Nuclear Energy: A Gift Gone Wrong
By: Abhijay Bhosale
Nuclear energy was first discovered in the 1930s by a man named Enrico Fermi after he proved that neutrons could split atoms. He created the first nuclear chain in 1942 under a stadium at the University of Chicago, also making the first nuclear reactor. Just 3 years later on June 16, 1945, J. Robert Oppenheimer would go on to say the earth-shattering quote of "I am become death, destroyer of worlds," after leading at witnessing the first explosion of the nuclear bomb. How did we manage to take one of the best energy resources, and turn it into a reincarnation of the underworld itself?
WHY EVEN TRY TO MAKE A BOMB?
Many people credit the US's Manhattan project to be the first attempt to make a nuclear bomb, but before this, we need to go back to the people the bomb was originally intended for: the Nazis. There were 2 German scientists by the names of Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, who also contributed to study of nuclear fission (the process of making nuclear energy by splitting nucleus's of atoms with neutrons) by finding the element barium, an element half the size of uranium (the primary thing that neutrons break in nuclear fission). When the German invasion of Poland started, the Reich (Nazi Government) started new ventures for weapons, one being the "uranium project," where they would try to weaponize the prospect of fission. But this still begs the question, how did the US get ahold of the knowledge that an atomic bomb could be made? That credit goes to one of the greatest scientific minds in history. Albert Einstein. He and another scientist wrote a letter to American President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Everything after that happened quickly. The German nuclear facility gets sabotaged, the Manhattan Project gets created to make a nuclear bomb, and within 3 short years, the first bomb drops on Hiroshima, Imperial Japan.
Now the difference between Otto Hahn and Enrico Fermi is this: Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission, while Enrico Fermi discovered nuclear energy, which is based off of fission. Under the rule of the Nazis, nuclear power got off to a bad start when it was immediately deemed a weapon (fission). But under the stadium at the University of Chicago, they made a stable reactor whose ideas would go on to be a power plant (energy). Nuclear energy could have been an energy source and seen as beautiful and clean, but in hindsight it was better to see the worst it could to before trying to contain it.
IF NUCLEAR ENERGY IS GOOD, WHY DON'T WE USE IT?
Part 1: Humans
There are 2 main things. Humans and fear. Many people still remember Chernobyl, some Fukushima, even fewer 3-Mile-Island. But all of these had 1 thing in common. Human failure.
In Chernobyl the main cause was human error. Chernobyl melt-downed because of a testing failure. The test in question was a test to see if the cooling of the reactors could continue in a power cut. The same test had been attempted the previous year, but it didn't work as a result of power falling to quickly. Even then, no casualties, no radiation. This new test would have new voltage regulators. This brings us to the first human mishap, failure of communication. There was a discrepancy between the test programme and the rest of the operating personnel meant that there were less safety measures than required. This meant that the ECCs (Emergency [Reactor] Core Cooling Systems) were turned off. Later, during the test, one of the electrician techs said that the low power that the grid had was too low, and requested to stop at that power level. The lead ignored him and continued with the test. Human mishap #2. After a supposed operational error, the power of the plant got too low. Instead of the 700-1000 MWt (megawatts) it had to be tested at it had descended to 30 MWt. The lead ordered to raise power, which was hindered by xenox poisoning (an element called Xenox-135 is a neutron absorber that gets created when Iodine-135 in the reactor gets decayed). After finally reaching 200 MWt, the reactor stabilized.
Unbeknownst to the operators, the operating reactivity margin of 15 rods (rods that are used to control the power of a nuclear power plant) had been exceeded. At 200 MWt, it was decided to continue testing. The cooling pump was switched into the right hand cooling circuit (part of test procedure) but while doing so broke the pump's limits. Even though policy required at least 15 rods (they had 8 now), they still made the decision to continue with the test and shut down the emergency stop valves and started the actual test. Another. Human. Error. All of these mistakes added up, cooling pumps broke, power skyrocketed, and it kept on rising and rising until it was fully out of control and... BANG! Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant had exploded. In the end, it was the machinery that failed, but the ill decisions that caused it.
IF NUCLEAR ENERGY IS GOOD, WHY DON'T WE USE IT?
Part 2: Fear
The second reason why people don't want to use nuclear energy is fear. We've all seen radiation do horrible things like burning flesh, destroying brain cells, and causing cancer, but these don't happen too often. X-Rays use radiation, as do normal smartphones. They have been suspected of causing diseases, but there's no hard proof. From everything to real-life genetic mutations to comic books saying Spider-Man got bitten by a radioactive spider, most people think that radiation=bad, and if nuclear power = radiation, nuclear power = bad. People fear living close a nuclear power plant will mean they'll grow some genetic mutations or their kids will inherit that, so there are many protesters who are against nuclear energy. The previous section above this one is also a big fear of people against nuclear power plants. How are they confident about putting their lives into these people each day? Well... they're not. There's always risks, but in Chernobyl for example, the crew was undertrained and even then ignored their training to go along with the test. Soviet infrastructure wasn't exactly the peak of civilization. People think of nuclear reactors of nuclear bombs that are just barely being kept from exploding. That's far from the truth. Nuclear power plants are well designed and safe. Workers there aren't subject to harmful radiation levels, as they work far away from the multi-barricaded reactor.
Another thing is that not only is a part of the public afraid of nuclear power plants but also companies. Worldwide, there are over 8,500 coal plants, and that means a LOT of coal is needed. If these coal plants are replaced with nuclear power plants, where will these coal distributors go. Luckily for them though, with their money, bribing and lobbying are easy for them. They can bribe politicians into being non-nuclear and can try and force companies to stop expanding with lobbying. From the accumulative ~2000 GW (Gigawatts) from coal plants, each one produces about 0.235 GW. Take that compared to 437 nuclear power plants that produce a collective 393 GW, or about 0.899 GW per plant. Storing toxic waste in airtight containers sure seems better than just pumping out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Another reason is nuclear bombs. Having a nuclear power plant could just as easily become a nuclear bomb factory. Taking advantage of this power isn't something worth doing. Then again, how would you feel if your country was the only country that didn't have nukes? This is an Africa 2.0 conflict. When the British started trading for slaves, they exchanged then for guns. If one tribe had guns and the other didn't, who would die first. So the other tribes bought guns too. The cycle kept on growing until there was one power, but the one selling the guns was the one that profited the most. This time, you can also make the product by yourself, rather than just buying them. This is what makes nuclear energy a tool only to be put in good hands.
HOW DO WE CONVINCE PEOPLE THAT NUCLEAR ENERGY IS GOOD?
One of the main things you can do is educate people on nuclear energy, like this article. Show them how nuclear energy evil like how they think it is. Nuclear energy is beautiful, it's a gift that needs to be in control of those who don't have malicious intents. This isn't a problem for a country or a continent, but for the world. Before progressing, we need to come together. And the idea isn't fetched. One of the only times the entire world agreed to something was an environmental problem for when the ozone was breached. With a lot of convincing, a little bit of money, a ton of education, a nuclear future very well may be possible.
RESOURCES:
- nationalgeographic.com
- pbs.org
- atomicheritage.org
- aps.org
- world-nuclear.org
- blogs.wordbank.org
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