Nuclear power

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Atomic power" redirects here. For the film, see Atomic Power (film).
For countries with the power or ability to project nuclear weapons, see List of
states with nuclear weapons.

The Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant in Switzerland

Growth of worldwide nuclear power generation

Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power
can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions.
Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by
nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants. Nuclear decay
processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric
generators in some space probes such as Voyager 2.[1] Reactors producing controlled
fusion power have been operated since 1958 but have yet to generate net power and
are not expected to be commercially available in the near future.[2]

The first nuclear power plant was built in the 1950s. The global installed nuclear
capacity grew to 100 GW in the late 1970s, and then expanded during the 1980s,
reaching 300 GW by 1990. The 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States
and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union resulted in increased
regulation and public opposition to nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants
supplied 2,602 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2023, equivalent to about 9%
of global electricity generation,[3] and were the second largest low-carbon power
source after hydroelectricity. As of November 2024, there are 415 civilian fission
reactors in the world, with overall capacity of 374 GW,[4] 66 under construction
and 87 planned, with a combined capacity of 72 GW and 84 GW, respectively.[5] The
United States has the largest fleet of nuclear reactors, generating almost 800 TWh
of low-carbon electricity per year with an average capacity factor of 92%. The
average global capacity factor is 89%.[4] Most new reactors under construction are
generation III reactors in Asia.

Nuclear power is a safe, sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions.
This is because nuclear power generation causes one of the lowest levels of
fatalities per unit of energy generated compared to other energy sources.
"Economists estimate that each nuclear plant built could save more than 800,000
life years."[6] Coal, petroleum, natural gas and hydroelectricity have each caused
more fatalities per unit of energy due to air pollution and accidents. Nuclear
power plants also emit no greenhouse gases and result in less life-cycle carbon
emissions than common "renewables". The radiological hazards associated with
nuclear power are the primary motivations of the anti-nuclear movement, which
contends that nuclear power poses threats to people and the environment, citing the
potential for accidents like the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, and
is too expensive to deploy when compared to alternative sustainable energy sources.

History
Main article: History of nuclear power
Origins
The first light bulbs ever lit by electricity generated by nuclear power at EBR-1
at Argonne National Laboratory-West, December 20, 1951.[7]
The process of nuclear fission was discovered in 1938 after over four decades of
work on the science of radioactivity and the elaboration of new nuclear physics
that described the components of atoms. Soon after the discovery of the fission
process, it was realized that neutrons released by a fissioning nucleus could,
under the right conditions, induce fissions in nearby nuclei, thus initiating a
self-sustaining chain reaction.[8] Once this was experimentally confirmed in 1939,
scientists in many countries petitioned their governments for support for nuclear
fission research, just on the cusp of World War II, in order to develop a nuclear
weapon.[9]

In the United States, these research efforts led to the creation of the first
human-made nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1 under the Stagg Field stadium at the
University of Chicago, which achieved criticality on December 2, 1942. The
reactor's development was part of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to
create atomic bombs during World War II. It led to the building of larger single-
purpose production reactors for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for use
in the first nuclear weapons. The United States tested the first nuclear weapon in
July 1945, the Trinity test, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
happened one month later.

The launching ceremony of USS Nautilus January 1954. In 1958 it would become the
first vessel to reach the North Pole.[10]

The Calder Hall nuclear power station in the United Kingdom, the world's first
commercial nuclear power station
Despite the military nature of the first nuclear devices, there was strong optimism
in the 1940s and 1950s that nuclear power could provide cheap and endless energy.
[11] Electricity was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor on December
20, 1951, at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho, which initially
produced about 100 kW.[12][13] In 1953, American President Dwight Eisenhower gave
his "Atoms for Peace" speech at the United Nations, emphasizing the need to develop
"peaceful" uses of nuclear power quickly. This was followed by the Atomic Energy
Act of 1954 which allowed rapid declassification of U.S. reactor technology and
encouraged development by the private sector.

First power generation

The first organization to develop practical nuclear power was the U.S. Navy, with
the S1W reactor for the purpose of propelling submarines and aircraft carriers. The
first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, was put to sea in January 1954.[14]
[15] The S1W reactor was a pressurized water reactor. This design was chosen
because it was simpler, more compact, and easier to operate compared to alternative
designs, thus more suitable to be used in submarines. This decision would result in
the PWR being the reactor of choice also for power generation, thus having a
lasting impact on the civilian electricity market in the years to come.[16]

On June 27, 1954, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant in the USSR became the world's
first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid, producing
around 5 megawatts of electric power.[17] The world's first commercial nuclear
power station, Calder Hall at Windscale, England was connected to the national
power grid on 27 August 1956. In common with a number of other generation I
reactors, the plant had the dual purpose of producing electricity and plutonium-
239, the latter for the nascent nuclear weapons program in Britain.[18]

Expansion and first opposition

The total global installed nuclear capacity initially rose relatively quickly,
rising from less than 1 gigawatt (GW) in 1960 to 100 GW in the late 1970s.[14]
During the 1970s and 1980s rising economic costs (related to extended construction
times largely due to regulatory changes and pressure-group litigation)[19] and
falling fossil fuel prices made nuclear power plants then under construction less
attractive. In the 1980s in the U.S. and 1990s in Europe, the flat electric grid
growth and electricity liberalization also made the addition of large new baseload
energy generators economically unattractive.