• Nuclear power can come from the fission of uranium, plutonium or thorium or the fusion of hydrogen into helium.
• The basic energy fact is that the fission of an atom of uranium produces 10 million times the energy produced by the combustion of an atom of carbon from coal.
o The fission produces two fission fragments and other particles that fly off at high velocity. When they stop the kinetic energy is converted to heat producing10 million times as much heat as is produced by burning an atom of the carbon in coal.
• Nuclear Power Plants generate about 20 percent of the U.S. electricity. (There are also a large number of naval power reactors.)
• For how long will nuclear power be available? Present reactors that use only the U-235 in natural uranium are very likely good for some hundreds of years.
o Thorium, which is three times as abundant as uranium can also be used in reactors.
• After about two years in a reactor, enough of the U-235 has been converted to fission products and the fission products have built up enough so that the fuel rods must be removed and replaced by new ones.
• Spent/used fuel rods contain some plutonium produced by the U-238 in the reactor absorbing a neutron. This plutonium and leftover uranium can be separated in a reprocessing plant and used as reactor fuel. The Japanese are doing this
• How much plutonium is produced?
o In terms of nuclear fuel, about 1/4 as much as the U-235 that was in the fuel rods in the first place. Thus running a reactor for four years produces enough plutonium to run it for one more year provided the plutonium is extracted and put into new fuel rods.

• What about nuclear waste?
o The reactor is then refueled by replacing about 1/3 of the fuel rods. This generally takes one or two months. Entergy Nuclear (Owners of Indian Point Power Plant) is an enthusiastic buyer and operator of American nuclear power plants and has been reducing this time for their plants. They refueled their River Bend plant in Louisiana in 17 days and expect to reduce their average refueling outage time to two-three weeks.]
o When fuel rods are removed from the reactor they contain large quantities of highly radioactive fission products and are generating heat at a high rate.
They are then put in a large tank of water about the size of a swimming pool. There they become less radioactive as the more highly radioactive isotopes decay and also generate less and less heat.
o The fuel rods should then be chemically reprocessed.
Reprocessing removes any leftover uranium and the plutonium that has been formed. The U.S. shut down its reprocessing plant during the 1970s and hasn't replaced it.
o The U.S. plan is to store the waste in Nevada in the same area as has been used for underground nuclear tests. This plan is still tied up in long term indecision.
A big step forward was taken in 2002 when the President signed a bill to over-rule the objections of the State of Nevada.
Why isn’t the US reprocessing?
o The Carter Administration decided not to reprocess nominally on the grounds that if other countries could be persuaded not to reprocess, the likelihood of nuclear proliferation would be reduced. So far as I know, not one other country has been persuaded.
You lose the economic benefit of the plutonium, the spent fuel remains radioactive longer and has to be better guarded, because it contains plutonium.
• What is a Breeder Reactor
o Breeder reactors essentially use U-238 as fuel, and there is 140 times as much of it as there is U-235.
Indeed all the enriched uranium used in nuclear reactors and all the U-235 used in nuclear weapons has been separated from U-238, and the leftover U-238 is still available.
The billion year estimates for fuel resources depend on breeder reactors.
The French built two of them, the U.S. has a small one, the British built one, the Russians built one and the Japanese are building one.
• Is Nuclear Power is more dangerous than all other power sources?
o In terms of immediate deaths at Chernobyl it was a rather small disaster. 31 people died. Cave-ins in coal mines often kill hundreds.
However, about 20 square miles of land became uninhabitable for a long time. This isn't a lot.
o The Three Mile Island accident destroyed the reactor, but the core itself remained confined. Radioactive gases were vented, but there is no accepted evidence that this harmed the public.
• What about diversion of material from power plants to countries wanting to make bombs?
o A. Every country wanting to make bombs has succeeded as far as is known. None have used material produced in power reactors.