Nuclear Energy

Nuclear power, an important source of electricity, can be obtained by two types of nuclear reaction: nuclear fission, the splitting of the nuclei of atoms; and nuclear fusion, the uniting of the nuclei of atoms. Both types of nuclear reactions release huge amounts of energy. Nuclear power plants are able to produce energy by splitting uranium or plutonium atoms in controlled fission reactions, using a device called a nuclear reactor. The heat energy released from the nuclear fission is captured and used to generate electricity. In 2007, there were 435 nuclear power plants in operation worldwide and 37 plants under construction. Nuclear power provided about 17 percent of the world's electricity.

The United States had 104 operating nuclear power plants in 2007, the most of any country in the world. However, public concern over safety issues brought the construction of new nuclear power plants to a virtual halt. Besides the possibility of accidents occurring in nuclear plants, Americans were concerned that other countries might use nuclear power plants, materials, technology, and knowledge to secretly develop nuclear weapons.

U.S. historical background

In 1954, the U.S. government authorized private ownership of nuclear reactors, paving the way for utility companies to build nuclear power plants. There were fears early on, mainly because most Americans’ sole experience of nuclear power had been the devastating atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, near the end of World War II (1939–45), which destroyed the cities, killed an estimated 150,000 people, and injured another 200,000 or more.

By the 1960s, the United States was using increasing amounts of electrical energy produced by burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, which created air pollution. Despite safety fears, many people came to support the idea of building nuclear energy plants, which promised to provide cheaper and cleaner energy.

Energy shortage

In 1973 and 1974, countries in the Middle East, the largest supplier of oil to the United States, took part in an oil embargo—a refusal to ship their oil to countries that supported Israel in its conflicts with other nations in the Middle East. The embargo resulted in severe shortages of electricity, gasoline, and heating oil in the United States. Factories and schools shut down, commercial airlines cancelled flights, and long lines at gas stations frustrated drivers. The embargo made it clear that the United States depended too heavily on other countries for its energy.

The energy shortage was made worse by the extravagant quantities of oil the United States was consuming. Few U.S.-made cars got more than 10 miles to the gallon, and homes and businesses were poorly insulated and inefficiently designed, and therefore extremely costly to heat or cool.

Utility companies, foreseeing the coming energy shortage, had prepared by constructing nuclear reactors. By 1973, there were twenty-seven functioning reactors in the United States, providing about 5 percent of the nation's power. More than a hundred more plants were in development, though many of these were never built.

Safety issues

Safety remained a pressing issue with nuclear energy. During the 1970s, fires at several different nuclear reactors underscored the potential for a disastrous accident. In 1975, the Union of Concerned Scientists presented

the White House with a petition signed by two thousand scientists that called for a reduction in the construction of nuclear facilities due to safety issues. Environmental groups challenged the construction of nuclear projects, delaying them and driving up their start-up costs by demanding extensive safety precautions.

In spring 1979 an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania , resulted in a partial core meltdown. A meltdown in a nuclear reactor is an accident that impedes the cooling of the reactor's core. Without proper cooling, the radioactive fuel (material that gives out harmful radiation) inside the reactor begins to overheat and melt. If it gets hot enough, under certain circumstances the radioactive fuel could escape in liquid form into the environment, causing untold injury to humans and other life forms. Fortunately, no one was injured at Three Mile Island, but the accident terrified the public and placed the future of the nuclear industry in jeopardy.

Chernobyl

On April 26, 1986, one of four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the Ukraine exploded. Engineers there accidentally had started an uncontrolled chain reaction in the reactor's core during an unauthorized test. They also had unlawfully turned off the reactor's emergency systems. The reactor exploded with such force that the roof of the building was completely blown off. Eight tons of radioactive materials were scattered about the region immediately surrounding the plant. Airborne radioactivity from the blast rained down on northern Europe. Fallout contaminating farm produce was measured as far away as Scotland. In the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe, more than thirty people lost their lives. Moreover, an estimated twenty thousand more people would eventually die as a result of their exposure to radiation, which can cause cancer and other serious health problems.

Supporters of nuclear energy argued that the accident had little to do with U.S. nuclear systems. The United States did not use the same kind of technology that had been employed at Chernobyl. Furthermore, the Chernobyl reactor lacked a containment building—a safety component required for all U.S. reactors. Nevertheless, many Americans remained uneasy, noting that operator error and equipment failure were always possible. In the nuclear industry, it seemed, the consequences of a single major mistake could be catastrophic.

Anti-nuke movement

During the 1980s, scores of “anti-nuke” organizations warned of the hazards of nuclear energy and protested plant construction and operation. In Seabrook, New Hampshire , protesters rallied to oppose the building of two nuclear reactors. By 1987, the utility that owned Seabrook was near financial collapse, in part due to the safety precautions that the protesters demanded. Many other nuclear facilities under construction at that time were shut down before they had even opened, largely due to the excessive costs.

Nuclear waste disposal

Another problem the industry faced was the disposal of nuclear waste, the radioactive products of nuclear fission. Some parts of nuclear waste can remain hazardous for thousands of years, so it must be kept well out of contact with any living environment. In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which called upon the Department of Energy to find a suitable site to bury radioactive waste. But as the United States proposed disposal sites for the waste in the 1980s, local communities raised an uproar.

Ongoing research brought about many new ways to treat nuclear waste. Before it is stored, much nuclear waste today is put through processes that stabilize it into a form that will not decay for many years. There are nuclear-waste disposal sites throughout the world. Research continues to seek the best ways to dispose of nuclear waste.

Besides safety factors, nuclear waste poses a problem because it can be used to create certain types of nuclear weapons, such as the “dirty bomb.” A dirty bomb is a crude nuclear device created from radioactive nuclear waste material and conventional explosives that can be set off to spread radioactive material in a targeted area. One of the key factors in nuclear waste storage is making sure it is not possible for enemies to raid the storage site for material to build weapons that can be used against the United States or its allies.

Regulating nuclear weapons development

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union entered into an arms race, with both sides developing thousands of nuclear weapons. During this arms race, in the early 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969; served 1953–61) decided to try to separate the development of nuclear energy from the development of nuclear weapons. In an address delivered before the United Nations in 1953, he outlined his “Atoms for Peace” proposal to extend the benefits of nuclear technology to all countries in return for their guarantees that such assistance would be used for peaceful purposes only.

In 1957, the United Nations created the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to accelerate the development of nuclear energy throughout the world. The IAEA helps its member countries acquire the necessary skills and materials to share in the benefits of nuclear power.

One of IAEA's objectives is to ensure that the materials, services, equipment, facilities, and information that the IAEA makes available for nuclear energy plants are not used for military purposes.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which was passed by the United Nations in 1968 and came into force in 1970, greatly aided the task of the IAEA. Under the NPT, states without nuclear weapons agreed to accept IAEA safeguards on all their peaceful nuclear activities. These safeguards include detection of the removal of significant quantities of nuclear material from nuclear energy plants for the possible manufacture of nuclear weapons. To ensure that this does not happen, nuclear plants are required to provide strict accounting and reporting in connection with nuclear materials.

The NPT did not impose this reporting duty on countries that already have nuclear weapons, but the United States voluntarily offered to allow its nuclear facilities to be overseen by the IAEA. Other countries followed suit, and today the IAEA applies its safeguards under voluntary agreements to China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom as well as the United States.

Secret nuclear programs

Secret nuclear weapons development was discovered in places such as Iraq and North Korea during the 1990s. By mid-1997, the IAEA could provide the international community with early warning about the possible removal of nuclear materials from energy plants for weapons purposes. Still, the organization relies on the international community to force nations to comply.

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the IAEA approved a plan to upgrade worldwide protection against acts of terrorism involving nuclear and other radioactive materials.

In the early 2000s, Iran's ambitious plans to construct nuclear power plants raised concerns in the international community about the country's possible plans to produce nuclear weapons.

The future of nuclear power

In the United States in 2007, the issue of constructing more nuclear power facilities remained at a standstill. Proponents argued that construction of new plants should be undertaken to meet growing electricity demands. Coal-fired plants presently produce most of the world's electricity, but release air pollution and greenhouse gases (gases, such as carbon dioxide, ozone, or water vapor, that contribute to the warming of the Earth's atmosphere by reflecting radiation from the Earth's surface). Nuclear power, its advocates argue, does not release these substances.

Opponents of nuclear power respond that greater reductions in air pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions could be achieved by spending the same money on nonnuclear technologies such as efficiency improvements and renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. They also argue that a massive increase in the number of nuclear power plants will bring increased risks of nuclear accidents and of introducing nuclear weapons to countries that do not have them yet.