Mhtgr S Term paper

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Our planet is home to over five billion people, all consuming natural resource, and most producing finished goods. From bicycles to automobiles and houses to skyscrapers, this constant production takes an immense amount of energy. Not only human energy, but electricity too. It is need to power the assembly lines that make bicycles and automobiles. It's essential to run your home appliances, and business computers, and its all produced using similar methods. You heat water to produce steam, which turns a turbine, and generates electricity. Its not quite that simple, but for the purpose of this paper it will suffice. By far the most widespread source of fuel are fossil fuels. They are still abundant, and are relatively easy to obtain. However there is one main problem with the burning of fossil fuels. It produces pollution, in the form of dirty air, polluted water, and greenhouse gasses. This pollution is one of the main causes of global warming, the impact of which has the potential to destroy the planet. It is unreasonable to ask humanity to give up electricity, but the two main problems still exist. Pollution, and an eventual exhaustion of fossil fuels. Therefore an alternative form of energy must be found. Several ideas exist. There is hydroelectric power, solar power, wind power, and nuclear energy.

Many people support the idea of alternative energy, yet there is no move to implement it as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. It is the burning process that makes fossil fuels so bad for the environment. An alternative source that does not require combustion is necessary to avert the process of global warming. Wind power and hydroelectric power both turn the turbines directly. Wind power uses windmills to turn a turbine, while hydroelectric power uses falling water. The problem with these forms of energy are that they can not be used everywhere. In order to replace fossil fuel plants the energy source must be available anywhere. Solar power, while it uses a different means of energy production, has the same problems as the other possibilities. That leaves the idea of nuclear energy.

Current nuclear reactors use water as a main means of both cooling and energy production. The water is pumped through the reactor core, heated to about 325° C, then the superheated water is pumped through a steam generator, where, through heat exchangers, a secondary loop of water is heated and converted to steam This steam drives one or more turbine generators, is condensed, and pumped back to the steam generator The secondary loop is isolated from the reactor core water and, therefore, is not radioactive. During operation, and even after shutdown, the reactor contains a large amount of radiation. Radiation emitted from the reactor during operation and from the fuel after shutdown is absorbed in thick concrete shields around the reactor and primary coolant system. Other safety features include emergency core cooling systems to prevent core overheating during malfunction of the main coolant systems and, in most countries, a large steel and concrete containment building to retain any radioactive elements that might escape in the event of a leak. These are all containment-based ways to stop radiation from leaking. If the concrete shields were to break, and the containment building was breached the radiation from the core would escape.

Current nuclear energy is not very widespread for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the fear of an accident. It is extremely unlikely that a nuclear reactor will have an accident resulting in the release of radiation, and it is even less likely that a meltdown will occur. Although the chances of these events are slim, the results could be catastrophic. It is this fear that has stopped the progress of nuclear power.

"Although over 100 nuclear power plants were operating in the United States at the beginning of the 1980s, safety concerns and economic factors blocked any additional growth in nuclear power after the Three Mile Island accident. No orders for nuclear plants have been placed since 1978, and some plants that have been completed have not been allowed to operate. In 1990 about 20 percent of the electric power generated in the United States came from nuclear power plants whereas in France almost three-quarters of the energy being generated was from nuclear power plants." (http://linux.chs.edu.sg/~961f02/reactors.htm)

The effects of a meltdown are similar to those of a nuclear weapon. The other problem is the storage of nuclear waste material that is radioactive, and takes years to decay to a non-radioactive state. What is needed is a nuclear reactor that simply cannot meltdown and has fuel that after use is not radioactive.

In the mid 1980s General Atomics began work on a nuclear reactor for the Department of Energy that is practical for widespread use. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has realized that fossil fuels are finite, and they are "calling for 'highly reliable and less complex shutdown and...

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