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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: how Stuff Works and I love all things tech, and

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Speaker 1: recently I got some requests to talk about some subjects

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Speaker 1: related to nuclear power. Specifically, I had a request to

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Speaker 1: talk about cold fusion and whether there is any validity

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Speaker 1: to cold fusion claims and research, and that's a very

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Speaker 1: loaded subject and I will tackle it. But before I

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Speaker 1: can handle that topic, I thought we would be good

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Speaker 1: to do a couple of episodes about nuclear power to

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Speaker 1: lead up to it, and that includes how nuclear power

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Speaker 1: plants work today and how nuclear fusion reactors will work

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Speaker 1: in the future if we ever suss out how to

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Speaker 1: do them in a way that isn't a net loss

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Speaker 1: on energy and is sustainable. So today's episode is going

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Speaker 1: to be about new clear fission reactors. That's the kind

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Speaker 1: that we use today to generate electricity. Their nuclear power

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Speaker 1: plants all across the world, and all of the ones

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Speaker 1: that are not just pure research facilities are fission based.

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Speaker 1: And then fusion is something that is in a research

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Speaker 1: stage in various places around the world, and then this

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Speaker 1: is actually gonna be a nuclear power week because we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk about cold fusion in the third episode.

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Speaker 1: In the fourth episode, I think I'm going to take

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Speaker 1: a really close look at some of the famous nuclear

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Speaker 1: facility disasters, things like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and the

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Speaker 1: Fukushima reactor and talk about what happened in each of

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Speaker 1: those instances and what the consequences were, so that we

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Speaker 1: can have a deep understanding. Now, this is not supposed

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Speaker 1: to be a series that is meant to scare you

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Speaker 1: about nuclear power. I actually believe that nuclear power, if

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Speaker 1: performed responsibly, is a good alternative to fossil fuel based power.

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Speaker 1: But the responsibly part is absolutely of paramount importance. And

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Speaker 1: we'll get into why as I talk about this. But

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Speaker 1: this is not an anti nuclear power or even a

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Speaker 1: pro nuclear power episode. It's just to kind of give

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Speaker 1: us the understanding of what it is, what's going on,

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Speaker 1: what are the pros and the cons of it. So,

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Speaker 1: fission means they use a process to generate energy that

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Speaker 1: involves splitting one heavy atom into lighter atoms, and fusion

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Speaker 1: is the opposite. You would take two or more lighter

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Speaker 1: atoms and you squish them together real hard to make

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Speaker 1: into a heavier atom, and both processes release energy, though

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Speaker 1: a fusion reaction would release far more energy than a

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Speaker 1: fission reaction. I'll explain how that is in the next episode.

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Speaker 1: But first, fission, well, it happens naturally with certain large

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Speaker 1: unstable atoms. Uranium, for example, It will spontaneously undergo fission

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Speaker 1: uranium two specifically, but it does so at a very

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Speaker 1: slow rate. But you can speed that rate up through

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Speaker 1: a process called induced fission. And generally speaking, induced fission

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Speaker 1: happens when you take a heavy and unstable atom and

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Speaker 1: you pelt it really hard with neutrons. You accelerate the

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Speaker 1: neutrons and you shoot them at these heavy isotopes, and

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Speaker 1: those isotopes break up into smaller components. That process generates

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Speaker 1: a lot of energy in the form of heat, and

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Speaker 1: you can use that heat to heat up water, preferably

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Speaker 1: in a separate, sealed system. Not all nuclear power plants

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Speaker 1: work that way, but about two thirds of the US

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Speaker 1: nuclear power plants do, And you convert the water into

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Speaker 1: steam and use that steam to turn turbines conducted to

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Speaker 1: generators to produce electricity. Now, in a way today's nuclear

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Speaker 1: power plants are really not all that different from coal

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Speaker 1: power plants or thermal plants that use solar power to

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Speaker 1: heat up water. And in all these cases, you use

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Speaker 1: a process to either generate or harness heat. And you know,

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Speaker 1: you can burn cold to do that, you can harness

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Speaker 1: solar power to do that, you can use nuclear power

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Speaker 1: to do that. Use that heat to boil water, to

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Speaker 1: convert water into high pressure steam, and you direct that

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Speaker 1: steam to move turbines, and those turbines are electricity generators. Now,

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Speaker 1: to be clear, the generators aren't generating energy because energy

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Speaker 1: can be neither created nor destroyed. You can convert energy

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Speaker 1: from one form to another. You can convert mass into energy,

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Speaker 1: but you can't just create energy and of nothing. So

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Speaker 1: electricity generators are converting some form of energy into electricity. Uh.

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Speaker 1: With steam turbines, we're talking about converting kinetic energy, the

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Speaker 1: energy of movement, into electrical energy. And here's how that works.

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Speaker 1: In a nutshell. Generators have many parts typically, but a

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Speaker 1: really important component is the alternator. And inside the alternator

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Speaker 1: you have a statter and you have a rotor. The

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Speaker 1: statter stays motionless with respect to the generator. It's remains

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Speaker 1: stationary motionless. The rotor, as a name suggests, rotates on

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Speaker 1: its axis. So it rotates. Uh. Typically the statter has

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Speaker 1: an iron core and you have conductive wire or cable

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Speaker 1: wrapped around that iron core. So you think about this,

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Speaker 1: it sounds oh, it sounds like an electro magnet. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: kind of. The rotor typically has permanent magnets or some

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Speaker 1: other thing that generates a magnetic field, and as the

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Speaker 1: rotor rotates, this magnetic field moves with the rotation. So

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Speaker 1: this is essentially a fluctuating magnetic field. And as we know,

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Speaker 1: when you have a fluctuation magnetic field and you've got

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Speaker 1: a a conductive wire that's wrapped around an iron core,

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Speaker 1: that can induce or it does induce a voltage difference

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Speaker 1: in that conductive material and that wire, and that voltage

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Speaker 1: difference produces alternating current or a c electricity. There are

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Speaker 1: tons of different types of generators out there. Some of

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Speaker 1: them burn fuel in a in an engine that creates

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Speaker 1: the energy needed to move a motor, which in turn

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Speaker 1: rotates the rotor. So you can take fuel, you can

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Speaker 1: burn it in an engine and use that engine to

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Speaker 1: work with a generator to produce electricity, so you just

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Speaker 1: refill the uh that the engine whenever the fuel runs out,

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Speaker 1: and you can keep on generating electricity this way, or

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Speaker 1: you could use turbines that are turned by stuff like

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Speaker 1: wind or water. So with a typical steam turbine, you

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Speaker 1: have a closed system in which a heat source heats

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Speaker 1: up water until it boils and creates high pressure steam.

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Speaker 1: That high pressure means the steam has got a lot

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Speaker 1: of energy behind it, and the steam encounters the first

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Speaker 1: blades of the turbine. Typically turbines consist of multiple blades,

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Speaker 1: and they start in a very kind of tight circle,

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Speaker 1: and then as you go further into the turbine, the

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Speaker 1: circles are getting bigger and bigger because steam expands as

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Speaker 1: it's moving through this turbine system, and the fans are

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Speaker 1: angled so that the push from the steam creates a

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Speaker 1: rotational force on the turbine and it turns the rotor.

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Speaker 1: So steam passes through the fan blades, it expands, it

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Speaker 1: keeps pushing those next series of fans. This is what

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Speaker 1: allows you to create a very efficient steam turbine design,

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Speaker 1: and it helps you capture as much of the energy

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Speaker 1: from the steam as you can. The turbines shaft, like

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Speaker 1: I said, is connected to the rotor of the electrical

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Speaker 1: generator that produces the rotational energy that creates the fluctuating

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Speaker 1: magnetic field, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Now, the steam continues through

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Speaker 1: the system after passing through the turbine, and it cools

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Speaker 1: down as it does so typically through exposure to some

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Speaker 1: other part of this system. And as it cools down,

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Speaker 1: it condenses back into water and it flows back into

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Speaker 1: the boiler where the whole process can start over again.

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Speaker 1: But again, with nuclear power, you're using a different material

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Speaker 1: and process to create the heat than you would with

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Speaker 1: a coal power plant, and there's a need to make

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Speaker 1: sure the systems in a nuclear power plant are secure

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Speaker 1: and separate from each other to prevent contamination, or at

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Speaker 1: least shielded very very well if you have a full

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Speaker 1: implemented system. So if the water is actually passing through

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Speaker 1: the reactor and that same water is the water that's

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Speaker 1: converted into steam to pass with the turbine, you want

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Speaker 1: to make sure that that facility is very well shielded.

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Speaker 1: Most nuclear power plants have two water systems. They have

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Speaker 1: one that's the coolant uh and then they have a

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Speaker 1: secondary one where there's a heat exchanger that sends the

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Speaker 1: heat from the coolant into this boiler, which then boils

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Speaker 1: off the water and create steam. And the two systems

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Speaker 1: are separate. They don't they don't come into direct contact

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Speaker 1: with each other, so you don't pass radioactive contaminants from

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Speaker 1: the coolant into the steam that you're using to turn

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Speaker 1: the turbines. Now, the isotope most commonly associated with nuclear

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Speaker 1: power is uranium two thirty five, but plutonium two thirty

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Speaker 1: nine is also used in some reactors, and there are

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Speaker 1: some nuclear power proponents who really advocate a thorium based

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Speaker 1: power plant. More on that later in this episode. And

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Speaker 1: I've said the word isotope a few times. Why does

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Speaker 1: that actually mean. Well, isotopes are two or more forms

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Speaker 1: of the same element, meaning uh, two or more forms

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Speaker 1: that all have the same number of protons. Because if

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Speaker 1: you have different number of protons and you have different elements,

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Speaker 1: so you're looking at two different atoms that represent the

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Speaker 1: same element, and they have the same number of protons,

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Speaker 1: but they have different numbers of neutrons from each other.

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Speaker 1: Neutrons are particles have a neutral charge. You find them

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Speaker 1: in the nuclei of atoms. They don't affect the chemical

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Speaker 1: properties of the element, but isotopes do have different atomic

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Speaker 1: masses relative to one another, so they are chemically identical,

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Speaker 1: but from a nuclear process perspective, they are different. So

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Speaker 1: uranium two thirty five is as you would imagine an

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Speaker 1: isotope of uranium. It is not the most commonly found

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Speaker 1: form of uranium in nature. The most common form of

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Speaker 1: uranium is uranium two thirty eight. Uranium two thirty eight

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Speaker 1: has ninety two protons and one forty six neutrons. Uranium

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Speaker 1: two thirty five has ninety two protons and one forty

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Speaker 1: three neutrons. Uranium two thirty five makes up less than

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Speaker 1: one percent of all naturally occurring uranium in the world,

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Speaker 1: and it has a half life of nearly seven hundred

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Speaker 1: four million years, which means if you have a qual

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Speaker 1: unto ty of uranium to thirty five any given amount.

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Speaker 1: Let's say that you have a pound of uranium two

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Speaker 1: thirty five. That's an enormous amount of uranium two thirty five.

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Speaker 1: But let's say you have a pound of it, it

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Speaker 1: would take approximately seven four million years for that uranium

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Speaker 1: two thirty five to reduce in half through radioactive decay,

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Speaker 1: so you would end up with half a pound on

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Speaker 1: average after seven four million years. More or less. This

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Speaker 1: is essentially uh the rate of radioactive decay. But I

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Speaker 1: think we could actually do a lot better than that

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Speaker 1: if we really put our minds to it, And I'll

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Speaker 1: explain how in just a second, but first let's take

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Speaker 1: a quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay, So, uranium

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Speaker 1: two thirty five will spontaneously decay and release energy in

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Speaker 1: the process, and when it decay as uranium two thirty

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Speaker 1: five will split to create an alpha particle that's technically

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Speaker 1: two protons and two neutrons that are bound together. Interestingly,

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Speaker 1: there's no standard equation we can use to represent spontaneous

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Speaker 1: fission for uranium two thirty five because the results are unpredictable.

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Speaker 1: But if you were to trace the chain of decay,

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Speaker 1: the chain of decay goes like this. And pardon me,

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Speaker 1: because this gets really kind of ridiculous to describe it all,

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Speaker 1: but all right, you start with uranium two thirty five,

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Speaker 1: and that decays into thorium two thirty one, which decays

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Speaker 1: into protact tenium. And I'm sure I'm mispronouncing that two

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Speaker 1: thirty one that decays into actinium to twenty seven, which

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Speaker 1: decays into thorium to twenty seven, which then decays into

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Speaker 1: radium to twenty three, which then decays into rate on

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Speaker 1: to nineteen, and then to polonium to fifteen, and then

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Speaker 1: to lead to eleven, to bismuth to eleven, to thallium

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Speaker 1: two oh seven, and then finally to lead too oh seven.

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Speaker 1: Lead to oh seven is a stable atom, so it

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Speaker 1: will not decay at least not through any observable time

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Speaker 1: frame that we can talk about, so that's a relief.

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Speaker 1: But as I mentioned earlier, if uranium two thirty five

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Speaker 1: gets hit with a high speed neutron, it can absorb

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Speaker 1: that neutron and then undergo fission. So as the uranium

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Speaker 1: two thirty five atom splits, it can release two or

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Speaker 1: three more neutrons, which is also unpredictable. It all depends

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Speaker 1: on how the uranium splits, but we cannot predict how

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Speaker 1: many neutrons would be given off by any one reaction. However,

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Speaker 1: those two or three neutrons can then go and get

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Speaker 1: absorbed by other uranium two thirty five atoms. If you

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Speaker 1: have enough uranium two thirty five atoms concentrated in the

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Speaker 1: same space, then the decay of one can affect another one,

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Speaker 1: and if a neutron from one decaying uranium two thirty

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Speaker 1: five atom hits another, then that will prompt another reaction.

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Speaker 1: So if you have the right concentration of uranium two

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Speaker 1: thirty five, called a critical mass, you can have a

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Speaker 1: sustained nuclear reaction. Now there has to be enough uranium

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Speaker 1: two thirty five and the neutrons need to be moving

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Speaker 1: at the right speed for that to happen. With lower

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Speaker 1: concentrations of uranium two thirty five, you actually need to

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Speaker 1: slow down the neutrons a bit in order to improve

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Speaker 1: the chances that the existing uranium two thirty five atoms

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Speaker 1: will absorb that incoming neutron. So you would typically use

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Speaker 1: another material like graphite to act like kind of like

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Speaker 1: a set of breaks. They slow down the neutrons enough

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Speaker 1: for the uranium two thirty five atoms to take them

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Speaker 1: in and then split apart. That type of material is

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Speaker 1: called a moderator. Use a moderator to moderate the speed

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Speaker 1: of the neutrons. That reaction will sustain itself until the

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Speaker 1: amount of uranium two thirty five reduces below critical mass. Now,

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Speaker 1: one atom of uran two thirty five will release about

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Speaker 1: two hundred million electron volts worth of energy, which is

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Speaker 1: actually not a very large amount of energy. So an

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Speaker 1: electron vault is the amount of energy gained by the

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Speaker 1: charge of an electron moved across an electric potential difference

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Speaker 1: of one vault. So two hundred million electron volts sounds

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Speaker 1: like a lot, because two hundred million is a really

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Speaker 1: big number, But a mosquito in flight has the kinetic

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Speaker 1: energy of about one trillion electron volts, so it's a

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Speaker 1: fraction of the energy of a mosquito flying. However, I

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Speaker 1: did say a single decaying atom of uranium two thirty

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Speaker 1: five releases two hundred million electron volts. That's just one atom.

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Speaker 1: If you've got a significant amount of uranium two thirty five,

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Speaker 1: you're talking about billions or trillions of these atoms, and

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Speaker 1: that adds up pretty darn fast. So individually the atoms

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Speaker 1: don't have that much energy, but collectively they've got a

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Speaker 1: whole bunch of it. In fact, in one hound of uranium,

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Speaker 1: you have as much energy as three million pounds of coal,

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Speaker 1: so very energy dense. When a uranium two thirty five

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Speaker 1: atom splits, it also releases energy in the form of

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Speaker 1: heat and gamma radiation. It's not just splitting neutrons off,

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Speaker 1: it's also releasing heat and gamma radiation, which is a

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Speaker 1: high energy photons. In addition, the two new atoms that

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Speaker 1: result from the fission of uranium two thirty five will

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Speaker 1: undergo beta radiation, which means they release super fast electrons,

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Speaker 1: and they also release more gamma radiation. A gamma radiation

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Speaker 1: is pretty dangerous stuff. It will not turn you into

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Speaker 1: the hook, it will hurt you very badly. So let's

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Speaker 1: talk about the innards of a nuclear reactor. So you've

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Speaker 1: got to get a source of uranium two thirty five

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Speaker 1: enriched uranium two thirty five. That means that there's a

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Speaker 1: higher concentration of uranium two thirty five in your amount

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Speaker 1: of uranium and you would find in nature. So if

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Speaker 1: you went out in nature, you got yourself a pick,

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Speaker 1: and you're going to an area that's rich in uranium.

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Speaker 1: Can you mind yourself some uranium and you get a

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Speaker 1: big chunk of uranium. Most of the atoms of that

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Speaker 1: uranium are going to be you two thirty eight, almost

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Speaker 1: all of them. Uranium two thirty five would make up

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Speaker 1: about point seven two of all the atoms in that

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Speaker 1: sample you collected. That is not enough for you to

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Speaker 1: be able to hit critical mass. You need to be

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Speaker 1: at around two or three percent uranium two thirty five

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Speaker 1: in the overall sample in order to have that sustainable

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Speaker 1: nuclear reaction, which means you have to have enriched uranium.

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Speaker 1: You have to have uranium that has unnaturally high concentrations

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Speaker 1: of uranium two thirty five. And you form these samples

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Speaker 1: of enriched uranium into pellets. Now, each pellet is a

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Speaker 1: cylinder that's about two and a half centimeters long or

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Speaker 1: about an inch long, and they have a diameter of

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Speaker 1: around eighteen millimeters round points seven inches, so in other words,

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Speaker 1: they are about the diameter of a US dime. And

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Speaker 1: you take these little cylindrical pellets and you put them

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Speaker 1: end to end to form rods, uranium rods. You then

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Speaker 1: collect bunches of those rods into what are called bundles.

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Speaker 1: The bundles you put into a pressure vessel that's filled

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Speaker 1: with water, and the water access you're coolant. These nuclear

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Speaker 1: reactions generate a lot of heat, and without a coolant,

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Speaker 1: that amount of heat would be high enough to actually

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Speaker 1: melt the rods themselves. That rods would overheat through these

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Speaker 1: reactions and we get hotter than the melting point for uranium.

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Speaker 1: This is what we in the BIZ call a nuclear

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Speaker 1: melt down, and it is a bad thing to have happen,

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Speaker 1: so you have to have that coolant there. Another preventive

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Speaker 1: measure against overheating are the control rods. Control rods are

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Speaker 1: made out of a material that can absorb neutrons. Now, remember,

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Speaker 1: the sustained nuclear reaction of a nuclear power plant involves

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Speaker 1: uranium two thirty five emitting these neutrons and then absorbing

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Speaker 1: incoming neutrons, emitting, splitting, and emitting more neutrons, and that's

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Speaker 1: what keeps the reaction going. So if you put in

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Speaker 1: material that can absorb those neutrons, you're taking away the

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Speaker 1: trigger that would continue to allow this nuclear reaction to happen.

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Speaker 1: So you can actually use these sort of robotic arms

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Speaker 1: to lower or raise the control rods out of the

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Speaker 1: bundles of uranium to and by uh by putting them

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Speaker 1: into the bundles, you absorb more of those neutrons, so

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Speaker 1: you can reduce the rate of nuclear reaction. You can

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Speaker 1: even stop it completely if you if you leave it

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Speaker 1: in there long enough and you have enough of the

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Speaker 1: control rods there, or you can lift it out of

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Speaker 1: the bundles to allow more of those reactions to occur,

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Speaker 1: to increase the reactions, And it all depends on how

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Speaker 1: things are going on in the core at any given time,

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Speaker 1: and uh, if the reaction is ramping up too quickly

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Speaker 1: lower a rod in the bundle soak up some neutrons

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Speaker 1: prevent those YouTube thirty five atoms and the bundles from

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Speaker 1: doing it and pushing the reaction even further. Now, in

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Speaker 1: some reactors, the coolant isn't water at all, It might

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Speaker 1: be something else. There are a few that use gas

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Speaker 1: based coolants like carbon dioxide, or they might use liquid

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Speaker 1: metals like sodium or potassium. That generally allows you to

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Speaker 1: operate at a higher temperature than you would if you

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Speaker 1: were using water, but that also could mean that you're

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Speaker 1: burning through fuel a lot faster. So in some reactors,

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Speaker 1: like the third of the ones that are in the

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Speaker 1: United States, the coolant is in fact the water that

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Speaker 1: gets converted into steam and eventually pushes a turbine. But

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Speaker 1: again that can be risky because that coolant has been

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Speaker 1: in direct contact with the radioactive materials. So if that

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Speaker 1: steam were to escape him, then that could be a

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Speaker 1: potential hazard for the surrounding environment. Generally, most of the

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Speaker 1: power plants in the United States use pressurized water reactors

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Speaker 1: and a secondary closed system of water for the purposes

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Speaker 1: of turning the turbines. Two thirds of the power plants

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Speaker 1: the United States use this approach. So you have the

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Speaker 1: water the coolant that's inside your nuclear reactor under a

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Speaker 1: tremendous amount of pressure, and that pressure prevents the water

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Speaker 1: from boiling off. It remains liquid, so it's superheated liquid

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Speaker 1: that cannot boil because of that pressure. But that superheated

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Speaker 1: liquid is in contact with a heat exchanger, and the

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Speaker 1: heat exchanger transfers heat to the water that's inside a boiler,

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Speaker 1: and that water can boil off, turn into steam, and

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Speaker 1: turn steam turbines, but it's in its own closed, parallel system,

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Speaker 1: so the two systems don't actually share any water between

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Speaker 1: the two of them, and that way you have one

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Speaker 1: relatively clean system of water that's consistently being heated to steam,

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Speaker 1: turning turbines, condensing back into water and starting over again,

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Speaker 1: and then you have the other one that's acting as

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Speaker 1: the coolant for your actual reactor. Two thirds of the

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Speaker 1: power plants in the United States use that approach. The

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Speaker 1: steam that powers the turbine has to cool off in

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Speaker 1: order to condense back into water, so some plants will

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Speaker 1: use water from natural resources like lakes or streams to

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Speaker 1: cool that steam using another form of heat exchange. So

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Speaker 1: the steam exchanges heat, it transfers heat to the water

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Speaker 1: from the lake or stream, and then as a result,

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Speaker 1: the steam itself starts to cool down because it's pushed

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Speaker 1: that heat energy off to a different source and turns

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Speaker 1: into water. Other nuclear power plants have those really tall

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Speaker 1: cooling towers. Those are those iconic, enormous chimney like structures

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Speaker 1: that we tend to associate with nuclear power plants. Like

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Speaker 1: if you watch the Simpsons, you see that that iconic

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Speaker 1: shape of the cooling towers next to the power plant

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Speaker 1: in in Springfield. So for every unit of electricity produced

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Speaker 1: by a power plant, it about two units of waste

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Speaker 1: heat get transferred to the environment. But that's just heat.

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Speaker 1: It's it is heat, but it's not greenhouse gas, so

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Speaker 1: it's not something that contributes to climate change on a

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Speaker 1: global scale. You get some regionalized heating, but it's temporary,

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Speaker 1: So that's good. But nuclear power plants obviously create some

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Speaker 1: real challenges. What are those Well, I'll tell you in

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Speaker 1: just a second, but first let's take another quick break

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Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. Because the energy from a nuclear

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Speaker 1: reactor includes stuff that can really cause harm to humans

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Speaker 1: in various ways, the nuclear reactor itself has to be

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Speaker 1: heavily shielded to prevent that radiation from getting out into

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Speaker 1: the general environment. Typically, the reactor has a concrete liner

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Speaker 1: to act as a radiation shield, and around that line

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Speaker 1: inner so one layer out. Think of it as an onion.

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Speaker 1: So you've got a reactor at the core of the

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Speaker 1: onion that you've got a peel of the onion. Layer

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Speaker 1: of the onion that is the concrete liner. Then you

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Speaker 1: have another layer around that that's a steel containment vessel,

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Speaker 1: and then the power plant itself is typically made out

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Speaker 1: of very thick concrete that access sort of a final

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Speaker 1: layer of protection between the reactor and the surrounding area

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Speaker 1: if all else were to fail. In addition, the spent

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Speaker 1: fuel in a fission reactor is itself radioactive. It contains

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Speaker 1: a lot of different radioactive materials in it of various

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Speaker 1: uh half life's so some of those half lives are

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Speaker 1: on the matter of days or a couple of years,

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Speaker 1: but others last a lot longer. The equipment and parts

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Speaker 1: of a nuclear power plant can absorb energy and become

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Speaker 1: radioactive as well. That is what we call low level

404
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: radioactive material or radioactive waste. UH that is much lower

405
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Speaker 1: in radioactivity and in potential danger than say, spent fuel is.

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Speaker 1: But however, this all creates challenges when it comes to

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00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: what do you do with that stuff? What do you

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00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,320
Speaker 1: do with this waste? It's still dangerous. It emits a

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Speaker 1: lot of energy, It will eventually corrode whatever container you

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Speaker 1: put it into, and it will stay dangerous for thousands

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Speaker 1: of years, in some cases tens of thousands with high

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Speaker 1: level radiation, and it decays very slowly into stable forms,

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Speaker 1: but it'll do so long after we're gone. Keep in

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Speaker 1: mind ten thousand years. That's the length of human history.

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Speaker 1: So this waste, some of it will remain dangerously radioactive,

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Speaker 1: as in the type of radiation it gives off could

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Speaker 1: cause harm for thousands of years. The most dangerous stuff

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Speaker 1: tends to decay much faster, but it's not really that reassuring,

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Speaker 1: So we have to figure out what do we do

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Speaker 1: with this stuff? Well, nuclear power plants produce about two

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Speaker 1: thousand metric tons of nuclear waste every year. Back in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, one plan for dealing with waste involved

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Speaker 1: reprocessing the nuclear waste in order to produce new fuel,

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Speaker 1: and one of those products of reprocessing is plutonium, and

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Speaker 1: plutonium two thirty eight can be used as a nuclear fuel.

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Speaker 1: You make it by bombarding uranium two thirty eight with neutrons,

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00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: so uranium two thirty five. When you do that, that's

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Speaker 1: what you have as a uh fission fuel. Uranium two

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Speaker 1: thirty eight. You can't use that to create a sustainable

430
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Speaker 1: fission reaction, but you can bombard it with neutrons to

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Speaker 1: create plutonium two thirty eight, which in turn is a

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Speaker 1: good source for fission fuel. So that was a possibility. However,

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Speaker 1: plutonium two thirty eight can also be used to make

434
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:54,520
Speaker 1: nuclear weapons, and in the nineteen seventies, US President Jimmy

435
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 1: Carter argued that reprocessing nuclear fuel presented a grave secure

436
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,119
Speaker 1: risk that the plutonium produced would be attempting target for

437
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:07,400
Speaker 1: agents that wish to create nuclear weapons. You could have

438
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:11,200
Speaker 1: terrorists or foreign net agents that we're trying to get

439
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,920
Speaker 1: hold of that plutonium. At least that was Carter's argument,

440
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 1: and so reprocessing was kind of put on the shelf.

441
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 1: It was said, well, we're not gonna allow that process

442
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: to happen because it's too dangerous. In addition, on top

443
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: of that, reprocessing fuel was seen as being really expensive,

444
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: and it was generally thought that mining new uranium fuel

445
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: made more economic sense. So you can kind of see

446
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:40,439
Speaker 1: this in other areas too, Like in recycling. There are

447
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:45,359
Speaker 1: certain materials where recycling makes incredible sense because the amount

448
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 1: of energy and money you spend recycling that material is

449
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:52,679
Speaker 1: less than what it would take for you to mine

450
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:57,879
Speaker 1: and process new material. But some stuff like glass glass

451
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 1: is so easy to make that re cycling it is

452
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:05,480
Speaker 1: a tough sell because the process of recycling glass takes

453
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:08,160
Speaker 1: about as much energy and effort as it would take

454
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: to make brand new glass. Well, that was kind of

455
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:14,360
Speaker 1: the argument that the nuclear industry was making about reprocessing.

456
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:17,399
Speaker 1: They said, yeah, we could make more efficient use of

457
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: this fuel, but it's not like it's super cheap to

458
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 1: do compared to just getting new fuels, So why should

459
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: we invest and these reprocessing facilities which will cost a

460
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:32,880
Speaker 1: huge amount of money to create and then maintain when

461
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 1: we can just keep mining the stuff that's already there.

462
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: So there are two big arguments against reprocessing in the seventies.

463
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 1: But that would mean that we would have two different

464
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 1: sets of nuclear power plants, because you would use one

465
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 1: that has uranium two thirty five that would produce the

466
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: neutrons that you could then use to create the plutonium

467
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,960
Speaker 1: two thirty nine. And uh so you've got the uranium

468
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 1: two power plants. Those are generating a ectricity, and then

469
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: you've got the plutonium two thirty nine power plants. Those

470
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: are generating electricity to thirty five is feeding the fuel

471
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 1: into the two thirty nine plutonium ones. So they would

472
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 1: becomes what we would call a breeder plant. We call

473
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:18,080
Speaker 1: them breeders because they create the fuel that will be

474
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 1: used in a different facility. So the idea was that, hey,

475
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,640
Speaker 1: you've got a much more efficient use of the material

476
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 1: because you're you're able not actually to use it twice,

477
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:31,239
Speaker 1: but you're able to use more of the material you

478
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: have mind to produce electricity, and that's how power plants

479
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 1: in countries like France operate to this day. You have

480
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: some that are essentially those breeders, and you have others

481
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,760
Speaker 1: that are plutonium two thirty nine plants, and so in

482
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 1: France of their electricity comes from nuclear power, which means

483
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: that if there's an oil crisis or even a uranium crisis,

484
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: they're still in pretty good shape because most of their

485
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 1: power plants depend on plutonium, and you don't need that

486
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 1: much uranium to start producing plutonium in amounts large enough

487
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:10,960
Speaker 1: to create electricity. So France argues that their emphasis on

488
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:16,160
Speaker 1: nuclear power gives them more national security because they depend

489
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: less on foreign countries to produce the fuel they need.

490
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 1: Critics of Jimmy Carter's plan said that while plutonium might

491
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: have presented attempting target, it would actually in practicality be

492
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:33,280
Speaker 1: very difficult to pull off a successful plutonium heist or

493
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: an attack. But as of now in the United States,

494
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 1: reprocessing is a moot point. So that still leaves the

495
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 1: question what are we to do with nuclear waste at

496
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: the moment. Various sites around the world are acting as

497
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 1: temporary holding facilities. There's some permanent ones in other parts

498
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: of the world, but in the United States, the plants

499
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 1: that produce the waste are the ones that are storing

500
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 1: the waste on site, so usually the first step is

501
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 1: to store the way to what are called spent fuel

502
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 1: cooling pools. Uh. These are enormous tanks filled with circulating water,

503
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,040
Speaker 1: and you put the spent fuel in there to keep

504
00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 1: the fuel from overheating through its own natural radioactive decay.

505
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 1: But as those pools fill up, you gotta do something

506
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:20,400
Speaker 1: else with that spent fuel. So spent nuclear fuel at

507
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,960
Speaker 1: that point tends to be merged with glass. We we've

508
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:28,680
Speaker 1: vitrified in glass, and then we store that in steel

509
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 1: and concrete casks, which are incredibly thick and secure, and

510
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 1: in turn we put those in cooled, heavily shielded facilities. Now,

511
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: there have been several sites suggested as long term storage facilities,

512
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 1: since the stuff is going to be radioactive for tens

513
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 1: of thousands of years, so we need to find a

514
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: place to put it that's going to be far away

515
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: from people, far away from other elements of the environment

516
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 1: that could possibly contaminate, like sources of water, that kind

517
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 1: of thing. But understandably, people living in the general area

518
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:03,440
Speaker 1: around those per post sites aren't too keen to have

519
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 1: nuclear waste nearby, even if it is under tons of

520
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: stone like beneath Yuck a mountain in Nevada. Now that

521
00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: particular site is the one that has been proposed as

522
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,040
Speaker 1: the long term storage facility of the United States. But

523
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 1: Nevada does not have any nuclear power plants of its own,

524
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: so the state would be accepting incoming spent nuclear fuel

525
00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:27,720
Speaker 1: from other states. Now, that is to put it lightly

526
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 1: a hard sell. I mean, imagine, let's say that we're

527
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 1: talking about garbage instead. And let's say that the state

528
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 1: has somehow managed to create a system where they are

529
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 1: producing net zero garbage. Somehow they're able to process the

530
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: garbage to the point where they don't need any garbage

531
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: facilities because they're not generating any And then they get

532
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 1: notifications from all these states nearby that say, hey, we

533
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 1: want to put our garbage in your state. Well, most

534
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:59,360
Speaker 1: states are going to say, no, we we fixed our problem.

535
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,840
Speaker 1: We don't need to take your garbage. That's kind of

536
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 1: the way it was with Nevada. And there's there are

537
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 1: tons of different groups that oppose the storage of nuclear

538
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 1: waste and yucka mountain for lots of different reasons. There

539
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,520
Speaker 1: are cultural groups that oppose it for that reason. There

540
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 1: are state and regional groups that oppose it for kind

541
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:20,600
Speaker 1: of in that not in my backyard sort of approach.

542
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,480
Speaker 1: There are i'd say, there are people on the nuclear

543
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 1: power proponents side who would describe some of these reactions

544
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,960
Speaker 1: as knee jerk. I think that's being a little unfair, because,

545
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 1: for one, the concept of harm from nuclear waste is

546
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: one that has been deeply ingrained in the American psyche

547
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:48,080
Speaker 1: through pop culture and through news reports. So the general

548
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:53,360
Speaker 1: American has a very negative view of what might happen

549
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 1: with nuclear waste should something go wrong, So naturally you

550
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:01,200
Speaker 1: don't want it near you. Also, uh, you know, unless

551
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:06,880
Speaker 1: you're talking about significant economic uh support going into a

552
00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: state like Nevada, which does not have its own nuclear

553
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 1: power plants, to say hey, you'll you'll be the site

554
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 1: for this stuff. We're putting it in a place that

555
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:20,480
Speaker 1: nobody can go and it's far, far far away from anybody,

556
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 1: so there's not going to be any issues with contamination.

557
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: But in return, we're also going to give your state

558
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 1: the x amount of money in federal funding for being

559
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:35,320
Speaker 1: the site of this. That might go a long way

560
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 1: if you can make a very convincing argument that the

561
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:43,239
Speaker 1: whole process is safe and reliable. But getting past that

562
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 1: hump is very difficult. To do, because again, people have

563
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: a concept that nuclear waste is such a dangerous and

564
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:54,719
Speaker 1: undesirable thing that it's really hard to reassure them that

565
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:58,239
Speaker 1: there is a way to do this responsibly. Now, as

566
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,000
Speaker 1: of the recording of this podcast, Yuckum is essentially a

567
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,200
Speaker 1: no go. The Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory

568
00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 1: Commission have both requested money from Congress to continue the

569
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:12,400
Speaker 1: work building out a repository, but both have encountered stiff

570
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 1: resistance from the government. The Obama administration ended federal funding

571
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,319
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven and launched a new review for

572
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 1: potential long term storage sites. And we're kind of in

573
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:25,719
Speaker 1: a holding pattern because since then the answer has been

574
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: the same. The government has sort of refused to entertain

575
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:34,120
Speaker 1: the idea of funding the Yucca Mountain repository. Meanwhile, the

576
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 1: infrastructure for nuclear power plants is aging towards the projected

577
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:41,319
Speaker 1: end of their estimated lifespans, and facilities are having to

578
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:44,919
Speaker 1: store waste on site indefinitely. So these nuclear power plants,

579
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:49,080
Speaker 1: when they were built, they were built with the engineers saying,

580
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,239
Speaker 1: this facility, we're rating this facility for us, let's say

581
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: forty years. We think this facility will be able to

582
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,520
Speaker 1: work at full capacity for forty years, and after that

583
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,040
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to build a new one. We're gonna

584
00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:03,759
Speaker 1: have to renovate this one, we're gonna have to fix it,

585
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,680
Speaker 1: whatever it may be. And we're getting in on that time,

586
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:11,320
Speaker 1: and some of them are past that time, and unless

587
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 1: more money comes into uh totally you know, refurbish or

588
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,920
Speaker 1: to build new facilities, those will be going offline one

589
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:22,840
Speaker 1: by one. We've seen quite a few go offline since

590
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 1: the really since the eighties and moving forward. So uh,

591
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,480
Speaker 1: it's it's tough because we don't have a place to

592
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:37,359
Speaker 1: put the waste, and we're starting to shut down these

593
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 1: nuclear power plants, and because we don't have an answer

594
00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:42,360
Speaker 1: of what to do with that waste, it's really hard

595
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:46,959
Speaker 1: to build new nuclear power plants, uh, even though they

596
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:51,080
Speaker 1: currently produce about twenty of the electricity that the United

597
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:55,200
Speaker 1: States uses. So eventually, if those all those power plants

598
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 1: go dark, you've got to figure out where that is

599
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: going to come from. Because our demand for electricity isn't

600
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 1: going down, it's going up every year. So that puts

601
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 1: a huge pressure on us to figure out where else

602
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 1: are we going to get this electricity? And the easiest

603
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 1: answer is fossil fuels, but we already know fossil fuels

604
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 1: contribute to climate change. They produce pollutants that are environmental

605
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 1: and health hazards, So not a great story. Now it's

606
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:29,120
Speaker 1: easier to store low level waste. That stuff I was

607
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 1: telling you about where it's the equipment or the uniforms

608
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 1: is stuff like that stuff that was in the power

609
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 1: plant and absorbed radiation over time. Uh, But those materials

610
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 1: pose much less of a threat than spent nuclear fuel.

611
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:46,200
Speaker 1: They will tend to uh have their radiation completely diminished

612
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 1: within three years, which is still a long time, but

613
00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:51,120
Speaker 1: a heck of a lot shorter than tens of thousands

614
00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:54,920
Speaker 1: of years. And again, like I said, some of the

615
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 1: most hazardous radioactive materials have a half life of around

616
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:00,520
Speaker 1: ten years or less, but not all them do. And

617
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: that's the problem. So telling someone, hey, within twenty years,

618
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:05,840
Speaker 1: most of the stuff won't even be a problem anymore

619
00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:09,840
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily the biggest winning argument you can make to

620
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,920
Speaker 1: someone when you're trying to store nuclear waste. There. In

621
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: addition to all that, building nuclear power plants became economically challenging.

622
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 1: It's very expensive to build one, not just because the

623
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 1: technology is sophisticated and complicated and you've got to have

624
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: a lot of materials, but also there's a lot of

625
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:31,839
Speaker 1: bureaucracy surrounding the process. Not that the bureaucracy doesn't serve

626
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 1: a purpose. They're very strict protections and regulations that are

627
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:38,160
Speaker 1: in place to require facilities to be built and operate

628
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:42,080
Speaker 1: under safe guidelines. Those are absolutely necessary. There's a history

629
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:46,799
Speaker 1: of of facilities that we're not operating up to those guidelines,

630
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:51,600
Speaker 1: and that is not just criminal, but potentially deadly. So

631
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 1: those regulations and restrictions end up adding to the cost obviously,

632
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 1: and while nuclear power has compelling positive arguments compared to

633
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 1: a again like coal power plants, it might make more

634
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,400
Speaker 1: economic sense to look elsewhere if you're getting into the

635
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 1: energy biz. And then of course we have the famous disasters,

636
00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:14,239
Speaker 1: stuff like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. And as

637
00:39:14,239 --> 00:39:15,840
Speaker 1: I said, I'm going to do an episode soon that

638
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 1: explains what happened in each of those three cases and

639
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:21,759
Speaker 1: what we learned as a result of those. But they

640
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 1: certainly have gone a long way to discourage support for

641
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,879
Speaker 1: nuclear power. If you can point to a disaster that's

642
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:32,160
Speaker 1: a pretty powerful con argument, and earlier I mentioned thorium

643
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 1: reactors as a proposed alternative to the traditional you two

644
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:40,479
Speaker 1: thirty five ones. These reactors wouldn't use thorium itself for fuel. Rather,

645
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:44,640
Speaker 1: a facility would process thorium two thirty two and create

646
00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:48,400
Speaker 1: an isotope called uranium two thirty three. Uranium two thirty

647
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,440
Speaker 1: three is unstable, you will not find it out in nature,

648
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:55,319
Speaker 1: but it is fiscile, meaning like you two thirty five,

649
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:58,920
Speaker 1: you can create a sustained nuclear reaction using this fuel.

650
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,919
Speaker 1: In addition, proponents say thorium based plants would produce less

651
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,839
Speaker 1: nuclear waste, they would be more efficient at producing energy,

652
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:10,279
Speaker 1: and thorium is more plentiful than uranium. Now I'll have

653
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:12,440
Speaker 1: to do a full episode about thorium plants, but that

654
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:15,040
Speaker 1: that's further in the future. I'm not gonna do more

655
00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:18,840
Speaker 1: than one week of nuclear power stories at a time.

656
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:22,319
Speaker 1: I'll revisit that. But here's one fun local fact, something

657
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:26,360
Speaker 1: that you guys can look forward to. I learned that,

658
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:29,719
Speaker 1: and I'm amazed that I'd never heard this before, But

659
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:33,640
Speaker 1: I live within an hour of a radiated site, and

660
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,360
Speaker 1: I learned about this in a book titled Atomic Awakening.

661
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:42,120
Speaker 1: By James Mahaffee, and the radiated site is now known

662
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:45,800
Speaker 1: as the Dawson Forest Wildlife Area. That's about fifty miles

663
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 1: north of Atlanta, the city where I live, and formerly

664
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 1: this was the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory, which was a

665
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:57,560
Speaker 1: top secret R and D facility operated by the Air Force.

666
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:01,359
Speaker 1: And the story behind it is really interesting and I

667
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,840
Speaker 1: think I'm actually gonna take a little trip with guys

668
00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:07,040
Speaker 1: from stuff they don't want you to know, and we're

669
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: all going to visit it with Geiger counters. So stay

670
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,880
Speaker 1: tuned for that. I'm sure I'll give a glowing review.

671
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:15,520
Speaker 1: That about wraps it up for this episode of tech Stuff.

672
00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:18,399
Speaker 1: In our next episode, I'll talk about fusion reactors. If

673
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:21,040
Speaker 1: you guys have any suggestions for future topics I should cover,

674
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:23,840
Speaker 1: whether it's a technology, a company, person in tech, whatever

675
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 1: it may be, send me an email. The address is

676
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,960
Speaker 1: tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or drop

677
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 1: me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle it

678
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,440
Speaker 1: both of those is text Stuff H s W. Don't

679
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: forget to go to t public dot com slash tech

680
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:40,799
Speaker 1: stuff for all your tech stuff merchandise needs. There's some

681
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 1: cool designs in there. I really like them a lot.

682
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:45,839
Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys will too. See if you can

683
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:47,680
Speaker 1: take the captured test and prove to me that you're

684
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:51,640
Speaker 1: not a robot. Also, don't forget follow us on Instagram

685
00:41:51,680 --> 00:42:00,120
Speaker 1: and I will talk to you again really soon for

686
00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:02,480
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is that

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00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 1: how stuff works? Dot com m