Nuclear Power - Final Thoughts

To conclude my section on Nuclear Power I wanted to do a brief summary of the threats and opportunities it presents. More detail and references to relevant information on each aspect can be found in previous posts, this is just a quick conclusion!

Opportunities

• Reliable and continuous form of energy
• Ongoing research to improve the safety and efficiency of the process
• Offers energy security and independence for many countries
• Low carbon technology compared  to fossil fuels
• Public perception

Threats

• Very expensive technology and decommissioning costs
• Safe disposal of radioactive waste
• Risk of fallout after accidents or natural hazards
• Taking focus from renewable energy
• Public perception

I have deliberately put public perception in both opportunities and threats. A wealth of research suggests that a lot of the general public are very opposed to nuclear power, largely for concerns over safety. After disasters such as Fukushima and Chernobyl this isn't overly surprising (Macilwain, Nature, 2011). However, the ultimate challenge nuclear power has to overcome is the cost. A study by MIT in 2003 and again in 2009 showed that the cost of building a nuclear power plant had doubled in just five years from $2000/kW to $4000/kW (Du and Parsons, CEEPR, 2009). These units represent the price per kilowatt hour to build a new rector. The price of oil and gas power plants has also increased though not as rapidly. 

The increasing cost of nuclear reactors is set to increase due to material costs, safety improvements and uranium costs. Ultimately this increasing cost will eventually make nuclear power unprofitable as a energy source over the next 50-100 years (European Parliament Conference). 

My final thought, living in a country that never experiences devastating earthquakes it is difficult to imagine the reaction to the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant disaster. This week the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction commemorated its work with Japan by hosting a symposium on the disaster with representatives from UCL and Tohoku University. Attending the symposium helped me understand this a little more and I wanted to finish with a map of the world showing nuclear power plants and seismic activity. The devastation after Fukushima really makes you question if nuclear power is worth it.

Worldwide nuclear power plants and earthquake zones - courtesy of MAPTD 2013

Blue dots - The location of 248 atomic energy plants, including numbers of reactors
Heatmap - Every earthquake after 1973 with a magnitude over 4.5. Around 173,000 in total