As the world grapples with a climate emergency caused by CO2 emissions from large-scale burning of fossil fuels, interest in nuclear power, especially in the new generation of small modular reactors, is growing.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast in its Sixth Assessment Report, published August 9, that the average global air temperature could rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040 from pre-industrial emissions.
According to the Paris Agreement of 2015, all countries are required to set targets to meet the 1.5 degree Celsius limit and work towards a CO2 neutral target by offering alternatives to coal, oil, natural gas and other fossil fuels Find.
Of the many alternatives, small modular reactors – defined by the International Atomic Energy Association as nuclear reactors with a capacity of 300 megawatts or less (conventional reactors produce 1,000 megawatts or more) – that have a minimal ecological footprint. In addition, they take up significantly less space than conventional power plants or wind and solar parks that produce renewable energy.
Nanda Kumar Janardhanan, who teaches energy studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and is operations coordinator in South Asia for the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan, says that “unlike traditional large nuclear power plants that can last a decade or more” to “Small reactors can be built and commissioned in a fraction of that time” because they are small enough to be manufactured in a factory and transported to the site.
“Countries in need of clean energy supplies may be able to use small modular reactors as an alternative to reliance on polluting thermal energy. This is one of the direct benefits it offers for climate protection, ”says Janardhanan. As the demand for hydrogen as a fuel for transportation and industry grows, small modular reactors could also provide the energy needed to produce hydrogen, he adds.
“Despite these advantages, the broader use of small modular reactors will require a transformative change in safety measures in order to increase public trust and gain acceptance,” says Janardhanan, referring to disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, “which have led to anti-nuclear perceptions” . between certain societies or people ”.
Role of the nuclear industry
Nuclear power offers an opportunity to get closer to the goals of the Paris Agreement, says the World Nuclear Association (WNA). A white paper published by WNA on May 27 suggests that fear of risks associated with nuclear energy has led to fossil fuel adoption, despite causing millions of premature deaths from air pollution and contributing to climate change.
In response to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, WNA Director General Sama Bilbao y León reiterated in the White Paper a call for governments, regulators and industry to work together to accelerate the rollout of new nuclear projects, including small modular reactors, in order to achieve rapid decarbonization support.
Karthik Ganesan, Fellow and Research Director of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water in New Delhi, says Asia is a region where nuclear power is growing. “Developing Asia (China, India) and developed Asia (Korea and Japan), which already manage large civilian nuclear programs, need to continue investing in small modular reactor technology,” says Ganesan.
“But for the concept of small modular reactors to be successful in Asia, it must meet the primary requirements for increased safety, simplicity in construction and operation and be economically comparable to conventional nuclear power plants,” says Ganesan.
“Mankind has no time to invest in small modular reactors – the climate problem is urgent,” says MV Ramana, a physicist at Princeton University’s Nuclear Futures Laboratory who studies nuclear energy in the context of climate change and nuclear disarmament.
“Whole supply chains would have to be built after the first small modular reactors have been built, tested and tried out,” Ramana told SciDev.Net. “There is no realistic prospect that it can significantly reduce the need for a quick transition to a carbon-free electricity system.”
In a paper published in July in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Ramana argues that nuclear reactors, which generate enough electricity to help protect the climate, require complex technologies to control reactions and deal with products of radioactive fission.
Multiplication Risks
Ramana is also concerned that since small and medium reactor projects typically involve clusters of multiple small reactor modules, there is an increased risk of nuclear proliferation.
“Every reactor is a potential source of plutonium or enriched uranium or both – the more nuclear reactors, the greater the potential for making nuclear weapons. Anyone with access to these materials is much closer to a nuclear weapon, ”he says.
Like their larger counterparts, small modular reactors will also produce radioactive nuclear waste, the safe disposal of which has yet to be resolved in a satisfactory manner. Ramana’s paper says the US Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 allowed a deep geological spill to run through 1998, but the US government continues to pay billions in fines for not dealing with spent fuel.
Such concerns have not stopped the development of small modular reactors. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), over 70 SMR designs are either under construction or in development in 18 countries.
The world’s first small modular reactor plant in the remote Chukotka region of Russia has been in operation since December 2019, while Argentina is developing a 25-megawatt plant intended for small grids, according to the IAEA. A small modular reactor plant in Shidao Bay, China, is scheduled to go into operation in 2021. *
India, which has an advanced nuclear power program with an installed capacity of 7,480 megawatts, plans to develop small modular reactors based in part on its huge thorium reserves of nuclear energy, according to Sunil Ganju, a member of the Indian ministry’s nuclear control and planning wing.
In a webinar on small modular reactors hosted by India Energy Forum in February, Ganju said a 500-megawatt prototype fast breeder reactor being developed in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu state, could be classified as a small reactor.
The advantage of nuclear power, according to Janardhanan, is that it is a mature technology with a proven investment history of millions of hours of research. “The fact that there is hardly any other mature technology makes it important for a clean energy supply.”
This article was originally published on SciDev.Net. read this original article.
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