Thoughts on Nuclear Power

In light of the ongoing situation in Japan many people are rethinking the safety of nuclear energy as a source of electrical power. Many fear it and many welcome it but most do not really understand it. All nuclear reactors are not created equal nor are do they all operate in same way. That they all use nuclear fission to create heat is all they have in common. Methods of capturing that heat, cooling the reactor, the types and quality of the fuels required and the internal configurations of the reactors themselves can vary greatly.

Please do not judge the entire industry by what you hear in the media. They are not explaining the differences between reactor designs and fuels at all.

Sodium cooled reactors are perhaps the most dangerous design. Liquid Sodium is used as the primary coolant and if you remember what happened in high school science when you put a small amount of sodium, a liquid metal, into a beaker of water, you get the point. Boom! This is the type of reactor that was used in Chernobyl. This was also the type of reactor that Fermi 1 in Michigan was. It suffered a partial meltdown in 1966. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium-cooled_fast_reactor

The Japanese design, along with most American designs is what is called a boiling water reactor. They are also called light water reactors. They are cheaper to build but need enriched fuel to operate. Should the water level over the fuel fall to low, that fuel will overheat and the resulting chain reaction can cause that fuel to melt and result in the "melt down" we all hear about and fear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_water_reactor

Some reactors are called pressure reactors. Like the Canadian CANDU design, the reactor core heats water in a sealed high pressure vessel and produces super heated water but not steam. This super heated water is used to heat water to generate the steam to run the generator. In this case the water coolant used is often what is know as deuterium or heavy water. This design is more expensive to build due to the heavy water, but can operate on almost any fuel, even raw unrefined uranium. It can also burn the spent fuel from boiling water reactors. Because the fuel is generally a low grade it cannot sustain a chain reaction on its own and thus will not "melt Down" as in other designs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor

I don't pretend to understand the mechanisms of the fission process but I do know that some designs are inherently more safe than others and we must strive to develop and implement the safest technologies we can find.

Nuclear power is not the answer to our energy needs but it must be a part of the equation.