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Expository Essay

Maxaline Grimsley #173840

English Comp I

Unit VII Essay

July 14, 2016

Introduction

Across the world, energy efficiency and the shift from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources are dimensions of sustainability that have dominated the energy discourse. Fossil fuels have subjected the world to its fair share of environmental pollution and shift to more environmentally friendly sources of energy is becoming imminent. One of the key sources of this type of alternative energy, which is increasingly being adopted in many countries and regions, is nuclear energy. However, nuclear energy has been associated with major social and ethical concerns, but numerous economic benefits. In this regard, recent developments in nuclear technology have been directed towards addressing these social implications, such as the nuclear disasters that have taken place in Japan, associated with reliability on old nuclear technology. With these social implications in mind, nuclear technology has been developed in an effort to address them while at the same time making sure that it becomes s sustainable source of alternative energy. This expository essay adopts a sequential nature to discuss the recent developments in nuclear energy, which justify its adoption as a sustainable source of alternative energy for the future.

Recent Developments in Nuclear Technology

In the discussion of recent developments in nuclear reactor technology it is important to consider the improvements that the technologies realized have made, as the world moves forward with nuclear energy production. This section, therefore, will examine some of these recent advancements that reactor technology has come to realize. Recent developments are focused, as has been earlier mentioned, are meant to address social, economic, and environmental concerns. One of the most important of these concerns, which recent developments in what have come to be referred to as Generations III and IV is the improvement of safety. Generation III reactor technology, for instance, enhances safety by the integration of passive safety systems. These systems can last up two 72 hours after the reactor has been shut down, during which no one has to manually intervene. There are also active safety systems, which use AC power to activate pumps and valves as well as cooling water systems. Generation III reactors have four lines of mechanical (passive) safety systems and either two or four lines of electrical (active) safety systems (Mahaffey, 2010).

In an effort to ensure further thermal efficiency, Generation III reactors use steam generators or safety injection systems to dissipate core decay heat. In addition, they can also use safety injection accumulators while at the same time using a spray system hosted at the container building to remove containment heat. One would also note that passive safety systems, as opposed to active ones (which require AC power to provide safety functionalities), use the power of gravity, evaporation, natural convection, and different types of materials that do not support high temperature. Passive systems use water within the plant in the process of heat rejection. It would also be necessary to not the contributions of efforts to improve safety in reduction of accidents associated with core melting. The annual requirement of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the core damage frequency is 1-4. Most of the nuclear plants in the world today have their core damage frequencies calculated to that much. Most of these plants still are based on Generation II technology. Further advancements have been integrated into Generation III plants, whose damage frequency have been calculated to about ten times lower than the NRC requirements, which is an appreciable step towards safety. This is one of the major social advancements that have been the result of technological developments in the development of nuclear plants around the world, especially in the developing countries, mostly the UK and the US.

Another important development, which is mostly focused on the economic dimension, is the reduction of capital cost and construction time. Nuclear plants have recently come to incorporate standardized and much simpler structural designs that continue to integrate segmental developmental strategies in an effort to reduce costs incurred in the construction process as well as the time taken. Current literature has made some comparisons between Generation II and Generation III plants in trying to demonstrate these design improvements. A good example is the comparison made between Generation II Westinghouse Reactor at Sizewell B in the UK and another one, which is Generation III AP1000, which uses comparative power but has different design specifications (The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, 2011). The Generation III AP1000 reactor required about 25 percent of the footprint size while its material requirements were reduced to about 20 percent, which implies that, compared to Generation II reactor, the Generation III AP1000 saved about 80 percent of the costs (The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, 2011).

This demonstrates an invaluable improvement as far as the economic dimension is concerned. The segmental approach to the construction of the Generation III AP1000 reactor will also make it possible for the third part of the construction project to be built off-site, which facilitates the choice of a more convenient choice of site. This choice may come with positive environmental and social implications, which is beneficial design advancement. Licensing is also an important development, which has been found to have implications for the design and construction process. For instance, in the United States, the NRC licenses standardized designs before the construction process begins. The licensee is given 15 years for the license before construction, with the option of applying for another 15, which gives them ample time to consider all safety measures (The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, 2011). As such, standardized design, as has been mentioned earlier, could have different social and environmental implications. Another advancement that has been associated with Generation III plants is fuel efficiency, which is aimed at being improved as Generation IV plants continue to be designed for more future social, economic, and environmental benefits. This implies that less fuel will be consumed by nuclear reactors in order for more energy to be produced, which is an important advancement in nuclear technology, aimed at further addressing social and environmental concerns.

Conclusion

In this essay, focus has been to explain the recent advancements that have been realized in nuclear technology primarily in an effort to address social concerns while at the same time fostering strategies to design proper use of a sustainable source of alternative energy. The developments, which have been explained sequentially, demonstrate that nuclear energy has come to solve the fossil fuel problem of pollution. Most importantly, however, these technological developments, thanks to modern nuclear technology, have been accomplished to address negative social implications of nuclear energy use, such as, as mentioned in the introductory section, the nuclear energy-generated disasters in Japan.

References

Mahaffey, J. (2010). Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power. Cambridge, MA: Pegasus .

The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. (2011). Advances in Nuclear Power Technology. Connecticut : The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.