the two million people who
1685.59 -> are around two
1686.25 -> Island at the time within like a
1688.23 -> two-mile radius or like like maybe like
1691.14 -> a 30-mile radius or something more like
1692.46 -> that they realized that they didn't get
1694.62 -> much dose at all they collected about a
1696.21 -> total of one milligram more dose than
1697.77 -> usual so to put that in perspective and
1699.81 -> x-rays six mil around so really nothing
1702.15 -> that bad happened at Three Mile Island
1703.83 -> other than they had to shut it down and
1705.24 -> they had to do expensive repairs but
1706.83 -> people weren't hurt the environment
1708.18 -> wasn't damaged it wasn't that bad of a
1710.49 -> situation I think the effect was bigger
1712.35 -> and concept than it was in actual damage
1714.98 -> um questions about Three Mile Island
1717.36 -> accident alrighty
1720.48 -> the next reactor accident the Big Kahuna
1722.4 -> I like to call it is Chernobyl so on
1724.47 -> April 25th 1986 RBMK reactor that was
1727.98 -> located in Ukraine exploded so what they
1731.31 -> were doing at Chernobyl during the time
1733.62 -> of this explosion is that they were
1734.64 -> actually running ironically enough
1736.02 -> safety tests oh they're running the
1738.3 -> reactor low power to see how it behaves
1740.19 -> so at low power I don't think they quite
1742.8 -> realized this but the coolant pumps in
1744.24 -> the reactor we're also powered by the
1745.98 -> nuclear reactor being generated so if
1747.9 -> they were burning this at low power the
1749.67 -> coolant pumps weren't getting enough
1750.63 -> energy to properly cool the fuel core so
1753.99 -> that was unfortunate and they realized
1756.18 -> that this is a bad thing so the reactor
1757.92 -> start to go
1758.61 -> supercritical so one they realize that
1762.12 -> the reactor was creating a lot more
1763.29 -> fission's than it should have been
1764.64 -> creating they decide to insert the
1766.5 -> control rods so thank goodness we have
1767.94 -> these high absorption control rods to
1769.41 -> slow things down right for some reason I
1772.23 -> don't not completely share why they did
1773.76 -> this but rpm chains they have graphite
1777 -> tips control rods so as they lower the
1779.04 -> control rods into the water this
1780.15 -> graphite tip which doesn't effectively
1781.65 -> absorb neutrons it displaced a little
1783.06 -> bit too much water that was necessary
1785.13 -> and that cost the first explosion so
1786.78 -> what's super duper critical it caused
1788.7 -> the first explosion that renoble
1790.86 -> oh by the way um then for some reason
1794.79 -> like a couple minutes later there's a
1795.9 -> second explosions they're not completely
1797.19 -> sure why the second explosion happened
1799.02 -> to the state we can't really pinpoint
1799.95 -> why it could have been like building up
1802.5 -> helium or just a ton of other fission
1804.27 -> reactions but there's a second explosion
1805.62 -> that actually just blew this entire core
1807.21 -> apart so that kind of stunk but it did
1810.57 -> sum up the whole reaction because the
1813.06 -> super critical mass was all blown apart
1814.5 -> and it was no longer supercritical it
1816.54 -> was fine the whole debacle stopped but
1819.15 -> unfortunately there
1820.08 -> was a lot of radioactive radioactive
1821.97 -> isotopes being spent in environment um
1823.8 -> first of all Chernobyl didn't have the
1826.38 -> same kind of containment the Three Mile
1827.55 -> Island had so this these isotopes are
1829.23 -> just able to go everywhere and also the
1830.73 -> second explosion had a lot of steam with
1832.44 -> it that carry these isotopes even
1833.85 -> further than they probably should have
1834.87 -> gone um so if you're looking at the sad
1837.24 -> statistics of Chernobyl it turned out
1838.47 -> that 28 highly exposed reactor staff and
1840.63 -> emergency workers died from this
1842.13 -> radiation or from thermal burns during
1843.81 -> this time and officials also believe
1846.09 -> that there's about seventy thousand
1847.5 -> seven thousand cases of thyroid cancer
1849.18 -> that occurred because of Chernobyl
1850.56 -> they're pretty sure I was Chernobyl
1852.03 -> because these are all cases that
1853.47 -> happened and people who are less than 18
1854.85 -> years old so you guys know that no one
1858.03 -> really lives near Chernobyl at the
1859.32 -> moment um it's kind of been deemed
1860.64 -> unlivable
1861.24 -> because these radioactive isotopes
1862.68 -> literally went everywhere in this
1863.91 -> environment like it was in the water it
1865.08 -> was in the plant
1865.8 -> it's not safe to live there it's a
1867.42 -> pretty radioactive environment luckily
1869.01 -> we see that there are animals coming
1870.51 -> back now if you look on National
1871.62 -> Geographic calm there's like little deer
1873.51 -> roaming around Chernobyl um but it's
1875.58 -> been about like how long has it been
1877.26 -> like 3040 years people are advised to
1879.72 -> live here still search for noble was
1882.33 -> terrible questions yeah oh yeah sorry so
1890.13 -> um you guys will learn all about
1891.81 -> criticality in a little bit but
1893.43 -> basically when I say supercritical it
1894.75 -> just means that there's way too many
1896.1 -> fission reactions happening yeah
1903.96 -> I think I might have skipped to detail
1906.72 -> it wasn't being cooled enough so the
1907.619 -> water was evaporating and then it became
1909.059 -> supercritical because they're not enough
1910.139 -> neutrons were being slowed down and
1911.309 -> absorbed my bad I'm sorry good all right
1916.71 -> so the next reactor accident um that we
1919.559 -> were all alive for which is cool oh and
1922.169 -> what's Fukushima Daiichi so if we could
1923.82 -> she would ITA happened in 2011 on March
1925.559 -> 11th and Fukushima died Luka Shima is in
1929.119 -> Japan so these reactors these are I
1932.429 -> think these are pressurized water
1933.96 -> reactors yeah I think so um so following
1936.869 -> a major earthquake the generators that
1938.869 -> um pardon yeah so following a major
1942.96 -> earthquake the things that were cooling
1945.629 -> the core they broke I think they're just
1947.94 -> like power generators on the side that
1949.799 -> did um yeah they broke the coolant pumps
1952.499 -> so there wasn't enough water being able
1954.09 -> to go to the field course this is a very
1956.039 -> similar problem as you can see that in
1957.869 -> all these instances of the reactor
1959.22 -> incidents it's just kind of like the
1960.509 -> fuel core was misbehaving and we weren't
1962.49 -> able to get enough coolant water to it
1963.869 -> so following the earthquake these
1966.269 -> coolant pumps broke they're like oh
1967.289 -> that's ok what we can do is we have
1969.24 -> backup generators to continue running
1970.47 -> the pumps it'll be all okay
1972.269 -> nothing will happen we're all good and
1974.7 -> then a tsunami hit so it's a 15-foot
1976.44 -> tsunami I think I think that 15 meter
1978.539 -> tsunami oh good gosh Oh so 15 meter
1980.7 -> tsunami hit and it broke the generators
1982.95 -> and then at that point they're like oh
1984.99 -> no so they had no other done see factors
1987.96 -> to continue pumping cool water into the
1989.639 -> fuel core so again there wasn't enough
1991.169 -> water in the core it became
1992.669 -> supercritical it began to melt so the
1995.369 -> fuel rods began to melt but this is
1997.83 -> actually another additional bad thing so
1999.539 -> the water was evaporating critics team
2001.039 -> they're so Konya the fuel rods were
2003.35 -> coated with surco diem so what you guys
2005.539 -> might not know is that one zirconium and
2007.009 -> steam interact with each other that's
2008.929 -> not a good thing it starts to explode so
2012.999 -> the as you can see the reactors at
2016.61 -> Fukushima Daiichi began to explode there
2018.59 -> was radioactive radioactive isotopes
2021.019 -> being spread out all around the country
2022.7 -> you guys probably saw the lovely flow
2023.69 -> charts of like the radioactivity flowing
2025.399 -> out from Japan and making it to
2026.33 -> California and contaminating your fish
2027.559 -> and stuff like that but luckily no one
2029.6 -> was directly hurt by burns or
2030.86 -> radioactive exposure alright questions
2035.359 -> about Fukushima
2040 -> so aside from these safety issues um
2041.71 -> these safety issues that happen they get
2044.5 -> elevated in the news quite a lot so
2046.78 -> these are mainly the things that people
2048.7 -> who don't really have any background in
2049.899 -> nuclear energy hear about nuclear energy
2051.37 -> they're like oh shoot well this thing is
2053.26 -> going to explode every twenty years like
2054.97 -> why do we keep using this reactor
2057.04 -> accidents are actually pretty rare like
2058.179 -> if you think about it it's been about 60
2060.82 -> or 70 years we have 440 reactors
2063.19 -> happening other countries there's three
2064.57 -> main accidents have happened but because
2066.79 -> these are the things that people get
2067.96 -> ingrained into their mind thank you news
2069.55 -> stations people think that nuclear
2071.649 -> reactors are incredibly dangerous and
2073.81 -> that's why we have the social hesitancy
2075.429 -> which is why we aren't able to get
2077.08 -> enough government funding and which is
2078.88 -> why there's all these bureaucracy
2079.84 -> loopholes to jump through which is why
2081.04 -> nuclear power isn't more of a thing
2082.27 -> makes sense yeah another issue that's
2086.11 -> associated with nuclear power is nuclear
2087.46 -> waste so what in the world do we do with
2089.98 -> it so first of all the main thing in
2092.74 -> nuclear waste is spent fuel so like I
2095.2 -> mentioned you guys the spent fuel rods
2096.22 -> are made out of uranium oxide but after
2098.08 -> undergoing a much officiants these
2099.22 -> Urania these uranium particles get
2100.9 -> transformed into other isotopes that
2102.49 -> aren't fishable or fertile or even
2104.92 -> remotely bizarre right so we eventually
2108.25 -> have to replace them and add a new rods
2110.14 -> and this is a process that happens every
2112.18 -> late 12 or so years I'm not completely
2113.62 -> sure and let statistic but the main
2115.84 -> issue is like what do we do with all
2117.43 -> this material so the mysterious material
2119.65 -> that comes out is pretty radioactive
2121.42 -> it's also incredibly hot so it can be
2123.37 -> dangerous if someone decides to they
2124.39 -> come and eat it oh so that's why we got
2127 -> to figure out a way to dispose it so the
2129.97 -> primary way of disposing of this spent
2131.98 -> fuel is putting it into spent fuel pools
2133.96 -> so spent fuel pools are just giant tanks
2136.51 -> the water that exists at the reactor so
2138.49 -> these tanks of water are mixed with I
2140.35 -> believe it's boron which is the neutron
2142.33 -> absorber let me simply just put the
2143.92 -> spent fuel rods all the way at the
2144.97 -> bottom of the pool so this pool is that
2146.26 -> like 20 meters high I think and this is
2148.3 -> actually a really good solution because
2149.56 -> the water in the pool it cools down the
2151.21 -> reactor rods um and also prevents a lot
2153.64 -> of neutrons from escaping because water
2155.23 -> is a really great neutron moderator you
2157.06 -> guys all know this I'm gonna turn down
2158.32 -> it's actually fairly safe apparently you
2160.96 -> can go swimming on the top of the
2162.1 -> reactor so that fuel pool and you'll be
2164.23 -> okay I'm not be exposed to too much
2165.76 -> radiation if you want so yeah
2169.75 -> so this is the main solution that people
2170.98 -> have been using for years but they
2172.09 -> realize that this isn't super
2173.92 -> sustainable because the amount of space
2175.359 -> that we have and they spent fuel pools
2176.68 -> is not infinite like we have way too
2178.72 -> much spent fuel to be able to just
2180.849 -> continue to store it and they spent fuel
2182.23 -> pools so like shoot kind of find another
2183.82 -> solution so the next solution was
2185.53 -> something called dry cask storage so dry
2187.27 -> cask storage is just a way to keep this
2189.64 -> spent fuel surrounded by an inert gas so
2192.79 -> and it's held inside a cask a cache just
2195.22 -> being probably like a steel drum that's
2196.96 -> like bolted and welded shut and there's
2199.15 -> additional pieces of shielding around it
2201.7 -> like cement and then etc so there's just
2203.619 -> like gigantic tanks basically that are
2207.16 -> sitting outside so they just put them
2208.599 -> outside the reactor as you can see it's
2209.77 -> just it looks like it's sitting in a
2210.82 -> parking lot outside the reactor and so
2213.609 -> this is a okay solution um so basically
2215.58 -> what they do is they take the spent fuel
2217.57 -> let it sit in their pool for about a
2219.43 -> year or so maybe two or three years and
2221.89 -> then they're able to take it out because
2223.09 -> at that point it's significantly less
2224.8 -> radioactive because you know you guys
2226.75 -> know how to calculate this - you guys
2227.92 -> know like the half-life of different
2229.119 -> isotopes you see that the radioactivity
2230.83 -> declines at a certain point it's also
2232.96 -> more cool now so they can put them in
2234.25 -> these tanks so they let these tanks hang
2235.93 -> outside and this is an OK solution
2238.089 -> except for the fact that again we just
2239.38 -> have to weigh too much spent fuel to be
2240.67 -> able to do this it turns out that if you
2242.65 -> were to just keep all the spec filled
2244.119 -> that we create in fuel cast it would
2245.98 -> take about 300 acres away and which is
2247.54 -> absolutely a main and obviously no one
2249.339 -> wants to take up that brief a little
2253.39 -> side note when I was googling like
2254.41 -> images of dry cask storage I was looking
2256.18 -> for the different types well I thought
2257.589 -> particularly disturbing was that there's
2258.7 -> only two types listed vertical storage
2260.32 -> and horizontal storage like there's no
2261.79 -> other solutions other than these are
2263.02 -> giant tanks anyway so people realize
2265.66 -> that we need to figure out yet another
2267.099 -> way to dispose of the spent fuel
2268.839 -> hopefully a way that doesn't get in the
2270.64 -> way of people with backyards so their
2272.74 -> idea was something called deep
2274.33 -> geological repositories their deep
2276.76 -> geologic repositories literally just
2278.56 -> means that they want to bury the nuclear
2279.79 -> waste very deep into the ground and
2281.02 -> never be able to retrieve it again so
2282.67 -> the main push this was well first of all
2285.76 -> it's a permanent method disposal they
2287.26 -> hope to put it in the ground never have
2289.15 -> to think about again so therefore the
2290.589 -> regions that they choose to bury in the
2292.24 -> ground have to fulfill a lot of
2294.7 -> criterion so this criterion includes not
2297.13 -> having a lot of seismic activity because
2299.29 -> we are keeping this nuclear waste
2300.51 -> underground in these cow
2302.25 -> for thousands of years if there is a
2304.05 -> huge earthquake those casts break
2305.64 -> radiation gets everywhere that's
2307.14 -> obviously not a good thing so you know
2308.34 -> make sure that doesn't happen
2309.45 -> lost have to make sure that there's not
2310.53 -> a lot of water that leaks through
2311.73 -> because the water can carry the radio
2313.38 -> actually I radio I said may be isotopes
2316.29 -> and carry them into the vironment which
2317.46 -> is something else that we don't want to
2318.48 -> do a lot of guys chuckled when you saw
2320.91 -> me you come mountain so Yucca Mountain
2323.04 -> is like the primary push by the United
2325.17 -> States to find a deep geological
2326.91 -> repository somewhere in the United
2328.26 -> States so we can deal with our fuel so
2330.3 -> in 2002 the main push for this began
2332.1 -> they spent a lot of money they spent
2334.29 -> like billions of dollars finding the
2335.4 -> perfect location to put our spent fuel
2338.28 -> they had like nine different locations
2339.51 -> they finally narrowed it down to Yucca
2340.59 -> Mountain they're like yes this is the
2341.64 -> one and they started like digging down
2343.47 -> deep into nuclear you come out into
2345.45 -> making this happen but then things
2348.51 -> weren't as peachy-keen as I hoped it
2350.28 -> would be
2350.97 -> so Yucca Mountain is located in Nevada
2352.68 -> people of Nevada weren't happy about
2354.51 -> this um they're like why why are we
2356.82 -> getting tossed on nuclear waste we don't
2358.68 -> even have nuclear reactors in Nevada
2359.94 -> this is not there there's a lot of
2361.71 -> opposition and because of the social
2363.81 -> opposition there was government
2365.34 -> opposition and many loopholes had to
2367.02 -> jump through and so it's just becoming a
2368.49 -> huge disaster they also realized that it
2370.41 -> wasn't as geologically sound as I had
2371.94 -> hoped there's a lot more ground water
2373.17 -> running through and seeping through
2374.28 -> Yucca Mountain then they thought there
2376.32 -> would be so it's actually not as safe as
2378.33 -> I had hoped so there's a huge debacle
2381.27 -> basically the costs are rising nothing
2382.86 -> much was happening there's a bunch of
2383.85 -> different things preventing progression
2385.53 -> from happening and then 2011 under the
2387.69 -> Obama administration he just called it
2389.34 -> quits there's no more government funding
2390.51 -> till you come out in it's been abandoned
2392.1 -> as you can see from this lovely google
2394.14 -> picture it's permanently closed and you
2396.36 -> can also see that like 14 people went
2397.68 -> out their way to review you come out and
2398.88 -> um but we're actually doing okay it's at
2401.37 -> 3.6 stars just like uh normal like motel
2404.01 -> or something like that yeah so that has
2407.25 -> been abandoned this idea has currently
2408.63 -> been a banned in the United States we're
2410.1 -> kind of still looking for other
2411.24 -> solutions but we really don't have it
2413.1 -> figured out all that well there is one
2415.62 -> other kind of way of dealing with
2417.18 -> nuclear waste which is repurposing I
2419.1 -> personally think nuclear repurposing is
2420.69 -> the coolest option out there and
2422.46 -> basically repurposing just means you
2423.87 -> take the spent fuel you chemically
2425.49 -> separate out any material that could be
2427.38 -> continuing to be used any fissile
2429.57 -> material that could be continuing to be
2430.65 -> used in other reactors so basically you
2432.33 -> take the spent fuel and it turns out
2435.09 -> that 96
2435.84 -> of a use fuel assemblies recyclable so
2437.58 -> you take the Sun feel you take out what
2438.99 -> is useful you throw away what's not
2440.22 -> useful which is also still radioactive
2441.33 -> waste that has to be put in a fuel pool
2443.37 -> or something like that
2444.03 -> well you have this precious fuel that
2446.37 -> you can like put into another reactor so
2448.56 -> this is actually something that France
2449.88 -> and other places in Europe and Russia in
2452.25 -> Japan they use repurposing quite a lot
2455.88 -> for somebody's in the United States
2457.47 -> doesn't do it so the reason being is
2460.05 -> that this is a really cool idea it's
2461.34 -> like recycling it's like very like it's
2463.77 -> very clever I think I think it's
2465.12 -> personally one of the cleverest
2465.87 -> solutions but the issue is is that it's
2468.27 -> kind of a really expensive process so
2470.64 -> repurposing fuel takes a lot of money
2472.74 -> and it turns out that the act of
2474.6 -> repurposing fuel actually cost more than
2475.95 -> just buying a new chunk of uranium-235
2477.9 -> which is why we don't do it's not
2479.85 -> economically sound um see ya you guys
2482.7 -> have any questions about anything I
2483.84 -> mentioned about deposition of nuclear
2487.29 -> waste almost done so all these are
2491.34 -> issues like we have a lot nuclear waste
2492.75 -> to deal with is kind of there is an
2495.3 -> inherent danger with using nuclear power
2496.89 -> but the real thing that holds us back
2498.51 -> from just having nuclear power
2500.4 -> everywhere and creating about like 90%
2502.71 -> of our electricity as we would hope it
2504.54 -> would is economics so in this world
2507.45 -> money really matters a lot so the
2509.79 -> economics of nuclear power is actually
2511.53 -> really complicated topic and it changes
2514.08 -> depending on who you talk to there's a
2515.91 -> lot of factors that are involved so you
2517.02 -> can include certain factors into your
2518.73 -> calculations like oh the cost of
2520.86 -> building the reactor in the first place
2522.78 -> or like the fuel costs our operating
2524.04 -> cost and maintenance cost or less the
2525.12 -> amount of money that comes out of
2526.71 -> damaging the environment you can play
2528.27 -> all these different factors in and
2529.53 -> everyone turns out a different number so
2531.48 -> but basically everyone you talk to you
2532.92 -> if you can look at this chart yellow is
2534.27 -> nuclear power look gray is coal and the
2537.84 -> blue is the natural gas but basically
2539.7 -> anyway you talk to you can see that
2540.9 -> nuclear is not nearly as economic of a
2543.26 -> source of electricity generation as any
2545.82 -> other of these ones that I mentioned
2547.92 -> unless you talk to UK UK thinks it's
2550.26 -> okay but everyone else is saying that
2552.39 -> it's not as money efficient so where are
2556.08 -> all these costs coming from so the
2557.76 -> primary cost actually lies with
2559.32 -> something called capital cost so capital
2560.94 -> cost is basically the sunk cost of just
2562.47 -> building the reactor building reactors
2564.39 -> takes billions of dollars it also takes
2566.34 -> tons of time and because it takes a lot
2567.87 -> of time interest rates also jack up that
2569.71 -> and further so basically it's just just
2571.81 -> this massive investment they have to
2573.19 -> throw in immediately um and this is
2575.74 -> where most of the issues lie like it's
2577.48 -> really hard to go to investor would be
2579.58 -> like hey can I have a billion dollars to
2581.23 -> Bill this nuclear reactor it's gonna
2582.369 -> take five years and it's gonna take
2583.69 -> twenty more years for you to get your
2584.98 -> profit back how does that sound no
2587.109 -> investor is going to be like yeah that's
2588.31 -> a good idea
2589 -> that's the main reason why we can't get
2590.71 -> nuclear up and running we have a lot of
2591.91 -> plans and we have the possibility to
2593.02 -> create a lot of plants but we just don't
2594.07 -> have the money to do so because it's a
2597.31 -> huge chunk of money like I mentioned
2598.69 -> before it takes a while to get your
2600.04 -> profit back and also if for some reason
2602.95 -> something happens and you have to stop
2604.089 -> building your reactor well you just lost
2605.44 -> a billion dollars like there's no
2606.55 -> turning back right if you look at this
2608.71 -> chart over here which is breaking up the
2610.24 -> cost of you can energy per kilowatt hour
2612.16 -> I believe you come on our kilowatt hour
2614.08 -> kilowatt hour I'll be can see nuclear
2616 -> coal and natural gas
2616.9 -> so this giant went chunk over here
2618.67 -> refers to the fuel so if you can look at
2620.65 -> nuclear power the majority the cost
2621.79 -> actually doesn't come from nuclear fuel
2623.2 -> at all it's just about one cent per
2625.75 -> kilowatt hour as compared to natural gas
2628.57 -> which the majority of the cost of
2630.22 -> electricity actually comes from the fuel
2631.45 -> if you look at operation of maintenance
2633.25 -> again it's not that large of a chunk
2634.39 -> it's about the same as maintaining a
2635.77 -> coal power plant but then if you look at
2637.54 -> the capital cost which is the dark gray
2638.8 -> color you can see how massive that is in
2640.75 -> comparison to building natural gas and
2642.43 -> coal power plants yeah I think that's
2647.17 -> the main thing so because it is more
2650.02 -> expensive we can't compete with other
2651.7 -> forms of electricity people buying the
2653.589 -> electricity that's cheapest not
2654.76 -> necessarily the electricity that's best
2656.2 -> for like grandchildren or something like
2658.24 -> that yeah so that's why nuclear power is
2661.599 -> it more of a thing and that ends my
2663.16 -> pretty lengthy sideshow so do you guys
2665.56 -> have any questions about anything I
2666.88 -> mentioned if you guys are interested
2669.01 -> about any of these topics like if any of
2670.57 -> these things piqued your interest I
2671.73 -> recommend going to NRC go if they have a
2673.93 -> lot of really cool information let me
2675.46 -> write that down
2675.91 -> because I talked quickly uh-huh that's
2684.43 -> basically where I got the majority my
2685.599 -> information for the slide show and it is
2687.01 -> a reliable source it might just be
2688.48 -> skewed a little bit pro-nuclear so just
2690.25 -> keep that in mind but there's a lot of
2692.14 -> like crazy sources out there on the
2694.06 -> website out there on the interwebs take
2695.95 -> them with a grain of salt
2696.67 -> take NRC gov with less grains of salt
2699.22 -> than usual
2699.79 -> um or it's one of these things really
2702.4 -> the
2703.16 -> I interest you guys can take 2204 which
2704.72 -> is really cool cost that's offered here
2706.25 -> I think this spring and if not the
2708.08 -> spring next spring I'll but basically
2709.49 -> it's called nuclear power society it's
2711.17 -> chopped by a guy named Scott Kemp he
2712.49 -> talks about all these things in a lot of
2715.01 -> detail and slower so yeah cool so thank
2718.49 -> you guys so much for coming I know you
2719.9 -> guys could have slept a next hour but
2721.22 -> instead you heard me ramble for an hour
2731.14 -> you
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHPp458m1cs