Nuclear power

Nuclear power provides 18 % of the world’s electricity overall. Though a certain amount of CO2 is released in the process of building a nuclear plant, there’s no question that nuclear power is far kinder to the climate than fossil fuels. The unsolved problem of disposing of nuclear waste remains a key point, as does the risk of accidents like Chernobyl in 1986.

How much will hydrogen help?

Hydrogen, the simplest and most abundant in the universe, has been hyped as a solution to the greenhouse crisis in recent years, especially in the US. In truth, hydrogen is no panacea for global warming. Indeed, hydrogen isn’t really even an energy source, as we have to use power from other sources to produce the pure hydrogen gas that’s useful as fuel. That said, hydrogen does hold great potential as a clean and portable energy store, so if we can generate enough low-carbon electricity to manufacture hydrogen on a massive scale, it could be the perfect solution for fuelling tomorrow’s vehicles – and for other uses such as domestic heating.

On our planet, hydrogen is usually bound to other molecules – as in water (H2O). But in its pure form, H2, hydrogen is a lightweight gas (or a liquid at extremely low temperatures) that contains a great deal of energy. Hydrogen gas can be burned directly as a fuel, but the preferred means of exploiting it is through fuel cells, which convert hydrogen into electricity. This process produces zero greenhouse emissions and other pollutants – the only byproduct is steam.

The potential for zero-emissions vehicles has generated the recent buzz and drawn some big-time investment. The EU’s European Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform is part of a decade-long effort. In the US, the Bush administration launched a $ 1.7-billion program in 2004 aimed at bringing hydrogen-fuelled vehicles into the marketplace by 2020. General Motors has set itself an even more ambitious target of selling hydrogen cars by 2010.

However, before hydrogen can provide energy to fuel cells, the gas first has to be broken off from other molecules, stored and distributed. Not only is each of these steps a daunting technical challenge in itself, but each one also consumes energy.

Production. Currently, the cheapest technique for producing hydrogen involves breaking down natural gas into H2 and carbon dioxide. This is far from being a carbon-neutral process, and it’s expensive, too: hydrogen is still more than twice as costly as the same energy in the form of petrol. It’s possible to generate hydrogen by splitting up water molecules, but right now that process is even more expensive than the alternatives. Improvements in technology should gradually bring down production costs, but it may be a decade or more before hydrogen can complete on economic terms with petrol. Of course, that picture could change if more stringent emission targets are put in place – or if oil supplies diminish faster than expected. Equally, developments in capturing and storing carbon could make hydrogen creation more carbon-neutral.

1. Fill in the following table. Discuss the alternatives to fossil-fuel-based electricity sources.

The alternatives to fossil-fuel-based electricity sources	Sequestration: capturing carbon	Solar power	Wind power	Geothermal energy	Hydroelectric, tidal and wave power	Nuclear power
Improvements in technology

4. What are the perspectives of nuclear energy technology in Russia? Read the following information and discuss the development of new generation nuclear energy technology in our country with your partner.

Russia to spend $3.8bln on nuclear energy technology in 2010-2012

The information is taken from http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///13115/3//

Russia will allocate over 120 billion rubles ($3.8 billion) for a federal program to develop new generation nuclear energy technology in 2010-2012, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said. Speaking at a session of the commission for the modernization and technological development of the economy, Medvedev said that creating conditions for scientific advances in the field of physics was a top priority state task. "For this purpose, the government has prepared a medium-term federal target program of new generation nuclear energy technology," Medvedev said. The president said that the program would receive financing from next year.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16