This NOVA video documents the history of nuclear power, its problems and perils, as well as its potential as a carbon-free energy source. Despite past nuclear meltdowns at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and f*ckushima, new reactor technologies promise a safe and abundant energy source that will not contribute to man-made global warming.
The Google Forms, self-grading quiz consists of 38 multiple-choice questions.
Other Resources:
A Google Docs version of the video questions is available here. (Note: Access to the Google Doc requires an extra payment.)
A zip file download featuring MS Word and PDF versions of the video questions is available here. (Note: Access to these files requires an additional payment.)
NOVA: The Nuclear Option Overview
In February 2011, an earthquake and tsunami struck the island nation of Japan. The tsunami rolled over the f*ckushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and caused meltdowns in three of the plant’s nuclear reactors. Nuclear power has become deeply unpopular in Japan. Despite this, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is pushing to open the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility which will be the largest nuclear power plant in the world. Despite upgrades such as a 50-foot-high seawall, the facility has not been allowed to open by the Japanese government. Before f*ckushima, Japan derived 30% of its electricity from 54 reactors. The goal was to use nuclear plants to generate half of the nation’s electricity by 2030. Now Japan relies upon imported fossil fuels such as natural gas. Fossil fuels generate carbon dioxide, the main “greenhouse gas” implicated in global warming. Unlike fossil fuels, nuclear power generates no greenhouse gases, and it is being increasingly seen as an option for carbon-free electricity.
The video documents the herculean effort to decommission the f*ckushima plant. Lake Barrett of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is serving as a TEPCO consultant. Barrett had led the effort to decommission the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after it melted down in 1979. At f*ckushima, scientists and engineers are trying to determine the state of the uranium cores in the failed reactors. The fuel likely turned into a “radioactive magma” that breached its containment vessel and pooled onto the concrete floor beneath. The fuel is too radioactive to be observed by robotic cameras. Scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory are using muons from cosmic rays to map the unseen interiors of the reactors!
TEPCO pumps 100,000 gallons of water each day to keep the uranium cores cool. After contamination, the water mixes with groundwater and is then pumped and filtered. The remaining water contains radioactive tritium which is unable to be removed. The water is stored in immense tanks on the plateau above the abandoned nuclear power plant. Releasing the water into the ocean is not viewed as being particularly consequential. The oceans are already contaminated by tritium from past hydrogen bomb explosions. Despite this, the Japanese government has not yet approved dumping the water. TEPCO is also trying to prevent groundwater from reaching the site by erecting an underground wall of coolant pipes and frozen soil to surround the site. Despite this, some water still gets through.
f*ckushima and other failed reactors all relied upon early boiling water technology. In the US, 20% of electricity is generated using boiling water reactors that utilize technology from the 1960s-1970s. These plants have a serious vulnerability in that they are reliant upon external electricity to maintain crucial water pumps. At f*ckushima, the water pumps became flooded by the tsunami water. The halt in cooling resulted in hydrogen gas explosions at the reactors and the emission of radioactive material into the surrounding environment. People from the f*ckushima area may have an enhanced risk of cancer as a result. The area adjacent to the plant remains uninhabited.
Now named the Idaho National Laboratory, the Argonne National Laboratory was the early premier test site for nuclear power in the United States. The video profiles Chuck Till, the head of Argonne in the 1980s. Chuck had spearheaded the development of Experimental Breeder Reactor 2 (EBR-2) and its test in 1986. The EBR-2 used liquid sodium metal as a coolant, and it was able to quietly shut itself down after a loss of power. The use of such reactors was stopped by the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union, and the EBR-2 program, after running safely for 30 years, was canceled by President Clinton in 1994.
The proliferation of boiling water reactors was advanced during President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative as the fastest path to nuclear power. Such reactors had been used and developed by the Navy in their nuclear submarines, and they were preferred by Admiral Hyman Rickover, the “father” of the nuclear navy. The first commercial US plant was built in 1957. In the 1970s, the environmentalism movement viewed nuclear power as unsafe, and this perception was reinforced by the 1979 Hollywood film “The China Syndrome” and the coincidental meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant just a few days after the film’s release.
New and old technology is being developed to eliminate the danger associated with boiling water nuclear power plants. A new generation water-cooled reactor, the AP1000, is designed to prevent a meltdown for 72 hours without electricity. Such a system at f*ckushima could have prevented the meltdowns.
The NuScale corporation is developing small, modular reactors that employ only a subterranean water chamber for safety. The reactors are able to safely shut down after loss of external power.
Following investments by Bill Gates and other deep-pocketed donors, the TerraPower corporation is pursuing the sodium metal design built by Chuck Tills at Argonne. The TerraPower reactor is designed to run without reprocessing and refueling for 60 years. It also uses leftover depleted uranium which was derived from the enrichment of the refined uranium used in the older style power plants. Facing regulatory hurdles in the US, TerraPower is building its first plant in China.
Entrepreneur Leslie Dewan is profile in the video. She is an MIT-trained nuclear scientist who is pursuing the development of a reactor first utilized decades ago at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The “molten salt” design uses liquid fuel that can be safely drained in the event of an external power loss. Leslie’s startup is trying to design a molten salt reactor that will run cheaper than a coal-powered power plant. Such nuclear technology could help provide carbon-free power and halt some of the man-generated global warming that we are experiencing. The world’s demand for energy is increasing, and nuclear power will likely play a role towards fulfilling this need.
