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New Nuclear Power Plants may pose greater risk than ‘Conventional Reactors’

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Science & Technology
  • Published
    22nd Mar, 2021

According to a report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a new generation of advanced nuclear power reactors that are currently in development may be no safer than conventional nuclear power units.

Context

According to a report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a new generation of advanced nuclear power reactors that are currently in development may be no safer than conventional nuclear power units.

Concerns in the Report

  • Coolant: Conventional reactors use enriched uranium fuel and are mostly cooled by water. While the developing new reactorsuse liquid sodium instead of water to cool the reactor at a lower pressure.
  • Storage Concern: The nuclear waste generated needs to be safely stored underground for the order of 400,000 years or converted to less dangerous materials.
  • None of the new reactors were safer or lowered nuclear proliferation than existing reactors.
  • Concern regarding Sodium: The use of sodium as a coolant wouldn’t reduce the amount of waste that requires long-term isolation.
  • Sodium can also burn when exposed to air or water, posing safety issues that conventional reactors, which don’t use sodium, sidestep.
  • Enrichment concern: The fuel for many of the newer reactors is enriched at a much higher rate than that used in conventional reactors.
  • This is risky because more refined uranium is used to make nuclear weapons.

India’s Nuclear Power Programme

  • It is a three-Stage Nuclear Power Programme.
  • It was formulated by Homi Bhabha in the 1950s to secure the country’s long-term energy independence, through the use of uranium and thorium reserves found in the monazite sands of coastal regions of South India.

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