I recently enjoyed a wonderful lunch that featured a wide-ranging conversation with a very accomplished and distinguished retired gentleman I have known all of my life. We discussed topic after topic until he said, "What about nuclear power? Why the hell doesn't anyone talk about that anymore?"
I have wondered the same thing. When I was growing up it was to be 'the' power supply of the future. Then it wasn't.
The 'war on coal' has taken a toll, as well. Yeah, clean coal and 'carbon-capture and storage' technology has come a long way but reliance on coal/peat power is shrinking - down to about 38% of the global electric generation, according to Statistica. Natural gas beats coal in price.
Healthier and environmentally-friendly options are being sought. Carbon-free, carbon-neutral, low-carbon. You've heard it all.
New options and technologies are being innovated and advanced. I say use them all: hydro, tidal, geothermal, nuclear, wind, solar, wood, coal, gas, garbage. Whatever makes economic, ecological, efficient, eudaemonic sense for a region. Just make sure that when I flick a switch that a light comes on! No brownouts. No blackouts. No peak hour BS. I want voltage, wattage, powerage! As Jack Butler famously stated in Mr. Mom: 'Yeah. 220, 221…whatever it takes.'
That lunch conversation, along with news that the Cheswick Generating Station, Allegheny County's only coal-fired power plant, AND a wind turbine manufacturer in South Dakota were closing spurred my curiosity.
In a very unscientific manner, I spent a gorgeous afternoon 'googling' questions that I had not heard addressed in the media before.
Did you know that there are 51 nuclear power plants being constructed around the world right now? An amazing 19 are being built in China…21 if you include the two 'breeder reactors' quietly being constructed to create nuclear weapons. India is building 6 nuclear power plants. South Korea is ramping up 4. Turkey is building three. Slovakia and Bangladesh are investing in 2 apiece. Many countries are looking towards nuclear energy in order to power their future.
France relies on nuclear energy to supply 70% of its electricity. The French are very proud of their program and the fact that it makes them less reliant on unstable nations. They are actually working on a massive nuclear fusion (not fission) reactor - the heart of which will be the world's largest magnet. At 59 feet tall it will be thousands of times stronger than the earth's magnetic field! Strong enough to pick up an aircraft carrier, according to Live Science. What could go wrong?
Although nuclear power accounts for 19% of the electricity currently generated in the United States, we are backing far away from fission. Our reactors are 'aging out.' They have about a 60-year lifecycle. According to the US Energy Information Administration, there are currently 56 commercial nuclear power plants operating 94 reactors across 28 states. Their average age is 39 years. At least 10 have been shutdown in the last 10 years. There are not enough solar panels on the planet to replace them. The first new US reactor since 2016 goes online near Augusta, Georgia later this year.
Nuclear power is 'clean' but expensive. Reactors can take decades to build. Failures can be catastrophic. The images and stories of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima scare the living daylights out of people. In fact, there was a fuel rod issue at a reactor in China last week. They say no radioactivity leaked from Taishan. Suuuure. Overall, though, nuclear is safe and its waste is very compact and dense. However, disposal of the small amount of waste is problematic to say the least.
Solar farms can be built quickly - maybe a year - at around half the cost for comparable output, according to Solar Feeds. Solar panels may last 25 years.
What about acreage? Ever wonder how many solar panels or wind mills are needed to equal the output of a nuclear reactor? I have. Luckily some brainiac did the math for us because I ran out of fingers and toes.
The 'Land Requirements For Carbon-Free Technologies' report stated that a 1,000 megawatt reactor needs about a 1.3-square mile footprint to operate safely. The Nuclear Energy Institute indicates that the capacity factor of a nuclear power plant is over 90%. Pretty efficient.
Wind farms, they say, have capacity factors of up to 47%. They are most efficient at night. Solar fields may hit 25% on a good day. The numbers can vary widely due to many factors. Efficiency is getting better.
So, a comparable footprint of land for a wind farm to match the output of a nuclear plant would be up to 360 square miles by their estimates. A solar farm would need up to 75 square miles of land. 75 square miles of little black panels! Cleveland is 77 square miles. The city of Pittsburgh is 58.
Like urban areas, solar farms produce heat islands. Just as the sun heats up asphalt it also heats up dark solar panels. Join me: "Oh my gosh! So, like, the very item we want to use to be greener and, like, fight climate change may actually make the planet warmer? As if!" A University of Maryland study found that heat islands increased air temperatures at solar farms 5.4-7.2 degrees Fahrenheit more than nearby natural areas.
Solar panels also become less efficient as they get hotter. Surprisingly, they don't do well at night, either. Cooler, sunny days are best for creating solar power. So I'm told.
The answer, my friends, is blowin' in the wind…Unless it is not. Texans were told to reduce energy usage and raise their AC temperature settings last week because several coal/gas power plants were offline for maintenance as, unfortunately, the winds died down. Those highly touted turbines could not fill the need.
Utilized on a small scale for a millennia or two, inexpensive coal has powered this nation for nearly 200 years. It has lifted us all out of poverty and spurred innovation. The sweeping replacement, if there truly is an economical, planet-saving one, must do the same.
How about the cost to produce equal amounts of power? Wow, that is a rabbit hole. Low/No-carbon generation of power is becoming competitive but they can benefit from federal taxpayer subsidies. You can also factor in the capital costs, storage costs, type of solar panel, onshore/offshore, and peak fuel costs by region.
For 2021, without factoring in reliability, land usage, or health concerns, the 'Levelized Cost of Energy' outlook indicates that hydro power wins. Followed by natural gas, unsubsidized wind, and coal.
Kevin Battle's knowledge of 'Alternating Current vs Direct Current' is limited to an Australian rock band. He is Co-Host of the KDKA Radio Morning Show with Larry Richert. The show airs M-F 5a-9a on Pittsburgh's 100.1FM & AM1020 KDKA or on the free Audacy app. Ask your smartspeaker to: 'Play Newsradio KDKA.'
