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Polytechnic University of the Philippines

College of Engineering

Department of Electrical Engineering

APLICATION OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IN MEDICAL SCIENCE AND POWER


PRODUCTION

Submitted by:

Julien Rian K. Mondero

Submitted to:

Engr. Librado Gesala

August 22, 2018

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Table of Contents

I. History of Nuclear Energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4


 Exploring the nature of the atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 Harnessing nuclear fission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
 Nuclear physics in Russia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
 Conceiving the atomic bomb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
 Developing the concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
 The Manhattan Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
 The Soviet bomb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
 Revival of the 'nuclear boiler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
 Nuclear energy goes commercial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
 The nuclear power brown-out and revival. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
II. Introduction to nuclear energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Energy density of various fuel sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Problems with Nuclear Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
III. Application of Nuclear Energy in Medical Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 General Nuclear Medicine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 What are some common uses of the procedure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 How should I prepare? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 What does the equipment look like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 How does the procedure work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 How is the procedure performed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 What will I experience during and after the procedure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Who interprets the results and how do I get them? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 What are the benefits vs. risks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IV. Nuclear Energy in Power Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 How a nuclear reactor makes electricity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Nuclear Power in the World Today. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 World overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Radioisotopes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Agriculture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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 Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Medicine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Transport. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Water resources and the environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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I. History of Nuclear Energy

Exploring the nature of the atom

Uranium was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist, and named
after the planet Uranus

Ionizing radiation was discovered by Wilhelm


Rontgen in 1895, by passing an electric current
through an evacuated glass tube and producing
continuous X-rays. Then in 1896 Henri Becquerel
found that pitchblende (an ore containing radium
and uranium) caused a photographic plate to
darken. He went on to demonstrate that this was
due to beta radiation (electrons) and alpha particles
(helium nuclei) being emitted. Villard found a third
type of radiation from pitchblende: gamma rays,
which were much the same as X-rays. Then in 1896
Pierre and Marie Curie gave the name 'radioactivity'
to this phenomenon, and in 1898 isolated polonium and radium from the pitchblende.
Radium was later used in medical treatment. In 1898 Samuel Prescott showed that
radiation destroyed bacteria in food.

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In 1902 Ernest Rutherford showed that
radioactivity as a spontaneous event emitting an
alpha or beta particle from the nucleus created a
different element. He went on to develop a fuller
understanding of atoms and in 1919 he fired alpha
particles from a radium source into nitrogen and
found that nuclear rearrangement was occurring,
with formation of oxygen. Niels Bohr was another
scientist who advanced our understanding of the
atom and the way electrons were arranged around
its nucleus through to the 1940s

By 1911 Frederick Soddy discovered that naturally-


radioactive elements had a number of different isotopes
(radionuclides), with the same chemistry. Also in 1911,
George de Hevesy showed that such radionuclides were
invaluable as tracers, because minute amounts could
readily be detected with simple instruments.

In 1932 James Chadwick discovered the neutron. Also


in 1932 Cockcroft and Walton produced nuclear
transformations by bombarding atoms with accelerated
protons, then in 1934 Irene Curie and Frederic Joliot
found that some such transformations created artificial
radionuclides. The next year Enrico Fermi found that a
much greater variety of artificial radionuclides could be
formed when neutrons were used instead of protons.

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Fermi continued his experiments, mostly producing heavier elements from his
targets, but also, with uranium, some much lighter ones. At the end of 1938 Otto
Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin showed that the new lighter elements were
barium and others which were about half the mass of uranium, thereby
demonstrating that atomic fission had occurred. Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto
Frisch, working under Niels Bohr, then explained this by suggesting that the neutron
was captured by the nucleus, causing severe vibration leading to the nucleus
splitting into two not quite equal parts. They calculated the energy release from this
fission as about 200 million electron volts. Frisch then confirmed this figure
experimentally in January 1939.

This was the first experimental confirmation of Albert Einstein's paper putting forward
the equivalence between mass and energy, which had been published in 1905.

Harnessing nuclear fission

These 1939 developments sparked activity in many laboratories. Hahn and


Strassmann showed that fission not only released a lot of energy, but that it also
released additional neutrons which could cause fission in other uranium nuclei and
possibly a self-sustaining chain reaction leading to an enormous release of energy.
This suggestion was soon confirmed experimentally by Joliot and his co-workers in
Paris, and Leo Szilard working with Fermi in New York.

Bohr soon proposed that fission was much more likely to occur in the uranium-235
isotope than in U-238 and that fission would occur more effectively with slow-moving
neutrons than with fast neutrons. The latter point was confirmed by Szilard and
Fermi, who proposed using a 'moderator' to slow down the emitted neutrons. Bohr
and Wheeler extended these ideas into what became the classical analysis of the
fission process, and their paper was published only two days before war broke out in
1939.

Another important factor was that U-235 was then known to comprise only 0.7% of
natural uranium, with the other 99.3% being U-238, with similar chemical properties.

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Hence the separation of the two to obtain pure U-235 would be difficult and would
require the use of their very slightly different physical properties. This increase in the
proportion of the U-235 isotope became known as 'enrichment'.

The remaining piece of the fission/atomic bomb concept was provided in 1939 by
Francis Perrin who introduced the concept of the critical mass of uranium required to
produce a self-sustaining release of energy. His theories were extended by Rudolf
Peierls at Birmingham University and the resulting calculations were of considerable
importance in the development of the atomic bomb. Perrin's group in Paris continued
their studies and demonstrated that a chain reaction could be sustained in a
uranium-water mixture (the water being used to slow down the neutrons) provided
external neutrons were injected into the system. They also demonstrated the idea of
introducing neutron-absorbing material to limit the multiplication of neutrons and thus
control the nuclear reaction (which is the basis for the operation of a nuclear power
station).

Peierls had been a student of Werner Heisenberg, who from April 1939 presided
over the German nuclear energy project under the German Ordnance Office. Initially
this was directed towards military applications, but by 1942 the military objective was
abandoned as impractical. However, the existence of the German Uranverein project
provided the main incentive for wartime development of the atomic bomb by Britain
and the USA.

Nuclear physics in Russia

Russian nuclear physics predates the Bolshevik Revolution by more than a decade.
Work on radioactive minerals found in central Asia began in 1900 and the St
Petersburg Academy of Sciences began a large-scale investigation in 1909. The
1917 Revolution gave a boost to scientific research and over 10 physics institutes
were established in major Russian towns, particularly St Petersburg, in the years
which followed. In the 1920s and early 1930s many prominent Russian physicists
worked abroad, encouraged by the new regime initially as the best way to raise the
level of expertise quickly. These included Kirill Sinelnikov, Pyotr Kapitsa and Vladimir
Vernadsky.

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By the early 1930s there were several research centres specialising in nuclear
physics. Kirill Sinelnikov returned from Cambridge in 1931 to organise a department
at the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology (later renamed Kharkov Institute
of Physics and Technology, KIPT) in Kharkov, which had been set up in 1928.
Academician Abram Ioffe formed another group at the Leningrad Physics and
Technical Institute (FTI), later becoming independent as the Ioffe Institute, including
the young Igor Kurchatov. Ioffe was its first director, through to 1950.

By the end of the decade, there were cyclotrons installed at the Radium Institute and
Leningrad FTI (the biggest in Europe). But by this time many scientists were
beginning to fall victim to Stalin's purges – half the staff of Kharkov Institute, for
instance, was arrested in 1939. Nevertheless, 1940 saw great advances being made
in the understanding of nuclear fission including the possibility of a chain reaction. At
the urging of Kurchatov and his colleagues, the Academy of Sciences set up a
"Committee for the Problem of Uranium" in June 1940 chaired by Vitaly Khlopin, and
a fund was established to investigate the central Asian uranium deposits. The
Radium Institute had a factory in Tartarstan used by Khlopin to produce Russia’s first
high-purity radium. Germany's invasion of Russia in 1941 turned much of this
fundamental research to potential military applications.

Conceiving the atomic bomb

British scientists had kept pressure on their government. The refugee physicists
Peierls and Frisch (who had stayed in England with Peierls after the outbreak of
war), gave a major impetus to the concept of the atomic bomb in a three-page
document known as the Frisch-Peierls Memorandum. In this they predicted that an
amount of about 5kg of pure U-235
could make a very powerful atomic
bomb equivalent to several thousand
tonnes of dynamite. They also
suggested how such a bomb could
be detonated, how the U-235 could

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be produced, and what the radiation effects might be in addition to the explosive
effects. They proposed thermal diffusion as a suitable method for separating the U-
235 from the natural uranium. This memorandum stimulated a considerable
response in Britain at a time when there was little interest in the USA.

A group of eminent scientists known as the MAUD Committee was set up in Britain
and supervised research at the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge,
Liverpool and Oxford. The chemical problems of producing gaseous compounds of
uranium and pure uranium metal were studied at Birmingham University and Imperial
Chemical Industries (ICI). Dr Philip Baxter at ICI made the first small batch of
gaseous uranium hexafluoride for Professor James Chadwick in 1940. ICI received a
formal contract later in 1940 to make 3kg of this vital material for the future work.
Most of the other research was funded by the universities themselves.

Two important developments came from the work at Cambridge. The first was
experimental proof that a chain reaction could be sustained with slow neutrons in a
mixture of uranium oxide and heavy water, ie. The output of neutrons was greater
than the input. The second was by Bretscher and Feather based on earlier work by
Halban and Kowarski soon after they arrived in Britain from Paris. When U-235 and
U-238 absorb slow neutrons, the probability of fission in U-235 is much greater than
in U-238. The U-238 is more likely to form a new isotope U-239, and this isotope
rapidly emits an electron to become a new element with a mass of 239 and an
Atomic Number of 93. This element also emits an electron and becomes a new
element of mass 239 and Atomic Number 94, which has a much greater half-life.
Bretscher and Feather argued on theoretical grounds that element 94 would be
readily fissionable by slow and fast neutrons, and had the added advantages that it
was chemically different to uranium and therefore could easily be separated from it.

This new development was also confirmed in independent work by McMillan and
Abelson in the USA in 1940. Dr Kemmer of the Cambridge team proposed the
names neptunium for the new element # 93 and plutonium for # 94 by analogy with
the outer planets Neptune and Pluto beyond Uranus (uranium, element # 92). The
Americans fortuitously suggested the same names, and the identification of
plutonium in 1941 is generally credited to Glenn Seaborg.

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Developing the concepts

By the end of 1940 remarkable progress had been made by the several groups of
scientists coordinated by the MAUD Committee and for the expenditure of a
relatively small amount of money. All of this work was kept secret, whereas in the
USA several publications continued to appear in 1940 and there was also little sense
of urgency.

By March 1941 one of the most uncertain pieces of information was confirmed - the
fission cross-section of U-235. Peierls and Frisch had initially predicted in 1940 that
almost every collision of a neutron with a U-235 atom would result in fission, and that
both slow and fast neutrons would be equally effective. It was later discerned that
slow neutrons were very much more effective, which was of enormous significance
for nuclear reactors but fairly academic in the bomb context. Peierls then stated that
there was now no doubt that the whole scheme for a bomb was feasible provided
highly enriched U-235 could be obtained. The predicted critical size for a sphere of
U-235 metal was about 8kg, which might be reduced by use of an appropriate
material for reflecting neutrons. However, direct measurements on U-235 were still
necessary and the British pushed for urgent production of a few micrograms.

The final outcome of the MAUD Committee was two summary reports in July 1941.
One was on 'Use of Uranium for a Bomb' and the other was on 'Use of Uranium as a
Source of Power'. The first report concluded that a bomb was feasible and that one
containing some 12 kg of active material would be equivalent to 1,800 tons of TNT
and would release large quantities of radioactive substances which would make
places near the explosion site dangerous to humans for a long period. It estimated
that for a plant to produce 1kg of U-235 per day it would cost £5 million and would
require a large skilled labour force that was also needed for other parts of the war
effort. Suggesting that the Germans could also be working on the bomb, it
recommended that the work should be continued with high priority in cooperation
with the Americans, even though they seemed to be concentrating on the future use
of uranium for power and naval propulsion.

10 | P a g e
The second MAUD Report concluded that the controlled fission of uranium could be
used to provide energy in the form of heat for use in machines, as well as providing
large quantities of radioisotopes which could be used as substitutes for radium. It
referred to the use of heavy water and possibly graphite as moderators for the fast
neutrons, and that even ordinary water could be used if the uranium was enriched in
the U-235 isotope. It concluded that the 'uranium boiler' had considerable promise
for future peaceful uses but that it was not worth considering during the present war.
The Committee recommended that Halban and Kowarski should move to the USA
where there were plans to make heavy water on a large scale. The possibility that
the new element plutonium might be more suitable than U-235 was mentioned, so
that the work in this area by Bretscher and Feather should be continued in Britain.

The two reports led to a complete reorganisation of work on the bomb and the
'boiler'. It was claimed that the work of the committee had put the British in the lead
and that "in its fifteen months' existence it had proved itself one of the most effective
scientific committees that ever existed". The basic decision that the bomb project
would be pursued urgently was taken by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, with
the agreement of the Chiefs of Staff.

The reports also led to high level reviews in the USA, particularly by a Committee of
the National Academy of Sciences, initially concentrating on the nuclear power
aspect. Little emphasis was given to the bomb concept until 7 December 1941, when
the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and the Americans entered the war directly.
The huge resources of the USA were then applied without reservation to developing
atomic bombs.

11 | P a g e
The Manhattan Project

The Americans increased their effort rapidly and soon


outstripped the British. Research continued in each
country with some exchange of information. Several of
the key British scientists visited the USA early in 1942
and were given full access to all of the information
available. The Americans were pursuing three
enrichment processes in parallel: Professor Lawrence was studying electromagnetic
separation at Berkeley (University of California), E. V. Murphree of Standard Oil was
studying the centrifuge method developed by Professor Beams, and Professor Urey
was coordinating the gaseous diffusion work at Columbia University. Responsibility
for building a reactor to produce fissile plutonium was given to Arthur Compton at the
University of Chicago. The British were only examining gaseous diffusion.

In June 1942 the US Army took over process development, engineering design,
procurement of materials and site selection for pilot plants for four methods of
making fissionable material (because none of the four had been shown to be clearly
superior at that point) as well as the production of heavy water. With this change,
information flow to Britain dried up. This was a major setback to the British and the
Canadians who had been collaborating on heavy water production and on several
aspects of the research program. Thereafter, Churchill sought information on the
cost of building a diffusion plant, a heavy water plant and an atomic reactor in Britain.

After many months of negotiations an agreement was finally signed by Mr Churchill


and President Roosevelt in Quebec in August 1943, according to which the British
handed over all of their reports to the Americans and in return received copies of
General Groves' progress reports to the President. The latter showed that the entire
US program would cost over $1,000 million, all for the bomb, as no work was being
done on other applications of nuclear energy.

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Construction of production plants for
electromagnetic separation (in calutrons) and
gaseous diffusion was well under way. An
experimental graphite pile constructed by Fermi had
operated at the University of Chicago in December
1942 – the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.

A full-scale production reactor for plutonium was being constructed at Argonne, with
further ones at Oak Ridge and then Hanford, plus a reprocessing plant to extract the
plutonium. Four plants for heavy water production were being built, one in Canada
and three in the USA. A team under Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos in New
Mexico was working on the design and construction of both U-235 and Pu-239
bombs. The outcome of the huge effort, with assistance from the British teams, was
that sufficient Pu-239 and highly enriched U-
235 (from calutrons and diffusion at Oak Ridge)
was produced by mid-1945. The uranium
mostly originated from the Belgian Congo.

The first atomic device tested successfully at


Alamagordo in New Mexico on 16 July 1945. It
used plutonium made in a nuclear pile. The
teams did not consider that it was necessary to test a simpler U-235 device. The first
atomic bomb, which contained U-235, was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
The second bomb, containing Pu-239, was dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August. That
same day, the USSR declared war on Japan. On 10 August 1945 the Japanese
Government surrendered.

The Soviet bomb

Initially Stalin was not enthusiastic about diverting resources to develop an atomic
bomb, until intelligence reports suggested that such research was under way in
Germany, Britain and the USA. Consultations with Academicians Ioffe, Kapitsa,
Khlopin and Vernadsky convinced him that a bomb could be developed relatively

13 | P a g e
quickly and he initiated a modest research program in 1942. Igor Kurchatov, then
relatively young and unknown, was chosen to head it and in 1943 he became
Director of Laboratory No.2 recently established on the outskirts of Moscow. This
was later renamed LIPAN, then became the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy.
Overall responsibility for the bomb program rested with Security Chief Lavrenti Beria
and its administration was undertaken by the First Main Directorate (later called the
Ministry of Medium Machine Building).

Research had three main aims: to achieve a controlled chain reaction; to investigate
methods of isotope separation; and to look at designs for both enriched uranium and
plutonium bombs. Attempts were made to initiate a chain reaction using two different
types of atomic pile: one with graphite as a moderator and the other with heavy
water. Three possible methods of isotope separation were studied: counter-current
thermal diffusion, gaseous diffusion and electromagnetic separation.

After the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945, German scientists were "recruited" to
the bomb program to work in particular on isotope separation to produce enriched
uranium. This included research into gas centrifuge technology in addition to the
three other enrichment technologies.

The test of the first US atomic bomb in July 1945 had little impact on the Soviet
effort, but by this time, Kurchatov was making good progress towards both a uranium
and a plutonium bomb. He had begun to design an industrial scale reactor for the
production of plutonium, while those scientists working on uranium isotope
separation were making advances with the gaseous diffusion method.

14 | P a g e
It was the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki the following month which gave
the program a high profile and construction
began in November 1945 of a new city in
the Urals which would house the first
plutonium production reactors --
Chelyabinsk-40 (Later known as
Chelyabinsk-65 or the Mayak production
association). This was the first of ten secret
nuclear cities to be built in the Soviet Union.
The first of five reactors at Chelyabinsk-65
came on line in 1948. This town also
housed a processing plant for extracting
plutonium from irradiated uranium.

As for uranium enrichment technology, it was decided in late 1945 to begin


construction of the first gaseous diffusion plant at Verkh-Neyvinsk (later the closed
city of Sverdlovsk-44), some 50 kilometres from Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk)
in the Urals. Special design bureaux were set up at the Leningrad Kirov Metallurgical
and Machine-Building Plant and at the Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) Machine Building
Plant. Support was provided by a group of German scientists working at the Sukhumi
Physical Technical Institute.

In April 1946 design work on the bomb was shifted to Design Bureau-11 – a new
centre at Sarova some 400 kilometres from Moscow (subsequently the closed city of
Arzamas-16). More specialists were brought in to the program including metallurgist
Yefim Slavsky who was given the immediate task of producing the very pure graphite
Kurchatov needed for his plutonium production pile constructed at Laboratory No. 2
known as F-1. The pile was operated for the first time in December 1946. Support
was also given by Laboratory No.3 in Moscow – now the Institute of Theoretical and
Experimental Physics – which had been working on nuclear reactors.

15 | P a g e
Work at Arzamas-16 was influenced by foreign intelligence gathering and the first
device was based closely on the Nagasaki bomb (a plutonium device). In August
1947 a test site was established near Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan and was ready
for the detonation two years later of the first bomb, RSD-1. Even before this was
tested in August 1949, another group of scientists led by Igor Tamm and including
Andrei Sakharov had begun work on a hydrogen bomb.

Revival of the 'nuclear boiler

By the end of World War II, the


project predicted and described in
detail only five and a half years
before in the Frisch-Peierls
Memorandum had been brought to
partial fruition, and attention could
turn to the peaceful and directly
beneficial application of nuclear
energy. Post-war, weapons
development continued on both sides of the "iron curtain", but a new focus was on
harnessing the great atomic power, now dramatically (if tragically) demonstrated, for
making steam and electricity.

In the course of developing nuclear weapons the Soviet Union and the West had
acquired a range of new technologies and scientists realised that the tremendous
heat produced in the process could be tapped either for direct use or for generating
electricity. It was also clear that this new form of energy would allow development of
compact long-lasting power sources which could have various applications, not least
for shipping, and especially in submarines.

16 | P a g e
The first nuclear reactor to produce electricity (albeit a trivial amount) was the small
Experimental Breeder reactor (EBR-1) designed and operated by Argonne National
Laboratory and sited in Idaho, USA. The reactor started up in December 1951.

In 1953 President Eisenhower proposed his "Atoms for Peace" program, which
reoriented significant research effort towards electricity generation and set the
course for civil nuclear energy development in the USA.

In the Soviet Union, work was under way at various centres to refine existing reactor
designs and develop new ones. The Institute of Physics and Power Engineering
(FEI) was set up in May 1946 at the then-closed city of Obninsk, 100 km southwest
of Moscow, to develop nuclear power technology. The existing graphite-moderated
channel-type plutonium production reactor was modified for heat and electricity
generation and in June 1954 the world's first nuclear powered electricity generator
began operation at the FEI in Obninsk. The AM-1 (Atom Mirny – peaceful atom)
reactor was water-cooled and graphite-moderated, with a design capacity of 30 MWt
or 5 MWe. It was similar in principle to the plutonium production reactors in the
closed military cities and served as a prototype for other graphite channel reactor
designs including the Chernobyl-type RBMK (reaktor bolshoi moshchnosty kanalny –
high power channel reactor) reactors. AM-1 produced electricity until 1959 and was
used until 2000 as a research facility and for the production of isotopes.

Also in the 1950s FEI at Obninsk was developing fast breeder reactors (FBRs) and
lead-bismuth reactors for the navy. In April 1955 the BR-1 (bystry reaktor -- fast
reactor) fast neutron reactor began operating. It produced no power but led directly
to the BR-5 which started up in 1959 with a capacity of 5MWt which was used to do
the basic research necessary for designing sodium-cooled FBRs. It was upgraded
and modernised in 1973 and then underwent major reconstruction in 1983 to
become the BR-10 with a capacity of 8 MWt which is now used to investigate fuel
endurance, to study materials and to produce isotopes.

17 | P a g e
The main US effort was under Admiral Hyman Rickover, which developed the
Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) for naval (particularly submarine) use. The PWR
used enriched uranium oxide fuel and was moderated and cooled by ordinary (light)
water. The Mark 1 prototype naval reactor started up in March 1953 in Idaho, and
the first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, was launched in 1954. In 1959
both USA and USSR launched their first nuclear-powered surface vessels.

The Mark 1 reactor led to the US Atomic


Energy Commission building the 60 MWe
Shippingport demonstration PWR reactor
in Pennsylvania, which started up in 1957
and operated until 1982.

Since the USA had a virtual monopoly on


uranium enrichment in the West, British
development took a different tack and
resulted in a series of reactors fuelled by
natural uranium metal, moderated by
graphite, and gas-cooled. The first of
these 50 MWe Magnox types, Calder Hall-1, started up in 1956 and ran until 2003.
However, after 1963 (and 26 units) no more were commenced. Britain next
embraced the Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor (using enriched oxide fuel) before
conceding the pragmatic virtues of the PWR design.

Nuclear energy goes commercial

In the USA, Westinghouse designed the first fully commercial PWR of 250 MWe,
Yankee Rowe, which started up in 1960 and operated to 1992. Meanwhile the boiling
water reactor (BWR) was developed by the Argonne National Laboratory, and the
first one, Dresden-1 of 250 MWe, designed by General Electric, was started up
earlier in 1960. A prototype BWR, Vallecitos, ran from 1957 to 1963. By the end of
the 1960s, orders were being placed for PWR and BWR reactor units of more than
1000 MWe.

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Canadian reactor development headed down a quite different track, using natural
uranium fuel and heavy water as a moderator and coolant. The first unit started up in
1962. This CANDU design continues to be refined.

France started out with a gas-graphite design similar to Magnox and the first reactor
started up in 1956. Commercial models operated from 1959. It then settled on three
successive generations of standardised PWRs, which was a very cost-effective
strategy.

In 1964 the first two Soviet nuclear power plants were commissioned. A 100 MW
boiling water graphite channel reactor began operating in Beloyarsk (Urals). In
Novovoronezh (Volga region) a new design – a small (210 MW) pressurised water
reactor (PWR) known as a VVER (veda-vodyanoi energetichesky reaktor– water
cooled power reactor) was built.

The first large RBMK (1,000 MW - high-power channel reactor) started up at


Sosnovy Bor near Leningrad in 1973 and in the Arctic northwest a VVER with a rated
capacity of 440 MW began operating. This was superseded by a 1000 MWe version
which became a standard design.

In Kazakhstan the world's first commercial prototype fast neutron reactor (the BN-
350) started up in 1972, producing 120 MW of electricity and heat to desalinate
Caspian seawater. In the USA, UK, France and Russia a number of experimental
fast neutron reactors produced electricity from 1959, the last of these closing in
2009. This left Russia's BN-600 as the only commercial fast reactor.

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Around the world, with few exceptions, other countries have chosen light-water
designs for their nuclear power programs, so that today 60% of the world capacity is
PWR and 21% BWR.

The nuclear power brown-out and revival

From the late 1970s to about 2002 the nuclear power industry suffered some decline
and stagnation. Few new reactors were ordered, the number coming on line from
mid 1980s little more than matched retirements, though capacity increased by nearly
one third and output increased 60% due to capacity plus improved load factors. The
share of nuclear in world electricity from mid 1980s was fairly constant at 16-17%.
Many reactor orders from the 1970s were cancelled. The uranium price dropped
accordingly, and also because of an increase in secondary supplies. Oil companies
which had entered the uranium field bailed out, and there was a consolidation of
uranium producers.

However, by the late 1990s the first of the third-generation reactors was
commissioned – Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 6 – a 1350 MWe Advanced BWR, in Japan.
This was a sign of the recovery to come.

In the new century several factors combined to revive the prospects for nuclear
power. First is the realisation of the scale of projected increased electricity demand
worldwide, but particularly in rapidly-developing countries. Secondly is the
awareness of the importance of energy security – the prime importance of each
country having assured access to affordable energy, and particularly to dispatchable
electricity able to meet demand at all times. Thirdly is the need to limit carbon
emissions due to concerns about climate change.

These factors coincide with the availability of a new generation of nuclear power
reactors, and in 2004 the first of the late third-generation units was ordered for
Finland – a 1600 MWe European PWR (EPR). A similar unit is being built in France
as the first of a possible full fleet replacement there, more are planned in the UK, and
two new Westinghouse AP1000 units are under construction in the USA.

But plans in Europe and North America are overshadowed by those in Asia,
particularly China and India. China alone plans and is building towards a huge
increase in nuclear power capacity by 2030, and has more than one hundred further

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large units proposed and backed by credible political determination and popular
support. Many of these are the latest Western design, or adaptations thereof. Others
are substantially local designs.

The history of nuclear power thus starts with science in Europe, blossoms in the UK
and USA with the latter's technological might, languishes for a few decades, then
has a new growth spurt in east Asia. In the process, over 17,000 reactor-years of
operation have been accumulated in providing a significant proportion of the world’s
electricity.

II. Introduction to nuclear energy

What is nuclear energy?

Everything around you is made up of tiny objects called atoms. Most of the mass of
each atom is concentrated in the center (which is called the nucleus), and the rest of
the mass is in the cloud of electrons surrounding the nucleus. Protons and neutrons
are subatomic particles that comprise the nucleus.

Under certain circumstances, the nucleus of a very large atom can split in two. In this
process, a certain amount of the large atom’s mass is converted to pure energy
following Einstein’s famous formula E = MC2, where M is the small amount of mass
and C is the speed of light (a very large number). In the 1930s and ’40s, humans
discovered this energy and recognized its potential as a weapon. Technology
developed in the Manhattan Project successfully used this energy in a chain reaction
to create nuclear bombs. Soon after World War II ended, the newfound energy
source found a home in the propulsion of the nuclear navy, providing submarines
with engines that could run for over a year without refueling. This technology was
quickly transferred to the public sector, where commercial power plants were
developed and deployed to produce electricity.

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Fission and Fusion

Nuclear fission is the splitting of a heavy nucleus into two lighter ones. Fission was
discovered in 1938 by the German scientists Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz
Strassmann, who bombarded a sample of uranium with neutrons in an attempt to
produce new elements with Z > 92. They observed that lighter elements such as
barium (Z = 56) were formed during the reaction, and they realized that such
products had to originate from the neutron-induced fission of uranium-235:

This hypothesis was confirmed by detecting the krypton-92 fission product. As


discussed in Section 20.2, the nucleus usually divides asymmetrically rather than
into two equal parts, and the fission of a given nuclide does not give the same
products every time.

In a typical nuclear fission reaction, more than one neutron is released by each
dividing nucleus. When these neutrons collide with and induce fission in other
neighboring nuclei, a self-sustaining series of nuclear fission reactions known as
a nuclear chain reaction. For example, the fission of 235U releases two to three
neutrons per fission event. If absorbed by other 235U nuclei, those neutrons induce
additional fission events, and the rate of the fission reaction increases geometrically.
Each series of events is called a generation. Experimentally, it is found that some
minimum mass of a fissile isotope is required to sustain a nuclear chain reaction; if
the mass is too low, too many neutrons are able to escape without being captured
and inducing a fission reaction. The minimum mass capable of supporting sustained
fission is called the critical mass. This amount depends on the purity of the material
and the shape of the mass, which corresponds to the amount of surface area
available from which neutrons can escape, and on the identity of the isotope. If the
mass of the fissile isotope is greater than the critical mass, then under the right
conditions, the resulting supercritical mass can release energy explosively. The

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enormous energy released from nuclear chain reactions is responsible for the
massive destruction caused by the detonation of nuclear weapons such as fission
bombs, but it also forms the basis of the nuclear power industry.

Fission is the splitting of a nucleus that releases free neutrons and lighter nuclei. The
fission of heavy elements is highly exothermic which releases about 200 million eV
compared to burning coal which only gives a few eV. The amount of energy released
during nuclear fission is millions of times more efficient per mass than that of coal
considering only 0.1 percent of the original nuclei is converted to energy. Daughter
nucleus, energy, and particles such as neutrons are released as a result of the
reaction. The particles released can then react with other radioactive materials which
in turn will release daughter nucleus and more particles as a result, and so on. The
unique feature of nuclear fission reactions is that they can be harnessed and used in
chain reactions. This chain reaction is the basis of nuclear weapons. One of the well-
known elements used in nuclear fission is U235U235, which when is bombarded
with a neutron, the atom turns into U236U236 which is even more unstable and splits
into daughter nuclei such as Krypton-92 and Barium-141 and free neutrons. The
resulting fission products are highly radioactive, commonly undergoing β−β− decay.

Nuclear fusion, in which two light nuclei combine to produce a heavier, more stable
nucleus, is the opposite of nuclear fission. As in the nuclear transmutation reactions
discussed in Section 20.2, the positive charge on both nuclei results in a large
electrostatic energy barrier to fusion. This barrier can be overcome if one or both
particles have sufficient kinetic energy to overcome the electrostatic repulsions,
allowing the two nuclei to approach close enough for a fusion reaction to occur. The
principle is similar to adding heat to increase the rate of a chemical reaction. As
shown in the plot of nuclear binding energy per nucleon versus atomic number
in Figure 21.6.3, fusion reactions are most exothermic for the lightest element. For
example, in a typical fusion reaction, two deuterium atoms combine to produce
helium-3, a process known as deuterium–deuterium fusion (D–D fusion):

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Figure 1.0 A Nuclear Chain Reaction. The process is initiated by the collision of a
single neutron with a 235U nucleus, which undergoes fission. Because each neutron
released can cause the fission of another 235U nucleus, the rate of a fission reaction
accelerates geometrically. Each series of events is a generation.

In another reaction, a deuterium atom and a tritium atom fuse to produce helium-4 ,
a process known as deuterium–tritium fusion (D–T fusion):

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Figure 1.1 Nuclear Fusion. In a nuclear fusion reaction, lighter nuclei combine to
produce a heavier nucleus. As shown, fusion of 3H and 2H to give 4He and a neutron
releases an enormous amount of energy. In principle, nuclear fusion can produce
much more energy than fission, but very high kinetic energy is required to overcome
electrostatic repulsions between the positively charged nuclei and initiate the fusion
reaction.

Initiating these reactions, however, requires a temperature comparable to that in the


interior of the sun (approximately 1.5 × 107 K). Currently, the only method available
on Earth to achieve such a temperature is the detonation of a fission bomb. For
example, the so-called hydrogen bomb (or H bomb) is actually a deuterium–tritium
bomb (a D–T bomb), which uses a nuclear fission reaction to create the very high
temperatures needed to initiate fusion of solid lithium deuteride (6LiD), which
releases neutrons that then react with 6Li, producing tritium. The deuterium-tritium
reaction releases energy explosively. Example 21.6.3 and its corresponding exercise
demonstrate the enormous amounts of energy produced by nuclear fission and
fusion reactions. In fact, fusion reactions are the power sources for all stars,
including our sun.

To calculate the energy released during mass destruction in both nuclear fission and
fusion, we use Einstein’s equation that equates energy and mass:

Where:

 m is mass (kilograms)
 c is speed of light (meter/sec)and
 E is energy (Joules)

Critical Mass

The explosion of a bomb only occurs if the chain reaction exceeds its critical mass.
The critical mass is the point at which a chain reaction becomes self-sustaining. If the
neutrons are lost at a faster rate than they are formed by fission, the reaction will not

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be self-sustaining. The spontaneous nuclear fission rate is the probability per second
that a given atom will fission spontaneously--that is, without any external intervention.
In nuclear power plants, nuclear fission is controlled by a medium such as water in the
nuclear reactor. The water acts as a heat transfer medium to cool down the reactor
and to slow down neutron particles. This way, the neutron emission and usage is a
controlled. If nuclear reaction is not controlled because of lack of cooling water for
example, then a meltdown will occur.

Fusion

 Nuclear fusion is the joining of two nuclei to form a heavier nuclei. The reaction
is followed either by a release or absorption of energy. Fusion of nuclei with
lower mass than iron releases energy while fusion of nuclei heavier than iron
generally absorbs energy. This phenomenon is known as iron peak. The
opposite occurs with nuclear fission.
 The power of the energy in a fusion reaction is what drives the energy that is
released from the sun and a lot of stars in the universe. Nuclear fusion is also
applied in nuclear weapons, specifically, a hydrogen bomb. Nuclear fusion is
the energy supplying process that occurs at extremely high temperatures like
in stars such as the sun, where smaller nuclei are joined to make a larger
nucleus, a process that gives off great amounts of heat and radiation. When
uncontrolled, this process can provide almost unlimited sources of energy and
an uncontrolled chain provides the basis for a hydrogen bond, since most
commonly hydrogen is fused. Also, the combination of deuterium atoms to form
helium atoms fuel this thermonuclear process. For example:
 H12+H13→He24+n01+energy(8)(8)H12+H13→He24+n01+energy

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 However, a controlled fusion reaction has yet to be fully demonstrated due to
many problems that present themselves including the difficulty of forcing
deuterium and tritium nuclei within a close proximity, achieving high enough
thermal energies, and completely ionizing gases into plasma. A necessary part
in nuclear fusion is plasma, which is a mixture of atomic nuclei and electrons
that are required to initiate a self-sustaining reaction which requires a
temperature of more than 40,000,000 K. Why does it take so much heat to
achieve nuclear fusion even for light elements such as hydrogen? The reason
is because the nucleus contain protons, and in order to overcome electrostatic
repulsion by the protons of both the hydrogen atoms, both of the hydrogen
nucleus needs to accelerate at a super high speed and get close enough in
order for the nuclear force to start fusion. The result of nuclear fusion releases
more energy than it takes to start the fusion so ΔG of the system is negative
which means that the reaction is exothermic. And because it is exothermic, the
fusion of light elements is self-sustaining given that there is enough energy to
start fusion in the first place.

Nuclear Energy Today

Nuclear reactors produce just under 20% of the electricity in the USA. There are over
400 power reactors in the world (about 100 of these are in the USA). They produce
base-load electricity 24/7 without emitting pollutants (including CO2) into the
atmosphere. They do, however, create radioactive nuclear waste which must be
stored carefully.

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Energy density of various fuel sources

The amount of energy released in nuclear reactions is astounding. Table 1 shows


how long a 100 Watt light bulb could run from using 1 kg of various fuels. The natural

uranium undergoes nuclear fission and thus attains very high energy density (energy
stored in a unit of mass).

Table 1. Energy densities of various energy sources in MJ/kg and in length of time
that 1 kg of each material could run a 100W load. Natural uranium has undergone no
enrichment (0.7% U-235), reactor-grade uranium has 5% U-235. By the way, 1 kg of
weapons grade uranium (95% U-235) could power the entire USA for 177 seconds.
All numbers assume 100% thermal-to-electrical conversion. See our energy density
of nuclear fuel page for details.

Capabilities of Nuclear Power

 Sustainable

Table 1 sums the sustainability of nuclear power up quite well. However, there is
quite a bit of talk about nuclear fuel (Uranium) running low just like oil.
Technically, this is a non-issue, as nuclear waste is recyclable. Economically, it

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could become a major issue. Today’s commercial nuclear reactors burn less than
1% of the fuel that is mined for them and the rest of it or so is thrown away (as
depleted uranium and nuclear waste). The US recycling program shut down in
the ’70s due to proliferation and economic concerns. Today, France and Japan
are recycling fuel with great success. New technology exists that can greatly
reduce proliferation concerns. Without recycling, the 2005 Uranium Reserves
“Red Book” published by the U.N. IAEA suggests that there are over 200 years of
Uranium reserves at current demand. There is also a very large supply of
uranium dissolved in seawater at very low concentration. No one has found a
cheap-enough way to extract it yet, though people have come close. Nuclear
reactors can also run on Thorium fuel.

 Ecological

In operation, nuclear power plants emit nothing into the environment except hot
water. The classic cooling tower icon of nuclear reactors is just that, a cooling
tower. Clean water vapor is all that comes out. Very little CO2 or other climate-
changing gases come out of nuclear power generation (certainly some CO 2 is
produced during mining, construction, etc., but the amount is about 50 times less
than coal and 25 times less than natural gas plants. Details coming soon). The
spent nuclear fuel (nuclear waste) can be handled properly and disposed of
geologically without affecting the environment in any way.

They’re safe too. In March, 2013 the former NASA scientist James Hansen (of
the 350 ppm limit fame) published a paper showing that nuclear energy has
saved a total of 1.8 million lives in its history worldwide just by displacing air
pollution that is a known killer2. That includes any deaths nuclear energy has
been responsible for from its accidents.

 Independent

With nuclear power, many countries can approach energy independence. Being
"addicted to oil" is a major national and global security concern for various
reasons. Using electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)powered by
nuclear reactors, we could reduce our oil demands by orders of magnitude.

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Additionally, many nuclear reactor designs can provide high-quality process heat
in addition to electricity, which can in turn be used to desalinate water, prepare
hydrogen for fuel cells, or to heat neighborhoods, among many other industrial
processes.

Problems with Nuclear Power

 Nuclear Waste

When atoms split to release energy, the smaller atoms that are left behind are
often left in excited states, emitting energetic particles that can cause biological
damage. Some of the longest lived atoms don’t decay to stability for hundreds of
thousands of years. This waste must be controlled and kept out of the
environment for at least that long. Designing systems to last that long is a
daunting task — one that been a major selling point of anti-nuclear groups.

 Dramatic Accidents

Three major accidents have occurred in commercial power plants: Chernobyl,


Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. Chernobyl was an uncontrolled steam
explosion which released a large amount of radiation into the environment, killing
over 50 people, requiring a mass evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people,
and causing up to 4000 cancer cases. Three Mile Island was a partial-core
meltdown, where coolant levels dropped below the fuel and allowed some of it to
melt. No one was hurt and very little radiation was released, but the plant had to
close, causing the operating company and its investors to lose a lot of
money. Fukushima was a station black-out caused by a huge Tsunami. Four
neighboring plants lost cooling and the decay heat melted the cores. Radiation
was released and the public was evacuated. These three accidents are very
scary and keep many people from being comfortable with nuclear power.

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 Cost

Nuclear power plants are larger and more complicated than other power plants.
Many redundant safety systems are built to keep the plant operating safely. This
complexity causes the up-front cost of a nuclear power plant to be much higher
than for a comparable coal plant. Once the plant is built, the fuel costs are much
less than fossil fuel costs. In general, the older a nuclear plant gets, the more
money its operators make. The large capital cost keeps many investors from
agreeing to finance nuclear power plants.

III. Application of Nuclear Energy in Medical Science

General Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear medicine is a branch of medical imaging that uses small amounts


of radioactive material to diagnose and determine the severity of or treat a variety of
diseases, including many types of cancers, heart disease, gastrointestinal,
endocrine, neurological disorders and other abnormalities within the body. Because
nuclear medicine procedures are able to pinpoint molecular activity within the body,
they offer the potential to identify disease in its earliest stages as well as a patient’s
immediate response to therapeutic interventions.

Diagnosis

Nuclear medicine imaging procedures are noninvasive and, with the exception of
intravenous injections, are usually painless medical tests that help physicians
diagnose and evaluate medical conditions. These imaging scans use radioactive
materials called radiopharmaceuticals or radiotracers.

Depending on the type of nuclear medicine exam, the radiotracer is either injected
into the body, swallowed or inhaled as a gas and eventually accumulates in the
organ or area of the body being examined. Radioactive emissions from the
radiotracer are detected by a special camera or imaging device that produces
pictures and provides molecular information.

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In many centers, nuclear medicine images can be superimposed with computed
tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce special views, a
practice known as image fusion or co-registration. These views allow the information
from two different exams to be correlated and interpreted on one image, leading to
more precise information and accurate diagnoses. In addition, manufacturers are
now making single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography
(SPECT/CT) and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT)
units that are able to perform both imaging exams at the same time. An emerging
imaging technology, but not readily available at this time is PET/MRI.

Therapy
Nuclear medicine also offers therapeutic procedures, such as radioactive iodine (I-
131) therapy that use small amounts of radioactive material to treat cancer and other
medical conditions affecting the thyroid gland, as well as treatments for other
cancers and medical conditions.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients who do not respond to chemotherapy may


undergo radio immunotherapy (RIT).

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Radio immunotherapy (RIT) is a personalized cancer treatment that
combines radiation therapy with the targeting ability of immunotherapy, a
treatment that mimics cellular activity in the body's immune system.

What are some common uses of the procedure?

Physicians use nuclear medicine imaging procedures to visualize the structure and
function of an organ, tissue, bone or system within the body.

In adults, nuclear medicine is used to:

Heart

 visualize heart blood flow and function (such as a myocardial perfusion scan)
 detect coronary artery disease and the extent of coronary stenosis
 assess damage to the heart following a heart attack
 evaluate treatment options such as bypass heart surgery and angioplasty
 evaluate the results of revascularization (blood flow restoration) procedures
 detect heart transplant rejection
 evaluate heart function before and after chemotherapy (MUGA)

Lungs

 scan lungs for respiratory and blood flow problems

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 assess differential lung function for lung reduction or transplant surgery
 detect lung transplant rejection

Bones

 evaluate bones for fractures, infection and arthritis


 evaluate for metastatic bone disease
 evaluate painful prosthetic joints
 evaluate bone tumors
 identify sites for biopsy

Brain

 investigate abnormalities in the brain in patients with certain symptoms or


disorders, such as seizures, memory loss and suspected abnormalities in
blood flow
 detect the early onset of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease
 assist in surgical planning and identify the areas of the brain that may be
causing seizures
 evaluate for abnormalities in a chemical in the brain involved in controlling
movement in patients with suspected Parkinson's disease or related
movement disorders
 evaluation for suspected brain tumor recurrence, surgical or radiation planning
or localization for biopsy

Other Systems

 identify inflammation or abnormal function of the gallbladder


 identify bleeding into the bowel
 assess post-operative complications of gallbladder surgery
 evaluate lymphedema
 evaluate fever of unknown origin
 locate the presence of infection
 measure thyroid function to detect an overactive or underactive thyroid
 help diagnose hyperthyroidism and blood cell disorders

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 evaluate for hyperparathyroidism (overactive parathyroid gland)
 evaluate stomach emptying
 evaluate spinal fluid flow and potential spinal fluid leaks

In adults and children, nuclear medicine is also used to:

Cancer

 stage cancer by determining the presence or spread of cancer in various parts


of the body
 localize sentinel lymph nodes before surgery in patients with breast cancer or
skin and soft tissue tumors
 plan treatment
 evaluate response to therapy
 detect the recurrence of cancer
 detect rare tumors of the pancreas and adrenal glands

Renal

 analyze native and transplant kidney blood flow and function


 detect urinary tract obstruction
 evaluate for hypertension (high blood pressure) related to the kidney arteries
 evaluate kidneys for infection versus scar
 detect and follow-up urinary reflux

In children, nuclear medicine is also used to:

 investigate abnormalities in the esophagus, such as esophageal reflux or


motility disorders
 evaluate the openness of tear ducts
 evaluate the openness of ventricular shunts in the brain
 assess congenital heart disease for shunts and pulmonary blood flow

Nuclear medicine therapies include:

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 Radioactive iodine (I-131) therapy used to treat some causes
of hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid gland, for example, Graves' disease)
and thyroid cancer
 Radioactive antibodies used to treat certain forms of lymphoma (cancer of
the lymphatic system)
 Radioactive phosphorus (P-32) used to treat certain blood disorders
 Radioactive materials used to treat painful tumor metastases to the bones
 I-131 MIBG (radioactive iodine labeled with metaiodobenzylguanidine) used to
treat adrenal gland tumors in adults and adrenal gland/nerve tissue tumors in
children.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)


MRI is a non-invasive imaging technology that produces three dimensional detailed
anatomical images without the use of damaging radiation. It is often used for disease
detection, diagnosis, and treatment monitoring. It is based on sophisticated
technology that excites and detects the change in the direction of the rotational axis
of protons found in the water that makes up living tissues.

MRIs employ powerful magnets which produce a


strong magnetic field that forces protons in the
body to align with that field. When a
radiofrequency current is then pulsed through the
patient, the protons are stimulated, and spin out of
equilibrium, straining against the pull of the
magnetic field. When the radiofrequency field is
turned off, the MRI sensors are able to detect the
energy released as the protons realign with the
magnetic field. The time it takes for the protons to
realign with the magnetic field, as well as the
amount of energy released, changes depending on
the environment and the chemical nature of the
molecules. Physicians are able to tell the
difference between various types of tissues based
on these magnetic properties.
To obtain an MRI image, a patient is placed inside a large magnet and must remain
very still during the imaging process in order not to blur the image. Contrast agents
(often containing the element Gadolinium) may be given to a patient intravenously
before or during the MRI to increase the speed at which protons realign with the
magnetic field. The faster the protons realign, the brighter the image.

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RI scanners are particularly well suited to image the non-bony parts or soft tissues of
the body. They differ from computed tomography (CT), in that they do not use the
damaging ionizing radiation of x-rays. The brain, spinal cord and nerves, as well as
muscles, ligaments, and tendons are seen much more clearly with MRI than with
regular x-rays and CT; for this reason MRI is often used to image knee and shoulder
injuries.
In the brain, MRI can differentiate between white matter and grey matter and can
also be used to diagnose aneurysms and tumors. Because MRI does not use x-
rays or other radiation, it is the imaging modality of choice when frequent imaging is
required for diagnosis or therapy, especially in the brain. However, MRI is more
expensive than x-ray imaging or CT scanning.
One kind of specialized MRI is functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI.) This
is used to observe brain structures and determine which areas of the brain “activate”
(consume more oxygen) during various cognitive tasks. It is used to advance the
understanding of brain organization and offers a potential new standard for
assessing neurological status and neurosurgical risk.

How should I prepare?

You may be asked to wear a gown during the exam or you may be allowed to wear
your own clothing.

Women should always inform their physician or technologist if there is any possibility
that they are pregnant or if they are breastfeeding. See the Safety page for more
information about pregnancy and breastfeeding related to nuclear medicine imaging.

You should inform your physician and the technologist performing your exam of any
medications you are taking, including vitamins and herbal supplements. You should
also inform them if you have any allergies and about recent illnesses or other
medical conditions.

Jewelry and other metallic accessories should be left at home if possible, or removed
prior to the exam because they may interfere with the procedure.

You will receive specific instructions based on the type of scan you are undergoing.

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In some instances, certain medications or procedures may interfere with the
examination ordered.

What does the equipment look like?

The special camera and imaging techniques used in nuclear medicine include the
gamma camera and single-photon emission-computed tomography (SPECT).

The gamma camera, also called a scintillation camera, detects radioactive energy
that is emitted from the patient's body and converts it into an image. The gamma
camera itself does not emit any radiation. The gamma camera is composed of
radiation detectors, called gamma camera heads, which are encased in metal and
plastic and most often shaped like a box, attached to a round circular donut shaped
gantry. The patient lies on the examination table which slides in between two parallel
gamma camera heads that are positioned above and below the examination table
and located beneath the examination table. Sometimes, the gamma camera heads
are oriented at a 90 degree angle and placed over the patient's body.

SPECT involves the rotation of the gamma camera heads around the patient's body
to produce more detailed, three-dimensional images.

A PET scanner is a large machine with a round, doughnut shaped hole in the middle,
similar to a CT or MRI unit. Within this machine are multiple rings of detectors that
record the emission of energy from the radiotracer in your body.

A computer aids in creating the images from the data obtained by the gamma
camera.

A probe is a small hand-held device resembling a microphone that can detect and
measure the amount of the radiotracer in a small area of your body.

There is no specialized equipment used during radioactive iodine therapy, but the
technologist or other personnel administering the treatment may cover your clothing
and use lead containers to shield the radioactive material you will be receiving.

How does the procedure work?

With ordinary x-ray examinations, an image is made by passing x-rays through the
patient's body. In contrast, nuclear medicine procedures use a radioactive material,

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called a radiopharmaceutical or radiotracer, which is injected into the bloodstream,
swallowed or inhaled as a gas. This radioactive material accumulates in the organ or
area of your body being examined, where it gives off a small amount of energy in the
form of gamma rays. Special cameras detect this energy, and with the help of a
computer, create pictures offering details on both the structure and function of
organs and tissues in your body.

Unlike other imaging techniques, nuclear medicine imaging exams focus on


depicting physiologic processes within the body, such as rates of metabolism or
levels of various other chemical activity, instead of showing anatomy and structure.
Areas of greater intensity, called "hot spots," indicate where large amounts of the
radiotracer have accumulated and where there is a high level of chemical or
metabolic activity. Less intense areas, or "cold spots," indicate a smaller
concentration of radiotracer and less chemical activity.

In radioactive iodine (I-131) therapy for thyroid disease, radioactive iodine (I-131) is
swallowed, absorbed into the bloodstream in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and
absorbed from the blood by the thyroid gland where it destroys cells within that
organ.

Radio immunotherapy (RIT) is a combination of radiation therapy and


immunotherapy. In immunotherapy, a laboratory-produced molecule called a
monoclonal antibody is engineered to recognize and bind to the surface of cancer
cells. Monoclonal antibodies mimic the antibodies naturally produced by the body's
immune system that attack invading foreign substances, such as bacteria and
viruses.

In RIT, a monoclonal antibody is paired with a radioactive material. When injected


into the patient's bloodstream, the antibody travels to and binds to the cancer cells,
allowing a high dose of radiation to be delivered directly to the tumor.

In I-131MIBG therapy for neuroblastoma, the radiotracer is administered by injection


into the blood stream. The radiotracer binds to the cancer cells allowing a high dose
of radiation to be delivered to the tumor.

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How is the procedure performed?

Nuclear medicine imaging is usually performed on an outpatient basis, but is often


performed on hospitalized patients as well.

You will be positioned on an examination table. If necessary, a nurse or technologist


will insert an intravenous (IV) catheter into a vein in your hand or arm.

Depending on the type of nuclear medicine exam you are undergoing, the dose of
radiotracer is then injected intravenously, swallowed or inhaled as a gas.

It can take anywhere from several seconds to several days for the radiotracer to
travel through your body and accumulate in the organ or area being studied. As a
result, imaging may be done immediately, a few hours later, or even several days
after you have received the radioactive material.

When it is time for the imaging to begin, the camera or scanner will take a series of
images. The camera may rotate around you or it may stay in one position and you
will be asked to change positions in between images. While the camera is taking
pictures, you will need to remain still for brief periods of time. In some cases, the
camera may move very close to your body. This is necessary to obtain the best
quality images. If you are claustrophobic, you should inform the technologist before
your exam begins.

If a probe is used, this small hand-held device will be passed over the area of the
body being studied to measure levels of radioactivity. Other nuclear medicine tests
measure radioactivity levels in blood, urine or breath.

The length of time for nuclear medicine procedures varies greatly, depending on the
type of exam. Actual scanning time for nuclear imaging exams can take from 20
minutes to several hours and may be conducted over several days.

Young children may require gentle wrapping or sedation to help them hold still. If
your doctor feels sedation is needed for your child, you will receive specific
instructions regarding when and if you can feed your child on the day of the exam. A
physician or nurse who specializes in pediatric anesthesia will be available during
the exam to ensure your child's safety while under the effects of sedation. When
scheduling the exam for a young child, ask if a child life specialist is available. A child

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life specialist is trained to make your child comfortable and less anxious without
sedation and will help your child to remain still during the examination.

When the examination is completed, you may be asked to wait until the technologist
checks the images in case additional images are needed. Occasionally, more
images are obtained for clarification or better visualization of certain areas or
structures. The need for additional images does not necessarily mean there was a
problem with the exam or that something abnormal was found, and should not be a
cause of concern for you.

If you had an intravenous line inserted for the procedure, it will usually be removed
unless you are scheduled for an additional procedure that same day that requires an
intravenous line.

For patients with thyroid disease who undergo radioactive iodine (I-131) therapy,
which is most often an outpatient procedure, the radioactive iodine is swallowed,
either in capsule or liquid form.

Radio immunotherapy (RIT), also typically an outpatient procedure, is delivered


through injection.

I-131MIBG therapy for neuroblastoma is administered by injection into the blood


stream. Children are admitted to the hospital for treatment as an inpatient and will
stay overnight in a specially prepared room. Special arrangements are made for
parents to allow participation in the care of their child while undergoing this therapy.

What will I experience during and after the procedure?

Except for intravenous injections, most nuclear medicine procedures are painless
and are rarely associated with significant discomfort or side effects.

When the radiotracer is given intravenously, you will feel a slight pin prick when the
needle is inserted into your vein for the intravenous line. When the radioactive
material is injected into your arm, you may feel a cold sensation moving up your arm,
but there are generally no other side effects.

When swallowed, the radiotracer has little or no taste. When inhaled, you should feel
no differently than when breathing room air or holding your breath.

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With some procedures, a catheter may be placed into your bladder, which may
cause temporary discomfort.

It is important that you remain still while the images are being recorded. Though
nuclear imaging itself causes no pain, there may be some discomfort from having to
remain still or to stay in one particular position during imaging.

Unless your physician tells you otherwise, you may resume your normal activities
after your nuclear medicine scan. If any special instructions are necessary, you will
be informed by a technologist, nurse or physician before you leave the nuclear
medicine department.

Through the natural process of radioactive decay, the small amount of radiotracer in
your body will lose its radioactivity over time. It may also pass out of your body
through your urine or stool during the first few hours or days following the test. You
should also drink plenty of water to help flush the radioactive material out of your
body as instructed by the nuclear medicine personnel.

See Safety in Nuclear Medicine Procedures for more information.

You will be informed as to how often and when you will need to return to the nuclear
medicine department for further procedures.

Who interprets the results and how do I get them?

A radiologist or other physician who has specialized training in nuclear medicine will
interpret the images and send a report to your referring physician.

What are the benefits vs. risks?

Benefits

 Nuclear medicine examinations provide unique information—including details


on both function and anatomic structure of the body that is often unattainable
using other imaging procedures.
 For many diseases, nuclear medicine scans yield the most useful information
needed to make a diagnosis or to determine appropriate treatment, if any.

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 Nuclear medicine is less expensive and may yield more precise information
than exploratory surgery.
 Nuclear medicine offers the potential to identify disease in its earliest stage,
often before symptoms occur or abnormalities can be detected with other
diagnostic tests.
 By detecting whether lesions are likely benign or malignant, PET scans may
eliminate the need for surgical biopsy or identify the best biopsy location.
 PET scans may provide additional information that is used for radiation
therapy planning.

Risks

 Because the doses of radiotracer administered are small, diagnostic nuclear


medicine procedures result in relatively low radiation exposure to the patient,
acceptable for diagnostic exams. Thus, the radiation risk is very low
compared with the potential benefits.
 Nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures have been used for more than five
decades, and there are no known long-term adverse effects from such low-
dose exposure.
 The risks of the treatment are always weighed against the potential benefits
for nuclear medicine therapeutic procedures. You will be informed of all
significant risks prior to the treatment and have an opportunity to ask
questions.
 Allergic reactions to radiopharmaceuticals may occur but are extremely rare
and are usually mild. Nevertheless, you should inform the nuclear medicine
personnel of any allergies you may have or other problems that may have
occurred during a previous nuclear medicine exam.
 Injection of the radiotracer may cause slight pain and redness which should
rapidly resolve.
 Women should always inform their physician or radiology technologist if there
is any possibility that they are pregnant or if they are breastfeeding. See
the Safety page for more information about pregnancy, breastfeeding and
nuclear medicine exams.

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What are the limitations of General Nuclear Medicine?

Nuclear medicine procedures can be time consuming. It can take several hours to
days for the radiotracer to accumulate in the body part of interest and imaging may
take up to several hours to perform, though in some cases, newer equipment is
available that can substantially shorten the procedure time.

The resolution of structures of the body with nuclear medicine may not be as high as
with other imaging techniques, such as CT or MRI. However, nuclear medicine
scans are more sensitive than other techniques for a variety of indications, and the
functional information gained from nuclear medicine exams is often unobtainable by
other imaging techniques.

IV. Nuclear Energy in Power Production

How a nuclear reactor makes electricity

A nuclear reactor produces and controls the release of energy from splitting the
atoms of uranium.

Uranium-fueled nuclear power is a clean and efficient way of boiling water to make
steam which drives turbine generators. Except for the reactor itself, a nuclear power
station works like most coal or gas-fired power stations.

The reactor core

Several hundred fuel assemblies containing thousands of small pellets of ceramic


uranium oxide fuel make up the core of a reactor. For a reactor with an output of
1000 megawatts (MWe), the core would contain about 75 tons of enriched uranium.

In the reactor core the uranium-235 isotope fissions or splits, producing a lot of heat
in a continuous process called a chain reaction. The process depends on the
presence of a moderator such as water or graphite, and is fully controlled.

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The moderator slows down the neutrons produced by fission of the uranium nuclei
so that they go on to produce more fissions.

Two examples of fission of a uranium-235 atom

Some of the uranium-238 in the reactor core is turned into plutonium and about half
of this is also fissioned similarly, providing about one third of the reactor's energy
output.

The fission products remain in the ceramic fuel and undergo radioactive decay,
releasing a bit more heat. They are the main wastes from the process.

The reactor core sits inside a steel pressure vessel, so that water around it remains
liquid even at the operating temperature of over 320°C. Steam is formed either
above the reactor core or in separate pressure vessels, and this drives the turbine to
produce electricity. The steam is then condensed and the water recycled.

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Common types of reactor

The main design is the pressurized water reactor which has water in its primary
cooling/heat transfer circuit, and generates steam in a secondary circuit. The less
popular boiling water reactor makes steam in the primary circuit above the reactor
core, though it is still under considerable pressure. Both types use water as both
coolant and moderator, to slow neutrons.

Diagram of pressurized water reactor

To maintain efficient reactor performance, about one-third or half of the used fuel is
removed every year or two, to be replaced with fresh fuel.

The pressure vessel and any steam generators are housed in a massive
containment structure with reinforced concrete about 1.2 meters thick. This is to

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protect neighbors if there is a major problem inside the reactor, and to protect the
reactor from external assaults.

Because some heat is generated from radioactive decay even after the reactor is
shut down, cooling systems are provided to remove this heat as well as the main
operational heat output.

Natural prehistoric reactors

The world's first nuclear reactors operated naturally in a uranium deposit about two
billion years ago in what is now Gabon. These were in rich uranium orebodies in the
Earth's crust and moderated by percolating rainwater. (At that time the uranium-235
isotope was more concentrated than it is today.)

Nuclear energy's contribution to global electricity supply

Nuclear energy supplies about 11% of the world's electricity. Today 31 countries use
nuclear energy to generate up to three quarters of their electricity, and a substantial
number of these depend on it for one-quarter to one-third of their supply. Over
15,000 reactor-years of operational experience have been accumulated since the
1950s by the world's 440 nuclear power reactors (and nuclear reactors powering
naval vessels have clocked up a similar amount).

Nuclear Power in the World Today

(Updated April 2018)

 The first commercial nuclear power stations started operation in the


1950s.
 Nuclear energy now provides about 11% of the world's electricity from
about 450 power reactors.

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 Nuclear is the world's second largest source of low-carbon power (>30%
of the total in 2015).
 50 countries utilise nuclear energy in about 225 research reactors. In
addition to research, these reactors are used for the production of
medical and industrial isotopes, as well as for training.

Nuclear technology uses the energy released by splitting the atoms of certain
elements. It was first developed in the 1940s, and during the Second World War
research initially focused on producing bombs. In the 1950s attention turned to the
peaceful use of nuclear fission, controlling it for power generation.

Civil nuclear power can now boast more than 17,000 reactor years of experience,
and nuclear power plants are operational in 30 countries worldwide. In fact, through
regional transmission grids, many more countries depend in part on nuclear-
generated power; Italy and Denmark, for example, get almost 10% of their electricity
from imported nuclear power.

Around 11% of the world's electricity is generated by about 450 nuclear power
reactors. About 60 more reactors are under construction, equivalent to 16% of
existing capacity, while an additional 150-160 are planned, equivalent to nearly half
of existing capacity.

In 2016 nuclear plants supplied 2477 TWh of electricity, up from 2441 TWh in 20151.
This is the fourth consecutive year that global nuclear generation has risen, with
output 130 TWh higher than in 2012.

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Nuclear Electricity Production

World Electricity Production by Source 2015

Sixteen countries depend on nuclear power for at least one-quarter of their


electricity. France gets around three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear energy;
Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine get more than half from nuclear, whilst Belgium,
Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Slovenia get one-third or more.
South Korea and Bulgaria normally get more than 30% of their electricity from
nuclear, while in the USA, UK, Spain, Romania and Russia about one-fifth of

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electricity is from nuclear. Japan is used to relying on nuclear power for more than
one-quarter of its electricity and is expected to return to somewhere near that level.

Nuclear Generation by Country 2016

Need for new generating capacity

There is a clear need for new generating capacity around the world, both to replace
old fossil fuel units, especially coal-fired ones, which emit a lot of carbon dioxide, and
to meet increased demand for electricity in many countries. In 2015, 66.0% of
electricity was generated from the burning of fossil fuels. Despite the strong support
for and growth in intermittent renewable electricity sources in recent years, the fossil

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fuel contribution to power generation has remained virtually unchanged in the last 10
years (66.5% in 2005).

The OECD International Energy Agency publishes annual scenarios related to


energy. In its World Energy Outlook 20172 there is an ambitious ‘Sustainable
Development Scenario’ which is consistent with the provision of clean and reliable
energy and a reduction of air pollution, among other aims. In this decarburization
scenario, electricity generation from nuclear more than doubles by 2040, increasing
to 5345 TWh, and capacity grows to 720 GWe. The World Nuclear Association has
put forward a more ambitious scenario than this – the Harmony programme
proposes the addition of 1000 GWe of new nuclear capacity by 2050, to provide 25%
of electricity then (10,000 TWh) from 1250 GWe of capacity (after allowing for 150
GWe retirements). This would require adding 25 GWe per year from 2021,
escalating to 33 GWe per year, which is not much different from the 31 GWe added
in 1984, or the overall record of 201 GWe in the 1980s. Providing one-quarter of the
world's electricity through nuclear would substantially reduce carbon dioxide
emissions and have a very positive effect on air quality.

World overview

All parts of the world are involved in nuclear power development, and some
examples are outlined below.

North America

Canada has 19 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 13.5
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 15% of the country's electricity.

All but one of the country's 19 nuclear reactors are sited in Ontario. In the first part of
2016 the government signed major contracts for the refurbishment and operating
lifetime extension of six reactors at the Bruce generating station. The programme will
extend the operating lifetimes by 30-35 years. Similar refurbishment work enabled

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Ontario to phase out coal in 2014, achieving one of the cleanest electricity mixes in
the world.

Mexico has two operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 1.6 GWe.
In 2017, nuclear generated 6% of the country's electricity.

The USA has 99 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 99.6
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 20% of the country's electricity.

There had been four AP1000 reactors under construction, but two of these have
been halted. One of the reasons for the hiatus in new build in the USA to date has
been the extremely successful evolution in maintenance strategies. Over the last 15
years, improved operational performance has increased utilisation of US nuclear
power plants, with the increased output equivalent to 19 new 1000 MWe plants being
built.

2016 saw the first new nuclear power reactor enter operation in the country for 20
years. Despite this, the number of operable reactors has reduced in recent years,
from a peak of 104 in 2012. Early closures have been brought on by a combination
of factors including cheap natural gas, market liberalization, over-subsidy of
renewable sources, and political campaigning.

South America

Argentina has three reactors, with a combined net capacity of 1.6 GWe. In 2017, the
country generated 5% of its electricity from nuclear.

Brazil has two reactors, with a combined net capacity of 1.9 GWe. In 2017, nuclear
generated 3% of the country's electricity.

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West & Central Europe

Belgium has seven operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 5.9
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 50% of the country's electricity.

Finland has four operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 2.8
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 33% of the country's electricity. A fifth reactor – a
1720 MWe EPR – is under construction, and plans to build a Russian VVER-1200
unit at a new site (Hanhikivi) are well advanced.

France has 58 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 63.1 GWe.
In 2017, nuclear generated 72% of the country's electricity.

A 2015 energy policy had aimed to reduce the country's share of nuclear generation
to 50% by 2025. In November 2017, the French government postponed this target.
The country's Energy Minister said that the target was not realistic, and that it would
increase the country's carbon dioxide emissions, endanger security of supply and put
jobs at risk.

One reactor is currently under construction in France – a 1750 MWe EPR at


Flamanville.

In Germany, seven nuclear power reactors continue to operate, with a combined net
capacity of 9.4 GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 12% of the country's electricity

Germany is phasing out nuclear generation by about 2022 as part of


its Energiewende policy. Energiewende, widely identified as the most ambitious
national climate change mitigation policy, has yet to deliver a meaningful reduction in
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In 2011, the year after the policy was introduced,

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Germany emitted 731 Mt CO2 from fuel combustion; in 2015, and the country emitted
730 Mt CO2, and remained the world's sixth-biggest emitter of CO2.

The Netherlands has a single operable nuclear reactor, with a net capacity of 0.5
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 3% of the country's electricity.

Spain has seven operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 7.1
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 21% of the country's electricity.

Sweden has eight operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 8.4
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 40% of the country's electricity.

The country is closing down some older reactors, but has invested heavily in
operating lifetime extensions and uprates.

Switzerland has five operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 3.3
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 33% of the country's electricity.

The UK has 15 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 8.9 GWe.
In 2017, nuclear generated 19% of the country's electricity.

A UK government energy paper in mid-2006 endorsed the replacement of the


country’s ageing fleet of nuclear reactors with new nuclear build. The government
aims to have 16 GWe of new nuclear capacity operating by 2030. The placement of
structural concrete at Hinkley Point C (two EPR units) has begun, ahead of full
construction.

Central and East Europe, Russia

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Armenia has a single nuclear power reactor with a net capacity of 0.4 GWe. In 2017,
nuclear generated 33% of the country's electricity.

Belarus has its first nuclear power plant under construction, and plans to have the
first of two Russian reactors operating by 2019. At present almost all of the country's
electricity is produced from natural gas.

Bulgaria has two operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 1.9
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 34% of the country's electricity.

The Czech Republic has six operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity
of 3.9 GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 33% of the country's electricity.

Hungary has four operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 1.9
GWe. In 2017 nuclear generated 50% of the country's electricity.

Romania has two operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 1.3
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 18% of the country's electricity.

Russia has 35 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 26.9 GWe.
In 2017, nuclear generated 18% of the country's electricity.

A government decree in 2016 specified construction of 11 nuclear power reactors by


2030, in addition to those already under construction. At the start of 2018, Russia
had seven reactors under construction, with a combined capacity of 5.9 GWe.

The strength of Russia's nuclear industry is reflected in its dominance of export


markets for new reactors. The country's national nuclear industry is currently

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involved in new reactor projects in Belarus, China, Hungary, India, Iran and Turkey,
and to varying degrees as an investor in Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Indonesia,
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, South Africa and Tajikistan among others.

Slovakia has four operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 1.8
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 54% of the country's electricity. A further two units
are under construction, with both due to enter commercial operation before the end
of the decade.

Slovenia has a single operable nuclear reactor with a net capacity of 0.7 GWe. In
2017, Slovenia generated 39% its electricity from nuclear.

Ukraine has 15 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 13.1
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 55% of the country's electricity.

Asia

Bangladesh started construction on the first of two planned Russian VVER-1200


reactors in 2017. It plans to have the first unit in operation by 2023. The country
currently produces virtually all of its electricity from fossil fuels.

China has 38 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 34.6 GWe.
In 2017, nuclear generated 4% of the country's electricity.

The country continues to dominate the market for new nuclear build. At the start of
2018, 20 of the 58 reactors under construction globally were in China. These include
the world's first Westinghouse AP1000 units and a demonstration high-temperature
gas-cooled reactor plant. China is commencing export marketing of the Hualong
One, a largely indigenous reactor design.

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The strong impetus for developing new nuclear power in China comes from the need
to improve urban air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The
government's stated long-term target, as outlined in its Energy Development
Strategy Action Plan 2014-2020 is for 58 GWe capacity by 2020, with 30 GWe more
under construction.

India has 22 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 6.2 GWe. In
2017, nuclear generated 3% of the country's electricity.

The Indian government is committed to growing its nuclear power capacity as part of
its massive infrastructure development programme. The government in 2010 set an
ambitious target to have 14.6 GWe nuclear capacity online by 2024. At the start of
2018 six reactors were under construction in India, with a combined capacity of 4.4
GWe.

Japan has 42 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 40 GWe. At
the start of 2018, only five reactors had been brought back online, with a further 21 in
the process of restart approval following the Fukushima accident in 2011. In the past,
30% of the country's electricity has come from nuclear; in 2017, the figure was just
4%.

South Korea has 24 operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 22.5
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 27% of the country's electricity.

South Korea has four new reactors under construction domestically as well as four in
the United Arab Emirates. It plans for two more, after which energy policy is
uncertain. It is also involved in intense research on future reactor designs.

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Pakistan has five operable nuclear reactors, with a combined net capacity of 1.4
GWe. In 2017, nuclear generated 6% of the country's electricity. Pakistan has two
Chinese Hualong One units under construction.

Africa

South Africa has two operable nuclear reactors and is the only African country
currently producing electricity from nuclear. In 2017, nuclear generated 7% of the
country's electricity. South Africa remains committed to plans for further capacity, but
financing constraints are significant.

Middle East

Iran has a single operable nuclear reactor with a net capacity of 0.9 GWe. In 2017,
nuclear generated 2% of the country's electricity.

The United Arab Emirates is building four 1450 MWe South Korean reactors at a
cost of over $20 billion, and is collaborating closely with the International Atomic
Energy Agency and experienced international firms.

Emerging nuclear energy countries

As outlined above, Bangladesh, Belarus and the United Arab Emirates are all
constructing their first nuclear power plants. A number of other countries are moving
towards use of nuclear energy for power production. For more information, see page
on Emerging Nuclear Energy Countries.

Improved performance from existing reactors

The performance of nuclear reactors has improved substantially over time. Over the
last 40 years the proportion of reactors reaching high capacity factors has increased
significantly. For example, 64% of reactors achieved a capacity factor higher than

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80% in 2016, compared to 24% in 1976, whereas only 8% of reactors had a capacity
factor lower than 50% in 2016, compared to 22% in 1976.

Long-term Trends in Capacity Factors

It is also notable that there is no significant age-related trend in the median capacity
factor for reactors over the last ten years.

Median Capacity Factor 2007-2016 by Age of Reactor

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Other nuclear reactors

In addition to commercial nuclear power plants, there are about 225 research
reactors operating in 50 countries, with more under construction. As well as being
used for research and training, many of these reactors produce medical and
industrial isotopes.

The use of reactors for marine propulsion is mostly confined to the major navies
where it has played an important role for five decades, providing power for
submarines and large surface vessels. At least 140 ships, mostly submarines, are
propelled by some 180 nuclear reactors and over 13,000 reactor years of experience
have been gained with marine reactors. Russia and the USA have decommissioned
many of their nuclear submarines from the Cold War era.

Russia also operates a fleet of four large nuclear-powered icebreakers and has three
more under construction. It is also completing a floating nuclear power plant with two
40 MWe reactors adapted from those powering icebreakers for use in remote
regions.

V. Other Uses of Nuclear Energy

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Radioisotopes

Isotopes are variants of a given chemical element that have nuclei with the same
number of protons, but different numbers of neutrons. Some isotopes are referred to
as 'stable' as they are unchanging over time. Others are 'unstable' or radioactive
since their nuclei change over time through the loss of alpha and beta particles. The
attributes of naturally decaying atoms, known as ‘radioisotopes’, give such atoms
several applications across many aspects of modern day life.

The first practical application of a radioisotope was made by a Hungarian man


named George de Hevesy in 1911. At the time de Hevesy was a young student
working in Manchester, studying naturally radioactive materials. Not having much
money he lived in modest accommodation and ate his meals with his landlady. He
began to suspect that some of the meals that appeared regularly might be made
from leftovers from the preceding days or even weeks, but he could never be sure.
To try and confirm his suspicions de Hevesy put a small amount of radioactive
material into the remains of a meal. Several days later, when the same dish was
served again, he used a simple radiation detection instrument – a gold leaf
electroscope – to check if the food was radioactive. It was, and de Hevesy's
suspicions were confirmed.

History has forgotten the landlady, but George de Hevesy went on to win the Nobel
Prize in 1943 and the Atoms for Peace award in 1959. His was the first use of
radioactive tracers – now routine in environmental science.

Supply of radioisotopes

The main isotope suppliers are Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals (Ireland), MDS


Nordion (Canada), IRE (Europe), NTP (South Africa), Isotop-NIIAR (Russia),
and ANSTO (Australia).

Most medical radioisotopes made in nuclear reactors are sourced from relatively
few research reactors, including:

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 HFR at Petten in Netherlands (supplied via IRE and Mallinckrodt).
 BR-2 at Mol in Belgium (supplied via IRE and Mallinckrodt).
 Maria in Poland (supplied via Mallinckrodt).
 Orphee at Saclay in France (supplied via IRE).
 FRJ-2/FRM-2 at Julich in Germany (supplied via IRE).
 LWR-15 at Rez in Czech Republic.
 HFETR at Chengdu in China.
 Safari in South Africa (supplied from NTP).
 OPAL in Australia (supplied from ANSTO to domestic market, exports from
2016).
 ETRR-2 in Egypt (forthcoming: supplied to domestic market).
 Dimitrovgrad in Russia (Isotop-NIIAR).
 NRU at Chalk River in Canada (supplied via MDS Nordion) ceased production
in October 2016, though the capacity will remain on standby until the reactor
closes in March 2018.

Of fission radioisotopes, the vast majority of demand is for of Mo-99 (for Tc-99m),
and the world market is some $550 million per year. About 40% of it is supplied by
MDS Nordion, 25% from Mallinckrodt (formerly Covidien), 17% from IRE, and 10%
from NTP. Over half of the Mo-99 has been made in two reactors: NRU in Canada
(30-40% but ceased production in October 2016) and HFR in the Netherlands (30%).
The rest is from BR-2 in Belgium (10%), Maria in Poland (5%), Safari-1 in South
Africa (10-15%), Opal in Australia (increasing to 20% from mid-2016), and until the
end of 2015, Osiris in France (5%). Output from each varies due to maintenance
schedules.

Russia is keen to increase its share of world supply, and in 2012 some 66% of its
radioisotope production was exported. For I-131, 75% is from IRE, 25% from NTP.

World demand for Mo-99 was 23,000 six-day TBq/yr* in 2012, but has apparently
dropped back to about 19,500 since. Mo-99 is mostly produced by fission of U-235
targets in a nuclear research reactor, much of this (75% in 2016) using high-enriched
uranium (HEU) targets. The targets are then processed to separate the Mo-99 and
also to recover I-131. OPAL, Safari, and increasingly other reactors such as Maria
use low-enriched uranium (LEU) targets, which adds about 20% to production

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costs. However, in medical imaging, the cost of Mo-99 itself is small relative to
hospital costs. Mo-99 can also be made by bombarding Mo-98 with neutrons in a
reactor. However, this activation Mo-99 has relatively low specific activity, with a
maximum of 74 GBq/g (depending on the neutron flux available in the reactor),
compared with 185 TBq/g or more for conventional fission-produced Mo-99.

* 23,000 six-day TBq is on the basis of activity at six days from production reference
point, i.e. (given a 66-hour half-life) 22% of around 104,000 TBq. This is still about
two days from the end of irradiation, so some 170,000 TBq must be made in the
reactor to allow for cooling, processing, and decay en route to the users.

Agriculture

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) estimates
that about 795 million people (one in nine) were suffering from chronic
undernourishment in 2014-16. Radioisotopes and radiation used in food and
agriculture are helping to reduce these figures.

As well as directly improving food production, agriculture needs to be sustainable


over the longer term. The FAO works with the IAEA on programs to improve food
sustainability assisted by nuclear and related biotechnologies.

Plant mutation breeding

Plant mutation breeding is the process of exposing the seeds or cuttings of a given
plant to radiation, such as gamma rays, to cause mutations. The irradiated material
is then cultivated to generate a plantlet. Plantlets are selected and multiplied if they
show desired traits. A process of marker-assisted selection (or molecular-marker
assisted breeding) is used to identify desirable traits based on genes. The use of
radiation essentially enhances the natural process of spontaneous genetic mutation,
significantly shortening the time it takes.

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Countries that have utilized plant mutation breeding have frequently realized great
socio-economic benefits. In Bangladesh, new varieties of rice produced through
mutation breeding have increased crops three-fold in the last few decades. During a
period of rapid population growth, the use of nuclear techniques has enabled
Bangladesh and large parts of Asia in general, to achieve food security and
improved nutrition.

Fertilizers

Fertilizers are expensive and if not properly used can damage the environment. It is
important that as much used fertilizer as possible is “fixed” in the plant matter and
that a minimum is lost to the environment. 'Labelling' fertilizers with a particular
isotope (e.g. nitrogen-15) provides a means of ascertaining how much has been
taken up by the plants, allowing for better management of fertilizer use.

Insect control

Estimates of crop losses to insects vary, but are usually significant. Despite the
widespread use of insecticides, losses are likely to be of the order of 10% globally,
and often notably higher in developing countries. One approach to reducing insect
depredation in agriculture is to use genetically-modified crops, so that much less
insecticide is needed. Another approach is to disable the insects.

Radiation is used to control insect populations via the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT).
SIT involves rearing large populations of insects that are sterilized through irradiation
(gamma or X-rays), and introducing them into natural populations. The sterile insects
remain sexually competitive, but cannot produce offspring. The SIT technique is
environmentally-friendly, and has proved an effective means of pest management
even where mass application of pesticides had failed. The International Plant

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Protection Convention recognizes the benefits of SIT, and categorizes the insects as
beneficial organisms.

SIT was first developed in the USA and has been used successfully for more than 60
years. At present, SIT is applied across six continents. Since its introduction, SIT has
successfully controlled the populations of a number of high profile insects, including
mosquitoes, moths, screwworm, tsetse fly, and various fruit flies (Mediterranean fruit
fly, Mexican fruit fly, oriental fruit fly, and melon fly).

The most recent high-profile application of SIT has been in the fight against the
deadly Zika virus in Brazil and the broader Latin America and Caribbean region.

Three UN organizations – the IAEA, the FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO)
– with the governments concerned, are promoting new SIT programs in many
countries.

Consumer products

The function of many common consumer products is dependent on the use of small
amounts of radioactive material. Smoke detectors, watches & clocks, and non-stick
materials, among others, all utilize the natural properties of radioisotopes in their
design.

One of the most common uses of radioisotopes today is in household smoke


detectors. These contain a small amount of americium-241 which is a decay product
of plutonium-241 originating in nuclear reactors. The Am-241 emits alpha particles
which ionize the air and allow a current between two electrodes. If smoke enters the
detector it absorbs the alpha particles and interrupts the current, setting off the
alarm.

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Food

Food irradiation

Some 25-30% of food harvested is lost as a result of spoilage before it can be


consumed. This problem is particularly prevalent in hot, humid countries.

Food irradiation is the process of exposing foodstuffs to gamma rays to kill bacteria
that can cause food-borne disease, and to increase shelf life. In all parts of the world
there is growing use of irradiation technology to preserve food. More than 60
countries worldwide have introduced regulations allowing the use of irradiation for
food products.

In addition to inhibiting spoilage, irradiation can delay ripening of fruits and


vegetables to give them greater shelf life, and it also helps to control pests. Its ability
to control pests and reduce required quarantine periods has been the principal factor
behind many countries adopting food irradiation practices.

Industry

Industrial racers

Radioisotopes are used by manufacturers as tracers to monitor fluid flow and


filtration, detect leaks, and gauge engine wear and corrosion of process equipment.
Small concentrations of short-lived isotopes can be detected whilst no residues
remain in the environment. By adding small amounts of radioactive substances to
materials used in various processes it is possible to study the mixing and flow rates
of a wide range of materials, including liquids, powders and gases, and to locate
leaks.

Inspection and instrumentation

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Radioactive materials are used to inspect metal parts and the integrity of welds
across a range of industries. For example, new oil and gas pipeline systems are
checked by placing the radioactive source inside the pipe and the film outside the
welds.

Gauges containing radioactive (usually gamma) sources are in wide use in all
industries where levels of gases, liquids, and solids must be checked. They measure
the amount of radiation from a source which has been absorbed in materials. These
gauges are most useful where heat, pressure, or corrosive substances, such as
molten glass or molten metal, make it impossible or difficult to use direct contact
gauges.

The ability to use radioisotopes to accurately measure thickness is widely utilized in


the production of sheet materials, including metal, textiles, paper, plastics, and
others. Density gauges are used where automatic control of a liquid, powder, or solid
is important, for example in detergent manufacture.

Carbon dating

Analyzing the relative abundance of particular naturally-occurring radioisotopes is of


vital importance in determining the age of rocks and other materials that are of
interest to geologists, anthropologists, hydrologists, and archaeologists, among
others.

Desalination

Potable water is a major priority in sustainable development. Where it cannot be


obtained from streams and aquifers, desalination of seawater, mineralized
groundwater, or urban waste water is required. Most desalination today uses fossil
fuels and thus contributes to increased levels of greenhouse gases. The feasibility of
integrated nuclear desalination plants has been proven with over 150 reactor-years

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of experience, chiefly in Kazakhstan, India, and Japan. Large-scale deployment of
nuclear desalination on a commercial basis with reactors built primarily for that
purpose will depend on economic factors

Medicine

Many people are aware of the wide use of radiation and radioisotopes in medicine
particularly for diagnosis (identification) and therapy (treatment) of various medical
conditions. In developed countries about one person in 50 uses diagnostic nuclear
medicine each year, and the frequency of therapy with radioisotopes is about one-
tenth of this.

Diagnosis

Diagnostic techniques in nuclear medicine use radiopharmaceuticals (or


radiotracers) which emit gamma rays from within the body. These tracers are
generally short-lived isotopes linked to chemical compounds which permit specific
physiological processes to be scrutinized.

Dependent on the type of examination, radiotracers are either injected into the body,
swallowed, or inhaled in gaseous form. The emissions from the radiotracers are
detected by the imaging device, which provides pictures and molecular information.
The superimposition of nuclear medicine images with computed tomography (CT) or
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans can provide comprehensive views to
physicians to aid diagnosis.

An advantage of nuclear over X-ray techniques is that both bone and soft tissue can
be imaged very successfully.

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The most widely used diagnostic radioisotope is technetium-99m, with a half-life of
six hours, and which gives the patient a very low radiation dose. Such isotopes are
ideal for tracing many bodily processes with the minimum of discomfort for the
patient. They are widely used to indicate tumors and to study the heart, lungs, liver,
kidneys, and blood circulation and volume, and bone structure.

Therapy

Nuclear medicine is also used for therapeutic purposes. Most commonly, radioactive
iodine (I-131) is used in small amounts to treat cancer and other conditions affecting
the thyroid gland.

The uses of radioisotopes in therapy are comparatively few, but important.


Cancerous growths are sensitive to damage by radiation, which may be external
(using a gamma beam from a cobalt-60 source), or internal (using a small gamma or
beta radiation source). Short-range radiotherapy is known as brachytherapy, and this
is becoming the main means of treatment. Many therapeutic procedures are
palliative, usually to relieve pain.

A new field is targeted alpha therapy (TAT), especially for the control of dispersed
cancers. The short range of very energetic alpha emissions in tissue means that a
large fraction of that radiative energy goes into the targeted cancer cells once a
carrier, such as a monoclonal antibody, has taken the alpha-emitting radionuclide to
exactly the right places.

Sterilization

Hospitals use gamma radiation to sterilize medical products and supplies such as
syringes, gloves, clothing, and instruments that would otherwise be damaged by
heat sterilization.

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Many medical products today are sterilized by gamma rays from a cobalt-60 source,
a technique which generally is much cheaper and more effective than steam heat
sterilization. The disposable syringe is an example of a product sterilized by gamma
rays. Because it is a 'cold' process, radiation can be used to sterilize a range of heat-
sensitive items such as powders, ointments, and solutions, as well as biological
preparations such as bone, nerve, skin, etc, used in tissue grafts.

The benefit to humanity of sterilization by radiation is tremendous. It is safer and


cheaper because it can be done after the item is packaged. The sterile shelf life of
the item is then practically indefinite provided the package is not broken open. Apart
from syringes, medical products sterilized by radiation include cotton wool, burn
dressings, surgical gloves, heart valves, bandages, plastic and rubber sheets, and
surgical instruments.

Insect control

In addition to agricultural pest control (see Agriculture section above), SIT has found
important applications in the fight against disease-carrying insects. The most recent
high-profile application of SIT has been in the fight against the deadly Zika virus in

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Brazil and the broader Latin America and Caribbean region. Following its outbreak,
impacted countries requested urgent support from the IAEA to help develop the
established technique to suppress populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes. The
IAEA responded by providing expert guidance, extensive training, and by facilitating
the transfer of gamma cell irradiators to Brazil.

Transport

Nuclear-powered ships

Nuclear power is particularly suitable for vessels which need to be at sea for long
periods without refueling, or for powerful submarine propulsion. The majority of the
approximately 140 ships powered by small nuclear reactors are submarines, but they
range from icebreakers to aircraft carriers.

Nuclear reactors for space

Radioisotope thermal generators (RTGs) are used in space missions. The heat
generated by the decay of a radioactive source, often plutionium-238, is used to
generate electricity. The Voyager space probes, the Cassini mission to Saturn, the
Galileo mission to Jupiter, and the New Horizons mission to Pluto are all powered by
RTGs. The Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers have used a mix of solar panels for
electricity and RTGs for heat. The latest Mars rover, Curiosity, is much bigger and
uses RTGs for heat and electricity as solar panels would not be able to supply
enough electricity.

Hydrogen, electricity and cars

In the future, electricity or heat from nuclear power plants could be used to make
hydrogen. Hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to power cars, or can be burned to
provide heat in place of gas without producing emissions that would cause climate
change.

Water resources and the environment

Environmental tracers

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Radioisotopes play an important role in detecting and analyzing pollutants. Nuclear
techniques have been applied to a range of pollution problems including smog
formation, Sulphur dioxide contamination of the atmosphere, sewage dispersal from
ocean outfalls, and oil spills.

Water resources

Adequate potable water is essential for life. Yet in many parts of the world fresh
water has always been scarce and in others it is becoming so.

Isotope hydrology techniques enable accurate tracing and measurement of the


extent of underground water resources. Such techniques provide important analytical
tools in the management and conservation of existing supplies of water and in the
identification of new sources. They provide answers to questions about origin, age,
and distribution of groundwater, as well as the interconnections between ground and
surface water, and aquifer recharge systems. The results permit planning and
sustainable management of these water resources. For surface waters they can give
information about leakages through dams and irrigation channels, the dynamics of
lakes and reservoirs, flow rates, river discharges, and sedimentation rates. Neutron
probes can measure soil moisture very accurately, enabling better management of
land affected by salinity, particularly in respect to irrigation.

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