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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Session G: Nuclear Power/Climate Change – Terrapower’S Traveling Wave Reactor, Tyler Ellis
Session G: Nuclear Power/Climate Change – Terrapower’S Traveling Wave Reactor, Tyler Ellis
Climate Change and the Future of Nuclear Power
TerraPower is moving forward with detailed plans for a sustainable, economic, and safe nuclear reactor. The Travelling Wave Reactor (TWR) – a reactor in the 500-megawatt electric range – uses unique core physics to initiate a breed and burn wave which can be completely sustained in fertile material. This process allows the TWR to convert depleted uranium waste into usable fuel as the reactor operates, providing a sustainable base-load power source. TerraPower is the first company to create a practical engineering embodiment of this previously studied concept thanks to a powerful advanced reactor modeling interface, developed in-house, which enables the …
Session G: Nuclear Power/Climate Change – Climate V. Climate Alarm, Richard S. Lindzen
Session G: Nuclear Power/Climate Change – Climate V. Climate Alarm, Richard S. Lindzen
Climate Change and the Future of Nuclear Power
The underlying physics of climate contains important elements that are widely agreed on though frequently misunderstood. In this lecture, the basic physics of greenhouse warming are simply described. It will be shown that the dynamic mixing of the troposphere is essential to the mechanism. It will further be shown that there is nothing intrinsically alarming in the basic physics. Alarm depends critically on the assertion that the climate system is dominated by large positive feedbacks that greatly amplify such warming as may be due to increasing CO2 alone. The nature of possible feedbacks will be described, and the conditions for …
Session B: The Future Of Nuclear Power - Aim High! Thorium Energy Cheaper Than From Coal, Cavan Stone
Session B: The Future Of Nuclear Power - Aim High! Thorium Energy Cheaper Than From Coal, Cavan Stone
Climate Change and the Future of Nuclear Power
This century, we face significant environmental challenges. Our demand for limited natural resources is rapidly increasing and much of humanity is concerned about the consequences. Our unsustainably growing population drives these challenges, and humanely stabilizing it would alleviate these pressures. Demographic data clearly shows that prosperity stabilizes population and it also shows that prosperity critically requires energy. In spite of the pressing and demonstrable nature of these challenges however, politically there is no international consensus on global energy policy. Developing nations simply will not accept a policy that will hamper their economic growth. Yet, we do have a solution to …
Session B: The Future Of Nuclear Power - The Fukushima Nuclear Event And Its Implications For Nuclear Power, Michael W. Golay
Session B: The Future Of Nuclear Power - The Fukushima Nuclear Event And Its Implications For Nuclear Power, Michael W. Golay
Climate Change and the Future of Nuclear Power
The combined strong earthquake and super tsunami of 12 March 2011 at the Fukushima nuclear power plant imposed the most severe challenges ever experienced at such a facility. Information regarding the plant response and status remains uncertain, but it is clear that severe damage has been sustained, that the plant staff have responded creatively and that the offsite implications are unlikely to be seriously threatening to the health, if not the prosperity, of the surrounding population. Reexamination of the regulatory constraints of nuclear power will occur worldwide, and some changes are likely; particularly concerning reliance upon active systems for achieving …
Session B: The Future Of Nuclear Power - The Fundamentals And Status Of Nuclear Power, Regis A. Matzie
Session B: The Future Of Nuclear Power - The Fundamentals And Status Of Nuclear Power, Regis A. Matzie
Climate Change and the Future of Nuclear Power
Nuclear power has enormous potential to provide clean, safe base-load electricity to the world’s growing population. Harnessing this potential in an economic and responsible manner is not without challenges. Safety remains the principal tenet of our operating fleet, which currently provides ~20% of U.S. electricity generated. The performance of this fleet from economic and safety standpoints has improved dramatically over the past several decades. This nuclear generation also represents greater than 70% of the emission free electricity with hydroelectric power providing the majority of the remainder. There have been many lessons learned from the more than 50 years of experience …
Conference Poster, Gerald Peterson
Conference Poster, Gerald Peterson
Climate Change and the Future of Nuclear Power
No abstract provided.