Nuclear power

The 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union resulted in increased regulation and public opposition to nuclear power plants.

[11] Electricity was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951, at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho, which initially produced about 100 kW.

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the USSR, involving an RBMK reactor, altered the development of nuclear power and led to a greater focus on meeting international safety and regulatory standards.

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant suffered three core meltdowns due to failure of the emergency cooling system for lack of electricity supply.

[51] Kishida is also pushing for research and construction of new safer nuclear plants to safeguard Japanese consumers from the fluctuating price of the fossil fuel market and reduce Japan's greenhouse gas emissions.

[59][60] In October 2021, the Japanese cabinet approved the new Plan for Electricity Generation to 2030 prepared by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) and an advisory committee, following public consultation.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in July 2022 announced that the country should consider building advanced reactors and extending operating licences beyond 60 years.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced his intention to build six new reactors in coming decades, placing nuclear at the heart of France's drive for carbon neutrality by 2050.

[82] A 2017 study by researchers from MIT and WHOI found that "at the current consumption rate, global conventional reserves of terrestrial uranium (approximately 7.6 million tonnes) could be depleted in a little over a century".

[84] While various ways to reduce dependence on such resources are being explored,[85][86][87] new nuclear technologies are considered to not be available in time for climate change mitigation purposes or competition with alternatives of renewables in addition to being more expensive and require costly research and development.

[84][88][89] A study found it to be uncertain whether identified resources will be developed quickly enough to provide uninterrupted fuel supply to expanded nuclear facilities[90] and various forms of mining may be challenged by ecological barriers, costs, and land requirements.

For Light Water Reactors (LWRs), spent fuel is typically composed of 95% uranium, 4% fission products, and about 1% transuranic actinides (mostly plutonium, neptunium and americium).

[117][118][119] The thorium fuel cycle results in similar fission products, though creates a much smaller proportion of transuranic elements from neutron capture events within a reactor.

[120] The nuclear industry also produces a large volume of low-level waste, with low radioactivity, in the form of contaminated items like clothing, hand tools, water purifier resins, and (upon decommissioning) the materials of which the reactor itself is built.

For example, at Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station, which generated 44 billion kilowatt hours of electricity when in service, its complete spent fuel inventory is contained within sixteen casks.

Certain designs had considerable early positive economics, such as the CANDU, which realized a much higher capacity factor and reliability when compared to generation II light water reactors up to the 1990s.

[209] Frank N. von Hippel, an American scientist, commented that a disproportionate fear of ionizing radiation (radiophobia) could have long-term psychological effects on the population of contaminated areas following the Fukushima disaster.

[213][214] Another serious accident happened in 1968, when one of the two liquid-metal-cooled reactors on board the Soviet submarine K-27 underwent a fuel element failure, with the emission of gaseous fission products into the surrounding air, resulting in 9 crew fatalities and 83 injuries.

[254][255] A 2014 analysis of the carbon footprint literature by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that the embodied total life-cycle emission intensity of nuclear power has a median value of 12 g CO2eq/kWh, which is the lowest among all commercial baseload energy sources.

[253][256] As of 2021, nuclear reactors worldwide have helped avoid the emission of 72 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide since 1970, compared to coal-fired electricity generation, according to a report.

[267] Proponents also claim that the present quantity of nuclear waste is small and can be reduced through the latest technology of newer reactors and that the operational safety record of fission-electricity in terms of deaths is so far "unparalleled".

[269] A real world example of impact provided by proponents is the 650,000 ton increase in carbon emissions in the two months following the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

[278] Critics find that one of the largest drawbacks to building new nuclear fission power plants are the large construction and operating costs when compared to alternatives of sustainable energy sources.

seasonal energy storage is difficult to provide and which aim to phase out fossil fuels in favor of low carbon power faster than the global average.

[310] This has generated considerable interest and dispute in determining the best path forward to rapidly replace fossil-based fuels in the global energy mix,[311][312] with intense academic debate.

[317] While in developed nations the economically feasible geography for new hydropower is lacking, with every geographically suitable area largely already exploited,[318] some proponents of wind and solar energy claim these resources alone could eliminate the need for nuclear power.

[77][247][248][249][250] Analysis in 2015 by professor Barry W. Brook and colleagues found that nuclear energy could displace or remove fossil fuels from the electric grid completely within 10 years.

[339][340] Brook notes that the "principal limitations on nuclear fission are not technical, economic or fuel-related, but are instead linked to complex issues of societal acceptance, fiscal and political inertia, and inadequate critical evaluation of the real-world constraints facing [the other] low-carbon alternatives.

[343][344][287][289][88][345][300][excessive citations] Researchers have cautioned that novel nuclear technologies – which have been in development since decades,[346][88][279] are less tested, have higher proliferation risks, have more new safety problems, are often far from commercialization and are more expensive[279][88][245][347] – are not available in time.

The concept dates to the 1950s and was briefly advocated by Hans Bethe during the 1970s, but largely remained unexplored until a revival of interest in 2009, due to delays in the realization of pure fusion.

The Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant in Switzerland
Growth of worldwide nuclear power generation
The first light bulbs ever lit by electricity generated by nuclear power at EBR-1 at Argonne National Laboratory -West, December 20, 1951. [ 7 ]
The launching ceremony of USS Nautilus January 1954. In 1958 it would become the first vessel to reach the North Pole . [ 10 ]
The Calder Hall nuclear power station in the United Kingdom, the world's first commercial nuclear power station
The town of Pripyat abandoned since 1986, with the Chernobyl plant and the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement arch in the distance
Olkiluoto 3 under construction in 2009. It was the first EPR , a modernized PWR design, to start construction.
An animation of a pressurized water reactor in operation
The nuclear fuel cycle begins when uranium is mined, enriched, and manufactured into nuclear fuel (1), which is delivered to a nuclear power plant . After use, the spent fuel is delivered to a reprocessing plant (2) or to a final repository (3). In nuclear reprocessing , 95% of spent fuel can potentially be recycled to be returned to use in a power plant (4).
Proportions of the isotopes uranium-238 (blue) and uranium-235 (red) found in natural uranium and in enriched uranium for different applications. Light water reactors use 3–5% enriched uranium, while CANDU reactors work with natural uranium.
Typical composition of uranium dioxide fuel before and after approximately three years in the once-through nuclear fuel cycle of a LWR [ 103 ]
Activity of spent UOx fuel in comparison to the activity of natural uranium ore over time [ 105 ] [ 103 ]
Dry cask storage vessels storing spent nuclear fuel assemblies
Storage of radioactive waste at WIPP
Nuclear waste flasks generated by the United States during the Cold War are stored underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico . The facility is seen as a potential demonstration for storing spent fuel from civilian reactors.
Most waste packaging, small-scale experimental fuel recycling chemistry and radiopharmaceutical refinement is conducted within remote-handled hot cells .
Nuclear fuel assemblies being inspected before entering a pressurized water reactor in the United States
Share of electricity production from nuclear, 2023 [ 164 ]
The status of nuclear power globally (click for legend)
The multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), used in several space missions such as the Curiosity Mars rover
Death rates per unit of electricity production for different energy sources
Following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster , the world's worst nuclear accident since 1986, 50,000 households were displaced after radiation leaked into the air, soil and sea. [ 211 ] Radiation checks led to bans of some shipments of vegetables and fish. [ 212 ]
Reactor decay heat as a fraction of full power after the reactor shutdown, using two different correlations. To remove the decay heat, reactors need cooling after the shutdown of the fission reactions. A loss of the ability to remove decay heat caused the Fukushima accident .
United States and USSR /Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles, 1945–2006. The Megatons to Megawatts Program was the main driving force behind the sharp reduction in the quantity of nuclear weapons worldwide since the cold war ended. [ 233 ] [ 234 ]
The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) receives fuel at sea (FAS) from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73).
The Ikata Nuclear Power Plant , a pressurized water reactor that cools by using a secondary coolant heat exchanger with a large body of water, an alternative cooling approach to large cooling towers
Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of electricity supply technologies, median values calculated by IPCC [ 253 ]
A comparison of prices over time for energy from nuclear fission and from other sources. Over the presented time, thousands of wind turbines and similar were built on assembly lines in mass production resulting in an economy of scale. While nuclear remains bespoke, many first of their kind facilities added in the timeframe indicated and none are in serial production. Our World in Data notes that this cost is the global average , while the 2 projects that drove nuclear pricing upwards were in the US. The organization recognises that the median cost of the most exported and produced nuclear energy facility in the 2010s the South Korean APR1400 , remained "constant", including in export. [ 260 ]
LCOE is a measure of the average net present cost of electricity generation for a generating plant over its lifetime. As a metric, it remains controversial as the lifespan of units are not independent but manufacturer projections, not a demonstrated longevity.
Anti-nuclear protest near nuclear waste disposal centre at Gorleben in northern Germany
Schematic of the ITER tokamak under construction in France