Nuclear renaissance : technologies and policies for the future of nuclear power

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Author’s Notes and Acknowledgements
Glossary
Author
PART I: Introduction
	Chapter 1 Beginnings
		I.1.1 Nuclear Power’s Darkest Hour?
		I.1.2 Severe Nuclear Accidents
	Chapter 2 Nuclear Renaissance: Progress and Prospects
		I.2.1 Keeping Nuclear Power on the Agenda 2005–2015
		I.2.2 Plants Are Being Built
		I.2.3 New Difficulties (2018–2019)
		I.2.4 Europe, Middle East, and Africa
			I.2.4.1 Brexit and Brexatom
		I.2.5 A New Way Forward for Nuclear Engineering?
		I.2.6 ‘Generation IV’
		I.2.7 The Challenge and Opportunity of Deep Decarbonisation
			I.2.7.1 Civil Nuclear Marine Propulsion
		I.2.8 Hydrogen and Deep Decarbonisation
		I.2.9 Processes Heat Applications—Potential Nuclear Technologies
		References and Notes – Part 1
PART II: The Policy Landscape
	Chapter 3 Issues in Energy Policy
		II.3.1 The Energy Policy Trilemma
			II.3.1.1 Economics
			II.3.1.2 Security of Supply
			II.3.1.3 Environment
		II.3.2 Beyond the Energy Policy Triangle
	Chapter 4 Issues Facing New Nuclear Build
		II.4.1 Nuclear Power—How Does It Work?
		II.4.2 Nuclear Power Economics
			II.4.2.1 Nuclear New Build Costs
			II.4.2.2 Economic Risks Matter as Much as High Costs
			II.4.2.3 The Importance of ‘Learning’
		II.4.3 Nuclear Power and the Atmosphere
		II.4.4 Reliability and Safety
		II.4.5 Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Security
		II.4.6 Nuclear Power Industry and Skills
		II.4.7 Concluding Thoughts
	Chapter 5 Nuclear Waste Management
		II.5.1 Introduction
			II.5.1.1 Generic Options for Radioactive Waste Management
		II.5.2 British Nuclear Waste Management
			II.5.2.1 Very Low Level Waste (VLLW)
			II.5.2.2 Low Level Waste (LLW)
			II.5.2.3 Intermediate-Level Waste (ILW)
			II.5.2.4 High Level Waste (HLW)
			II.5.2.5 The Scale of the UK Radioactive Waste Problem
			II.5.2.6 The Nature of the Hazard
			II.5.2.7 Key Elements from the History of UK Radioactive Waste Policy
			II.5.2.8 Other Problematic Radioactive Materials
				II.5.2.8.1 Spent Nuclear Fuel
				II.5.2.8.2 Depleted Uranium
				II.5.2.8.3 Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORMs)
			II.5.2.9 Monitored Retrievability
		II.5.3 UK Plutonium
			II.5.3.1 Why Is Separated Civil Plutonium a Problem?
			II.5.3.2 Military Fissile Material
			II.5.3.3 Uranium-Plutonium Mixed-Oxide (MOX) Thermal Reactor Fuel
			II.5.3.4 Special Considerations Relating to UK Plutonium
			II.5.3.5 MOX-Based International Plutonium Transfers
			II.5.3.6 Thorium-Plutonium Mixed-Oxide Fuels
			II.5.3.7 Plutonium Utilisation in Fast Reactors
			II.5.3.8 Deep Geological Disposal of Plutonium
		II.5.4 Nuclear Decommissioning
		II.5.5 The US Radioactive Waste Experience
			II.5.5.1 US Waste Classifications
		II.5.6 The Scandinavian Experience
		II.5.7 Nuclear Renaissance and Nuclear Enlightenment
		II.5.8 Public Attitudes
		References and Notes—Part II
PART III: Nuclear Fission Technologies
	Chapter 6 Water-Cooled Reactors
		III.6.1 Introduction
		III.6.2 European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR)
			III.6.2.1 Hinkley Point, UK
			III.6.2.2 Origins of the EPR
			III.6.2.3 EPR Technology
			III.6.2.4 EPR around the World
				III.6.2.4.1 Olkiluoto, Finland
				III.6.2.4.2 Flamanville, France
				III.6.2.4.3 Taishan, China
				III.6.2.4.4 Evolutionary Pressurised Water Reactor in the United States
		III.6.3 Westinghouses — Advanced Passive Series
			III.6.3.1 Westinghouse Heritage
			III.6.3.2 Westinghouse AP Safety
			III.6.3.3 Modularisation
			III.6.3.4 Rapid Construction
			III.6.3.5 Improved Economics?
			III.6.3.6 Westinghouse’s Nomadic Period
			III.6.3.7 AP1000 around the World
				III.6.3.7.1 AP1000 in China
				III.6.3.7.2 AP1000 in the United States
				III.6.3.7.3 AP1000 in the United Kingdom?
		III.6.4 Important Contributions from Russia and South Korea
			III.6.4.1 Rosatom VVER-1200
			III.6.4.2 South Korea
		III.6.5 Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors
			III.6.5.1 It Starts with ‘CANDU’
			III.6.5.2 CANDU International Construction Experience
			III.6.5.3 CANDU Modularity
			III.6.5.4 CANDU—A Simpler Approach
			III.6.5.5 Advanced CANDU Reactor
			III.6.5.6 The Advanced Fuel CANDU Reactor Concept
			III.6.5.7 CANDU: A Wholly Civilian Concept
			III.6.5.8 PHWR Technology and India
			III.6.5.9 CANDU in the United Kingdom?
			III.6.5.10 Isotope Production in PHWRs
			III.6.5.11 Weaknesses and Strengths of PHWRS
		III.6.6 Boiling Water Reactors
			III.6.6.1 The Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR)
			III.6.6.2 A Soviet Story
		III.6.7 Small Modular Reactors—Water-Cooled Technologies
			III.6.7.1 NuScale
			III.6.7.2 Rolls-Royce Led SMR Consortium
			III.6.7.3 Microreactors
			III.6.7.4 Civil Nuclear Marine Reactors
			III.6.7.5 Floating Nuclear Power Plants
		III.6.8 Looking Ahead—Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactors (SCWR)
		III.6.9 Closing Thoughts on Water-Cooled Reactors
	Chapter 7 High-Temperature Reactors
		III.7.1 Generation IV Very High-Temperature Reactor
		III.7.2 Triso Fuel
		III.7.3 Pebble Bed HTGR
			III.7.3.1 The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, South Africa
			III.7.3.2 High-Temperature Reactor Technology in China
			III.7.3.3 Criticisms of the Pebble Bed Concept
		III.7.4 Prismatic High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors
			III.7.4.1 Japan’s High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor
			III.7.4.2 High-Temperature Reactors in the United States
			III.7.4.3 British Ambitions—U-Battery
		III.7.5 HTRs and Deep Decarbonisation
			III.7.5.1 Nuclear Hydrogen and HTRs
	Chapter 8 Advanced Fission Technologies and Systems
		III.8.1 The Fuel Cycle and Advanced Systems
		III.8.2 Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing
		III.8.3 Partitioning of Spent Nuclear Fuel
			III.8.3.1 Aqueous Methods
			III.8.3.2 Pyrochemical Separation
			III.8.3.3 Electrochemical Separation
			III.8.3.4 Physical Separation
		III.8.4 Nuclear Waste Transmutation
			III.8.4.1 Plutonium and the Minor Actinides
			III.8.4.2 Transmutation of Long-Lived Fission Products
				III.8.4.2.1 Technetium-99
			III.8.4.3 Caesium Isotopes
		III.8.5 Reprocessed Uranium
		III.8.6 Advanced Reactor Systems
			III.8.6.1 Accelerator-Driven Systems
			III.8.6.2 The Energy Amplifier
			III.8.6.3 Other ADS Activities in Europe
			III.8.6.4 Accelerator-Driven Systems in a Nuclear Renaissance
		III.8.7 Thorium as a Nuclear Fuel
		III.8.8 Molten Salt Reactor (MSR)
			III.8.8.1 Stable Salt Reactor
		III.8.9 Fast Critical Reactors
			III.8.9.1 Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR)
			III.8.9.2 Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR)
			III.8.9.3 Lead Cooled Fast Reactor
			III.8.9.4 MYRRHA—Accelerator-Driven Lead–Bismuth Fast Reactor
			III.8.9.5 A Little-Known British Story
		References and Notes—Part III
PART IV: Nuclear Fusion Technologies
	Chapter 9 Fusion
		IV.9.1 The Physics of Fusion
			IV.9.1.1 The Story of ZETA
			IV.9.1.2 A Soviet Breakthrough
		IV.9.2 Tokamak Fundamentals
		IV.9.3 Plasma Performance: Beta and the Triple Product
		IV.9.4 Blankets and Divertors
		IV.9.5 ITER
		IV.9.6 Spherical Tokamaks
			IV.9.6.1 MAST-U and the Super-X Divertor
		IV.9.7 Stellarators
		IV.9.8 Fusion, Geopolitics, and Globalisation
		IV.9.9 Fusion and Technological Spin-Off
		IV.9.10 Alice and the Red Queen Running
		IV.9.11 An Important Year—1997
		IV.9.12 Non-Electrical Applications of Fusion Energy
		IV.9.13 Other Approaches to Fusion Plasma Confinement
			IV.9.13.1 Inertial Confinement Fusion
			IV.9.13.2 Laser-Driven Inertial Confinement Fusion
			IV.9.13.3 Ion Beam Fusion
		IV.9.14 The Z-Pinch
			IV.9.14.1 The Hohlraum
			IV.9.14.2 The Z-Machine
		IV.9.15 Projectile Based Inertial Fusion
		IV.9.16 Fusion Conclusion
		References and Notes—Part IV
Afterword
Index