Nuclear energy

“ Nuclear fuel even today is no more expensive than conventional fuel in many parts of the United States. Nuclear fuel is neither heavy nor bulky and can be therefore transported easily. In those parts of the world where ordinary fuel is expensive, nuclear energy will soon become of great importance. Furthermore, we shall learn to use most of the energy in uranium rather than just the part contained in its rare and valuable isotope, U235. ”

“ The Understanding the Atom Series
Nuclear energy is playing a vital role in the life of every man, woman, and child in the United States today. In the years ahead it will affect increasingly all the peoples of the earth. It is essential that all Americans gain an understanding of this vital force if they are to discharge thoughtfully their responsibilities as citizens and if they are to realize fully the myriad benefits that nuclear energy offers them. ”

“ Only a few, relatively rare, naturally occurring substances -- primarily Uranium-235 -- can maintain the nuclear fission chain reaction necessary for operation of these [p1083] reactors. There are thus severe constraints on the long run potential of nuclear energy for generating electricity unless new nuclear fuel is "artificially" produced. ”

“ And now, after almost four decades of immense technological effort to support nuclear development, nuclear energy has become widely used. Some 30 governments produce from nuclear generators a total of about 15 per cent of all the electricity used globally. Yet it has not met earlier expectations that it would be the key to ensuring an unlimited supply of low-cost energy. ”

“ The U. S. is not alone in its use of nuclear energy as a tool of science. The United Kingdom has carried out radiological studies of the marine environment for many years, particularly concentrating on the effects of radionuclides from nuclear power plants on the sea immediately contiguous to the British Isles. Both the European Atomic Energy Community and the International Atomic Energy Agency also encouraged marine radiological studies. ”

“ The industrial policy of actively exploiting nuclear energy has been formulated and issued, which has effectively secured the growth of the industries of nuclear power, nuclear fuel recycling, and nuclear technology application. ”

“ As more nations seek nuclear energy, concerns have been raised about the nuclear fuel cycle. The report of the UN High Level Panel on Threats said that, “... the proliferation risks from the enrichment of uranium and from the reprocessing of spent fuel are great and increasing.”
As more nations seek nuclear energy to meet their development needs, more nations will weigh available options to determine what for them will be the most secure, and most economical way to ensure a reliable supply of nuclear fuel. ”

“ We are unequivocally in favour of strengthening the regime of non-proliferation. The present international legal principles allow us to develop technologies to manufacture nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes. And many countries with all good reasons want to create their own nuclear energy as a basis for their energy independence. But we also understand that these technologies can be quickly transformed into nuclear weapons. ”

“ The United States was the first nation to invent and develop the technology to harness nuclear energy. Since the 1950s, the United States Navy has been operating and advancing transportable nuclear reactors, resulting in powerfully enhanced marine propulsion for its aircraft carriers and allowing nuclear-powered submarines to remain submerged for extended periods of time.
The United States must sustain its ability to meet the energy requirements for its national defense and space exploration initiatives. ”

“ Last year we invested more than $300 million in nuclear energy technologies. We want our people to understand that this generation of nuclear power plants is safe. We want people to feel comfortable about the expansion of nuclear power. ”

“ Individually, each buoy will not require a great deal of energy to operate, but will have to operate reliably over long periods of time. Conventional power sources are being used for the prototype buoys now under development and testing, but these robot ocean platforms in the future will make excellent use of nuclear energy supplied by isotopic power sources. ”

“ Nuclear electric power is approaching the point where it will be economically competitive with power from hydroelectric plants or those burning coal, oil, or gas as fuels. Improvements in nuclear power technology are rapidly being made, and it is now widely predicted that before the end of this century most new electric power plants will be nuclear. ”

“ But, of course, all this does not mean that the machine will do its job free of charge. Even a perpetual motion machine would need servicing and maintenance. Unfortunately our nuclear machines need a lot of such servicing and therefore for the time being, nuclear energy is not the cheapest. ”

“ Since the nuclear energy released is converted almost one hundred per cent into electrical current, there is no danger from radiation; since the process is, by its very nature, self-limiting, there is no danger of explosion. ”

“ In western Europe and North America, which today have almost 75 per cent of current world capacity, nuclear provides about one-third of the energy that was forecast for it 10 years ago. Apart from Fance, Japan, the USSR, and several other East European countries that have decided to continue with their nuclear programmes, ordering, construction, and licensing prospects for new reactors in many other countries look poor. ”

“ If the purpose of the nuclear accelerating machines were to produce cheap energy, they would not be of much value. A nuclear reaction may typically release five to 20 million electron-volts of energy. But to obtain this reaction, a million particles had to be accelerated to energies of several million electron-volts. The recoverable and useable energy will be only a minute fraction of the total invested. ”

“ Easily accessible sources of nonrenewable fuels are being consumed at an alarming rate, and the increased use of capital intensive nuclear energy is meeting stiff public opposition in this country and elsewhere. ”

“ We hear that nuclear power will act in its place, but then nuclear power cannot be used as the raw material for manufactured articles, and even in the field of energy it is said that, if we do not have an amount of petroleum which corresponds to one-fourth the energy gained from nuclear power, it is impossible to operate the nuclear power plants. ”

“ We are therefore in a position to put before the reader the most important facts about the peaceful and military applications of nuclear energy—of the possible dangers and of the eventual benefits. If we do not succeed, we cannot blame either secrecy or the difficulty of the subject. ”

“ Our sources of energy are not yet nuclear sources. Even in the military field, where development has been most rapid, the structure of the armed forces has not yet adjusted itself to the facts of the nuclear age in a realistic manner. ”

“ It is estimated that when the world's population reaches 7,000,000,000 as it will in a few decades-the total energy requirement [11] will be 70,000,000,000 metric tons of coal or equivalent annually and that it will be supplied as follows: By 1980 nuclear energy 'should represent a significant proportion of world power production.' Id., at 109. By the end of the century 'nuclear energy may account for about one-third of our total energy consumption.' Ibid. 'By the middle of the next century it seems likely that most of our energy needs will be satisfied by nuclear energy.' Id., at 110. ”

“ If, as some scientists believe, extensive space exploration by manned crews will depend on harnessing this great source of energy—both for booster purposes and for operating spacecraft in the distant parts of our interplanetary system—this fact alone may assure that the obstacles to practical nuclear energy are overcome faster and more completely than would otherwise be the case. ”

“ Nuclear power is limitless. It's one existing source that generates a massive amount of electricity without causing air pollution or any greenhouse gases.
And yet the United States -- we haven't built any nuclear power plants in a long time. We have a promising technology available and yet we're stuck -- until recently. All of our citizens probably don't understand, but France, our ally and friend, gets nearly 80 percent of its power from nuclear power. Isn't that an amazing statistic? It's time for America to change. ”

“ Civil nuclear energy programmer worldwide have already generated many thousands of tons of spent fuel and high-level waste. Many governments have embarked on large-scale programmes to develop ways of isolating these from the biosphere for the many hundreds of thousands of years that they will remain hazardously radioactive. ”

“ Indeed, it is not altogether inconceivable that we may still have new types of forces and new sources of energy to 164 discover. Until about 1900, no one suspected the existence of nuclear energy. Are we quite sure now that nuclear energy brings us to the end, and that there is not a form of energy more subtle still, and greater? ”

“ We must find new and better answers to the imperative of the nuclear age: how to maximize the benefit of nuclear power, which I believe in, but at the same time minimize the proliferation dangers. That is a dual challenge. ”

“ As energy needs rise, as oil and gas prices surge, and production shifts more each year to more volatile and less secure areas of the world and as the pace of global warming increases, nations and the private sector are looking more and more to nuclear power to meet those needs. ”

“ Information concerning the peaceful applications of nuclear energy is also completely and freely available. Even in the field of military applications, much of the essential information has been published. ”

“ The accomplishments of nuclear power in the propulsion of ships have already been noted. In addition, there is now going on in industrialized countries in different parts of the world a large-scale development of nuclear power plants for production of electricity. ”

“ There is a huge amount of waste heat from the propulsion system and the nuclear reactor (both fission and fusion reactions) ; The fuel will be stored in large tanks at near-absolute temperatures, and must be shielded from the waste heat of the nuclear reactions. The spacecraft will require highly efficient radiators to dissipate the thermal energy released by the interstellar drive, namely the inductors, particle beams, and fusion reaction. ”

“ The nuclear force is so short-range, it barely reaches from end to end of a large nucleus like that of uranium. Left to itself, it holds together most of the time, but with the added energy of an entering neutron, we might imagine shock waves going through it and turning the nucleus into something like a quivering drop of liquid. Sometimes the uranium nucleus recovers, keeps the neutron, and then goes on to beta-particle emission. And sometimes the nucleus stretches to the point where the nuclear force doesn’t quite hold it together. ”

“ Nuclear reactors generate energy with the help of nuclear fission. Every time a fission occurs we are left with radioactive by-products. It is most important to prevent the uncontrolled escape of these fission products from the reactor. Fortunately the dangerous products can be retained in the reactor—if the machine has been constructed and operated with reasonable care. ”

“ And so, whilst some states still remain nuclear-free, today nuclear reactors supply about 15 per cent of all the electricity generated. Total electricity production worldwide is in turn equivalent to around 15 per cent of global primary energy supply. Roughly one-quarter of all countries worldwide have reactors. ”

“ This can, for obvious reasons, lead to serious instability in the overall system—most interesting systems cannot withstand the unbounded increase of any of their parameters without serious negative consequences. The basic engineering principles underlying the creation of nuclear weapons exploit this feature of positive feedback mechanisms: the destructive output of nuclear weapons results from the energy released during the fission of certain isotopes of (in most cases) uranium or plutonium. ”

“ One only has to add a neutron to common U238 to get radioactive U239. In the course of time this decays into plutonium. This element can be used like U235: It produces fission, a great amount of energy and enough neutrons to keep the process going. We shall also learn to extract energy from other nuclear fuels. Thorium acts like uranium, while deuterium can give energy by building up bigger nuclei rather than breaking them into smaller pieces. Therefore the source of energy will be universally available and quite inexpensive. ”

“ The Bush administration has worked with other nations on the Proliferation Security Initiative, which coordinates national capabilities to interdict the transport of nuclear, biological and chemical materials, their delivery systems and related technology. We at our foundation and most nuclear experts agree that securing nuclear material at the source is the most important feature, and you have to have cooperation around the globe for that. Securing material at the source is the least expensive and most efficient. ”