Energy sources nuclear power

As we search for the energy sources of the future, we need to consider economic, climatic, and supply factors. There are several potential energy sources the sun (solar), nuclear processes (fission and fusion), biomass (plants), and synthetic fuels. Direct use of the sun s radiant energy to heat our homes and run our factories and transportation systems seems a sensible longterm goal. But what do we do now Conservation of fossil fuels is one obvious step, but substitutes for fossil fuels must be found eventually. We will discuss some alternative sources of energy here. Nuclear power will be considered in Chapter 21. 

Although nuclear processes offer the potential for an abundant source of energy, no nuclear power plants have been built in the United States for some time. In addition to the fear of a malfunction in such a plant (as happened at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania) or the threat of a terrorist attack against such a plant, there is the very practical problem of the regular disposal of the waste material from a nuclear power plant. Discuss some of the problems associated with nuclear waste and some of the proposals that have been put forth for its disposal. 

The transition towards a world economy based on energy supply via sustainable sources such as wind-, hydro- and solar energy, or nuclear power (of which fission still suffers from a bad public image caused by concerns over nuclear waste and proliferation, whereas fusion has so far failed to live up to its potential) is therefore expected to be a lengthy process that cannot be expected to be solely responsible for the stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations in this century. Rather, a combination of many of the mitigation alternatives will need to be adopted to significantly curb CO2 emissions. 

There is an increasing interest among Member States in the potential for deployment of smaller nuclear power plant units as energy sources for power production, heat generation, co-generation of heat and electricity, desalination, etc., and the IAEA has made an updated survey of the design and development status of small and medium power reactors (SMR) systems. 

Due to growing global energy demands, nuclear power appears to be a long term prospect as an alternative to fossil fuel based power sources. At this moment, most of the nuclear plants operate on enriched uranium (U) based fuels, thus making U one of the most precious elements. 

The metal is a source of nuclear power. There is probably more energy available for use from thorium in the minerals of the earth s crust than from both uranium and fossil fuels. Any sizable demand from thorium as a nuclear fuel is still several years in the future. Work has been done in developing thorium cycle converter-reactor systems. Several prototypes, including the HTGR (high-temperature gas-cooled reactor) and MSRE (molten salt converter reactor experiment), have operated. While the HTGR reactors are efficient, they are not expected to become important commercially for many years because of certain operating difficulties. 

After 1930, four other energy sources began to contribute significantly, as wood use continued its slow decline and coal production was relatively flat. These four were oil, natural gas, nuclear power (beginning in the 1950s), and hydroelectricity. The... 

Resource pessimists counter that this process cannot proceed forever because the eternal persistence of demand for any given commodity that is destroyed by use must inevitably lead to its depletion. I lowever, the eternal persistence assumption is not necessarily correct. The life of a solar system apparently is long but finite. Energy sources such as nuclear fusion and solar energy in time could replace more limited resources such as oil and natural gas. Already, oil, gas, nuclear power, and coal from better sources have displaced traditional sources of coal in, for example, Britain, Germany, Japan, and France. 

The fear of accidents like Chernobyl, and the high cost of nuclear waste disposal, halted nuclear power plant construction in the United States m the 1980s, and in most ol the rest ol the world by the 1990s. Because nuclear fusion does not present the waste disposal problem of fission reactors, there is hope that fusion will be the primary energy source late in the twenty-first centuiy as the supplies of natural gas and petroleum dwindle. 

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