All language subtitles for Tomorrows.World.Today.S04E09.The.Future.of.Nuclear.Energy.720p.WEBRip.x264-KOMPOST_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Join us on
Tomorrow's World Today

as we journey through
the worlds of inspiration,

creation, innovation
and production,

to find the ideas
and technologies

that are shaping our future.

In part two of this
four-part exploration,

George sends Greg to discover
the history of nuclear energy,

how nuclear energy is being
used in today's world,

and what tomorrow's nuclear
reactors might look like.

Hi, everyone.
I'm Greg Constantino.

Now, George has me
on a very special assignment.

I'm gonna be looking at
the past, present and future

of nuclear energy.

Now, we're gonna start off

by looking at the beginnings of nuclear
research and the creation of fission.

Next, we'll look at
nuclear power today,

and safety, a topic on
a lot of people's minds.

And lastly, we're going to
leap into the future,

look at some of the innovations
happening with this amazing technology,

and also get a look at the
advanced reactors of tomorrow.

Now, I can't think of any better way to
start this off than by talking to Don Miley.

Now, Don is a legend
in the nuclear world,

because of his encyclopedic
knowledge of the industry.

Let's go meet him now.

Hey, Don.

Greg, welcome to
Idaho National Lab.

[Greg] Thanks for having me.

- I'm very excited to be here today.
- We're excited to have you.

So, Don, here we are at EBR-I,

the EBR-I Museum,
tell me about that.

[Don] So, "Experimental
Breeder Reactor One",

this was the first reactor built

at the National Reactor
Testing Station.

It was built by
Argonne National Laboratory.

First of 52 reactors built
here in Idaho.

And this was the
first place in the world

to make a useable amount of
electricity from splitting atoms.

And that's really what we're
here to learn about today.

Tell me about fission.

So, fission, splitting atoms.

That is exactly what
nuclear reactors do.

We use atoms of Uranium-235
that are naturally occurring in nature.

We mine those like
most other elements.

And Uranium-235
has this wonderful ability

that when struck by a neutron,

it will split into
two new atoms.

And the energy that had bound
that together as a cohesive atom,

when you break that bond,

a lot of that energy is
released in the form of heat.

And what makes this useful,

is as that atom is splitting
into two new atoms,

two to three neutrons
are released,

which will go on to strike
more atoms of Uranium-235,

getting more heat
for more neutrons and heat.

So, that's the chain reaction
we talk about.

And we harness that heat
to turn water into steam,

steam turns a turbine,
which turns a generator,

just like a coal-fired
power plant.

But, we're not physically
burning anything,

we're splitting atoms.

Right, which is keeping
that carbon footprint small.

Exactly what we wanna do, yeah.

Great, well, I wanna find out
everything about everything

you do here,
so how about a tour?

Might as well,
you're in the right place.

[Don] Greg, here we are
in the control room for EBR-I.

When this was operating, one operator
sat right here and ran the reactor.

[Greg] Wow, that's amazing.

Now, Don, explain to me, what's it
mean when a reactor "goes critical"?

"Critical" just means it's at full
power and that's what we want.

All right, well, let's take
a look at a reactor.

Let's go.

So, Don, we're actually
looking at the top of the reactor.

[Don] Correct. That is the
reactor head, the lid, if you will.

Beneath that lid
would be the fuel rods,

which we have
on the display here.

Very small diameter,
10-foot long,

only eight-and-a-half inches
of Uranium-235 fuel.

And that is something amazing
about nuclear, is energy density.

The core at eight-and-a-half
inches tall, about that big around,

generated a lot of heat.

The primary coolant entered
at 440 degrees Fahrenheit,

flowed up the rods and out
these holes at 600 degrees,

at 300 gallons a minute.

And that's how we get to
the point where this reactor

generated the first
and usable electricity.

That is right.

- Why don't we go look at the turbine?
- Okay.

[Don] Let's go.

So, Don, is this
the actual turbine

that generated the electricity
from EBR-I?

Yes, it is. This turbine
is what they were

spinning with the steam
which turned the generator.

They made electricity, lighting four
light bulbs on December 20th, 1951.

[Greg] Now, I know you had bigger goals
that just lighting up a few light bulbs.

Is this also the generator
that lit up the town of Arco?

[Don] It is not, actually.

That was at a reactor about a half-mile
away from here that was called BORAX-III.

Okay, now I know that EBR-I led you down the
road to learn a lot of new safety protocols.

And I'm very interested in
that, so can we take a look?

Let's go take a look.

Greg, here we have
a replica of what

the Experimental Breeder
Reactor-II control room looked like.

So, this is where you put
all of the safety things that

you learned doing EBR-I
into practice.

That's right,
let me show you how.

Greg, this is probably
the best way to show

the importance of the safety of
EBR-II and how they achieved it.

The reactor itself sat in a tank of
86,000 gallons of sodium coolant.

Argonne, in 1986 ran
an experiment with EBR-II,

in which they had the reactor
at full power,

they disabled all
safety systems,

automatic safety systems,

and they turned their
primary pumps off.

Nobody in the world thought that
was a great idea with the reactor.

In this case, what happened was,

without the coolant flowing,
the static coolant,

the temperature began to rise.

So, that rose to the surface,

dissipated the heat
and fell to the bottom again.

Convection currents formed.

And at the same time,
the fuel in EBR-II

is a little different than
our powerplants today.

This was metallic uranium,

instead of uranium oxide that
the light water reactors use.

Metallic fuel will
begin to expand

and neutrons
leak out of the core

and it shuts itself down.

It is inherently safe
in this design.

Well, Don, thank you very much.

- This has been excellent.
- Thank you.

I'm heading out to
Oak Ridge National Labs now.

- Say hi to my friends there.
- Will do.

Now, that we've learned about
the history of nuclear energy,

I'd like to dive a little bit
more deeply

into the safety
of this technology.

I'm gonna meet with
Dr. Rita Baranwal.

She's with the Electric
Power Research Institute.

And we're gonna
talk about safety

and also about nuclear power's
contribution to today's energy mix.

- Hi, Rita.
- Hi, Greg.

So, Rita, we've learned
that nuclear energy

is going to be a major part
of the clean energy mix,

for the entire world,
moving forward.

But, people do have concerns

and they're generally
about safety.

Is it safe?

It's absolutely safe.

But, let me talk about
the energy mix for a moment.

Moving forward,
the clean energy mix,

studies have shown, are gonna be

about 80% renewables.

The remaining 20% really needs
to come from nuclear.

Nuclear powerplants
follow the strictest

and highest standard of safety,

security, cyber-security,
and emergency preparedness.

And nuclear powerplants
are designed such that

they operate as remote islands.

And, so they are protected
from cyber-threats.

All right, well, there's a
thing called value proposition,

as regards to nuclear energy,

and I want to find out
a little bit more about that.

So, Rita, when we talk about the
value proposition of nuclear energy,

what we're really talking
about is the carbon footprint.

Nuclear has always been
a clean energy source.

It's really important in
a clean energy mix

when we talk about
de-carbonization.

For example, in 2019,

nuclear energy avoided 476
million metric tons of CO2 emissions.

What that really equates to,

is the equivalent of taking
100 million cars off the road.

Wow.

Now, in terms of
an actual footprint,

a 1,000-megawatt
nuclear powerplant

will require about
one square mile of land area.

Compare that to a windmill
farm of an equivalent output,

that'll require about
360 times the landmass.

And a similar sized output
from a solar photovoltaic plant,

is going to require about
75 times the landmass.

While it's very important that we
have all of those clean energy sources

in a clean energy portfolio
going forward,

nuclear powerplants require
the smallest actual footprint.

Right, and in terms of
reliability as well.

I mean, wind and solar,
they are great and amazing

and they're going to be
a big part of this.

But, they are weather-dependent.

Absolutely, and nuclear energy
and nuclear power

are a 24/7, 365 available
energy source for electricity.

And given our unfortunate
climate events

that we're seeing around
the globe recently,

it's really important to have
nuclear energy as part of that mix,

so that you do have reliable
and resilient power.

And that's a part of
the key, too,

in what we're learning about
energy poverty

and getting power
to places that,

either have no electricity,

or have very
unreliable electricity.

And I talked about those
larger 1000-megwatt plants.

The exciting part of this
industry is that

we're innovating and
developing smaller reactors.

Including micro-reactors

which are 10 to 20 megawatts
in size.

And small modular reactors which
are up to 300 megawatts in size.

Those can be deployed
more rapidly to communities

that either have no
electricity, as you mentioned,

or don't have reliable
electricity much faster

than a larger 1,000-megawatt
scale plant could be deployed.

So, this is a great way
to get remote locations

- clean and reliable power.
- Exactly.

So, Rita, when it comes
to nuclear energy,

one of the main things that people
are concerned about is nuclear waste.

So, tell me, what is it,
and how are we handling it?

Nuclear waste, or used nuclear
fuel from a commercial powerplant,

actually goes into
the reactor as a solid

and it also comes out
of the reactor as a solid.

After that, there's two different
paths that can be pursued.

One is, to prepare that used
fuel for permanent storage.

And the other, is to recycle
that used fuel for reuse.

And what's really exciting
about advanced reactor designs

is that some of those concepts

are planning to use
used fuel in their designs,

thereby reducing the amount of
used fuel that's really out there.

That's great, but, now, when we
talk about that permeant storage,

how much are we talking about?

Well, for example, in the
United States since the 1950s,

the amount of used fuel
that's been generated

is only enough to cover a American
football field, 10-yards deep.

That's amazing.
Rita, this has been great.

Thanks for all
the great information.

I'm heading over to
Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

I'm gonna meet with
Kathy McCarthy.

[Kathy] We're standing at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

in the visitors' center

and actually in front of a mural
that has highlights of all sorts of

amazing things that
have happened here.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
has both

the facilities and the expertise

to solve some of
the hardest problems

that are facing humankind.

Oak Ridge has a long history

in nuclear science and
technology and reactors, specifically,

over seven decades
of experience.

In the work that
we're doing currently,

we're supporting both, the
current fleet of nuclear reactors.

They provide over half of the
carbon-free electricity generation

in the United States.

Bu we're also supporting
advanced nuclear reactors.

The US ITER project office

is located here at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

ITER's an experiment that's
being built in southern France

to demonstrate
sustainable fusion energy.

A step towards
practical fusion energy.

- Hi, Kathy.
- Hey, Greg.

Now, Kathy,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

has over seven decades of
experience in the nuclear power industry.

That's a lot of history, but
as I look around this room,

I feel like I see the future
of nuclear energy.

That's exactly right.

What you see here is an example

of the kind of modelling
and simulation that we can do.

We can do that because we have
very powerful computers,

and we also understand the
nuclear science and technology

that goes into the models
that we're developing.

These models can be used
in a lot of different ways.

One of the applications
is we can use these models

to look at if we make changes
to a design, for example,

what kind of benefit does
that have on the economics?

And that's an important part.

Right, and I guess that
would also play into

keeping the current
nuclear fleet

operating past its
initial life expectancy.

Tell me about that.

So, the original
licensing period

for nuclear reactors
is 40 years.

That was based on
the Atomic Energy Act,

on antitrust and
depreciation laws.

No, it was not a connection
to the technical length

of time that a reactor
could operate.

So, there's the 40 years,

and there's also a process for
20-year extensions to that 40 years.

So, for each of
those extensions,

the owner-operator needs
to show that they can

operate safely through these
extended licensing periods.

So, this was an economic
concern, not a safety concern.

Yeah, that's true.

Because what the plants
need to demonstrate

is that it'll continue
to operate safely.

And that may require investments

in replacing components,
in repairing components,

and so, in the end,
it's that economic decision.

And as more technical innovations
are made in reactor construction,

there might come a point of
diminishing returns on that upgrade?

That's absolutely right,

and the other piece of that is,

with some of the advanced
reactors under development,

you can use them in a
broader range of applications.

So, for example,

in some of the reactors they
have a hotter outlet temperature.

That means you can apply it into
different things, like, for example,

in the chemical industry,

where currently they use
natural gas

that produces greenhouse gases.

If they want to reduce
their carbon footprint,

nuclear's a potential option.

These reactors, some of them,

give you this higher
outlet temperature,

which allows these
other applications.

Right, well, the chemistry
thing kind of brings us

to my next question which
is fission versus fusion.

So, fission and fusion,
they're both nuclear reactions.

They involve the nucleus
of the atoms.

So, if you think about
your periodic table,

and you've got the lighter
ones up at the top,

down to the heavier ones.

The heavier ones, fission, you're
actually breaking apart these heavy atoms,

that produces energy,

what we call fission products,
which are radioactive,

and neutrons.

In fusion, you're putting
together lighter atoms.

And, so, hydrogen isotopes,
for example,

you get energy,
helium and neutrons.

So, the difference really is the
radioactivity of the fission products.

Okay, and that leads us to

one of the most exciting
developments in nuclear energy today.

It's called ITER.

I know that you have
an ITER pellet lab

here on site,
and I'd really like to see it.

Great, I'd be happy
to show it to you.

So, Kathy, this is the pellet
smashing injector,

which is by far my favorite name
for a high-tech piece of scientific gear.

And this is part of
the safety protocol for ITER,

we'll get into that
in just a minute.

But first, tell me what
can we expect from ITER.

So, ITER, which means
"the way" in Latin,

was designed, and now
is being assembled

first and foremost,
so that we can understand

the physics behind
a self-sustained plasma,

what we call a burning plasma.

So, you heat that plasma up,

but then you don't to have to
keep having external heating.

You want it to be
self-sustaining.

Okay, so, I know that
plasma's really hot,

and this is meant
to cool it down.

So, explain to me
how this works.

[Kathy] So, the shattered
pellet injector

actually is used to dissipate
the heat from the plasma.

So, ITER is, first and
foremost, an experiment.

And in an experiment,

you have to be prepared
for things

not operating quite the way
that they'll need to

ultimately in
a commercial plant.

This is actually what
the fuel pellet looks like,

in terms of size and shape.

And the way that this
test stand works...

And this will be similar
to how it works in ITER.

We form the pellets here.

And the way we do that is,
we've got liquid helium.

So, about four degrees kelvin,

which is
minus 269 degrees centigrade.

And we use a process
called de-sublimation.

So, we're basically turning
a gas into a solid.

Very, very cold.

- You can think about freezing.
- Mmm-hmm.

That's done in this
section right here.

Now, in ITER, those pellets
will be there in the system

- already ready to go.
- Okay.

We use gas to push the pellet

into this section.

And we've got all of this
instrumented with cameras.

So that we'll be able to see
what happens,

because how this pellet
shatters is key to the experiment.

In this section here
and this section here,

we're pulling the gas off

that you used to
push the pellet through.

Because, all you want
to go into the plasma

is the pellet itself.

Because, the gas will actually

cause us to lose
confinement of the plasma.

And we don't wanna do that.

Then, the pellet comes
into this section.

And this is what simulates the
tokamak, inside of the tokamak.

- [Greg] Okay.
- [Kathy] And then, we want to understand again

how this pellet shatters.

So that we can make sure that it
will uniformly dissipate the heat.

And, I guess that's the same,
sort of, theory

as take a hot cup of tea
and you drop an ice cube in it.

It'll cool it down,
but it takes a while.

But, if you dumped a bunch
of crushed ice into it,

it cools it down much
more quickly.

That's right, and it's not
just the much more quickly,

it's also
the uniformity of cooling,

it's much better when you've
got those different pieces.

[Greg] Okay, now, I know that just one
of these injectors is not gonna be enough

to cool down that
kind of a reaction.

How many of these
injectors will be

positioned around the tokamak?

So, ITER will have 27
shattered pellet injectors.

24 of them around
the circumference,

and then three from up on top.

And exactly how will
the cooling action take place?

So, what happens is these
shattered pellet injectors

will fire, basically,
simultaneously.

They'll fire their pellets
into the very hot plasma.

And how do you make sure that
they all fire off at the same time?

[Kathy] So, we can do that via
sending an electronic signal.

And the reason why we need to have
it happen, basically simultaneously,

is the plasma will cool
very, very quickly.

We're talking on the order
of milliseconds.

[Greg] Wow.

[Kathy] And you don't want one
side to cool before the other side.

You want to uniformly
dissipate the heat

and it will dissipate quickly.

Okay, so, we're going from

really high temperatures
to really low temperatures.

What kind of temperatures
are we actually talking about?

So, think about the temperature
of the center of the sun,

which is 15 million
degrees centigrade.

The plasma is actually
ten times hotter than that.

That's a 150 million degrees.

How do you even know
you can do that?

It's been done in
laboratories already.

Our challenge here is to do it
for longer periods of time.

That's one of
the big challenges.

Okay, now, when ITER
goes online,

which is around the
mid-2020s, around 2025,

what can we expect?

So, in the mid-2020s, in
what's called "first plasma",

that's where we'll demonstrate an
integrated operation of these major systems.

We've got
super-conducting magnets.

We've got the system that keeps
the super-conducting magnets cold.

We have this large
vacuum vessel.

All of this at plant scale.

So, first demonstrating
that those systems

all work in an integrated sense.

Then, we move towards full
deuterium, tritium operations.

This is the fueled portion
of the ITER operations.

And at that point,

that's when we'll be
able to demonstrate

a self-sustained plasma,
or a burning plasma.

And that would be
in the mid-2030s.

Well, Kathy,
this is super exciting stuff

that we'll be sure to
keep an eye on.

Thank you very much.

And thank all of you
for being with us

for a continuing exploration
of nuclear energy.

Now, in our next episode,

we're gonna look at more
of this amazing technology

and its role in
tomorrow's world.

For Tomorrow's World Today,

I'm Greg Constantino.