New designs for nuclear power plants have potential

DATE: Oct. 17, 2001
CONTACT: B.J. Almond
PHONE:
(713) 348-6770
EMAIL: balmond@rice.edu

NEW
DESIGNS FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS HAVE POTENTIAL
Study at Rice
University’s Baker Institute, however,
cites critical areas that still need
to be addressed

Better-designed nuclear
power plants could become a significant source of electricity generation, but so
far new innovative designs have failed to overcome sufficiently the economic,
environmental and safety barriers that are now holding back growth in the
nuclear power industry, according to a new study from Rice University’s James A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy in Houston.

“The new generation of
nuclear design has been aimed at resolving some of the issues that have held
back the expansion of nuclear power,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, senior energy
adviser at the Baker Institute, who coordinated the study with the Petroleum
Energy Center of Japan and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“Because of the interest
in national energy independence and growing concerns about global warming,
nuclear power is getting a second look,” she said. “But its status as a
sustainable, substantial energy source around the world cannot be achieved
unless developers of nuclear power plants can offer designs that resolve the
economic and political hurdles associated with the industry.”

The study cites five
critical areas in which emerging nuclear technologies will need to offer
significant advantages for successful marketing: commercial competitiveness with
other fuel sources and technologies, safety, waste disposal, social acceptance
and resistance to the spread of nuclear material to terrorists or other
unauthorized groups or governments for use in making weapons.

A number of innovative
designs for nuclear power deployment and use that are being researched and
developed focus on making reactors smaller with a reduced number of components
and simplified operation and maintenance.

“Some of the new
reactors eliminate the possibility of severe accidents with designs that rely on
natural physical phenomena rather than on proper function of mechanical and
electrical components such as pumps, valves and motors,” Jaffe said. Because
such nuclear plants don’t rely on pumps that force coolant to circulate, the
possibility of large loss-of-coolant accidents or loss of all pumps has been
significantly reduced. But new designs that involve small, highly pressurized
containments do not eliminate the potential for problems with leakage in the
containment structure or degradation of materials.

‘ The study notes that
many of the benefits offered by the new energy technologies, especially in
environmental protection and diversity of supply, are public rather than private
— an argument in favor of public support. The challenge to public-sector
investment is to avoid encouraging government to select winners without
considerable study and testing, Jaffe explained.

“The first step to
healthy and viable innovation is to ensure government support for training in
energy technologies, including nuclear science and technology,” she said. But
the strategy should also reflect the growing trend toward internationalization
of technological research, with the United States, Japan and other nations
working together to shape a sustainable future nuclear fuel cycle.

Involving public
interest groups in early-stage discussions of new design technologies can help
avoid the wasteful allocation of public funds on highly expensive technologies
that might not be able to gain public acceptance.

The study also advocates
the attention of high-level government administration to resolving disposition
of current nuclear power plant spent fuel and high-level defense
waste.

“Without a solution to
this issue, nuclear power will have difficulty attaining the social acceptance
needed to site new facilities and to remain a commercially viable option for
electricity generation,” Jaffe said.

The complete text of the
study, which was supported by the Center for International Political Economy, is
available online at www.bakerinstitute.org.