Nuclear Power: How, Why, Barriers

(May 5, 2010) Burton Richter, Emeritus Director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, discusses the role of nuclear power in the future world energy portfolio and the United States in specific by framing the problems of proliferation, waste disposal, pollution, safety - including remarks on Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island - and the fundamental technological challenges of other alternative energy sources.

Stanford University
http://www.stanford.edu

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
http://slac.stanford.edu

Stanford Energy Seminar
http://energyseminar.stanford.edu

Stanford University Channel on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Category:

Education

Tags:

• asia
• climate change
• economics
• energy policy
• greenhouse gases
• impacts
• nuclear

[indiage]

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[kelekokerupuk]

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[willamricard]

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[grunder20]

hope this doesnt happen

[agapitoflores001]

Nuclear power is a big source of power but I think it is very hazardous.

[mardy78]

Very smart of him! He avoided talking about nuclear power fuel costs and availability in his presentation. He talked about that only after the first question from the audience, but he didn't give a complete answer.

Go to wikipedia and search for "Economics of new nuclear power plants", and find "Uranium" in the page. Cost of uranium *tripled* between 2005 and 2008. And estimates about it lasting for 100 years don't take new plants into account.

This guy is clearly totally biased for nuclear.

[cragwolf]

"Thorium" by itself means nothing. You should specify the type of reactor. Richter mentions thorium in this lecture, but he only talks about existing or planned thorium reactors. They don't have any real advantages compared to even existing uranium reactors. But there is one design on the drawing board that is very promising: a molten-salt nuclear reactor design known as the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR). Still needs more research though. Search Google or YouTube for more info on it.

[cragwolf]

Solar energy is expensive. Wind energy is cheap. They are intermittent and diffuse sources of energy. So you need backup and/or storage solutions. Storage makes both wind and solar expensive. Backup is hydro if you are lucky, or natural gas most of the time, which has high CO2 emissions. I allow for the possibility that advancing technology will make storage cheap, just as I allow for the possibility that 4th generation nuclear tech will solve our energy problems. Reality should trump politics.

[cragwolf]

Actually, nuclear is not cheaper in the short term. It requires a very large capital investment. Nuclear becomes cheaper in the long term, over decades. Generation costs are very cheap. French electricity cost is among the cheapest in Europe. They are around 80% nuclear. Storage is cheap from a technological point of view, but you can choose to make it expensive, too. It depends on political will and public education.