Nuclear, The Real Power

The human need for energy is on a rampant growth with the booming human population. With a new frontier of human force moving towards the outer stretches of our solar system and in the near future to other planets beyond ours or our neighboring planets, the need for a new home for humans is in a greater need then ever before. To power the spaceships of the future or even to power the satellites that we would be sending to the outer stretches of the sky, we would need some source of energy which would not only last long but would also be able to give huge outputs. Nuclear could be our prime source to meet all our energy needs in the near future, but first it needs to be one of the major sources of energy on our planet.

Nuclear power plants are a type of power plant that use the process of nuclear fission in order to generate electricity. They do this by using nuclear reactors in combination with the Rankine cycle, where the heat generated by the reactor converts water into steam, which spins a turbine and a generator. Nuclear power provides the world with around 10% of its total electricity, with the largest producers being the United States and France.As of 2019, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there were 450 nuclear power reactors in operation in 30 countries. As per a study done by US Department of Energy the share of nuclear power is reducing continuously due to ever increasing cost of power plant installation and in the same study it is reported that all the 450 Nuclear power plants will have to be replaced by 2050.

After years of negotiation between India and USA, India finally signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and was finally able to buy nuclear fuel for its reactors from different countries back in October 2008. With this India was given the freedom to buy Nuclear fuel from Uranium rich countries of the world. The 48-nation NSG granted a waiver to India on 6 September 2008 allowing it to access civilian nuclear technology and fuel from other countries. India the only known country with nuclear weapons which is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but is still allowed to carry out nuclear commerce with the rest of the world. As of 2016, India has signed civil nuclear agreements with 14 countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Namibia, Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. On 5 October 2018, India and Russia signed an agreement to construct 6 Russian nuclear reactors in India.

Nuclear power is the fifth-largest source of electricity in India after coal, gas, hydroelectricity and wind power. As of March 2018, India has 22 nuclear reactors in operation in 7 nuclear power plants, with a total installed capacity of 6,780 MW. Nuclear power produced a total of 35 TWh and supplied 3.22% of Indian electricity in 2017. 7 more reactors are under construction with a combined generation capacity of 4,300 MW.As of 2018, India stands 13th in the world in terms nuclear capacity. Indigenous atomic reactors include TAPS-3, and -4, both of which are 540 MW reactors.

India's Future Needs

India's dependence on imported energy resources and the inconsistent reform of the energy sector are challenges to satisfying rising demand. The 2019 edition of BP’s Energy Outlook projected India’s energy consumption rising by 156% between 2017 and 2040. It predicts that the country’s energy mix will evolve slowly to 2040, with fossil fuels accounting for 79% of demand in 2040, down from 92% in 2017. In actual terms, between 2017 and 2040, primary energy consumption from fossil fuels is expected to increase by 120%.There is an acute demand for more reliable power supplies, though early in 2019 India was set to achieve 100% household electricity connection.The government's 12th five-year plan for 2012-17 targeted the addition of 94 GWe over the period, costing $247 billion. By 2032 the plan called for total installed capacity of 700 GWe to meet 7-9% GDP growth, with 63 GWe nuclear. The OECD’s International Energy Agency predicts that India will need some $1.6 trillion investment in power generation, transmission and distribution to 2035.In March 2018, the government stated that nuclear capacity would fall well short of its 63 GWe target and that the total nuclear capacity is likely to be about 22.5 GWe by the year 2031. India has five electricity grids – Northern, Eastern, North-Eastern, Southern and Western. All of them are interconnected to some extent, except the Southern grid. All are run by the state-owned Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCI), which operates more than 95,000 circuit km of transmission lines. In July 2012 the Northern grid failed with 35,669 MWe load in the early morning, and the following day it plus parts of two other grids failed again so that over 60 crore people in 22 states were without power for up to a day. Till date it is the largest blackout the world has ever seen though the number 2 spot is also held by India when on January 2 for about 12 hours after the failure of a substation in Uttar Pradesh triggered the collapse of the country's northern grid. Essential services, businesses, transport and domestic supplies ground to a halt in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, the territory of Chandigarh and the capital New Delhi affecting over 23 Crore people.

Indian government's Ministry of Power is working day and night to solve the issue of energy crises in India and meeting its increasing need of energy and looking for all forms of alternates so that an incident similar to 2012 Blackout does not take place in the future due to shortage electricity.

India's Nuclear Fuel Deposits

India's three-stage nuclear power program was formulated by Homi Bhabha in the 1950s to secure the country's long term energy independence, through the use of uranium and thorium reserves found in the monazite sands of coastal regions of South India. The ultimate focus of the program is on enabling the thorium reserves of India to be utilized in meeting the country's energy requirements. Thorium is particularly attractive for India, as it has only around 1–2% of the global uranium reserves, but one of the largest shares of global thorium reserves at about 25% of the world's known thorium reserves. However, thorium is more difficult to use than uranium as a fuel because it requires breeding, and global uranium prices remain low enough that breeding is not cost effective.

The country has long been eager to exploit its estimated 300,000 to 850,000 tonnes of thorium – quite probably the world’s largest reserves – but progress has been slow. Their effort is coming back into focus amid renewed interest in the technology. Last year Dutch scientists fired up the first new experimental thorium reactor in decades, start-ups are promoting the technology in the West and last year China pledged to spend $3.3bn to develop reactors that could eventually run on thorium. India’s pursuit of thorium is driven by unique historical and geographic conditions, which have given it considerable staying power. Some see a quixotic quest unlikely to live up to its promise, but the country’s nuclear scientists see a long-term strategy for carbon-free energy security in a country whose population could peak at 1.7 billion in 2060.

In 2007, after five decades of sustained and generous government financial support, nuclear power's capacity was just 3,310 MW, less than 3% of India's total power generation capacity.

The Integrated Energy Policy of India estimates the share of nuclear power in the total primary energy mix to be between 4% to 6.4% in various scenarios by the year 2031–32. A study by the DAE, estimates that the nuclear energy share will be about 8.6% by the year 2032 and 16.6% by the year 2052. The possible nuclear power capacity beyond the year 2020 has been estimated by DAE is shown in the table. The 63 GW expected by 2032 will be achieved by setting up 16 indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR), of which ten is to be based on reprocessed uranium. Out of the 63 GW, about 40 GW will be generated through the imported Light Water Reactors (LWR), made possible after the NSG waiver.

As new U3O8 reserves are being explored, DAE has been looking to step up mining and ore processing activities. UCIL, which is responsible for mining and milling of uranium in India, has accordingly been on a path of expansion. In June 2019, the company revealed plans to invest in 13 new domestic mining projects with a total outlay of Rs105.70 billion ($1.52 billion). These new projects, once online, are expected to quadruple total domestic uranium production. Apart from these new projects, UCIL is also working towards capacity expansion at some existing units.

UCIL presently operates seven mines in the state of Jharkhand at Jaduguda, Bhatin, Narwapahar, Turamdih, Bagjata, Banduhurang and Mohuldih. It also has two processing plants in Jharkhand co-located with the mines at Jaduguda and Turamdih. Capacity expansion and ‘debottlenecking activities’ are under way in some of its oldest mines in Jharkhand. The company’s relatively new mine at Tummalapalle, Andhra Pradesh, is also being augmented for greater efficiency. This mine has achieved full production capacity and a co-located processing plant has also been delivering output. 

Thorium energy forecasts

According to the Chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, Srikumar Banerjee, without the implementation of fast breeders the presently available uranium reserves of 5.469 million tonnes can support 570 GWe till 2025. If the total identified and undiscovered uranium reserves of 16 million tonnes are brought online, the power availability can be extended till the end of the century. While calling for more research into thorium as an energy source and the country's indigenous three-stage programme, he said, "The world always felt there would be a miracle. Unfortunately, we have not seen any miracle for the last 40 years. Unless we wake up, humans won't be able to exist beyond this century."

Nuclear and radiation accidents

The impact of nuclear accidents has been a topic of debate since the first nuclear reactors were constructed in 1954, and has been a key factor in public concern about nuclear facilities. Technical measures to reduce the risk of accidents or to minimize the amount of radioactivity released to the environment have been adopted, however human error remains, and "there have been many accidents with varying impacts as well near misses and incidents". As of 2014, there have been more than 100 serious nuclear accidents and incidents from the use of nuclear power. Fifty-seven accidents or severe incidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and about 60% of all nuclear-related accidents/severe incidents have occurred in the USA. Serious nuclear power plant accidents include the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011), the Chernobyl disaster (1986), the Three Mile Island accident (1979), and the SL-1 accident (1961). Nuclear power accidents can involve loss of life and large monetary costs for remediation work.

Nuclear-powered submarine accidents include the K-19 (1961), K-11 (1965), K-27 (1968), K-140 (1968), K-429 (1970), K-222 (1980), and K-431 (1985) accidents. Serious radiation incidents/accidents include the Kyshtym disaster, the Windscale fire, the radiotherapy accident in Costa Rica, the radiotherapy accident in Zaragoza, the radiation accident in Morocco, the Goiania accident, the radiation accident in Mexico City, the radiotherapy unit accident in Thailand, and the Mayapuri radiological accident in India. On 8 August 2019 Nyonoksa radiation accident happened at the State Central Navy Testing Range at Nyonoksa, near Severodvinsk, Russia.

Chernobyl is considered the world’s worst nuclear disaster to date. When it occurred on April 26, 1986, a sudden surge in power during a reactor systems test resulted in an explosion and fire that destroyed Unit 4. Massive amounts of radiation escaped and spread across the western Soviet Union and Europe. As a result of the disaster, approximately 2,20,000 people had to be relocated from their homes.

Major Reasons for Using Nuclear

1. Nuclear energy protects air quality

Nuclear is a zero-emission clean energy source.

It generates power through fission, which is the process of splitting uranium atoms to produce energy. The heat released by fission is used to create steam that spins a turbine to generate electricity without the harmful byproducts emitted by fossil fuels.

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the United States avoided more than 476 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2019. That’s the equivalent of removing 100 million cars from the road and more than all other clean energy sources combined.

It also keeps the air clean by removing thousands of tons of harmful air pollutants each year that contribute to acid rain, smog, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.

2. Nuclear energy’s land footprint is small

Despite producing massive amounts of carbon-free power, nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean-air source.

A typical 1,000-megawatt nuclear facility in the United States needs a little more than 1 square mile to operate. National Intelligence Estimate (NEI) says wind farms require 360 times more land area to produce the same amount of electricity and solar photovoltaic plants require 75 times more space.

To put that in perspective, you would need more than 3 million solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a typical commercial reactor or more than 430 wind turbines (capacity factor not included).

3. Nuclear energy produces minimal waste

Nuclear fuel is extremely dense.

It’s about 1 million times greater than that of other traditional energy sources and because of this, the amount of used nuclear fuel is not as big as you might think.

All of the used nuclear fuel produced by the U.S. nuclear energy industry over the last 60 years could fit on a football field at a depth of less than 10 yards!

That waste can also be reprocessed and recycled, although the United States does not currently do this.

However, some advanced reactors designs being developed could operate on used fuel.

The NICE Future Initiative is a global effort under the Clean Energy Ministerial that makes sure nuclear will be considered in developing the advanced clean energy systems of the future.

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