Uranium & Nuclear Energy FACTSHEET

Uranium is a natural part of many rocks and is barely radioactive - very much less so than many of the other elements usually found with it.  But even so, it provides the main heat source inside the Earth, causing convection and continental drift.

How natural is nuclear energy?

The first nuclear reactors started up and operated naturally about 2000 million years ago, in a uranium orebody, in west Africa[1].  Nuclear fission long predates human technology.

And the Sun is a large nuclear reactor![2]

How much from Australia and Canada?

Australia provides about 21% of the world’s uranium, representing 37 percent of Australia's energy exports in thermal terms.  Australia has 23% of the world’s known uranium resources.

Canada provides about 23% of the world’s uranium.  Canada has 8% of the world’s known uranium resources.  Both coun tries have the prospect of much more as current exploration programs bear fruit.

Canadian uranium production amounts to about 9500 t uranium per year, Australia's is about 8500 tonnes. Its use for power generation avoids some 415 and 370 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions (relative to coal) respectively. 

How sufficient and sustainable?

Known economic resources of uranium are equivalent to 85 years of present consumption, and there is much scope for identifying more.  Little uranium exploration was done between mid 1980s and recently. 

With a change in reactor technology which is well-proven but not yet economic, even present known resources would be sufficient for hundreds of years. 

When uranium is used to generate electricity it produces no pollution or greenhouse gases.  Even taking account of the greenhouse gases from the production, treatment and transport of the uranium, it is still responsible for very little - less than 5% of that from fossil fuels. 

How significant?

Nuclear energy provides 15% of world electricity (24% in developed countries).  Today there is as much electricity generated by nuclear power as from all sources worldwide in 1961. There have been over 13,000 reactor-years of operation for civil nuclear power (and about the same for naval reactors). 

France gets over 75% of its electricity from nuclear power.  It is the world’s largest electricity exporter, and gains over $3 billion per year from that. 

There are some 440 nuclear reactors in 31 countries, totalling 373 million kilowatts (GWe) capacity, and producing 2600 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2007 (13 times Australian total and 4 times Canada's).    56 countries operate more than 280 research reactors.  Over 200 reactors are currently used for naval propulsion. 

Uranium as produced from mines contains 20,000 times as much energy per kilogram as coal.  

To supply Australia's gross electricity production, 6000 tonnes U3O8 per year would be needed if utilising nuclear power - a little over half our present production. 

A 1000-megawatt reactor producing 7 billion kWh per year supplies up to one million people (at Western average consumption). 

What potential?

To produce all today's base-load power (that part of the demand requiring continuous, reliable supply) worldwide would require about 1700 nuclear reactors[3].  The figure in 2030 would be almost double. 

Nuclear energy is widely considered the most promising means of cleanly making hydrogen, initially by electrolysis, but later by thermochemical means. 

If in 2050 nuclear reactors also produce most of the world's hydrogen, which by then is the main transport fuel, there could be over 8000 reactors for electricity, plus 1300 units for the hydrogen: say a total of 9500[4] worldwide. 

How quickly can they be built?

Most reactors today are built in under five years (first concrete to first power), with four years being state of the art and three years being the aim with prefabrication.  Several years are required for preliminary approvals before construction. 

In the 1980s, 218 power reactors started up, an average of one every 17 days. 

How economically competitive is nuclear power?

Today nuclear power is competitive with coal and gas in most parts of the world - which is why 35 or so reactors are under construction and nearly one hundred more are planned.  China plans a fivefold expansion in nuclear power capacity by 2020.

If the costs of carbon emissions are factored in to fossil fuels, it becomes universally competitive, even in Australia.

What about wastes?

Nuclear power is the only energy producing industry which takes full responsibility for all its wastes, and fully costs this into the product[5].  High-level civil wastes - mostly used fuel - are contained and managed safely, and have been - virtually without incident - for 50 years.  

The heat and radioactivity from used fuel diminish significantly, eg to less than 0.1% of original, by 50 years.  Hence storage for several decades means they are more easily handled for eventual disposal. 

In relation to waste disposal, there are multiple provisions or barriers protecting people and the environment: they are to be immobilised as solids, sealed, and buried deep in stable rock formations.  There are two broad strategies: direct disposal, and reprocessing to recover useful content for recycle.  Either way, the net cost comes to about 5% of electricity generation cost. 

What about Plutonium?

When uranium is "burned" in a reactor, some plutonium is formed.  Much of this is a valuable energy source like the fissile portion of the uranium (ie U-235).  This plutonium provides about one third of the energy from a typical reactor. 

Reprocessing used fuel with recycle of plutonium into fresh mixed oxide (MOX) fuel extracts about 30% more energy from the original fuel.  MOX is mainly used in Europe but will be important in Japan.  Currently 10-12 tonnes plutonium is used in MOX fuel each year (of about 100 tonnes generated).  This reactor plutonium is very different from weapons-grade plutonium. 

Megatonnes to Megawatts

Ex-weapons uranium is now well established as a source of fuel for power generation. One tenth of US electricity (ie half of the nuclear electricity) has been generated from Russian ex-weapons uranium.  

Military plutonium is now starting to be made into MOX.  This is an important disposal option since the plutonium will be permanently removed as it is burned. 

Greenhouse significance?

Nuclear power generation emits no carbon dioxide (CO₂), and worldwide it avoids the emission of about 2.5 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year (relative to coal).  Other electricity generation emits about 9.5 billion tonnes per year[6].  Every 22 tonnes of uranium used for generating electricity saves about one million tonnes of CO₂ relative to coal[7].  

A carbon emission cost of $10 per tonne CO₂ on black coal would lift electricity generation costs from those sources by one cent per kWh.  The European Emission Trading Scheme has been pricing CO₂ emissions in 2008 at around €20- 25 per tonne. 

Safety?

Nuclear power has an excellent - and arguably unmatched - safety record, considering over 13,000 reactor years of nuclear power generation.  Typical reactors, even with a worst-case accident involving melting of the core, are safe for their neighbours.  Newer ones are improved further. 

The Chernobyl disaster tragically showed why such reactors were never licensed outside the Soviet Union.  Some early Russian reactors remain a concern. 

Do nuclear plants use a lot of water?

If they have to employ evaporative cooling towers, nuclear power plants use the same amount of water as any others with the same size and thermal efficiency. 

In practice, nuclear plants are often sited on the coast so that they are cooled with seawater, and hence use up no fresh water.  (Coal-fired plants are usually located on coalfields, otherwise a lot of coal has to be moved to them.  Hence they normally employ evaporative cooling.) 

If Australia's coal-fired power generation were replaced by coastal nuclear plants it would save the equivalent of Melbourne's entire water supply (400 GL/yr). 

How secure from misuse?  What about proliferation of nuclear weapons?

All traded uranium is used for electricity. Uranium is only exported to countries which have signed the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty and usually with which the supplying country has a bilateral safeguards treaty. 

Avoiding nuclear weapons proliferation has been a high priority from the inception of nuclear power - which in at least four countries arose from weapons programs.  Nuclear safeguards are international means of accounting and auditing the disposition of fissile materials. 

No uranium traded for electricity production has ever been diverted for military use.  No weapons program has ever arisen out of civil nuclear power.  

Civil plutonium is unsuitable for weapons, but is also subject to rigorous accounting and auditing under the international safeguards system. 

National safeguards organisations in supplying countries work closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which inspects nuclear facilities worldwide to ensure materials are not diverted from civil use for non-peaceful purposes.

How much nuclear power is used around the world?

16 percent of world electricity is generated from nuclear power, using uranium as the fuel in about 440 nuclear power reactors.
How much is used in Australia?

None. We only have a small research reactor which produces medical isotopes.
Why is it used? 

Because in many places it produces electricity cheaper than alternatives, and does so cleanly - without toxic or carbon dioxide emissions. The electricity produced is continuous, reliable and on a relatively large scale, thus meeting the main kind of demand.
Today the environmental virtues of nuclear power are increasingly attractive also - it produces virtually no emissions.
What are the alternatives?

For large-scale, continuous reliable supply of electricity the only alternatives are normally coal and gas. Coal is plentiful and cheap but gives rise to about one kilogram of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour. Gas is a very valuable and versatile fuel and chemical feedstock, which is reflected in its high price.
Renewables such as wind power though clean, are not  a complete alternative because they cannot provide continuous reliable supply, let alone at low cost.
What effect does nuclear power have on the environment?

Virtually none, since all wastes are contained and managed. The main environmental effect is positive - where nuclear power is used instead of fossil fuels it means that carbon dioxide emissions are avoided. Today well over two billion tonnes of such emission are avoided each year because of nuclear power - most important in relation to climate change concerns.
What about radiation? 

Radiation is naturally part of our environment - we are all exposed to it all the time. Nuclear power does not cause any harmful increase in our exposure to it. Radiation is scientifically understood, easily detected and precisely measured - radioactive materials are used in hundreds of ways to improve the quality of life for everyone.
Does nuclear power give rise to nuclear weapons?

No. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 60 years ago, are the only occasions on which atom bombs have been used in war and these preceded nuclear power for electricity. Civil nuclear power plants have never caused weapons proliferation.
In fact the safeguards regime under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) represents one of the great success stories of the UN, even if we now wish it had been even more ambitious. In the 1960s it was widely assumed at there would be 30-35 nuclear weapons states by the turn of the century. In fact there were eight - a tremendous testimony to the effectiveness of the NPT and its linked incentives both against weapons and for civil nuclear power.

World Nuclear Association
London

11/08