Debu Majumdar*

Nuclear Power Technology Development Section,
Division of Nuclear Power, Department of Nuclear Energy,
IAEA, Vienna, Austria

Lectures given at the
Workshop on Nuclear Reaction Data and
Nuclear Reactors: Physics, Design and Safety
Trieste, 25 February — 28 March 2002

LNS0520004

D. Majumdar@iaea. org

Abstract

Global demand for energy is going to keep on increasing, especially in developing countries where per capita energy use is only a small fraction of that in industrialized countries. In this regard nuclear energy could play an important role, as it is an essentially unlimited source of energy. However, the nuclear option faces the challenges of increasingly demanding safety requirements, economic competitiveness and public acceptance. Worldwide, a significant amount of experience has been accumulated during development, licensing, construction, and operation of nuclear power reactors. This experience forms a sound basis for further improvements. Nuclear programs in many countries are addressing the development of advanced reactors, which are intended to have better economics, higher reliability, improved safety, and proliferation-resistant characteristics in order to overcome the current concerns about nuclear power. Advanced reactors, now being developed, could help to meet the demand for power in developed and developing countries, not only for electricity generation, but also for district heating, desalination and for process heat.

This paper reviews the status and trends in advanced nuclear power technology development around the world, discusses the challenges it faces, and summarizes the international approach and technical advances made with examples of new designs of reactors.

1. INTRODUCTION

An examination of the global energy use shows that fossil fuels account for nearly 80%, and nuclear power provides only 7%, of our current energy supply. Additionally, around 83% of nuclear power is produced only in a dozen industrialized countries out of 30 nuclear power producing countries. The demand for an increase of standard of living and population growth in developing countries are asking for a considerable increase of this energy supply. However, many factors come into play in specific countries in providing energy to the people — economics, infrastructure, and government policy being the most important factors. The effect on the environment is another crucial factor whose importance, however, has not yet received adequate attention in the energy mix.

The population of the earth, the prime reason for energy use, is increasing although the birth rate has decelerated since the early 1990s. Present trends suggest that total population may not exceed 8 billion people around 2050 and may start to decline shortly thereafter1. This is still a large increase from today’s population of 6 billion, and energy for these people must be provided. It is important to note that virtually all of this growth will occur in developing countries. Industrialized country populations have peaked or will do so shortly. Moreover, the greater part of the population increase will be urban. The proportion of people living in rural areas has already peaked and will decline in future. An indication of urbanization is that today there are five mega cities of more than 15 million habitants (Tokyo, Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo and New York), but in 20 years there will be 15, mostly located in developing countries1. In energy terms, already we have nearly 2 billion people without access to a regular electricity supply. Even with lower population projections, the challenge to achieve access to energy for all is clearly substantial. An issue here is that concentration of people requires large sources of energy nearby; this needs to be solved in a way that does not create an environmental problem for the city dwellers.

The environmental issues have received prominence since the 1990s, particularly with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, climate change possibilities and their effect on our living conditions. The Third Assessment Report of the Inter­Governmental Panel on Climate Change (February 2001)2 presented the strongest evidence yet that climate change is occurring (for example, temperatures have risen in the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere, snow and ice cover have decreased, and the sea level has risen between 0.1 and 0.2 meters in the last century). The report also finds that concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases have continued to increase as a result of human activities. However, the nations of the world have not unified in their response to this phenomenon.

Nuclear energy is one way to provide bulk electricity supply without greenhouse gas emissions; it is supported by ample uranium resources worldwide and can be made to last almost forever by using the breeder option. The nuclear industry accumulated 10,000 reactor years of operating experience. But nuclear is not without its problems. The challenges facing nuclear power include (1) continuing to assure the highest level of safe operation of current plants, (2) implementing disposal of high level waste, (3) establishing and convincing the public of a sound basis for nuclear power for sustainable development, (4) achieving further technological advances to assure that future nuclear plants will be economically competitive with fossil alternatives, especially in deregulated and privatized electricity markets, and (5) developing economical and non-proliferating small and medium sized reactors to provide nuclear power to countries with small electricity grids and also for non­electric applications such as seawater desalination.

This paper will discuss the status and trends of advanced nuclear reactors, which could help in the solution of the energy problem of the world and, at the same time, address the issues raised by the nuclear critics.