Sustainable Solutions: Alternatives to Fossil Fuels & Nuclear Power

1. AP Environmental Science • Mr. Grant • Lesson 96 Alternatives to Fossil Fuels & Nuclear Power

2. Objectives: • Define the terms nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. • Discuss the reasons for seeking alternatives to fossil fuels • Summarize the contributions to world energy supplies of conventional alternatives to fossil fuels • Describe nuclear energy and how it is harnessed • Outline the societal debate over nuclear power • TED - Physicist Steven Cowley is certain that nuclear fusion is the only truly sustainable solution to the fuel crisis. He explains why fusion will work -- and details the projects that he and many others have devoted their lives to, working against the clock to create a new source of energy.

3. Define the terms nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Nuclear Fission Nuclear Fusion

4. Discuss the reasons for seeking alternatives to fossil fuels. • Fossil fuels are nonrenewable resources and we are gradually depleting them. • Fossil fuel combustion causes air pollution that results in… • Environmental and health impacts. • Contributes to global climate change.

5. Alternatives to Fossil Fuels

6. Summarize the contributions to world energy supplies of conventional alternatives to fossil fuels. • Biomass provides 10% of global primary energy use... • Nuclear power provides 6.3% • Hydropower provides 2.2% • Nuclear power generates 15.2% of the world’s electricity… • Hydropower generates 16.0% • “Conventional energy alternatives” are the alternatives to fossil fuels that are most widely used... • Biomass energy • Nuclear energy • Hydroelectric power • “Conventional energy alternatives” in terms of renewability and environmental impact fall between fossil fuels and less widely used “new renewable” sources.

7. Conventional alternatives

8. Conventional alternatives provide energy

9. The U.S. relies on fossil fuels

10. Describe nuclear energy and how it is harnessed. • Nuclear power comes from converting the energy of subatomic bonds into thermal energy, using uranium isotopes. • Uranium is mined, enriched, processed into pellets and fuel rods, and used in nuclear reactors. • By controlling the reaction rate of nuclear fission, nuclear power plant engineers produce heat that powers electricity generation.

11. Nuclear Power

12. Fission releases nuclear energy

13. Nuclear energy comes from uranium

14. A typical light water reactor: fission in reactors generates electricity

15. Breeder reactors make better use of fuel

16. Fusion remains a dream

17. Outline the societal debate over nuclear power. • Advocates of “clean” energy support nuclear power because it lacks the pollutant emissions of fossil fuels. • For many people, the risk of a major nuclear power plant accident (like Chenobyl), outweighs the benefits of clean energy. • The disposal of nuclear waste remains a major dilemma… • Temporary storage and single-repository plans each involve health, security, and environmental risks. • Economic factors and costs overruns have slowed the nuclear industry’s growth.

18. Nuclear power delivers energy cleanly

19. Coal versus nuclear power

20. Coal versus nuclear power

21. Nuclear power poses small risks

22. Meltdown at Three Mile Island

23. Chernobyl was the worst accident yet

24. The Chernobyl accident The destroyed reactor was encased in a massive concrete sarcophagus to contain further leakage

25. Atmospheric currents carried radioactive fallout from Chernobyl across much of the Northern Hemisphere

26. The Fukushima Accident

27. Smaller-scale accidents have occurred

28. Waste disposal remains a problem

29. Spent fuel rods must be stored

30. U.S. power plants store tons of waste

31. Waste storage at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

32. Yucca Mountain, Nevada

33. Concerns with Yucca Mountain as a site

34. Dilemmas have slowed nuclear power’s growth

35. The future of U.S. nuclear energy