NUCLEAR ENERGY DR MARK HO
President, Australian Nuclear Association (ANA)
OPAL: Australia’s research reactor
Source: AEMO, Integrated System Planning, 2018
Coal’s scheduled retirement
Source: AEMO 2018
NSW’s NEM Today Source MW % Capacity Factor (CF) MW x CF %
Solar 578 3.2% 0.24 139 1.8%
Coal 10,240 57.2% 0.61 6,246 81.6%
Gas 1,964 11.0% 0.21 412 5.4%
Gas (reciprocating) 166 0.9% 0.24 40 0.5%
Hydroelectric 4,250 23.7% 0.14 595 7.8%
Biomass 78 0.4% 0.24 19 0.2%
Wind 634 3.5% 0.32 203 2.7%
Total 17,910 100.0% Avg. Generation 7,654 100.0%
Constant base load power
Zero carbon production
80 - 92% capacity factor | 40 – 60+ years lifespan
What about nuclear?
Nuclear power reactors worldwide
447
reactors in total
2.5 trillion
kWh in 2018
10%
of world’s electricity
98
63
46
36 28
24
14 13 10 9
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Nuclear Power Generation
Source: IAEA, 2019. PRIS
[GW]
400 GW World capacity total
10.2% World’s electricity
80% Global av. capacity factor
Nuclear & VRE generation
Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2019
VRE grid penetration
Source: IEA, 2018
Nuclear’s small environmental footprint
Land required to produce
26 terawatt hours
annually
Wind
1,010km2
Solar
607km2
Nuclear
6.5km2
Carbon intensity
France & Germany
Source: http://data.worldbank.org/topic/climate-change
Renewables or Nuclear? (Why not Renewables & Nuclear?)
Source: Fraunhofer ISE Germany, RTE France
300 units
worldwide
Pressurised water reactor
Graphics: World Nuclear Association
Uranium power density
600L of oil
800kg of coal
17million thermal units of
natural gas
7 grams
CH4
Methane O2
Oxygen CO2
Carbon Dioxide H2O
Water 9.2 eV
ENERGY
N
Free moving neutrons
177,000,000 eV
ENERGY Ba-141 + Kr-92
Barium and Krypton atoms
U-235
Radioactive uranium atom
N
Free moving neutron
Comparison COMBUSTION OF HYDROCARBONS
NUCLEAR FISSION OF URANIUM
Fuel rods and fuel bundles
Images: Rosatom
Spent fuel
Geological Storage
Source: IAEA
Alpha (helium nucleus)
Beta (electrons)
X-ray & gamma (EM waves)
Neutrons
20
1
1
5-20
Re
lati
ve
da
ma
ge
Combined measure:
Sievert (Sv)
What is Ionising Radiation?
Common measure: 1 µSv or 1 millionth of a Sievert
Eating a banana
Flying to Bali
2 weeks in Fukushima
Living in Australia 1 yr
(background dose)
CT chest scan
0.10 µSv
40 µSv
100 µSv
3,500 µSv
7,000 µSv
Radiation worker
limit (1 year)
Maximum Dose
without risk of
developing cancer
Fatal dose
20,000 µSv
100,000 µSv
4,000,000 µSv
Everyday examples
Taishan Units 1 & 2
Costs
China, Sanmen: 2 Units US $5.06 B project $2.3 M / MW
US, Vogtle: 2 Units US $19 B project $8.6 M / MW
Small modular reactors
Mitsubishi APWRTM
1700 MWe NuScaleTM 60 MWe
Smaller fuel load
Source: Worrall (2015)
60 MWe 1,100 MWe
SMRs vs 1 GW reactors
9.2 tons of uranium dioxide (UO2)
96.1 tons of uranium dioxide (UO2)
Cooling Reservoir
Source: NuScale
Passive safety. Walkaway safe.
Molten salt reactors
Terrapower (B. Gates) Molten Chloride Fast Reactor
Terrestrial Energy Integral Molten Salt Reactor
microReactors
Graphics: Los Alamos National Lab
Questions?