Dr. Donald H. Williams presented on nuclear energy at the Michigan Energy Forum, emphasizing its role in the global energy landscape, where about 13% of electricity comes from nuclear power. He discussed the environmental impacts of various energy sources, noting that while nuclear energy has challenges, coal and natural gas also have significant drawbacks, especially regarding greenhouse gas emissions. Williams highlighted the importance of nuclear power in Michigan's energy mix and the need for responsible management of radioactive waste.

1. Remarks for
Michigan Energy Forum
April 5, 2012 Ann Arbor
Dr. Donald H. Williams
Chemistry Professor Emeriti Hope College
(accustomed to 3 credit courses in 14 week semesters)

2. My Background & Approach
• Chemist @ start up of Shippingport Atomic
Power Station (Pittsburgh)
• Six Years w US D.O.E.’s Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management (SNL HLW)
• Chair MI Committee to find a home for MI’s Low
Level Radwaste (to maybe change state law)
• Off & on spokesperson for Nuclear Energy
Institute
• Here to serve your needs and interests
• Generally “pro” nuclear power but aware….
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

3. Okay, my opinions show! Sorry.
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

4. E.I.A. 2010
E.I.A.
2010
Wikipeida MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

5. Top-10 annual energy-related CO2 emitters for the year 2009[81]
% of global total Tonnes of GHG
Country
annual emissions per capita
People's Rep. of China 23.6 5.13
United States 17.9 16.9
India 5.5 1.37
Russian Federation 5.3 10.8
Japan 3.8 8.6
Germany 2.6 9.2
Islamic Rep. of Iran 1.8 7.3
Canada 1.8 15.4
Korea 1.8 10.6
United Kingdom 1.6 7.5
I.E.A. 2011 for MEF AA 4/5/12

6. Comparison of Life-Cycle Emissions
Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent per Gigawatt-
1,041
Hour
Source: "Life-Cycle Assessment of Electricity Generation Systems and Applications
for Climate Change Policy Analysis," Paul J. Meier, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, August 2002.
622
46 39 18 17 15 14
Coal Natural Gas Biomass Solar PV Hydro Nuclear Geothermal Wind
Added note: Concrete…
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

7. Total Energy Consumption USA 2010
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

8. Worldwide Nuclear Perspective
• About 13% of the world’s electricity is nuclear
produced. (This is ~5% of total energy…..)
(Presentation & vocabulary …)
• There are 435 plants operating world wide 108
more under construction or planned
• France: largest %-age nuclear USA: most
plants (104, 5 under construction 5 ? planned)
• ~ 80% of the plants are more than 25 years old
• Science notes: fissile material one natural
source U235 (dilute) and one man-made Pu
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

9. Nuclear Worldwide
9/9/09 DHWms

10. Nuclear Power Plants in USA
~20% of US
electricity is
nuclear, (45% is
coal, 23% natural
gas = both GHG
emitters)
Nearest Fission Plant to
us? …
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

11. The Reactors
around us
MI: 25% nuclear
60% coal, 11% gas
HASP 9/9/09 DHWms

12. 1-Slide Summary of 50+ Old Presentations
Pro nuclear
• Not so bad once • But coal is much
understood worse
• Sadly introduced with • Save natural gas for
an A-bomb residential heating….
• Let me explain away • Renewables can’t be
TMI, Chernobyl & economical and
Fukushima baseline…
• Radwaste is small in • Nuke represents
volume diversity (good ecology?)
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

13. Newer, shorter presentation
• Coal is being regulated away, so
much for damning it.
• Natural Gas still => CO2 (It is a
green house gas) Even in a
combined cycle generation plant.
(maybe halved from coal, but…)
• Nat. Gas price is volatile (8 fold
changes in last 5 years)
• It’s in a global market (India,China)
• Questions re: “fracking” will see
expensive regulations. (earth
tremors , groundwater)
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

15. U.S. Energy Additions
80,000 Capacity Brought Online by Fuel Type 1965-2007
(Nameplate Capacity, MWe)
70,000
Water
60,000 Renew
Petro
50,000
Other
40,000 Nuclear
Gas
30,000 Coal
20,000
10,000
0
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Slide stolen from Excelon 9/9/09 DHWms

16. Nuclear Power Industrial Changes
• Capacity up 45 2,700
• Costs down 40 2,400
• Consolidation 35 2,100
Total nuclear power generation in TWh
Incremental nuclear power capacity
30 1,800
• Steadily safer
additions in GW e 25 1,500
• DTE likely to 20 1,200
add a reactor 15 900
• Waste issues 10 600
confused: 5 300
temp storage, 0 0
Yucca Mtn or -5 -300
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
MRS or
reprocss or..
9/9/09 DHWms

17. Total Energy 2010 E.I.A.

19. Total Nat.Gas 2010 E.I.A.
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

20. Fuel as a Percentage of Electric
Power Production Costs 2006
Fuel Conversion
Fabrication
26%
Waste Fund
Fuel Enrichment
77% Fuel
92%
O&M
74% Uranium
O&M
23%
O&M, 8%
Coal Gas Nuclear Nuclear Fuel Cost
Source: Global Energy Decisions
Updated: 6/07 Components
9/9/09 DHWms

21. Penultimate Take Home Slide
• Pick your poison, your energy source, all have
a downside: construction, real cost availability,
waste, aesthetics, ..
• Should natural gas be saved for residential
heating? Can you name a better way?
• Will “fracking” be done cleanly?
• What sources are most available to MI?
• Which fuel can be “stored”, has infrastructure?
• Which has “contained” wastes?
• Which is least “interruptable”?
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

22. Final Thoughts Utility Executive Nightmares
• It’s going to be expensive!
• Spent a lot on a little Mercury
• Squeezed by requirements on
renewables & opening up the
retail market
• Short term answer: Gas, but
• Long term answer: Nuclear
belongs in the mix but how to
capitalize the construction?!
• Conservation won’t make $$$
• I pick: “all of the above”
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

23. Have trouble falling asleep?
More Info? More “lectures”?
• Am Nuclear Society
• Nuclear Energy Institute
• Energy Information Agency
• Williams@hope.edu
History of the A-bomb
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act
Basic Nuclear Energy
The Lisa Meitner Story
Ohio State Football Greats
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

24. A 1-slide course on Nuclear Power:
• Find uranium ore & “win” the metal from the ore
(NYTimes Sunday 4/1. p A-16)
• Separate isotopes (forms), 235U from 238U with
gaseous diffusion or centrifuges via UF6 (NM & OH)
• The 235U fissions via chain reaction. It’s 0.7% in
ore, 3 -5 % in reactors, 90+% in bombs
• Power plant fuel pellets in fuel assemblies
separated by control rods held up magnetically
• Fission products: “new” & “unstable” elements and
ENERGY! ( It’s efficient but radioactive! )
• SNF or HLW ? Spent nuke fuel, high level waste?
• The “issue” for most anti-nukes….
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

25. A short model of a fuel assembly
• Usually 12-14 feet tall
• Each tough zirconium
alloy tube contains
stacks of fuel pellets
• In between them:
control rods that stop
the chain reaction
• Around them: water
getting heated (&
slowing the neutrons)
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

26. Another representation of a Fuel Assembly at
the Big Rock Point Plant in Charlevoix
Historical Society
was there for a
presentation
when it was
decommissioned
and made into a
park.
(Orphaned SNF)
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

27. HLW in a storage pool, this one in the U.K.
The blue glow is
called Cerenkov
Radiation.
At the old U of M
research reactor it
was called
M glow Blue.
Now decommissioned
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

28. After a decade of cooling in pool next to reactor
spent fuel is loaded into harden steel casks, dried,
filled w helium & put into concrete casks
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

29. Oldest spent fuel, sealed in steel casks, placed in
105 ton concrete casks, stored at plant site.
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

30. HLW at Palisades Temporary (?) Storage
• New cask being
placed on the 4 ft
thick concrete
pad, behind the
barricade
• See the 2 guys
working on it ?
• How much
radiation are they
exposed to?
• Very little!
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

31. Teaching Nuclear gets Political Where’s waste go?
• Several year’s
HLW from the
Palisades Plant at
plant site, 400 yds
from Lake MI, be-
hind the plant, be-
tween dunes.
• Each container
weights 135 tons,
holding (30 tons of
HLW)
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

32. Waste Containers as Terrorist Target
I don’t think so!
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

33. Low Level Radioactive Waste, a state
responsibility, arrives at a commercial site
Each state or
group of states
must handle
their own. Most
have found one
of three
commercial
sites for it’s
isolation.
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

34. Low Level Radwaste, handled in Barnwell SC
To be isolated for 400 years
LLW is
from
hospitals,
labs, power
plants.
In MI most
comes
from nuke
plants-ion
exchange
resins that
clean the
water.
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

35. Low Level Waste Facility, Barnwell SC. In
the red clay of the southeastern US.
This site is being closed,
pending some law suits.
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms

36. A few words on …..Radiation
• HLW will decay & be as radioactive as rock in
about 7000 years. Fed Law: 10,000 yr. isolation
• Rocks, air, food, you & I are radioactive…
• Radiation is less dangerous as you age……
• Through the middle of a dosage/damage curve, the
more radiation means more danger
• Controversy exists about very low radiation…..
• (At high end of curve, direct illness and death)
• Evidence: Power plant workers & neighbors are ok,
most w above average health!
MEF AA 4/5/12 DHWms