Nuclear Power

Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 978 1 920801 56 4
Year 2006

Price: $20.95

  

Nuclear Power
Volume 246, Issues in Society

Many countries are struggling to meet their current and future energy needs, and with concerns about the impacts of coal-fired fuel on climate change, attention is turning towards Australia's large reserves of uranium. Recent lucrative federal government uranium supply agreements with China and Taiwan (and possibly India in the future), will see Australia become the biggest producer of uranium on the planet. With 40% of the world's uranium located in Australia, the trade, environmental and safety considerations are significant. This book contains an overview of global nuclear energy use and production, and presents a range of arguments for and against Australia's expanded involvement in the nuclear power industry. Should Australia itself start using nuclear energy? How environmentally sustainable is nuclear power, and how safe is the storage of radioactive waste? What safeguards are there to ensure nations who purchase uranium from Australia use it for electricity generation and not for nuclear weapons?

Chapter 1  An Overview of Nuclear Power
Electricity generation using nuclear energy; The nuclear fuel cycle; Three nuclear plants 'would reduce emissions'; Australia's energy future; The uranium minefield; Nuclear future; Heat turns uranium green; Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; Primed for our oblivion.

Chapter 2  Pro-Nuclear Arguments
Overview of nuclear energy; Embrace clean energy and supply uranium; Nuclear power for a sustainable energy future; Players in a safe nuclear tomorrow; The sensible energy alternative is within our grasp; Nuclear on the agenda; The politics of power; Time for a change on uranium policy; Brace yourselves for a nuclear millennium.

Chapter 3  Anti-Nuclear Arguments
Nuclear power: no solution to climate change; The nuclear power option: expensive, ineffective and unnecessary; Nukes not the answer to the greenhouse threat; Nuclear power is no panacea for climate change; If nuclear power is the answer it must have been a pretty stupid question; Don't play power games with our lives; Mine, mine, all mine; Statement from concerned doctors regarding nuclear power and uranium mining; Credentials the cost of nuclear sell-out.

Glossary; Facts and Figures; Additional Resources; Index



FAST FACTS from this volume
  • Australia does not generate electricity from nuclear energy. Australia has a small reactor at Lucas Heights, Sydney which is only used for medical and research purposes.
  • Canberra and the states have been unable to agree on building a low-level nuclear waste dump despite years of argument. Low-level nuclear waste in Australia is stored at about 100 sites.
  • Australia has the largest uranium deposits in the world, with about 40% of the planet's recoverable uranium resources. Deposits in the NT alone are thought to be worth $12 billion.
  • Uranium is used to generate 16% of the world's electricity, but the figure is expected to rise with countries including China, India and the US looking to increase nuclear power production.
  • Much of Australia's uranium is untapped, with Canada the world's largest exporter of uranium, despite having smaller reserves.
  • A total of 441 nuclear power plants are operating around the world in 30 countries and produce 16% of global electricity. These plants represent over 10,000 reactor-operating years of experience. In addition, there are 32 new reactors under construction.
  • The ten countries with the highest reliance on nuclear power are: Lithuania, 80%; France, 78%; Slovakia, 65%; Belgium, 57%; Bulgaria, 47%; Ukraine, 46%; Sweden, 46%; Slovenia, 41%; Armenia, 40%; Switzerland, 39%. The reliance in several other major countries is: Korea, 38%; Japan, 34%; Germany, 30%; UK, 22%; USA, 20%; Russia, 16%.
  • A 500MW coal-fired power station produces almost 320,000 tonnes of toxic waste while a comparable nuclear power station produces about 20 tonnes per annum. The coal-fired facility will release into the atmosphere 4.38 million tonnes of carbon dioxide while the nuclear power station will release 87,600 tonnes. The coal waste will include 2.6 tonnes of uranium and 6.4 tonnes of thorium.
  • There have been more than 12,000 operational years of nuclear power reactor operation during which there has been one nuclear accident – Chernobyl in the Ukraine – which has resulted in loss of life.
  • China, Russia, Finland, France, India and others are expanding nuclear generating capacity, with estimates suggesting that 60 new reactors (17% above current levels of nuclear generation) are planned, or under construction.
  • The present world population of 6.5 billion will rise to 8.5 billion by the year 2025. Of this increase, about 2.8 billion will be in developing countries, which already account for 75% of the world's population. It is estimated that by then China's greenhouse emissions will be about four times greater than those of all industrialised countries together in 1990.
  • A doubling of nuclear power output by 2050 would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 5% — less than one-tenth of the reductions required to stabilise atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.
  • Nuclear power relies on an exhaustible energy source. High-grade, low-cost uranium ores are limited and will be exhausted in about 50 years at the current rate of consumption.
  • Of the 60 countries which have built nuclear power or research reactors, over 20 are known to have used their "peaceful" nuclear facilities for covert weapons research and or production.
  • Four or five countries have produced nuclear arsenals under cover of a "peaceful" nuclear program — Israel, India, South Africa, Pakistan, and possibly North Korea. Others have come close – most notably Iraq from the 1970s until the 1991 Gulf War.
  • The "peaceful" nuclear power industry has produced sufficient plutonium to produce about 160,000 nuclear weapons, each with a yield similar to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
  • Nuclear power emits large amounts of greenhouse gases through mining, milling and transport; nuclear power is highly dangerous, unsafe and has considerable health risks; the cost of nuclear energy is significantly higher than that of renewable energy.
  • Currently the 442 nuclear plants provide only 2.5% of global energy. In order to even double this contribution, a corresponding number of power plants would need to be constructed. However, if this were achieved, the nuclear industry's contribution to global energy would still decrease, as energy demand is expected to increase by 50% within the next twenty-five years. Therefore, in order to increase the industry's share to 5%, the number of nuclear power plants would need to be tripled.
  • In order to meet the targets stated within the Kyoto Protocol, 72 new nuclear plants would be required within the 15 European nations by 2012. This is a highly impractical goal, as only 15 plants have been constructed within the last twenty years. Even if this number were achieved, uranium reserves would run out very quickly.
  • The waste produced from nuclear power has an extremely long half-life, sometimes longer than 100,000 years. It is expected that the amount of waste will increase from 145,000 tonnes in 1994, to 322,000 tonnes by 2010.
  • Electricity production accounts for only 9% of annual greenhouse gas emissions, indicating that if nuclear power was to succeed long-term, it would have little effect on the climate change crisis.
  • Wind power and solar power grow by 20-30% each year and already supply 19% of the world's electricity, in comparison to nuclear power's 16%.
  • A standard 1000-megawatt nuclear reactor contains the equivalent radiation to that released by the explosion of 1000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.