Why nuclear energy is sustainable and has to be part of the energy mix

Brook, Barry W.; Alonso, Andoni; Meneley, D.A.; Misak, J.; Blees, Tom; Erp, J.B. van

doi:10.1016/j.susmat.2014.11.001

Cited by 141 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Power generation plays an important role in global warming (Audoly et al 2018) and although the use of nuclear power in the energetic mix can be seen as sustainable (Brook et al 2014;Knapp and Pevec 2018), nuclear energy is debated in many countries (Meserve 2004;Cici et al 2012). Over 50 years of nuclear energy and the use of radioactive material in nuclear research and in industrial, medical and other applications have left a legacy of different kinds of nuclear waste awaiting final disposal worldwide.…”

Section: A Need For Numerical Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

RTM for Waste Repositories

Bildstein

Claret

Frugier

2019

Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry

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Section: A Need For Numerical Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

RTM for Waste Repositories

Bildstein

Claret

Frugier

2019

Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry

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“…60 Deaths/TWh = "coal electricity-world average" (60) minus nuclear (0.09) (Wang, 2012) [23]. Brook et al [37], use factors sourced from Wang (2011) [38] and modified (Brook,[39]…”

Section: [Vi]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear Power Learning and Deployment Rates; Disruption and Global Benefits Forgone

Lang

2017

Energies

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This paper presents evidence of the disruption of a transition from fossil fuels to nuclear power, and finds the benefits forgone as a consequence are substantial. Learning rates are presented for nuclear power in seven countries, comprising 58% of all power reactors ever built globally. Learning rates and deployment rates changed in the late-1960s and 1970s from rapidly falling costs and accelerating deployment to rapidly rising costs and stalled deployment. Historical nuclear global capacity, electricity generation and overnight construction costs are compared with the counterfactual that pre-disruption learning and deployment rates had continued to 2015. Had the early rates continued, nuclear power could now be around 10% of its current cost. The additional nuclear power could have substituted for 69,000-186,000 TWh of coal and gas generation, thereby avoiding up to 9.5 million deaths and 174 Gt CO 2 emissions. In 2015 alone, nuclear power could have replaced up to 100% of coal-generated and 76% of gas-generated electricity, thereby avoiding up to 540,000 deaths and 11 Gt CO 2 . Rapid progress was achieved in the past and could be again, with appropriate policies. Research is needed to identify impediments to progress, and policy is needed to remove them. , and thereby more quickly raises living standards and human wellbeing. As the cost of electricity decreases, deployment rate increases. Transition takes place faster and the benefits are delivered sooner.History is replete with examples of one technology replacing another [2,3]. Large infrastructure transitions have commonly taken around a century [10]. Examples are transitions to canals, railways, highways, oil and gas pipelines, telegraph, and electricity grids. Transitions typically follow an S-curve from 0 to 100% complete, with three phases: accelerating to about 20%, near-linear to about 80%, and decelerating to 100% [3,10]. Electricity grids reached 50% of world population in 1960 and 80% in 2010 [11].The transition to nuclear power began in 1954 with the first reactor connected to the grid. Until the 1970s, it was envisaged that nuclear would emulate earlier energy transitions. For example, Wilson [12] projected that nuclear power would supply 14 to 21% of world primary energy by 2000. However, the transition to nuclear reached 4% by 1970, then stalled [3]. The deployment rate of nuclear capacity is currently less than in 1972; the transition has been stalled for 44 years.The rate that technology transitions take place depends, in part, on the technologies being 'fit-for-purpose' and on the learning rates that occur during the transition period. To accelerate the transition to reliable, cheap, clean, safe and comparatively environmentally benign electricity generation, policies need to focus on ways to improve the learning rates and deployment rates of technologies that meet requirements. Historical learning rates provide insight into what rates may be achievable and what could be done to return to rapid rates.The concept of learning rates, or cost e...

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“…Furthermore, nuclear energy is environmentally friendly and is able to economically supply electricity safely, reliably and sustainably (Brook et al, 2014). In 2012, 10.9% of the world"s electricity was supplied by nuclear power plants.…”

Section: List Of Tablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Instability Study of Supercritical Water Flowing Upward in Two Heated Parallel Channels

Chatoorgoon

Ormiston

2017

Proceedings of the 20th Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference

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A three dimensional numerical investigation of supercritical water flowing upward in two heated parallel channels was developed using a RANS model in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS CFX. The standard k- turbulence model with scalable wall functions was adopted throughout this numerical study.The effects of spatial and temporal grid sizes on flow instability were studied first. Then oscillatory instabilities of nine experimental cases were predicted using the CFX code.For comparison purposes, Chatoorgoon"s 1-D non-linear SPORTS code was also used to determine the instability boundary. These new numerical results were compared with the experimental data and previous numerical results by other investigators.Additionally, the effects of changing the outlet plenum volume, the turbulent Prandtl number, the turbulence inlet conditions, the outlet K factor, the maximum iterations per time step in the transient analysis and the order of the transient scheme on the instability thresholds were examined.ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Why nuclear energy is sustainable and has to be part of the energy mix

Cited by 141 publications

References 5 publications

RTM for Waste Repositories

RTM for Waste Repositories

Nuclear Power Learning and Deployment Rates; Disruption and Global Benefits Forgone

Numerical Instability Study of Supercritical Water Flowing Upward in Two Heated Parallel Channels

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