The recent tragedy in Japan has caused many Americans to re-think their position on the use of nuclear energy. At N.C . State, the lines are torn between continual use of nuclear energy and the need to move on and find an alternate source. While some argue the urgent need for another source of power, others believe nuclear energy is still the best option.
“I don’t have any problems with [nuclear reactors] in the U.S. They’re different here – there are more fail-safe precautions,” Gerrit Motes, a senior in mechanical engineering, said. Motes spent three summers working at a nuclear plant. “Most people are misinformed about what goes into the process of nuclear energy and they think that reactors are just easily going to turn into thermal-nuclear explosions.” According to Ayman Hawari, director of the nuclear reactor program, today’s reactors use nuclear fission.
“In the reactor, a particle called a neutron reacts with the nuclei of Uranium 235 and causes it to split,” Hawari said. “This sequence of events produces energy in the form of heat, used to produce steam which is used to turn turbines of generators to produce electricity.”
Hawari said the incident in Japan has raised more than just the simple question of nuclear power’s reliability. It converges with issues of alternative sources, job industry and what new precautions will be taken in the future.
“Fossil fuels produce greenhouse gasses and have so many environmental drawbacks. As a human society we’ve become more aware of that in the past 40 to 50 years. Nuclear reactors release no greenhouse gasses. You can also rely on them to produce according to demand. Wind and solar … are not yet fully effective, though they could be in the future,” Hawari said.
One of the biggest concerns for students working on nuclear engineering degrees is how this incident will affect potential future careers.
“I’m hoping it won’t affect the job prospect negatively. If this does impact interest in nuclear power it could be negative, but the field of nuclear engineering has so many applications like medical and industrial,” Hawari said.
The prospect of jobs also extends to students with non-nuclear engineering majors.
“For a mechanical engineer, there could be careers in contracting to build safer reactors I’d totally go in,” Motes said.
“As we continue to develop nuclear power, students all have the option to be employed in more positions. There are plenty of vendor and utility companies as well as federal agencies,” Hawari said.
One of the concerns that will probably be addressed most is what precautions can be taken to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself.
“The reactors we plan to build will have more robust safety precautions,” Hawari said. “The ones in Japan were second-generation reactors that were built in the 1960s and 70s. New generation reactors will not be the same and will use advanced passive safety systems.”
Along with precaution comes the issue of disposal of reactor cores. In the U.S., when radiated fuel rods that power reactors are depleted, they are stored in a secure location. However, like Japan, storage facilities in the U.S. are under or at ground level. A natural catastrophe like an earthquake could potentially damage the storage location and cause radiation leakage.
“The biggest concern for me is what to do with disposal. France takes spent fuel rods and runs them through a breeder reactor, which essentially recycles the rod and uses up whatever little energy is left,” Motes said. “Over here there is so much politics and legal issues involved with nuclear power.”
ALT: Nuclear reactions and how they work TBA
ALT: U.S. nuclear reactor facts TBA
ALT: NCSU’s Reactor TBA