1) Mcleish, Ewan. The Pros and Cons of Nuclear Power. NewYork: The Rosen
Group, (2008): 22-36.
2) The Thomson Corporation. Fueling the Future Nuclear Power. Farmington Hills:
(2007): 19-56.
97 During the late 1950s through the Did scientist understand ,at the time,
1960s reactors were designed to the level of danger involved with using
produce less than 400 million watts of nuclear energy? Perhaps that is why
power. In 1963 the largest commercial many of their ideas never came to
reactor built in New York, a light?
I just think this is a cute and cool
factoid!
5) Butler, Declan. “Nuclear power’s new dawn.” Nature May 20, (2004): 238-
240.
238 The author describes a possible 239 Four of the six prototypes not
future of a reactor that is operating at only produce electricity but hydrogen
temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius, as well. Only one of the four would be
stating that in today’s time, this would able to operate without having to
be cause for panic. depend on the controversial
reprocessing of plutonium waste.
238 “Nuclear power is not a source of
carbon dioxide, and with emissions 240 Reprocessing waste is
soaring, and global energy demands
controversial because it separates out
predicted to double by 2050, the
nuclear option is finding its way back a key ingredient used in advanced
onto the table.” nuclear weapons. The US has refrained
from reprocessing this waste and has
238 A group of ten nations(called
GIF) have joined scientific forces to discouraged other nations from
brainstorm and test prototypes for processing it as well. This reprocessing
some new generation reactors that
is attractive because it could cut the
they believe will be safer. While
today’s water-cooled reactors can final amount of waste produced. 96%
operate around 300 degrees Celsius, of spent fuel consists of uranium and
all of the new concepts are designed plutonium, meaning only a small
to run at temps of 510-1,000 degrees
C. amount of waste would be left over.
How does this compare to today’s Can Hydrogen be used as a source of
operating temperatures? What is the electricity as well? Why is reprocessing
significance in wanting to be able to plutonium waste controversial?
operate at higher temps?
6) Wald, Mathew. “Is there a place for Nuclear waste?” Scientific American Magazine August 2009
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-there-a-place-for-nuclear-waste
“The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the largest
nuclear waste dump in the Western Hemisphere
and a major Northwest environmental issue. It is
a serious long-term threat to the Columbia River,
Sounds great, so why would Obama
which Oregon depends on for power generation,
cancel plans for storing waste here?
farm irrigation, fishing, transport and recreation.’
Has any research been done to find
out if this man’s ideas could be a
reality?
President Obama has cancelled plans for storing
nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain near Las
Vegas where the federal gov. has been trying to
create a storage facility for 22 years.
In New Mexico, the Director of Carlsbad How does something like this happen
Environmental Monitoring and Research Center and no one blinks an eye? Why are we
at New Mexico State University, believes that as a society ok with longer term
this desert would be the perfect place for burying deadly waste from other sources of
energy, but we have a closed mind to
nuclear waste because the salt seeps into
nuclear energy because of its negative
cracks in the rock and seals it in. He states
aspects?
“permeability is not just very low, but zero”, and
“you couldn’t engineer something this good.”