Nuclear Power Plant :

Human s Greatest Hope or Terror

English KCJ 2102

Group members : - Muhamad Ezrin bin Abdul Rahim ( JAD 10038 ) - Muhammad Haiqal bin Abdul Halim ( JAD 10048 ) - Ahmad Huzaifah bin Mahmood ( JAD 10005 ) - Mohd Affizzie bin Aziz ( JAD 10071 )

Lecturer : Mrs . Cynthia RatnaDewi bin Abdul Jalil

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CONTENT
1.0 INTRODUCTION 2.0 BACKGROUND 2.1 Definition of Nuclear Power Plant 2.2 History of Nuclear Power Plant in the world 3.0 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN AND NUCLEAR 4.0 EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR 4.2.1 Effects on Human 4.2.2 Effects on Environment 4.2.3 Effects for Long Term . 3 ..4 4 .4 ..5 .6 6 ..7 .8 .. 8 .. .8

5.0 INCIDENTS RELATED TO NUCLEAR POWER PLANT 5.1 Three Miles Island, Pennsylvania, United States of America 5.2 Chernobyl, Ukraine 5.3 Fukushima Daiichi, Japan 6.0 Conclusion

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

As the world is running out of natural power resources such as coal and petroleum, new power resource, nuclear has been developed. It gives out large energy for a long time, and the resource is not limited. However, recently various problems had occurred regarding this new energy. People are questioning if this brand new energy is safe for long term use or not. Cleaner compared to coal. This first word that can be described about nuclear energy. Although other energies such as wind and solar seems useful, t hey also have limitations such as the environment said by Cravens 2007. He also stated that we have to take new fresh point of view towards nuclear energy as well as Nuclear power plant. Years back then, we have various options on how to generate electrici ty. However, the earth now is having crisis of shortage of natural resources such as fossil fuels and coal. Plus, nuclear energy produces cleaner, safer and more environmental other than can produce a large amount of power for long time usage. Furthermore, nuclear power plant is built at isolated places to avoid any harm to people surroundings. (Cravens, 2007) Compared to nuclear, fossil fuel process contributes 40% of world carbon dioxide emission to generate electrical energy. The United States of America gets 20% of electrical energy from its 104 commercial nuclear reactors. On the other hand, United Nation reports that nuclear power must play a greater role in minimizing greenhouse gases. This is reported by Cravens, 2007.

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Figure 1: Obininsk Nuclear Power Plant

Figure 2 : Shipping Port Nuclear Power Plant

3.0 T E REL TIONS IP

ETWEEN

UM N

ND NUCLE R

In a book titled Power To Save The World: The truth about Nuclear Energy written by wyneth Craven said that in generation of energy in America, coal combustion hereas amount of

produces 8 0 pounds of solid residue per American every year.

waste for a lifetime of nuclear power, by contrast, would weight two pounds and can fit into a soda can. oreover, in the book also said that nuclear energy can reduce the emission of greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide. This is a contentious issue. Proponents of nuclear power argue that, as no coal or fossil fuels are burnt, no carbon dioxide is released into the air. Therefore, we can understand that nuclear power emit no gases because it does not burn anything, it only use the heat from the nuclear fission to warm up the water to produce steam. It can provides 7 % of American clean air electricity generation, using only small amount of nuclear fuel but can steadily provides an immen se amount of energy.[Book by Craven] From another source it stated that nuclear plants need only a small amount of uranium to produce a lot of energy. In fact, if the cost of uranium doubled, costs would only be increased by 7%. 1 truck of uranium produces as much energy as 1000 trucks of coal! (wanttoknowit.com) Besides that, nuclear energy reduces dependence on foreign oils and natural gas (like biofuels). America, for instance, imports a lot of oil and natural gas from other countries. The price of these products is volatile, and change very quickly. If the price increases quickly, consumers have to pay more for their electricity (which they may not be able to afford). Building more nuclear power plants means that Americans will not be susceptible to price rises in oil and gas. President Barack Obama supports this idea of energy independence.[Obama]Nuclear fuels are derived from uranium and plutonium. Obama Stated that uranium is available is plentiful in the United States [Obama] and from other sources uranium is obtained from open cut mines and is not expensive to mine. last anywhere between orld reserves are estimated to

to 1 0 years, to even hundreds of centuries. Present

reactors only use some 1% of the energy available in uranium but in future fast breeder reactors could recycle spent f uel rods at a % efficiency rate. In the US

alone, with just under a third of nuclear reactors worldwide there are 4 ,000 metric
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tons of accumulated nuclear waste stored at reactor sites. This is useable fuel for fast breeders but their construction howev er is at least 1 years off. Hence, replacing oil and natural gas burning power plants with nuclear power plants would therefore be helping with achieving energy independence. (www.alternate energy

sources.com)

4.0 EFFECTS OF NUCLE R 4.1 E m

Radiation effects health in both the long and short term and can range from mild to severe. The specific effects of radiation on health depend on the dose of radiation received, the time period over which the exposure and the physiology of the exposed person. Acute radiation syndrome or radiation sickness or radiation poisoning, effect of being exposed to radioactive for a short of time. ue to this sickness, the person will first experience nausea, vomiting and diarrheal. Other people also have skin damage and hair loss in the early stages. Afterward, the other symptoms, including loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, seizures, infection, internal bleeding and coma. Some individuals die of acute radiation syndrome. (Coil a, 2010)

Radiation can damage a person's Commission.

NA, states the United States Nuclear Regulatory

NA is the genetic building block of every cell in the human body can

be broken apart hence, the molecules in cells and rearrange or change the NA. The changes are called mutations. Some mutations ha ve no effects and do not interfere with the metabolism of the cell. In few cases, mutations can cause normal cells to become cancerous. These cells begin to reproduce very fast and do not die. Usually, the NA prevents this from happening, but the mutated NA has lost its

ability. amage of NA normally occurs if the patient is exposed to small amounts of radiation over an extended period of time. The risk of cancer increases if the patient is exposed to radiation energy for long period of time. ( Pritchard , 2010)
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Exposure to radiation during pregnancy may increase the risk for birth defects. For example, a study published in the journal "Birth efects Research" in 200 found no significant difference in the rate of live birth, birth weight or number of bi rth defects between babies exposed prenatally at doses of 0.001 to 4.7 rads and babies not exposed to radiation. rads is the minimum exposure would be necessary to

possibly cause birth defects. Some birth defects reported that mothers exposed to extreme amounts of radiation.( aas, 2010)

4.2 E

E vi

The effects nuclear energy have on the environment pose serious concerns that need to be considered, especially before the decision to build additional nuclear power plants is made. Although nu clear power plants may not emit carbon dioxide during operation, however high amounts of carbon dioxide are released in activities related to building and running the plants. They use uranium as fuel. The process of mining uranium releases high amounts of carbon dioxide into the surrounding. Carbon dioxide is also released into the environment when new nuclear power plants are built. Finally, the transport of radioactive waste also causes carbon dioxide emissions.(Kivi,2011)

The radiation could destroy a very large part of forest area ( ark

ielke, 200 ).

Including the wildlife is banished. The spread of nuclear substances through air killed large part of wooland which later called Red Forest. Not only plants and animal, human who lived near the area als o exposed to the threats. ( ielke, 200 ) Large amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted when power plants are built and maintained. This may cause harm to the surrounding as well. A cooling system that keeps them from overheating which pulls water from the o cean or river and then returns the warmer water back to the source. Since the water is much warmer than the fish are used to, it may kill some of the fish that require colder water.

4.3 EFFECTS FOR LON

TERM

It will take six to nine more months before the reactors and fuel pools can be said to be stabilized and under control reported by ichael ariotte 2011. In addition, he

said that Toshiba Company believes the site can be cleaned and brought to essentially a green field status within 10 years. Numerous exposure to small doses of radiation, or one incident of exposure to radiation levels of 200 rems or above, may not be deadly, but they can cause long term health problems. Radiation can cause certain cancers. For example, leukemia and thyroid cancer, to appear later in life after recovering from radiation sickness. Radiation also effects womans reproductive systems by damaging reproductive cells. It can cause sterility, or it can cause mutations to the genetic material in cells. People exposed to radiation may later give birth to children with birth defects because of radiation's effects on the reproductive system. (Kelly , 2007)

5.0 INCIDENTS REL TED TO NUCLE R POWER PL NT 5.1 T Mil I l ,P lv i ,U i S m i

At 4am,

arch 28 1 7 , at Three

ile Island nuclear power plant, Pennsylvania,

USA, a reactor in Unit 2 has been operating at a high rate of 7% power which had caused a relatively minor malfunctioning of a secondary cooling circuit. Then, it is followed by a rise in te mperature of primary coolant and the reactor has automatically shut down. At that time, a relief valve has failed to work and the instrumentation didnt detect the problem and had caused the liquid inprimary coolant to drain away and causing the core in the reactor being left heated up and caused a serious damage on it.

As the operators had been informed of the damage, they couldnt solve the problem efficiently and hindered as they didnt haveenough training and skill s in handling a failed reactor. That situation had become a big factor of the failure of the power plant incident.
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Some radioactive gas had been released to the environment but it is not a health hazardous. However, because of some miscommunication, the Pen nsylvania residents had received wrong information s about the released gas and had caused a great public fear. As measurements have been taken, the radiation that had been released is only 0.08 millisieverts which is the same as chest X ray and did not more than 1 millisievert to any single resident that live around five miles away from the power plant.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, Pennsylvania (phil.cdc.gov/phil/)

Years to years, the nuclear power plant had been cleaned up and recovered back and back to operate on 1 8 with a high rates of safety and reliability. The incident really gave a great lesson and more understanding on the reactor system towards the world nuclear industry. (www.world nuclear.org/info/inf .html )

5.2 C

b l, Uk i

On 2 April, 1 8 , at Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, a big explosion of reactor at unit 4 has occurred and caused a big disaster towards the population around the Europe which has made it as the worst incident in nuclear power plant history. The incident had occurred because of the operators error. At first, the
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operators at the plant were doing a test on the reactor but the safety regulations were not being taken seriously. uring the conduction of the test, because of some wrong steps, the power output of the reactor had suddenly increased and emergency shutdown was attempted but the crews were too late as there were more extreme spike were released and caused a series of explosions at the reactor.

As a result, the reactor containment was broken and had caused the ai r from surrounding to react with the reactor and produced amount of carbon monoxide (CO) which is highly flammable. The fire emitted was extremely radioactive. uring the night of the incident, two operators had died and in a month another 28 workers were lost due to acute radiation syndrome (ARS) which were most of them were the workers and the firemen that trying to put out the fire of the reactor.

Reactor 4, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (www.solcomhouse.com/chernobyl.htm)

Two radionuclides which were the short lived iodine 1 1 and the long lived caesium 1 7 had been released to the air and the radiation was about 14 EBq (14 x 10 18 Bq). On the International Nuclear Event Scale , this incident has been cla ssified as high as level 7, one of the highest event scale in history(the other is Fukushima aiichi). The radiation had eff ect a large area of population of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. A large number of residents at the town near the plant, Pripyat, had been evacuated and relocated which many of them had received radiation doses of less than 0mSv and some of them had received more than 100mSv.
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In order to overcome the radiation effect, about more than 200,000 people from all over the Soviet Union had involved to clean up the power plant. They were called as liquadators. Then, another 00,000 people more were being called to recover the plant.

In long term of effect, iodine 1 1 that had been released had caused a large amount of thyroid cancer cases towards the residents which most of them were young children. About 4000 of the cases that had been reported, until now only had been recorded. (www.world nuclear.org/info/chernobyl/inf07.html ) (library.thinkquest.org/17 40/texts/nuclear_disasters/nuclear_disasters.html# ) deaths

5.3 F k

im D ii

i, J p

On

arch 11 2011, following the .0 magnitude of Tohoku earthquake and tsunami,

the six nuclear reactors of Fukushima aiichi power plant had faced a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdown and releases of radioactive materials and made it the second largest nuclear incident afte r the Chernobyl incident. The huge earthquake had set off automatic shutdown of the operating reactors in Unit 1, 2 and . eanwhile, the other reactors, Unit 4 was in maintenance process and Unit and

were already previously shut down.

After the quake, the reactors in Unit 1, 2 and

had lost the cooling power and

causing all of them to overheat and began to meltdown. On the second day, reactors at Unit 1 4 had a few explosions because of the reaction of hydrogen atoms and causing some leakage from the reactor that led to the contamination of the seawater and also the releasing of exceeded radiation level to the air which was about 100mSv/h. As the reactors were overheating, workers at the plant were trying hard to cool down them by pumping and injectin g seawater into the reactor cores. A few helicopters also have been used to drop seawater from the above of the reactors. As the efforts were continued, two workers had been hospitalized because of being exposed to 2000 000 mSv of radiation at their ankle s.

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As measurements have been taken, the people who those living within a 20km around the plant have been enforced to leave and for those between 20km to 0km were been urged to stay inside and to wear mask to cover their mouth. Authorities also have found that there were high level of radiation in vegetables and cows milk at the prefectures around the plant and government have restricted the distributing all of the products. At Tokyo, the drinking water at the city exceeded the safe level for babies and for those families with babies had been provided bottled water by the government.

For International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), Fukushima aiichi incident have been rated as level 7, the same level as the Chernobyl incident which was the highest on record.(www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R41 4.pdf), (nhne pulse.org/fukushima nuclear

power plant disaster/), (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_ aiichi_nuclear_disaster )

Part of Fukushima Daiichi power plant after earthquake and tsunami (www.guardian.co.uk)

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6.0 CONCLUSION

Based on all the research that we had done, we finally understand exactly all about the nuclear energy. From how the nuclear power is made until all the advantages and disadvantages. Hence, we be able to differentiate the necessity of nuclear energy nowadays.Is it a future energy dependence or energy nightmare? Therefore, we ought to say that nuclear power is future hope and future disaster. It is because we knew that nuclear power have more the efficiency than other source of power and it can be safe handle if the precaution and safety measure is taken seriously. oreover, the technology we have today can maximize and harness the nuclear power to its top lever so that energy consumption is sufficient. Even thought that is very conventional but we must understand its power to destroy us the land dweller is massive. Therefore, we conclude that nuclear power is in need but to use it must be deathly careful.

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REFERENCE
1. Cravens, 2007 2. Oxford dictionary, 2010 3.

c raw Hill ictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 200

4. www.icjt.org 5. www.euronuclear.org 6. wanttoknowit.com 7. www.alternate energy sources.com 8. Coila, 2010 9. Pritchard , 2010 10.

aas, 2010

11. Kivi, 2011 12. 13.

ielke, 200 ichael ariotte 2011

14. Kelly, 2007

1 . www.world nuclear.org/info/inf

.html

1 . www.world nuclear.org/info/chernobyl/inf07.html 17. library.thinkquest.org/17 40/texts/nuclear_disasters/nuclear_disasters. html# 18. www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R41 4.pdf

1 . nhne pulse.org/fukushima nuclear power plant disaster/ 20. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_ aiichi_nuclear_disaster

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