Nuclear power plants and Poland

Poland's electricity consumption is constantly growing as the country is developing. In 2010 our existing power plants produced about 157 billion kilowatt hours using various sources of energy, like gas (3%), biofuels (4%) but mostly coal (88%). We consumed about 118 bln kWh and exported 1.5bln kWh.  We used to be the Czech Republic’s and Slovakia’s main suppliers; the situation is most likely to be turned around. By the year 2030 our expected energy usage is going to grow by 54% so unless we take some action we're going to start importing electricity, and due to carbon dioxide emission regulations it’s most likely to be the power coming from nuclear power plants of our neighbors.

Let's start off with simple explanation of how it works looking at most common pressurized water reactor:

                

The heart of the system is a reactor, where uranium 235 is being bombarded with neutrons which make it unstable and in effect split the atom apart releasing neutrons and heat. Those neutrons collide with other uranium atoms, making them unstable and splitting apart , releasing even more neutrons and more heat, and so on – the chain reaction. This chain reaction is being controlled by control rods, and heat is being collected by pressured water, then that water is being pumped to  a steam generator, where its heat energy is being changed into steam. That steam, which is pretty much safe of any radiaton, drives turbine of the generator and is being cooled down by external cooling (water from nearby lake for example) in the condenser.

If that still doesn't ring a bell, here’s a video explanation:

Pretty simple, isn't it?

Then why don't we build one by ourselves?

Well, if it wasn’t for the Chernobyl disaster we would already have had one, in 1990 we stopped building Żarnowiec power plant based on Russians technology, sold the components as the public opinion was strongly against any plans of atom usage. Why would anyone want to live near a nuclear power plant? The truth is we already live near them, closest one would be in Świerk, the south of Warsaw, it's a multi-purpose research generator which produces only 30MW and is currently operating. If we look somewhere near our borders we can easily spot some reactors.

 

But those things are dangerous!

This can be compared to the methods of transportation where planes appear to be  horribly dangerous, while statistically being the safest way to travel. It may be scary since any failure may be catastrophic, but current technology makes any errors impossible. Reactors are made to survive everything and keep things safe for the environment. A good example may be Fukushima which failed  in  March 2011, yet the technicians managed to shut the reactor down.

What about nuclear waste?

We already deal with it as well, we're able to retrieve nuclear fuel by ourselves and already store some spent fuel in our country as well. On the map below you can see existing nuclear waste storage in Różan, the north of Warsaw.

But, ecology!

Compared to coal, nuclear power plants cost pretty much the same but they do not produce any carbon dioxide at all and relatively small amounts of waste. Of course, there are solar panels, wind and water turbines but they're all pretty expensive. That would drive up electricity costs and in effect everything else, it's not something our country can afford. The only danger is radiation from spent fuel or a disaster resulting in leak, but as I said before, it's something we can prevent if we deal with it properly. If we look into statistics we can see some interesting data, for example nuclear reactors have directly caused the death of 31 people since 1957 (not including the estimated victims of radiation from Chernobyl), whereas, for example, the water dam disaster in Frejus, France in 1959 caused the death of 421 people.

Of course organizations like Greenpeace are  going to be against it by creating spots like the one below, but don't get fooled, they're not doing that for our health and nature, they're doing it for money. Modern reactors can stand even more than this.

Questions:

1. What do you think about nuclear energy?

2. Do you think the Polish government is capable of building and maintaining nuclear power plant?

Sources:
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf132_poland.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2012/aug/11/how-build-nuclear-power-plant-video

http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/nuclear.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_plant - pic1

http://postcarbon.pl/2008/03/elektrownie-atomowe/ - pic3

http://www.atom.edu.pl/index.php/ej-w-polsce.html - pic2