Lecture 2 of Non-renewable Energy

● Coal
● Advantages
○ Ample supplies (225–900 years)
○ High net energy yield
○ Mining and combustion technology well developed
○ Low cost (with large subsidies)
○ Potential for future reduction of air pollution via technology
● Disadvantages
○ Very high environmental impact
○ High CO2 emissions when burned
○ Severe land disturbance, air pollution, and water pollution
○ High land use (including mining)
○ Severe threat to human health
○ Releases radioactive particles and toxic mercury into the air

● Nuclear
● Nuclear power has a low environmental impact and a very low accident risk, but
its use has been limited by:
○ A low net energy yield, high costs, fear of accidents, and long- lived
radioactive wastes
○ Its role in spreading nuclear weapons technology

● Nuclear Energy
● Energy requirements in the growing industrial and residential markets could not
be met through the increases in capacity resulting from other methods of
generation
● Nuclear power appeared to offer an ‘unlimited’ source of electrical energy
● Generating plants initially utilized uranium mined from the Canadian Shield

● Nuclear power meets more than 50 percent of Ontario's electricity needs.

Produces no emissions that lead to smog, acid rain or global warming.
● Ontario plans to deal with tonnes of nuclear waste: Bury the problem.
● Radioactive material leaked into Lake Ontario from the Pickering nuclear plant in
2011.
● Aging infrastructure.
● This thermal pollution forms a barrier which alters the aquatic balance,
changes the habitat for fish, plants, and parasites, and causes fatal heat shock in
billions of passing fish.

● Advantages
● Low environmental impact (without accidents)
● Emits 1/6 as much CO2 as coal
● Low risk of accidents in modern plants
● Disadvantages
● Very low net energy yield and high overall cost
● Produces long-lived, harmful radioactive wastes
● Promotes spread of nuclear weapons

● Low-level Radioactive Waste

● Only gives off minimal ionizing radiation
● Stored for 100–500 years to decay to safe levels
● Includes contaminated tools, building materials, clothing, etc.Managed on-site
or stored in above-ground buildings

● High-level Radioactive Waste

● No agreement about the best strategy
● Proposed methods include
○ Disposal in space
○ Burial in ice sheets
○ Dumping into subduction zones
○ Burial in ocean mud
○ Conversion into harmless materials (no known way)
○ Deep underground burial
● Deep Disposal of High-level Nuclear Wastes
● Wastes stored and guarded in one place: deep, stable, controlled access
● Possible long-term groundwater contamination
● Security and safety concerns during waste transport to the site

● What can we do with worn-out nuclear plants?

● Decommissioning options
● Dismantling
○ Is immediate dismantling safe?
● Mothball
○ Erect a barrier for 30-100 years first
● Entombment
○ 1000 year concrete encasement