Energy resources nuclear fission

The production of 10 TW of nuclear power with the available nuclear fission technology will require the construction of a new 1 GWe nuclear fission plant every day for the next 50 years. If this level of deployment would be reached, the known terrestrial uranium resources will be depleted in 10 years [3], Breeder reactor technology should be developed and used. Fusion nuclear power could give an inexhaustible energy source, but currently no exploitable fusion technology is available and the related technological issues are extremely hard to solve. 

In order to make use of thorium as a nuclear resource for power generation, development of efficient separation processes are necessary to recover 233U from irradiated thorium and fission products. The THORium uranium Extraction (THOREX) process has not been commercially used as much as the PUREX process due to lack of exploitation of thorium as an energy resource (157,180). Extensive work carried out at ORNL during the fifties and sixties led to the development of various versions of the THOREX process given in Table 2.6. The stable nature of thorium dioxide poses difficulties in its dissolution in nitric acid. A small amount of fluoride addition to nitric acid is required for the dissolution of more inert thorium (181). 

Thus, energy policy makers face an exceptionally severe challenge. They must find politically acceptable ways to produce and market the remaining oil and gas resources in quantities and at prices which do not impair the capabilities of the industrialized world to manage the transition to inexhaustible energy forms. They must determine the path of the transition Is it to rely primarily on the still abundant coal, bitumen and marginal hydrocarbon resources in conjunction with synthetic fuels and a moderate increase in electrification Or, is it to follow a high electrification scenario based on coal and/or nuclear fission ... 

In the United States, the traumatic realization that energy self-sufficiency had been lost led to the first Presidential pronouncement of an overall energy policy in 1971. It advocated programs to increase the development of domestic hydrocarbon resources, to use more coal in environmentally acceptable ways, to develop synthetic substitutes for crude oil and natural gas, and to provide more electricity by nuclear fission. The top priority for Federal support was the liquid metal fast breeder... 

Although nuclear fission reaction does not occur between long-lived actinide nuclei and thermal neutrons in LWRs, it does with fast neutrons. Since nuclear fission reduces radioactive waste, it is beneficial in terms of a lowered environmental burden rather than effective utilization of resources. Cross section ratios of fission to capture of actinide nuclides have been compared between the dominant neutron energy range of a fast reactor (FR) and that of an LWR. The results show that the ratios of cross section for minor actinide (MA) nuclides of the FR in particular are one or more orders of magnitude larger than those of the LWR. Therefore, neutrons of the FR can burn more actinide nuclides in the core. 

Nuclear fission is used to generate electricity without the harmful side effects associated with fossil fuel combustion. Yet nuclear power has its own problems, namely the potential for accidents and waste disposal (8.7). Will the United States build a permanent site for nuclear waste disposal Will we turn to nuclear power as the fossil fuel supply dwindles away How many resources will we put into the development of fusion as a future energy source These are all questions that our society faces as we begin this new millennium. 

---