If you can understand chocolate you can understand nuclear power

when you switch on a light

how do you feel every time i switch on a

light

it works i’m grateful i have electricity

whenever i wanted

but i also feel

disappointed this is because where i

live

most of the electricity comes from

burning fossil fuels coal

mostly as someone that cares deeply

about climate change and the environment

this is concerning have you

ever stopped to think about where your

electricity comes from

in some parts of the world a person can

turn on all the lights in their house

and the climate change impact would be

similar to me

turning on a single light this is

because their electricity

is coming from low carbon sources not

from burning fossil fuels

right now the two leading sources of low

carbon electricity in the world are

can you guess they are number one

hydropower and number two nuclear power

according to the bp statistical review

of world energy 2020

about 70 percent of the world’s low

carbon electricity

is made from hydropower and nuclear

power

the remainder is from renewable

technologies

wind solar and others

hydro power is a fantastic technology

especially in places where there’s lots

of water

like tasmania

australia in general is very very dry

there’s not much water to go around

it isn’t an option for many parts of

australia

how about nuclear power

countries like the united kingdom france

canada and the united states all use

nuclear to make

some of their electricity australia

doesn’t have any nuclear power

but that could change in the future just

imagine

for a second that australia decided to

use nuclear power to make

some of its electricity i know exactly

what you’re thinking

if we developed nuclear power would

australians start to glow in the dark

i’ve been working in the field of

nuclear science and technology for over

a decade

i talk to people that work at nuclear

power plants

they don’t glow i also talk to people

that don’t work in nuclear

and sometimes people tell me that they

think nuclear power is an

old and outdated technology this

couldn’t be further from the truth the

reality is the nuclear industry is

evolving and

innovating and i’ve seen this

transformation with my own eyes

i’m excited by what’s happening around

the world right now in terms of new

nuclear power technologies and i’m even

more excited by what’s planned for

the future today i want to take you on a

journey

i want to show you how some of these

nuclear power innovations work

with the help of chocolate

this brand was on sale last week so

we’ll use it today

but any brand works first

what is nuclear power let’s compare it

to a chocolate bar

this chocolate bar is made up of the

chocolate and

the wrapper the chocolate is like

nuclear fuel

which is made of uranium just a reminder

that it is never a good idea to eat

uranium but for the purposes of

understanding nuclear power

pretend the chocolate is uranium

the wrapper is like the largest

structure that holds the uranium

together

if you put a whole heap of chocolate

bars nuclear fuel together

with some other components you have

yourself

a nuclear reactor

nuclear power is the energy that comes

from a nuclear reactor

nuclear reactors can either be running

or switched off

so what happens when a nuclear reactor

is running

the uranium atoms within the fuel the

chocolate

start splitting and this creates

heat but we don’t want our chocolate to

melt

we want to be able to eat solid

chocolate not melted chocolate

keeping chocolate nice and solid is also

important for the safety of reactors

the uranium atoms split this makes heat

but we don’t want the chocolate to melt

so what do we do

we run some cool water past the

chocolate bars

as the cool water meets the hot

chocolate bars

it takes the heat away and cools the

chocolate down

the now hot water goes off and makes

steam

this steamed herds a turbine and voila

electricity unlike some other forms of

low carbon electricity

what’s really really amazing about

nuclear power is that nuclear reactors

can operate

continuously for many months or even

years

at a time and all with zero

carbon emissions that’s right zero

carbon emissions we’ve talked about what

happens when a nuclear reactor is

running

how about when it’s been switched off

when they’re switched off the reactors

continue to generate

heat so they still need to be cooled

with water

not forever just until the chocolate is

cool enough to no longer need the water

so that’s how nuclear reactors work the

design of both the

nuclear fuel and the cooling is really

important

so how exactly is the nuclear industry

innovating

in the areas of fuel and cooling

let’s begin with the past

most of the hundreds of reactors in use

today were designed and constructed

between the 1960s

to the 1990s when i was young

when i started visiting nuclear power

plants about a decade ago

this was the type of reactor i was

seeing

one characteristic of these reactors

from the 20th century

is they keep the fuel cool after the

reactor’s been switched off

by using pumps to circulate the water

this would be similar to you leaving a

chocolate bar

in your car on a hot summer’s day and

using the car’s

air conditioning to keep the chocolate

cool

if the air conditioner stops working or

someone turns off the car

there could be a messy melted chocolate

bar incident

i’m sure most of you have experienced

what happens to chocolate that’s been

left in a hot car

these types of reactors from the 20th

century that pump

water for cooling have very very

reliable cooling systems

that are tested frequently nevertheless

nuclear professionals are always looking

for ways to further improve

nuclear reactors are reactors from the

20th century safe you might ask

for example if you go to the our world

in data website

and search for what are the safest and

cleanest

sources of energy you may be surprised

when nuclear power

ranks safety statistics for nuclear

power are way better

than for fossil fuels and similar to

those for other

low carbon electricity sources

you may also be surprised to learn that

many countries are choosing to make

their 20th century nuclear reactors

operate for longer than originally

planned

this is because using existing nuclear

plants for longer

is one of the most affordable ways to

provide safe and reliable electricity

with zero carbon emissions

so nuclear power from the 20th century

already performs well in terms of safety

this doesn’t mean that improvements

should not be investigated

and this is exactly what’s happening in

recent years

my nuclear passion has taken me to see a

new kind of reactor

for these new reactors once they’re

turned off

the air conditioning kicks in but if

something happens to the air

conditioning

there’s a backup system this backup

system doesn’t need people

and it doesn’t need to be powered

it involves circulating water without

pumps

no pumps required it’s a bit like using

an esky packed with ice

to keep your chocolate cool for days in

a hot car

while the air conditioning is being

turned back on

many of the 50 or so reactors under

construction today

and the hundreds more planned or

proposed fit this category

should there be a problem with the

cooling system the unpowered backup

system will maintain

solid chocolate for much longer great

innovation

but what about the future what

innovations are under development

imagine if there was a kind of chocolate

that could survive hotter temperatures

than the more traditional kind of

chocolate this would mean the chocolate

would survive on hotter days

this kind of chocolate nuclear fuel

should be deployed

in the near future but wait there’s more

imagine if you could leave the chocolate

in a car and no matter how hot it got

it still wouldn’t melt into a pile of

liquid mush

the next generation of nuclear fuel is

being designed to tolerate

extreme conditions this means

much less melted chocolate these aren’t

the only innovations taking place in the

nuclear industry

there’s lots more examples one that’s

really relevant to australia

is the introduction of smaller models

small reactors are like the fun sized

chocolates of the reactor world

these small reactors will be suitable

for things like

remote communities mine sites and

the australian electricity grid and

there’s a lot that nuclear power can do

beyond just making electricity things

like

producing fresh water from salt water

and

making hydrogen nuclei can help to limit

carbon emissions in many areas this is

why

current and emerging reactors are being

embraced

by many countries as part of their

climate change

goals ask yourself is nuclear power old

and outdated

or is nuclear power full of innovation

and a technology that could benefit

australia

our electricity doesn’t need to be made

from fossil fuels

we can use a range of low carbon

technologies

like hydro nuclear wind and solar

every time you switch on a light or

crack open a bar of chocolate

think of nuclear power and its potential

to help decarbonize the world

or better yet jump online to learn more

about the new

and emerging nuclear power technologies

there is so much to learn

make sure you indulge in some delicious

decadent

uranium i mean chocolate at the same

time

you