WSRL.ORG / Rural Colorado Energy Issues - July. 2005 - Revised October 2007 - Page 1 Nuclear energy is billed as one of several technologies that are able to scale to meet the vast energy needs of the future. The case for nuclear energy is compelling indeed. Colorado has had only one commercial nuclear powered generating plant which was known as Ft. St. Vrain. The plant was located north and a little west of Ft. Lupton, Colorado. It was the first large reactor to use a then new breeder technology of cladding uranium fuel rods with thorium. The initial design of the plant which was done by General Dynamics turned out to be flawed which caused reliability problems. The plant's 330 Mwatt generator has since been converted to run on combined cycle natural gas. You are invited to read my case for nucler power on this page
Toshiba Micro Nukes
Toshiba Corporation is seeking approval to sell a so-called Micro Nuclear Reactor in the U.S. Units range in size from 200 Kw to around 50 Mwatt. Further details on Google and the Bloomberg site.
How Much Fuel -
Several reports now show that the quality (purity) of currently mined uranium ore is less than ideal. Without new discoveries or technology break-through's, this means that the refining of uranium ore to produce usable fuel rods is becoming harder and more expensive as time passes. It is a very sad fact in deed that neither U.S. private industry nor the government have been motivated to develop proven technologies that can be scaled and used to replace the vast quantities fossil fuels consumed today. Of note are the demonstration projects in other countries of extracting Uranium from seawater. Except for possibly cost, it appears there is essentially a limitless supply of Uranium fuel in the world's oceans.
Accidents -
To fully appreciate the nuclear cycle design advances mentioned below, the reader is advised to read the "We Almost Lost Detroit" article. Having worked in Colorado's only nuclear power plant, I can attest to the human error mistakes that can and do occur. Links to the "Three Mile Island" accident is here and to Chernobyl here.
Thorium —> 233U -
There are a number of safe nuclear technologies (reactor types) waiting in the wings that could be used to produce large quantities of electrical energy. The conversion of Thorium to U233 is one of the simpler methods. There are several others. According to current data, the efficiency of "Light Water Reactors" is about the same as conventional (old) coal fired power plants. Both waste far too much fuel and produce far too much waste given what could and should be done relative to new designs. Depending on the fuel cycle, the problem of waste disposal can be largely solved through the use of an efficient and advanced fuel cycle design. A fascinating account and brief history of the Liquid-Floride reactor can be read on this site. Why is this technology important? Current nuclear power reactors, like old technology coal fired power plants, waste much of the energy in the fuel. They also generate large amounts of very hazerdous waste. Modern nuclear fuel cycles can be designed to safely burn nearly all of their waste in the process of generating power. For a view of one option to solving the current nuclear waste problem go to the Argonne National Labs website.
Dr. Robert Bussard -
No discussion about nuclear energy would be complete without mention of the late Dr. Robert Bussard. The work of Dr. Bussard has been largely funded by the DOD and has remained classified up until recently when funding stopped. His work centered around low cost ways to achieve nuclear fusion. The fastest way to come up to speed on his work is to view a video of a presentation he recently gave. The video is hosted by Google at this URL. Additional links referencing his work can be found to the right.
Summary
As with many other technologies, it appears that other developed countries, some with the help of U.S. technology, are well ahead of the U.S. in the design and construction of advanced power reactors. I fear the U.S. public has some very hard and expensive lessons to learn. I fear much higher energy costs at greatly reduced reliability of supply is what lies ahead given our current path. Much of the U.S. infrastructure is geared to the use of petroleum and outdated coal technologies. This is a dead end road in my view. The transition of public thinking and infrastructure to more enlightened ways promises to be long, very expensive and painful.
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