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Nuclear Energy Sector

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The energy industry it the overall of all the companies that manufacture and later on sale energy The energy industry includes fossil fuel industries (petroleum industries: oil companies, fuel transportation, gas stations, petroleum refiners), electric power industry, nuclear power, renewable energy (hydroelectric power, wind power, solar power, and alternative fuels). ‘Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay, and nuclear fusion reactions’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power). Data confirmed an increase in the use of fossil fuel manufacturing and nuclear energy as well. The 20th Century is indeed considered a period of a high level of pollution and tangible environmental impacts. Nonetheless, the renewable energy industry is further expanding compared to other energy industry sources.

We do not know what is going to happen in the future, and there could be different unknown factors affecting the situation we are living in now. Indeed, even with monetarily feasible and versatile inexhaustible based arrangements accessible for around 66% of the world’s vitality flexibly, populace development and rising vitality request could outpace vitality decarbonization without earnest interests in innovative work. ( Reid, John. ‘Ramsey Hasn’t Rescinded Trade Request.’ Florida Times-Union, Florida Times-Union, 23 Sept. 2019, p. 3.)

Joint activity is required by all on-screen characters and across most areas: Important changes are fundamental. ‘The world is undergoing an energy transformation, from a system based on fossil fuels to a system based on renewable energy, to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the most serious impacts of a changing climate’ (https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/how-global-energy-transition-set-disrupt-geopolitical-landscape). To make an idea of what will happen, a Reference scenario, where no new global policies are introduced, an Evolving Scenarios, where new policies and technologies develop according to recent trends, and ‘Ambitious Climate Scenarios,’ which reflect policy/market shifts resulting in a global mean temperature rise to meet Paris climate target.

Today the general public has finally realized that certain energies sectors need to be reduced or even eliminated; such sectors are, for example, oil spills and burning fuels. An example is one of the United Arab Emirates, where the energy strategy in place that is calling for 70 percent decarbonization and 44 percent clean energy power generation by 2050. We found this as fundamental for an economic diversification strategy to transfer away from their dependence on one specific asset – which, as of now, is oil. These could be the reason for the recent historic IPO issuance of Saudi Aramco or the rumors about the £300m takeover of Newcastle football club.

The energy sector is facing a technological revolution, and it is well-defined that in the near future the all industry is going to convert. Important industries such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google are already moving forward on using renewables, becoming 100% free from fossil fuel in the next few years. And that’s only the start. Global investments in wind and solar energy were 279 billion dollars in 2017, with a rise of 2 percent compared to 2016, and as technology and installation are becoming more affordable, the newly installed power capacities accounted for 61 percent (among all fossil fuels, nuclear and hydro).

These positive numbers are the result of the decarbonization policy stimulation, even if the issue may be in the integrating cost of production due to power systems designed for centralized coal or gas stations which can be easily be switched on and off to ensure that supply meets demand. Developments in energy storage and digital technology vowed to minimize these expenses, yet the huge conventional utilities can’t keep up. This has left new players free to provide new technologies and business models. The key driver in the change in transports is Electric Vehicles. EV sales are increasing sharply as lithium-ion batteries price declines and government stimulates through policy support.

Car manufacturers are speeding towards EV reaching the objective of making the total cost of owning an EV similar to the one of a petrol car and setting long term ambitious goals: ‘Honda wants two-thirds of its sales to be electric or hybrid by 2030, BMW is aiming for 15–25% by 2025, while both Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover are targeting 100% by 2020’ (https://eciu.net/blog/2018/the-energy-industry-is-being-disrupted-and-traditional-firms-cant-keep-up). The CEO of Energy Storage-Backman, Kelly Backman, observed that batteries, from four to five hours, combined with solar implants, can satisfy the needs of evening energy in some parts of the US. However, the storage of energy sources like nuclear or coal still seems more convenient since their use is more flexible. This is the reason why the US pumped hydro. Hydropower gives a variety of advantages; one of these is that water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen, which makes electricity, which later on can be used to drive substantial transport, like, for example, aircraft.

The industry energy will face lots of challenges during the next years, like the aim of the Treaty of Paris, which has set the goal of not raising the global temperature more than 1,5 degrees Celsius. To achieve the goal, cooperation from the whole political world and the energy industry is needed. Everybody would like to hear that in the next few years we will start to live only with a renewable energy source, but many scientists are afraid that new technologies in the field of renewables are not enough to produce energy for the whole world, and here nuclear power comes on.

Historically nuclear power was one of the biggest suppliers to carbon-free electricity, and it made an important contribution to the decarbonization of this sector worldwide. Chris Levesque, Terra Power’s president, and CEO believes that the improvement and the use of sustainable energies is good for the health of the planet but limited. Historically nuclear power was one of the biggest suppliers to carbon free electricity, and it gave an important contribution to the decarbonization of this sector worldwide. “Eventually, we will need some baseload generation, and “If it’s going to be carbon-free, I think it has to be nuclear.”(Chris Levesque) There are multiple ways in which Nuclear Power plants can contribute to electricity security: keeping power grids stable, can be a good complement in decarbonization strategies since their operations are adjustable to follow demand and supply shifts.

As the portion of variable renewables like breeze and sun-powered photovoltaics rises, the necessity for such organizations will augment.However, nuclear is facing different issues. The cost of building new plants is very high, difficult to determine because of long lead times and subject to policy changes, while the one for expanding their lifespan is competitive with the other electricity generation technologies; this investment is imminent due to most of the plants around Europe and USA reaching their expiring date, but markets and regulatory systems often penalize nuclear power by not pricing in its value as a clean energy source and its contribution to electricity security (Nuclear Power in a Clean Energy System. https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/sites/default/files/pdf-actualites/Nuclear_Power_in_a_Clean_Energy_System.pdf).

Therefore, the highest nuclear power plants in cutting edge economies are in danger of shutting rashly. One of the many motivations is that Nuclear power has gotten a bad reputation, due to fact of its scarce safety, like what happened in Chernobyl, and also they are some worries about the waste storage. Overall the economy is not helping since it is cheaper to work with gas rather than atomic reactors. The good news for us is that best minds in the world are concentrated to eliminate this kind of security lack, like Terra power, the start-up founded by Bill Gates. One of the most efficient technology is known as TWR, traveling wave reactors, rather than depending only on enriched uranium, traveling wave reactors are designed to make use of depleted uranium – the waste remaining at the enriched plants – as its fuels. The reactors started with the enriched uranium, and then they can continue to run on for decades with the depleted uranium.

It prepares it by working the uranium and then using it in an only shot across the reactor. Later on, they use the liquid sodium as a refrigerator to move the heat out of the reactor to transform it into a steam turbine. The scientists say that these reactors are safer than the traditional one because they operate at lower pressures and aren’t vulnerable to a fuel-scattering explosion like the one that hit Chernobyl. Another future option of the nuclear sector is the Small modular reactors (SMRS), reactors of different sizes that can be constructed off-site and then transported and assembled in the place needing them and are mostly automatic and safe.

They could solve major problems in the nuclear sector such as building costs, as reactors are going to give the possibility to be assembled on an advance area rather than assign apposite projects like normal nuclear plants, or that they could be combined with renewables adapting their energy supply, differently to traditional nuclear plants that are designed to operate as baseload, producing electricity at their full output nearly 24 hours a day for every day of the year, making the energy price negative in overproduction periods.

Cite this paper

Nuclear Energy Sector. (2021, Nov 16). Retrieved from https://samploon.com/nuclear-energy-sector/

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