Climate Change Effects on Operations of Saint Lucie Reactor - Case Study Example

Introduction The recent tsunami attack on Japan and subsequent problems developed in many of Japan’s nuclear reactors have raised many concerns in the world about the safety and security of using nuclear power as the future energy source. It is a fact that world is facing severe energy shortage at present and many of the available energy sources are going to be finished within a short period of time. Moreover traditional energy sources such as coal, oil etc are causing severe damages to the environment and therefore nuclear power was gaining prominence. One of the major advantages of nuclear power over other conventional energy sources is less environmental problems caused by it. At the same time if some problems happen to any of the nuclear reactors, the consequences would be much more than one would anticipate. The recent accidents at Chernobyl, Three mile islands and Japan have opened the eyes of the global public and currently many studies are going on to assess the climate change effects on operations of nuclear reactors. Background “The threat of global climate change has pushed governments around the world to consider alternative energy sources, including nuclear energy. As the interest in nuclear power increases, serious discussions on safety must resume before moving forward” (Schmid, 2011, p.19). St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power station located on St. Lucie County in Florida. It is a twin unit commissioned in 1976 and operating with pressurized water reactors. This nuclear power plant is located near the ocean and has two nuclear reactors. The current nuclear reactor accidents caused in Japan due to tsunami attack have raised many concerns about the effects of climate changes on Nuclear power plants such as St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. This paper analyses the possible climate change effects on St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. Technical information (St. Lucie, n.d.) Primary System Reactor Type Two Combustion Engineering Pressurized Water Reactors with a net electrical output of 1,678 MWe Reactor Core 217 fuel assemblies Reactor Vessel 42' high; 172" inside diameter; 8.7" thickness Reactor Containment Buildings Concrete and steel construction 3' thick; 154' diameter; 243' height Secondary System Turbine Westinghouse Electric Corp. (St. Lucie, n.d.) From the above statistics, it is evident that St. Lucie nuclear power station consists of two pressurized water reactors each having electrical output of 839MWe. Pressurized water reactors are normally comes under the light water reactor (LWR) category. In all forms of pressurized water reactors, water is used as coolant which is pumped at a high pressure to the reactor’s core in order to convert it into heated water using the heat energy liberated by the fission reaction or chain reaction. It should be noted that the high pressure helps water prevents the water from becoming steam at this juncture. Heated water is then passed through a steam generator where it gets converted into steam for rotating the turbines. Governmental Policy with respect to nuclear power In America, energy policy is determined by three bodies; federal, state and local public entities. The Federal energy policy act 2005 ensures tax incentives and loan guarantees for all types of energy production in America. America’s nuclear energy policy covers all the aspects of nuclear energy such as mining nuclear fuel, extraction of nuclear fuel from the ore, generation of electricity, enriching of nuclear fuel, disposal of nuclear waste etc. According to the Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) policies, safety and security of nuclear power plants should be given the top priority. Self, reliable and low cost operation is another major necessity prescribed by FPL for the operation of nuclear power stations like St. Lucie. NextEra Energy, Inc. owns and operates the nuclear power plants at St. Lucie. United States is one of the fewest countries in the world which has privately operating nuclear power plants. In most of the countries which have nuclear power technology, the nuclear operators are operating under the strict control of the government. This is because of the fear that private people may not give much importance to the safety and security features, while dealing with nuclear reactors and in order to maximize their profits. NextEra Energy, Inc summarized their policies with respect to the operations of St. Lucie nuclear power stations as follows; Extensive programs ensure that public health and safety is protected through: Plant design, Experienced and well-trained employees, A comprehensive emergency plan, and A strong security program. NextEra Energy is dedicated to the safe, reliable operation of its nuclear power plants. That commitment is reflected in the outstanding safety performance of its plants. NextEra Energy's nuclear power plants are also low-cost producers. Uranium fuel prices are stable. That's good news for you because our nuclear power plants can help keep electric bills lower than they might otherwise be if we depended solely on oil and natural gas (Nuclear Power Serves You, 2011) According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Lucie nuclear power station is built in a low-risk seismic zone: Constructed to withstand earthquakes. It is also protected from flooding and storms since it is elevated 20 feet above sea level. Moreover it successfully withstood the back to-back impact of Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004. In addition to all the above safety measures, each and every component of this plant has multilayer softy systems such as concrete and steel-reinforced building; Additional reactor cooling system powered by steam generated by the plant itself; External cooling options etc. Moreover, one week in every six weeks, is used to prove the abilities of the plant operators in managing the plant in case of mishaps such as earthquakes, severe storms, flooding, loss-of-power, etc (St. Lucie, n. d.). As per the nuclear energy policies of St Lucie county, two emergency planning zones around the nuclear power plants are necessary: one exposure zone with a radius of 10 miles and another ingestion zone with a radius of 50 miles. Moreover, all the safety norms with respect to nuclear energy production such as reactor safety and security, reactor licensing and renewal, radioactive material handling, nuclear waste management etc are covered under the nuclear energy policies of St Lucie county. Climate Change effects on Operations of Saint Lucie Reactor “According to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the major hazards to nuclear power plants are temperature of the air and sea, the patterns, frequency and strengths of winds, rises and anomalies in sea levels etc”(Kopyotco & Perkins, 2011, p.4). “Hurricanes pose the greatest threat, and although they’re predictable enough, plant regulators sometimes don’t follow basic safety procedures. A real example is the case of hurricane Francis hitting the St. Lucie nuclear plant in Florida in 2004” (Sandru, 2011). Hurricanes are quiet regularly hitting many of the areas of America and Florida is also not an exception. It is believed that hurricanes are occurring because of climate change problems and global warming. “Anthropogenic warming by the end of the 21st century will likely cause hurricanes globally to be more intense on average (by 2 to 11% according to model projections for an IPCC A1B scenario”(Knutson, 2011). In short, the probabilities of hurricanes are increasing day by day and Florida is seems to be one of the most vulnerable states in America as far as hurricane is concerned. Nobody knows whether Saint Lucie nuclear power station is capable of overcoming the challenges of huge hurricanes or not. Apart from hurricane, Saint Lucie nuclear power station is vulnerable to floods also. As mentioned earlier, it is situated near a sea shore and therefore sea level rise and floods can cause huge damages to it. It should be noted that “Floods, such as the one from 1999 that affected the Blayais nuclear power plant on the Gironde estuary in France, caused damage to two of the reactors” (Sandru, 2011). Tsunami is another major threat to nuclear power stations such as Saint Lucie. In one of the most serious tsunami attacks of recent times, Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant suffered heavy damages. Majority of the nuclear power plants are establishing near the coastal areas because of the easiness in using sea water for the cooling purposes of the reactor. Moreover, proximity to sea may help the authorities to sink the reactor into the sea in case of a serious mishap. At the time of establishment of nuclear power plants in the past, nobody took care about the probabilities of tsunami. However, recent statistics have shown that the earthquake incidents under the sea water are increasing day by day and therefore the probabilities of tsunami are also increasing. In short, Saint Lucie nuclear power plant is not free from the threats of tsunami. As for climate change affecting earthquakes, there are tentative hints of links. Changing ice caps and sea-level redistribute weight over fault lines, which could potentially have an influence on earthquake occurrences. No studies quantify the relationship to a high level of detail, so recent earthquakes should not be linked with climate change. Additionally, shifting seas mean that climate change could lead to changes in the weight of water on undersea volcanoes. Such changes correlate with eruptions, many of which are linked with earthquakes – though the recent quakes were not (Kelman, 2011) The link between earthquakes and climatic changes are not established beyond doubts. However, some of the recent incidents forced scientists to think in terms of a possible linkage between earthquakes and climatic changes. It is difficult to study what is going on inside the earth. It is also difficult to study how atmospheric temperature rise may impact the interiors of earth. In any case, Earthquake is another problem which can cause damages to Saint Lucie nuclear power station. It should be noted that the intensities of earthquakes are growing day by day and therefore it is difficult to assume that Saint Lucie nuclear power stations may withstand to severe earthquake threats. “This subtheme captured arguments against new reactors that underscored their environmental risks, including concerns about impacts on aquatic resources, production and storage of radioactive wastes, and carbon-intensive processes required for nuclear power (i.e. mining, milling, enrichment of uranium)”(Culley et al, 2010, p.504). It is fact that the each nuclear plant is producing huge volumes of nuclear wastes and the safe disposal of nuclear waste is a big problem everywhere. In other words, both nuclear wastes and the fuel used in the nuclear reactors have the ability to liberate harmful radiations. It should be noted that Saint Lucie Reactor is located very close to heavily populated areas and more over it is located near to the sea. Because of global warming or atmospheric temperature rise, the huge ice blocks in the Polar Regions are melting and subsequently the seal level is rising. Moreover, severe earthquakes are also happening quiet frequently at present because of unknown reasons. Many of the recent earthquakes caused tsunami and the destruction of Fukushima nuclear power plant by huge tsunami waves was happened quiet recently. Under such circumstances, the threats from climate changes are increasing for Saint Lucie Reactor. Conclusions So far so good as far as the functioning of Saint Lucie nuclear power station is concerned. Even though some huge hurricanes and floods attacked, Florida in recent times, Saint Lucie nuclear power station survived all such natural attacks. Moreover, professionally trained plant operators are doing everything possible to prevent any mishaps due to climate change at Saint Lucie nuclear power station. Multilayer safety systems were incorporated to this nuclear plant in order to provide enough protection to the people living in the surrounding areas of this power station. However, drastic changes are occurring in global climates and as a result of that serious natural threats are developing. Nuclear energy is probably the best environment friendly energy source available at present even though some serious recent accidents happened to some of the nuclear power plants due to climate change problems. It is a fact that the probabilities of Hurricanes, earthquake, tsunami, flood, sea level rise etc are growing day by day and as a result of that the threats over Saint Lucie nuclear power station are also growing. It doesn’t mean that all the nuclear power stations in the world should be closed down. Instead of closing down of the nuclear power stations, it is better to develop new technologies to handle nuclear energy and nuclear power stations more effectively and safely. Like most of the other nuclear power stations, Saint Lucie nuclear power station is also situated near to the coastal area, which is a necessary condition for establishing nuclear power plants. In short, instead of thinking about the complete avoidance of nuclear energy and power stations, it is better to think in terms of enhancing the safety and security of the nuclear power stations like the one in Saint Lucie. References CULLEY M.R, OGLEY-OLIVER E., CARTON A.D AND STREET J.C. (2010). Media Framing of Proposed Nuclear Reactors: An Analysis of Print Media Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. Psychol., 20: 497–512 (2010) DOI: 10.1002/casp.1056 Kelman I. (2011), Climate Conversations - Is climate change increasing earthquakes? Retrieved from http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/climate-conversations/is-climate-change-increasing-earthquakes Kopyotco N. & Perkins J. (2011). Climate change, nuclear power, and the adaptation mitigation dilemma, Retrieved from http://york.academia.edu/NatalieKopytko/Papers/409827/Climate_change_nuclear_power_and_the_adaptation-mitigation_dilemma Knutson T.R. (2011), Global Warming and Hurricanes, Retrieved from http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/global-warming-and-hurricanes Nuclear Power Serves You (2011). Retrieved from http://www.fpl.com/environment/nuclear/nuclear_power_serves_you.shtml Sandru O. (2011). Nuclear Power Plants Vulnerable to Effects of Climate Change. Retrieved from http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2011/05/24/nuclear-plants-climate-change-vulnerable/ Schmid S.D. (2011). When safe enough is not good enough: Organizing safety at Chernobyl Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists March 1, 2011. 67(2) 19–29 DOI:10.1177/0096340211399404 St. Lucie (n.d.), Retrieved from http://www.fpl.com/environment/nuclear/pdf/stlucie.pdf Read More