7.

1 | Nuclear Power Worldwide

Most people fl ip a light switch without thinking of the energy source that caused the bulb to
glow. But others, especially those who previously have lost electric power because of a storm or
a power blackout, may not as easily take electricity for granted. All too well they know the
sensation of hearing the switch click, but remaining in the dark.
Let’s assume that the power is working and that you switch on your coffee pot. If you live in the
United States, the odds are about 1 in 5 that a nuclear power plant is providing the electricity to
brew your coffee. But if you live in France, the odds are better than even. Nations of the world
differ in the extent to which they employ nuclear power commercially. For example, in the
United States, about 20% of the electric power is produced from just over 100 nuclear reactors,
all licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). These reactors operate at 65 sites in
31 states. As you can see by Figure 7.1, the electricity generated by these nuclear plants has
increased over the years,despite the drop in the number of operating reactors from its 1990 peak
of 112. Nonetheless,
in the United States, nuclear power remains a relatively steady 20% of the total production
because the other sources have increased as well.
When you brew your coffee a decade from now, from where will the electricity come? No new
nuclear plants have been built in the United States since 1978. Furthermore, nine nuclear plants
ceased their operations, some of them before their licenses expired. These include what was once
the nation’s largest, the Zion nuclear power station on the shores of Lake Michigan. Reasons
cited for plant closings included the competition of natural gas and the competitive pressures of
energy deregulation.

7.5 | Looking Backward to Go Forward

We need to examine the legacy of nuclear power—what has worked and what has not.
All nuclear plants use the process of fi ssion to produce energy; all produce radioactive fission
products. Have these radioactive products posed a danger in the past? Are they likely to in the
future? In this section, we consider a signifi cant part of the legacy; that is, the scenario of an
accidental release of radioisotopes into the environment. In 1979, a fi lm called The China
Syndrome portrayed a near-disaster in a fi ctitious nuclear power plant. The heat-generating fi
ssion reaction went critical and a meltdown of the reactor was imminent. Supposedly, the heat
was capable of melting the underlying rock all the way to China. But in the nick of time, the
safety features of the system prevailed and no meltdown occurred.
Seven years later on April 26, 1986, the engineers of the very real Chernobyl power plant in
Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, were less fortunate (Figure 7.13). This plant had four
reactors—two built in the 1970s and two more in the 1980s—all near the town of Chernobyl
(pop. 12,500). Water from the nearby Pripyat River was used to cool the reactors. Although the
surrounding region was not heavily populated, nonetheless approximately 120,000 people lived
within a 30-km radius.
Chernobyl stands as the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident. What went wrong? During
an electric power safety test at the Chernobyl Unit 4 reactor, operators deliberately interrupted
the fl ow of cooling water to the core as part of the test. The temperature of the reactor rose
rapidly. In addition, the operators had left an insuffi cient number of control rods in the reactor
(that couldn’t be reinserted quickly enough), and the steam pressure was too low to provide
coolant (due to both operator error and faulty design). A chain of events quickly produced a
disaster. An overwhelming power surge produced heat, rupturing the fuel elements, and releasing
hot reactor fuel particles. These, in turn, exploded on contact with the coolant water, and the
reactor core was
destroyed in seconds. The graphite used to slow neutrons in the reactor caught fi re in the heat.
When water was sprayed on the burning graphite, the water and graphite reacted chemically to
produce hydrogen gas, which exploded when it reacted with oxygen in the air.
2 H2O(l) _ C(graphite) 2 H2(g) _ CO2(g) [7.7]
2 H2(g) _ O2(g) 2 H2O(g) [7.8]
The explosion blasted off the 4000-ton steel plate covering the reactor (Figure 7.14).
Although a “nuclear” explosion never occurred, the fi re and explosions of hydrogen blew vast
quantities of radioactive material out of the reactor core and into the atmosphere. Fires started in
what remained of the building. In a short time, the plant lay in ruins. The head of the crew on
duty at the time of the accident wrote: “It seemed as if the world was coming to an end . . . I
could not believe my eyes; I saw the reactor ruined by the explosion. I was the fi rst man in the
world to see this. As a nuclear engineer I realized the consequences of what had happened. It was
a nuclear hell. I was gripped with fear.” ( Scientifi c American, April 1996, p. 44)
The disaster continued. As the reactor burned, for 10 days it continued to spew large quantities of
radioactive fi ssion products into the atmosphere. Nearly 150,000 people living within 60 km of
the power plant were permanently evacuated after the meltdown. People in nearby regions
reported an odd, bitter, and metallic taste as they inhaled the invisible particles. The release of
radioactivity was estimated to be on the order of 100 of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. The radioactive dust cut a swath across Ukraine, Belarus, and up into Scandinavia,
affecting some who never had benefi ted from the power plant but nonetheless shared in its risks.
The human toll was immediate. Several people working at the plant were killed outright, and
another 31 fi refi ghters died in the cleanup process from acute radiation sickness, a topic we
examine in a later section. An estimated 250 million people were exposed to levels of radiation
that ultimately may shorten their lives. Included in this figure are 200,000 “liquidators,” people
who buried the most hazardous wastes and constructed a 10-story concrete structure (“the
sarcophagus”) to surround the failed reactor. One of the particularly hazardous radioisotopes
released was iodine-131. It is a
beta emitter with an accompanying gamma ray.

If ingested, I-131 can cause thyroid cancer. In the contaminated area near Chernobyl, the
incidence of thyroid cancer increased sharply, especially for those younger than age 15 (Figure
7.15). As of 2001, more than 700 children in Belarus, a neighboring country, were treated for
thyroid cancer. Fortunately, with treatment, the survival rate for thyroid cancer is high and most
have survived. As Dr. Akira Sugenoya, a Japanese physician who volunteered his expertise in
Belarus to treat the children suffering from thyroid cancer, remarked “The last chapter of the
terrible accident is far
from written.”