clean nuclear energy
The nuclear energy It has always been stigmatized as a type of energy that pollutes, generates waste and is harmful to the environment and the health of living beings. In this article we will talk about a nuance of nuclear energy that gives it an environmentally friendly value.
To learn more about efficient energy management and, the Master in Efficient Management of Renewable Energies and the Master in BIM and Efficient Energy Management You will have extensive knowledge in this area and it will give you the necessary skills to design and manage renewable energy installations.
Background
The bad press that nuclear energy has is well deserved if we look back. Nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl or Fukushima They rethink us as a society whether or not the use of this type of plants that use radioactive raw materials to produce electricity is necessary or not.
The problem of waste production involves storage costs; It must be built with the relevant safety measures in spaces conditioned to withstand radiation located meters deep and with a coating of reinforced concrete and heavy metals.
There are several types of nuclear radiation: the Alpha They are the weakest, a sheet of paper is capable of stopping them; the Beta They are more energetic and there are several types (positive and negative), an aluminum sheet can stop them; the Gamma It requires lead to stop it and radiation due to neutron emission requires reinforced concrete.
But, What if using nuclear energy we could obtain electrical energy without these problems?
Nuclear Fission and Fusion
Let's see a brief introduction to the physics of nuclear energy.
To start, let's talk about the concepts of “fission” and “fusion”. The first of these is related to “breaking”, that is, separating one thing into several, the second is related to “uniting”, “building”, that is, producing something.
In the nuclear reactions of fission Heavy atoms (with a high number of protons) are bombarded with neutrons or other types of particles, producing fragments formed by nuclei of lighter atoms that emit neutrons and release an enormous amount of energy. They emit Beta radiation.
This is what happens in current nuclear reactors, they are nuclear fission processes. Nuclear fission energy is expected to have a slight decline of 5-10 % in the share of total energy production until 2025 to the detriment of renewable energy.
On the other hand, the reactions of fusion Nuclear consists of the union of nuclei of light atoms to produce other nuclei of heavier atoms, releasing a large amount of energy. These reactions are those that constantly occur between the Sun and the Earth.
On the solar surface, atoms of Hydrogen, Deuterium and Tritium collide with each other, producing Helium atoms and neutrons, with the consequent release of energy:
12H+13H→ 24He+ 01n+17.6 MeV
12H+12H→ 23He+ 01n+3.2 MeV
12H+12H→ 13H+ 11H+4 MeV
On Earth, efforts are being made to reproduce similar processes energetically in order to have a source of energy. inexhaustible energy and solve energy supply problems, since starting from something as abundant, simple and simple as Hydrogen, clean and unlimited energy could be obtained.
ITER
ITER is the acronym for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or in Spanish, a International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor.
This project is the most globally ambitious in terms of nuclear fusion energy it means. It is an experimental reactor that is being built in Cadarache, in the south of France (France is one of the European countries with the largest number of nuclear fission plants, largely due to the geographical stability of the area of the French country), with the participation of world powers such as the European Union, Japan, India, Russia, the USA and China.
The purpose The purpose of this project is to use a relatively small amount of energy to release large quantities, as occurs on the solar surface, but recreating these processes is complicated and requires appropriate instrumentation and material. It is expected that low-power operations can be carried out by 2025.
In summer 2021, a experiment Designed to adjust the fuel needs of ITER, this experiment is called Joint European Torus (JET), and it differs in the ITER is the scaling, since the JET is a test on the scale of the ITER. If the test results are satisfactory, researchers will be able to solve problems related to fuel use and optimize the reaction, since the proper fuel mixture is the most important part of the process.
In 2025 it is proposed that ITER will be operational for 10 years operating with hydrogen at low power. During this period, all processes will be monitored while the engineering of the process is studied, searching for automation systems and artificial intelligence models capable of simulating processes to scale the reactor.
Once this period is over, and already in 2035, once all the necessary information is available, we want to change the fuel, going from using hydrogen to using the isotopes of deuterium and tritium.
The purpose of the project is that in a period of two decades the global energy crisis that has been plaguing the world for years through the use of cheap, unlimited and clean energy, renewable energy.
