Nuclear Power and the Environment

247 Pages·2011·3.061 MB·English

by  R M Harrison, R E Hester, John Walls, Francis Livens, Jim Smith, Jon Lloyd, Anthony Banford, Kath Morris, Joanna Renshaw, Brenda Howard, Jan Pentreath, Clint Sharrard, Lawrence Harwood, Richard Jarvis, Gareth Law, Richard Kimber, N D Bryan, Diana Kountcheva, Nick Beresford

Issues in Environmental Science and Technology Vol 32
Edited by R E Hester and R M Harrison
Nuclear Power and the
Environment
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Nuclear Power and the Environment
ISSUES IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
EDITORS:
R.E.Hester,UniversityofYork,UK
R.M.Harrison,UniversityofBirmingham,UK
EDITORIALADVISORYBOARD:
P.Crutzen,Max-Planck-Institutfu¨rChemie,Germany,S.J.deMora,PlymouthMarineLabora-
tory,UK,G.Eduljee,SITA,UK,L.Heathwaite,LancasterUniversity,UK,S.Holgate,University
ofSouthampton,UK,P.K.Hopke,ClarksonUniversity,USA,SirJohnHoughton,Meteorological
Office, UK, P. Leinster, Environment Agency, UK, J. Lester, Imperial College of Science,
TechnologyandMedicine,UK,P.S.Liss,SchoolofEnvironmentalSciences,UniversityofEast
Anglia, UK, D. Mackay, Trent University, Canada, A. Proctor, Food Science Department,
UniversityofArkansas,USA,D.Taylor,AstraZenecaplc,UK.
TITLESINTHESERIES:
1:MininganditsEnvironmentalImpact 17:GlobalEnvironmentalChange
2:WasteIncinerationandtheEnvironment 18:EnvironmentalandHealthImpactofSolid
3:WasteTreatmentandDisposal WasteManagementActivities
4:VolatileOrganicCompoundsinthe 19:SustainabilityandEnvironmentalImpactof
Atmosphere RenewableEnergySources
5:AgriculturalChemicalsandthe 20:TransportandtheEnvironment
Environment 21:SustainabilityinAgriculture
6:ChlorinatedOrganicMicropollutants 22:ChemicalsintheEnvironment:Assessing
7:ContaminatedLandanditsReclamation andManagingRisk
8:AirQualityManagement 23:AlternativestoAnimalTesting
9:RiskAssessmentandRiskManagement 24:Nanotechnology
10:AirPollutionandHealth 25:BiodiversityUnderThreat
11:EnvironmentalImpactofPower 26:EnvironmentalForensics
Generation 27:ElectronicWasteManagement
12:EndocrineDisruptingChemicals 28:AirQualityinUrbanEnvironments
13:ChemistryintheMarineEnvironment 29:CarbonCapture
14:CausesandEnvironmentalImplicationsof 30:EcosystemServices
IncreasedUV-BRadiation 31:SustainableWater
15:FoodSafetyandFoodQuality 32:NuclearPowerandtheEnvironment
16:AssessmentandReclamationof
ContaminatedLand
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ISSUES IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
EDITORS:R.E.HESTERANDR.M.HARRISON
32
Nuclear Power and the Environment
ISBN: 978-1-84973-194-2
ISSN: 1350-7583
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Preface
It is often forgotten that the human species has evolved in an environment
surroundedbynaturalsourcesofradioactivity.Thesesourcesareasdiverseas
cosmic ray particles from space, potassium-40 in igneous rocks and the
radioactive decay products of radon, a gas emanating from the land beneath
our feet. Indeed, for many people, the so-called ‘‘radon daughters’’ pose the
largest health risk incurred by breathing air indoors. However, in the public
mind, artificial radioactivity is far more important, and since the cessation of
atmospheric nuclear weapon testing this is primarily the radiation associated
withthenuclearfuelcycle.Thishasalreadycausedmajorpollutionissuesand
continues to have the potential to do so, unless handled with great compe-
tence. The early years of nuclear power saw great enthusiasm for building
nuclear power stations stimulated by lavish but unfulfilled promises of cheap
electricity for all. This was followed by a period of disillusionment as the true
costsofbuildingnuclearpowerstations,generatingthepowerandsubsequent
decommissioning became fully recognised, and the majority of investment
went into fossil fuel sources of power. However, recent years have seen an
increasing acceptance by politicians and the general public of the inevitability
of damaging levels of climate change unless greenhouse gas emissions are
curbed, and one of the few effective ways of doing so is through the adoption
of nuclear power as a primary means of energy generation.
This volume is designed to provide an overview of some of the most
important aspects of this field of science. In the first chapter, John Walls
maps the technical and societal context in which nuclear power has existed
since the first construction of experimental reactors. This serves to highlight
many of the important issues which are taken up in later chapters, including
issues such as the availability of uranium as a nuclear fuel, the consequences
of fuel reprocessing, the economics of power generation and the costs of
decommissioning. Other issues not explored elsewhere in depth within the
volume, such as public attitudes to nuclear power, are also touched upon.
The issue of nuclear fuel cycles and their by-products and consequences
IssuesinEnvironmentalScienceandTechnology,32
NuclearPowerandtheEnvironment
EditedbyR.E.HesterandR.M.Harrison
rRoyalSocietyofChemistry2011
PublishedbytheRoyalSocietyofChemistry,www.rsc.org
v
vi Preface
for the environment are expanded upon in the second chapter by Francis
Livens, Clint Sharrad and Laurence Harwood. In particular, this chapter
highlights the limitations posed by the availability of uranium as a fuel,
and the advantages and disadvantages of fuel reprocessing. The latter was
developed originally largely to generate plutonium for military purposes
but has gained a rather poor reputation because of discharges to the
environment, and most countries now plan to store rather than reprocess
spent fuel.
One of the major drivers of public opinion on nuclear power is the
occurrenceofnuclearaccidents.Some,such as Windscale,ThreeMile Island
and Chernobyl, are well known to all but others occurring in the former
Soviet Union were kept secret from the general public, yet have generated
contamination which persists to this day. In the third chapter, Jim Smith
describes the causes and implications of these accidents and puts the topic
into context. Both major and minor accidents and planned releases of
radioactive materials have led to land contamination and have generated
low-level wastes which need to be stored safely. In the fourth chapter, Jon
Lloyd, Francis Livens and Rick Kimber outline the issues raised by such
contamination and describe some of the consequences and the available
remediation techniques. Perhaps the greatest Achilles’ heal of nuclear power
generation isthefact thatdecommissioning of nuclear sites is required at the
end of their active life, although interim ‘‘storage’’ may be used to allow
cooling of the radioactivity by decay of the shorter-lived radionuclides. In
Chapter 5, Anthony Banford and Richard Jarvis describe the legacy of
contaminated nuclear sites and the approaches taken towards decontami-
nation, and their positive and negative attributes.
The sixth chapter, by Katherine Morris, Gareth Law and Nick Bryan,
deals with the geological disposal of higher activity wastes. This is currently
a topical issue for many countries who have declared policies of con-
structing deep geological repositories for high and intermediate level waste
with a view to safe storage on a timescale of at least a million years. The
many considerations which go into the siting and design of such a reposi-
tory are considered in this chapter. In the seventh chapter, by Joanna
Renshaw, Stephanie Handley-Sidhu and Diana Brookshaw, the pathways of
radioactive substances in the environment are described. This highlights
how the chemistry of the actinides and fission products determines their
behaviour in the environment which, in turn, influences their mobility and
ultimate potential to cause exposure of humans and other biota. Chapter 8,
by Brenda Howard and Nick Beresford, describes how radioactive sub-
stances translocate into biological organisms and the resultant dosimetry,
and in Chapter 9, Richard (Jan) Pentreath describes the human con-
sequences of exposure to environmental radioactivity. For many years,
radiological protection was based upon the concept that measures adequate
to protect human health would also be protective of the non-human biota.
This paradigm has now shifted to one in which assessments are made of the
Preface vii
dose to representative animals and plants and the likely consequences of
those doses.
Overall, the volume provides a selective but broad overview of current
issues in this long-standing but increasingly topical field, which we believe
will be of immediate and lasting value, not only to practitioners in gov-
ernment, consultancy and industry but also to environmentalists, policy-
makers and students taking courses in environmental science, engineering
and management.
After the receipt of chapters from authors but before proof correction, the
Japanese tsunami caused damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant which
went into partial meltdown. At the time of production of this volume this
situation was continuing with very little definitive information available.
Where possible, authors have included this in their chapters but it is clear
that a more complete view of the incident will only emerge well after the
production of this book.
Ronald E. Hester
Roy M. Harrison

Contents
Nuclear Power Generation – Past, Present and Future 1
John Walls
1 Introduction 2
2 Origins of Nuclear Power: The Nuclear Weapons Programme 2
3 Expansion of Nuclear Power 7
4 A Period of Decline 12
5 A Nuclear Renaissance? Possibilities and Challenges 15
5.1 Uranium: A Sustainable Energy Source? 20
5.2 Nuclear Power Economics 22
5.3 Shortages in Skilled Labour and Materials 25
5.4 Nuclear Safety 26
5.5 Nuclear Waste Disposal and Decommissioning
Nuclear Plants 28
5.6 Proliferation Risks 31
6 Conclusions 33
References 34
Nuclear Fuel Cycles: Interfaces with the Environment 40
Clint A. Sharrad, Laurence M. Harwood and
Francis R. Livens
1 Nuclear Fission as an Energy Resource 40
2 Nuclear Fuel 41
2.1 Uranium Mining 41
2.2 Uranium Fuel Production and Use 42
2.3 Modern Civil Reactor Fuels 43
2.3.1 Plutonium 43
2.4 Irradiation of Nuclear Fuel 44
IssuesinEnvironmentalScienceandTechnology,32
NuclearPowerandtheEnvironment
EditedbyR.E.HesterandR.M.Harrison
rRoyalSocietyofChemistry2011
PublishedbytheRoyalSocietyofChemistry,www.rsc.org
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