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NUCLEAR ENERGY DR MARK HO

President, Australian Nuclear Association (ANA)

OPAL: Australia’s research reactor

Source: AEMO, Integrated System Planning, 2018

Coal’s scheduled retirement

Source: AEMO 2018

NSW’s NEM Today Source MW % Capacity Factor (CF) MW x CF %

Solar 578 3.2% 0.24 139 1.8%

Coal 10,240 57.2% 0.61 6,246 81.6%

Gas 1,964 11.0% 0.21 412 5.4%

Gas (reciprocating) 166 0.9% 0.24 40 0.5%

Hydroelectric 4,250 23.7% 0.14 595 7.8%

Biomass 78 0.4% 0.24 19 0.2%

Wind 634 3.5% 0.32 203 2.7%

Total 17,910 100.0% Avg. Generation 7,654 100.0%

Constant base load power

Zero carbon production

80 - 92% capacity factor | 40 – 60+ years lifespan

What about nuclear?

Nuclear power reactors worldwide

447

reactors in total

2.5 trillion

kWh in 2018

10%

of world’s electricity

98

63

46

36 28

24

14 13 10 9

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Nuclear Power Generation

Source: IAEA, 2019. PRIS

[GW]

400 GW World capacity total

10.2% World’s electricity

80% Global av. capacity factor

Nuclear & VRE generation

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2019

VRE grid penetration

Source: IEA, 2018

Nuclear’s small environmental footprint

Land required to produce

26 terawatt hours

annually

Wind

1,010km2

Solar

607km2

Nuclear

6.5km2

Carbon intensity

France & Germany

Source: http://data.worldbank.org/topic/climate-change

Renewables or Nuclear? (Why not Renewables & Nuclear?)

Source: Fraunhofer ISE Germany, RTE France

300 units

worldwide

Pressurised water reactor

Graphics: World Nuclear Association

Uranium power density

600L of oil

800kg of coal

17million thermal units of

natural gas

7 grams

CH4

Methane O2

Oxygen CO2

Carbon Dioxide H2O

Water 9.2 eV

ENERGY

N

Free moving neutrons

177,000,000 eV

ENERGY Ba-141 + Kr-92

Barium and Krypton atoms

U-235

Radioactive uranium atom

N

Free moving neutron

Comparison COMBUSTION OF HYDROCARBONS

NUCLEAR FISSION OF URANIUM

Fuel rods and fuel bundles

Images: Rosatom

Spent fuel

Geological Storage

Source: IAEA

Alpha (helium nucleus)

Beta (electrons)

X-ray & gamma (EM waves)

Neutrons

20

1

1

5-20

Re

lati

ve

da

ma

ge

Combined measure:

Sievert (Sv)

What is Ionising Radiation?

Common measure: 1 µSv or 1 millionth of a Sievert

Eating a banana

Flying to Bali

2 weeks in Fukushima

Living in Australia 1 yr

(background dose)

CT chest scan

0.10 µSv

40 µSv

100 µSv

3,500 µSv

7,000 µSv

Radiation worker

limit (1 year)

Maximum Dose

without risk of

developing cancer

Fatal dose

20,000 µSv

100,000 µSv

4,000,000 µSv

Everyday examples

Taishan Units 1 & 2

Costs

China, Sanmen: 2 Units US $5.06 B project $2.3 M / MW

US, Vogtle: 2 Units US $19 B project $8.6 M / MW

Small modular reactors

Mitsubishi APWRTM

1700 MWe NuScaleTM 60 MWe

Smaller fuel load

Source: Worrall (2015)

60 MWe 1,100 MWe

SMRs vs 1 GW reactors

9.2 tons of uranium dioxide (UO2)

96.1 tons of uranium dioxide (UO2)

Cooling Reservoir

Source: NuScale

Passive safety. Walkaway safe.

Molten salt reactors

Terrapower (B. Gates) Molten Chloride Fast Reactor

Terrestrial Energy Integral Molten Salt Reactor

microReactors

Graphics: Los Alamos National Lab

Questions?