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How much waste do the nuclear power plants in the US make each year?
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Does nuclear energy produce a lot of waste?
Yes; the average nuclear power plant yields about 3 tons of radioactive waste each year.
How much nuclear power does Canada generate?
Canada has 19 nuclear power plants providing 13.5 GW of power.Canada has one of the highest usages of electrical energy in the world, with an average of 14,000 kWh per person each year.In 2011 Canada generated 90 TWh of electrical energy by nuclear generation. If the same energy had been produced by carbon-fuel plants, the carbon dioxide dumped into Canada's atmosphere would have totalled 90 million tons - that is 46 billion cubic metres.to much
In a nuclear reaction what type of reaction provides the power?
Energy comes from either nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. Each nuclear reaction has unique characteristics, and there are answered questions here that can enlighten an investigator as to the particulars.
What are the environmental consequences of nuclear energy?
While being touted as carbon free, nuclear is anything but; mining and extraction costs carbon in fossil fuel; transportation costs carbon in fossil fuel; processing costs carbon in fossil fuel; building the nuclear power station costs carbon in fossil fuel. Then there's the question of highly radioactive waste storage for hundreds of thousands of years, leaks into the environment, coastal flooding of nuclear power stations like Sizewell. And the question of the added energy from splitting atoms which is extra to solar radiation and thus adds to the net energy input to the planet [an issue never even addressed]. It takes at least ten years to build a nuclear station so no quick fix, and decommissioning is even longer. It also costs billions, a price no government could hope to get taxpayers to pay, yet private industry won't fork out that sort of money. It's a pipe dream, something to use against those who argue renewable power is the only way to go. I agree nuclear energy is not purely carbonless. On that same note, if you look at the production and transportation costs, neither are solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal, or hydroelectric power. One aspect that all of these energy sources, including nuclear, has in common are that once they are functioning they are emitting less CO2 into our atmosphere than coal and oil. I am not saying coal and oil are evil but they are not found on the earth in limitless supply so therefore we as a society need to begin developing more renewable energy. Obviously there will be environmental impact of mining the uranium (or another element thorium) that will be used to fuel the power plant. Uranium mines are under very strict guidelines that will help to prevent the surrounding mining area from any overly adverse affects ( no more probably than what the uranium was doing naturally). Furthermore, nuclear power plants emit less radiation to the surrounding areas than coal fire power plants because the nuclear power plants are built more durably. The radioactive waste is a concern because right now our federal government will not allow this waste to be refurbished to be used again in a nuclear reactor like France does. Right now each power plant maintains their own waste. Decommissioning nuclear power plants is expensive but this is necessary in order to protect the environment . Overall, nuclear is one of many, not the only, solutions that our country needs to progress towards.
What environmental impact does nuclear energy have?
Ore for nuclear plants has to be mined, refined, and enriched to produce nuclear fuel. Each of these steps has an environmental cost. Mining is often done in strip mines, denuding and altering the surface of the land. Mine tailings are often poisonous. Both mining and refining use copious amounts of petrochemicals. In the United States, enrichment is done by a highly polluting coal power plant. All of these add to global warming, though not as much as fossil fuels would to generate as much electricity. Use of nuclear power at the nuclear plant is said by advocates to be safe and clean. Opponents of nuclear energy argue with this. Either way, there are releases of radioactive substances from all nuclear power plants from time to time, and more than a quarter of all plants in the United States are known to have contaminated the soil on which they stand with radioactive tritium. This is a short-lived isotope, but its presence can add 100 to 400 million dollars to the decommissioning costs, and this is reflected in the removal and processing of soil, which uses a lot of petrochemicals, again adding to global warming. The decommissioning of plants takes care of low-level nuclear waste, and uses a large amount of petrochemicals. Typically it costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and the amount of waste is reflected in this figure, adding more to global warming. We do not know how to deal with high-level nuclear waste. In some countries it is vitrified and shipped to other, poor countries willing to be paid to store it. In many cases it will not be safe for longer than human beings have existed. The possibility of meltdown or other nuclear disaster has to be considered. The Chernobyl disaster happened in what is now the Ukraine. Neighboring Belarus was stll putting about 20% of its GNP into cleanup twenty years later. The radioactive substances from such a disaster are destructive to all life. The amount of plutonium now in the waste has been calculated to be a multiple of what would be sufficient to kill all animal life, worldwide.
Does nuclear energy produce a lot of waste?
Yes; the average nuclear power plant yields about 3 tons of radioactive waste each year.
What is the laws governing nuclear power plants?
There are national laws relevant to each county with them and then oversight by the UN in relation to nuclear weapons proliferation.
How many nuclear power plants is China building?
In China, approximately two power stations are being built each week.
How do the types and amounts of waste generated by nuclear and non-nuclear industries in the production of elctricity compare to each other?
The waste generated by nuclear power plants is the spent fuel. Another question deals with that issue, and it is linked. Spent fuel is highly radioactive, and remains so for thousands if not tens of thousands of years. Waste generated from non-nuclear electric power production facilities varies as widely as do the different types of power plants. In Iceland (and a few other locations), there are geothermal facilities that generate a lot of power with a minimum of pollution. Water power facilities don't pollute very much. There are a few environmental costs associated with dams, though. Natural gas fired plants produce greenhouse gases. Oil and coal fired plants do as well, and they also produce a bit of other types of pollution owing to sulfur in the fuel. The amounts of waste generated by the different plants will vary as a function of the amount of power they produce and, most particularly, the energy source for the production of the electricity. Those plants that burn some kind of fuel will be more polluting than those that do not. This information is provided as a starting point for the researcher doing a term paper or report. The forum here is not designed to write those papers for a student. Links to relevant Wikipedia articles are provided.
Are all nuclear plants in the world connected?
Not at all. Each plant is a self-contained power production facility. From a computer network point of view, it is likely that only plants within a given country are connected at all. Nuclear power is highly controlled and regulated in all nations that have it.
What nation was a nuclear site in recently?
Most developed nations have nuclear power plants. The United states, Great Britain and Japan each has several. Most nations in mainland Europe have several.
How many nuclear plants are in New Jersey?
There are three nuclear power stations in New Jersey, Hope Creek, Oyster Creek, and Salem. The Salem plant has two reactors, the others have one each.
How many Nuclear plants are running in the US?
500 in each state.
When was the last nuclear power plant built in Georgia?
The last nuclear power plant built in Georgia, USA, was the Alvin W. Vogtle facility in Burke county, Georgia. It is a two unit Westinghouse PWR, completed in 1987 (Unit I) and 1989 (Unit II), rated 1215 MWe each. There are no nuclear power plants in Georgia, the country.
How many nuclear energy plant are in Texas?
Two plants with four reactors total. See link below
How does nuclear energy affect the economy?
Nuclear energy affects our economy because of all the nuclear plants built from it. It harms us a lot!. The cost of these nuclear plants are around 2 billion dollars each, however many people do not realize this!! Camila More Info- camilaurbieta@yahoo.com
What is an environmental consequences of nuclear energy?
Short answer: Contamination is a risk. Also, if you factor in all the work required to set nuclear energy into motion, you will see that it also contributes to adding carbon to the atmosphere. Nuclear energy is not carbon-free as many believe. Mining and extraction costs carbon in fossil fuel; transportation costs carbon in fossil fuel; processing costs carbon in fossil fuel; building the nuclear power station costs carbon in fossil fuel. Then there's the question of highly radioactive waste storage for hundreds of thousands of years, leaks into the environment, coastal flooding of nuclear power stations like Sizewell. And the question of the added energy from splitting atoms which is extra to solar radiation and thus adds to the net energy input to the planet [an issue never even addressed]. It takes at least ten years to build a nuclear station so no quick fix, and decommissioning is even longer. It also costs billions, a price no government could hope to get taxpayers to pay, yet private industry won't fork out that sort of money. It's a pipe dream, something to use against those who argue renewable power is the only way to go. It is true that nuclear energy is not purely carbonless. However, once you factor in the production and transportation costs, neither are solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal, or hydroelectric power. One aspect that all of these energy sources, including nuclear, has in common are that once they are functioning they are emitting less CO2 into our atmosphere than coal and oil. Regardless of your feelings about coal and oil, they are not found on the earth in limitless supply, so therefore we as a society need to begin developing more renewable energy. Obviously there will be environmental impact of mining the uranium (or another element thorium) that will be used to fuel the power plant. Uranium mines are under very strict guidelines that will help to prevent the surrounding mining area from any overly adverse affects (probably no more than what the uranium was doing naturally). Furthermore, nuclear power plants emit less radiation to the surrounding areas than coal fire power plants because the nuclear power plants are built more durably. The radioactive waste is a concern because right now our federal government will not allow this waste to be refurbished to be used again in a nuclear reactor like France does. Right now each power plant maintains their own waste. Decommissioning nuclear power plants is expensive but this is necessary in order to protect the environment . Overall, nuclear is one of many, not the only, solutions that our country needs to progress towards.
