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old and outdated technology this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