800 Years of Power From Waste:Using Uranium 238 to Power Tomorrows Nuclear Reactors

In Bellevue, Washington the start-up company TerraPower, led by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, is on a quest to use the waste from traditional nuclear plants for power generation.

TerraPower wants to produce plutonium from uranium 238 for use as fuel, and would run almost entirely on uranium 238. With a goal of being able to produce energy in the U.S. for 800 years (Wald, 2013)

The U.S. has substantial uranium reserves, holding over 6% of the world’s stockpile, making it a relatively accessible fuel.

Source: IAEA, 2009

Using Nuclear to Power the Future, What Does the Data say About Safety?

Energy Source Mortality Rate (deaths/trillion kWhr)Coal (global average) 170,000 (50% global electricity)Coal (China) 280,000 (75% China’s electricity)Coal (U.S.) 15,000 (44% U.S. electricity)Oil 36,000 (36% of energy, 8% of electricity)Natural Gas 4,000 (20% global electricity)Biofuel/Biomass 24,000 (21% global energy)Solar (rooftop) 440 (< 1% global electricity)Wind 150 (~ 1% global electricity)Hydro (global average) 1,400 (15% global electricity)Nuclear (global average) 90 (17% global electricity)

Source: Conca, 2012

TerraPower sees the potential nuclear has, having one of the lowest carbon emissions of any major energy provider. They are attempting to capitalize on its most significant drawback, spent fuel. Even with nuclear energy’s drawbacks, its safety record is hard to debate when compared to other fuel sources. The table below illustrates this point, with nuclear power having the lowest average mortality rate per kilowatt hour of any major energy source.

Mineral Extraction and Environmental Consequence

Mining of minerals allows our society to live at the level it does today. Without mining

we would not have the metals, we need for our cars and homes or the power we use to

operate these luxuries.

What other facets of society rely on mining to provide us with the goods and in turn services that we have gotten used to?

What types of mining do you think have the largest environmental impacts physically and socially?

During the Arms Race of the cold war both the United States and the Soviet Union had massive Uranium mining and enrichment operations for the production of bombs.

• Anonymous. "Europe's Biggest Mine Rehabilitation Project: Cleaning up the former Soviet uranium mining operations in eastern Germany". 1998. ENGINEERING AND MINING JOURNAL. 199 (2): 40-42.

In Eastern Germany, the “Wismut” mining operation extracted about 3,200 megatons of rock for each megaton bomb made. 2/3 of the extracted material was waste (Anonymous, 1998).

The final amount of waste produced was around 300 mega meters cubed. That is about 300 full sized football stadiums filled with radioactive material! (Anonymous, 1998).

Fortunately, the waste is being cleaned-up to the tune of 9 billion dollars. (Anonymous, 1998). Unfortunately, untold consequences to human health and the environment resulted.

The Hanford Site in Eastern Washington State was a similar operation.

Kreuzer M., Dufey F., Sogl M., Schnelzer M., and Walsh L. 2013. "External gamma radiation and mortality from cardiovascular diseases in the German WISMUT uranium miners cohort study, 1946-2008". Radiation and Environmental Biophysics. 52 (1): 37-46

~9,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease related to this mining operation.(Kreuzer, defey, sogl and Schnetzer, 2013)

Chapter 19. Sustainable CitiesDefinition:A sustainable city, or eco-city is designed with consideration of environmental impact, inhabited by people dedicated to minimization of required inputs of energy, water and food, and waste output of heat, air pollution - CO2, methane, and water pollution.

Indicators of sustainability of cities-Social and human capital (education, health, security);-Natural capital (climate and atmosphere, land, ecosystem and biodiversity, natural resources, water, waste)-Economic Capital (housing, transport and infrastructure, productivity and innovation)

Additional Reading:http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/global-site-plans-grid/249711/living-city-under-construction-nantes-pays-de-la-loire-francehttp://sustainablecitiescollective.com/global-site-plans-grid/248721/can-suburb-be-great-plano-texas-receives-best-managed-city-live-awardhttp://sustainablecitiescollective.com/food-tank/249071/how-melbourne-becoming-sustainable-thriving-food-cityhttp://www.un.org/en/sustainablefuture/cities.shtml

Figure. Design of a sustainable cityFigure. Sydney/Australia – sustainable city