Reducing future CO2 emissions — The role of nuclear energy

A study was made to analyze the potential of reducing CO₂ emissions and to identify important energy and technology options in future energy systems of Japan. The energy market optimum allocation model MARKAL was used for the analysis with a time horizon from 1990 to 2050.

The analytical procedures were as follows. First, a reference energy system was established by incorporating all important energy sources, energy carriers, and energy technologies that existed already or that might be introduced during the above time horizon. Second, future demand for energy services was estimated based on the two economic growth scenarios, high and low. Also, assumptions were made about the evolution of imported fuel prices, availability of energy resources, and so on. Third, under the above assumptions, the optimum energy and technology options were selected by minimizing a discounted system cost under different carbon tax schemes, and thereby the potential of reducing CO₂ emissions was analyzed.

The following results were obtained by the analysis. Without utilization of nuclear energy, the CO₂ emissions can be hardly stabilized at the 1990 emission level even in the case of the low economic growth and large scale deployment of CO₂ recovery and disposal assumed. A significant amount of fossil fuels will be used for power generation in order to meet the rapidly growing demand for electricity. Nuclear energy, by substituting fossil fuels for electric power generation, is expected to contribute to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. In addition, the average cost of reducing the emissions will be substantially lowered compared with a non nuclear scenario.     

Nuclear energy system for the global environmental regulation in Korea— Energy-economy interaction model analysis

Global environmental regulation such as limits on CO₂ emissions will change the energy cost as well as energy mix, and it will eventually affect the potential economic growth and future energy demand. The rise of energy price from the environmental regulation will encourage the efficiency increase of energy use, fuel switching and the substitution between the energy and the other factors of production like labour and capital. Such situations can be successfully simulated through an energy-economy model which permits two-way interaction between energy and economy.

An analysis on the role of nuclear energy system for meeting the global environmental constraint like CO₂ emission regulation, has been performed through an energy-economy interaction model - EFOM-MACRO-KOREA.

In case carbon taxation which is a widely discussed policy measure for CO₂ abatement should be introduced, the role of nuclear energy in the domestic sustainable energy system as well as the economic impacts has been assessed. For the analysis, various scenarios in tax rate have been considered. Levying carbon tax will decrease future economic growth, and the decrease will be bigger in case that there are some restrictions on nuclear installation. It is shown that nuclear energy system will play an important role in Korean sustainable development up to 2040 in most cases.     

The role of nuclear power in the sustainable energy future of Korea

The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of nuclear power in the sustainable energy supply future of Korea. For this purpose, an energy-economy interaction model of the computational general equilibrium (CGE) approach, the Korean Energy and Environmental Policy model(KEEP) was adapted. The model is a non-linear optimization model that maximizes the discounted value of Korean economic utility. The model operates over the time horizon of 1995–2040 in annual steps.

Some scenarios are established in accordance with three possible nuclear growth rate and the strength of the carbon tax imposed. At first, business as usual(BAU) nuclear growth scenario was set up and maintaining the current installed capacity and phasing out the nuclear power options are considered. After that, the investigation has been done on each scenario in the case that a tax for CO₂ emission regulation was imposed.

Results show that limiting CO₂ emissions with a nuclear phase out scenario will have the most serious impact on the economic welfare compared with the other scenarios. If the CO₂ emission target will be imposed in Korea in the foreseeable future, nuclear power will play an important role in mitigating the economic impacts.

This analysis gives us a chance to consider the trade-offs between the most important energy issues of today-concerns with the risk of nuclear power, those involving future climate change, and energy security.     

CO_2 conversion by thermal plasma with carbon as reducing agent: high CO yield and energy efficiency

A key problem in CO_2 conversion by thermal plasma is suppressing the inverse reactions,CO?+?O?→?CO_2 and CO?+?0.5O_2?→?CO_2, to simultaneously obtain high CO yield and energy efficiency. This can be done by quickly quenching the decomposed gas or rapidly taking away free oxygen from decomposed gas. In this paper, experiments of CO_2 conversion by thermal plasma with carbon as a reducing agent are presented. Carbon quickly devoured free oxygen in thermal plasma decomposed gas, and not only is the inverse reaction completely suppressed, but the discharge energy to form oxygen atoms, oxygen molecular, and thermal energy is also reused.A CO_2 conversion rate of 67%–94% and the corresponding electric energy efficiency of about 70% are achieved, both are much higher than that seen so far by other plasma implementations.     

Importance of nuclear generation in the struggles to reduce CO2 emission at Kansai Electric Power Co.

It has been pointed out in recent years that the potential impacts of global warming has been becoming more and more serious because of the rapid increase of anthropogenic CO₂ emission.

Japan's annual CO₂ emissions (fiscal 1994) amounted to 343 million tons of carbon. Although CO₂ emissions caused by fossil-fuel power generation accounted for 29.4% of total, on a sector basis, those directly from the energy conversion sector accounted for only 7.7%. Most CO₂ emissions (21.7% of total) resulted from electric power use in the industrial, commercial and domestic sectors. Thus, the reduction of CO₂ emissions caused by the use of electricity is a nationwide subject.

Understanding that both supply side and demand side approaches are necessary, Kansai Electric has been deploying “New ERA Strategy” as a comprehensive strategy to seek a potential for CO₂ reduction more broadly and deeply. Among a number of action items are the promotion of nuclear power generation, and improvement of overall energy efficiency, besides such demand side measures as leveling off the peak load.

The effectiveness of action items of the New ERA Strategy was evaluated in terms of CO₂ reduction. As a result, estimated CO₂ reduction related to nuclear power amounted to 88% of the total for fiscal 1995 in comparison with 1990, and that expected in 2000 is 84%. These results reconfirm that nuclear power is always the key to practical CO₂ reduction at present and in the future.

Comparison with candidate technology alternatives revealed that photovoltaic power generation needed 7 times greater rated capacity and 280 times larger area than nuclear power, so it is not realistic as a central power station alternative. The comparison also clarified that if wind power stations were constructed at all feasible sites in the Kansai region, they would not be a viable alternative to a single nuclear unit from CO₂ reduction viewpoint.     

The strategies of abating emission of CO2 and nuclear energy development in China

In China, annual coal consumption accounts for the first place all over the world in order to meet the high speed development of economy and improvement of the people's living quality. CO₂ emission from coal fire is a main contributor to the climate change. We must abate CO₂ emission besides developing economy for mitigating the global climate change. In the feasible countermeasure to reduce CO₂ emission, which includes improving energy efficiency and developing alternative energy, developing nuclear energy is an important one.     

复杂混合气体组分在低温活性炭表面的吸附特性

为实现大体积气体中微量放射性气体Kr、Xe同位素的测量,须将混合气体进行浓集并将目标气体吸附于10 mL左右的活性炭源盒中。本实验对混合气体中各组分在活性炭分离柱上的吸附性能进行研究,建立了通过去除其他杂质气体、浓集大体积气体制备放射性Kr和Xe活度源的方法。根据反应堆流出气体和核爆可能生成的气体组分,配制了模拟气体,使用活化的4A分子筛对其中的水和CO₂进行模拟去除,获得了流程中去除水和CO₂的实验条件;选择5个低温点(273、264、255、246、238 K),在低温活性炭柱上对H₂、CO、CH₄、Kr和Xe的吸附特性进行研究,测定了各气体在不同温度下的吸附穿透曲线。结果表明,室温下4A分子筛对水和CO₂有较好的吸附效果。低温下,H₂、CO不易在活性炭表面吸附;CH₄、Kr吸附性质相似;Xe吸附能力较强。低温下难以去除的CH₄可在高温下氧化去除。因此,可根据混合气体中各组分性质的不同实现杂质气体的去除和目标气体Kr、Xe的回收测量。     

Futures for hydrogen produced using nuclear energy

What is the future of hydrogen (H₂) produced from nuclear energy? Assuming that economically competitive nuclear H₂ can be produced, production of H₂ may become the primary use of nuclear energy and the basis for both a nuclear-H₂ renewable (solar, wind, etc.) energy economy and a nuclear-H₂ transport system. The technical and economic bases for these conclusions are described. In a nuclear-H₂ renewable energy economy, nuclear energy is used to produce H₂ that is stored and becomes the energy-storage component of the electrical generating system. The stored H₂ replaces piles of coal and tanks of liquid fuel. Capital-intensive renewable energy sources and nuclear reactors produce electricity at their full capacity. The stored H₂ is used in fuel cells to produce the highly variable quantities of electricity needed to fill the gap between the electricity demand by the customer and the electricity generated by the rest of the electrical generating system. Hydrogen is also used to produce the liquid or gaseous transport fuels. This energy-system architecture is a consequence of the fundamental differences between the characteristics of electricity (movement of electrons) and those of H₂ (movement of atoms). Electricity can be generated, transformed, and used economically on either a small or a large scale. However, it is difficult to generate, store, and transform H₂ economically on a small scale. This distinction favors the use of large-scale nuclear systems for H₂ production.     

Sustainable futures using nuclear energy

We present the role of nuclear energy in a sustainable future. This addresses the social, economic and environmental concerns of us all. Nuclear energy today avoids the emission of nearly two billion tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) each year, thanks to over 400 reactors operating worldwide.

Nevertheless, there is no real recognition of real incentives for large-scale non-emitters like nuclear energy and for emissions avoidance in current Kyoto and other policies. These approaches rely heavily on conservation, renewables and efficiency. These measures alone also will not significantly reduce the atmospheric greenhouse burden, because the world is still growing. Also, our (the world's) future economic growth (in all countries) is tied to energy and electricity use. Our prosperity, the alleviation of poverty and the sustainability of the world depend on having a supply of emissions-free and safe energy.

Recent price hikes in fossil fuels and power blackouts also emphasize our need for reliable, safe and cheap power, as is offered by nuclear energy when coupled with effective and secure waste disposal.

A particularly important role for nuclear power in the future will be its links to the hydrogen economy. It is now recognised that the introduction of hydrogen into the transportation sector will benefit the environment only when low carbon sources, such as nuclear reactors, are the primary energy source for hydrogen production. The future could well be the Hydrogen Age. We show that a major reduction in GHGs worldwide can be obtained by nuclear-electric production of hydrogen, thus alleviating their potential effects on future generations. We also demonstrate a potential key synergism with renewable wind power in the hybrid production of distributed hydrogen. Thus, nuclear energy supports and enables the World in its journey to a sustainable, safe and secure energy future.     

Medium temperature carbon dioxide gas turbine reactor

A carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas turbine reactor with a partial pre-cooling cycle attains comparable cycle efficiencies of 45.8% at medium temperature of 650 °C and pressure of 7 MPa with a typical helium (He) gas turbine reactor of GT-MHR (47.7%) at high temperature of 850 °C. This higher efficiency is ascribed to: reduced compression work around the critical point of CO₂; and consideration of variation in CO₂ specific heat at constant pressure, C_p, with pressure and temperature into cycle configuration. Lowering temperature to 650 °C provides flexibility in choosing materials and eases maintenance through the lower diffusion leak rate of fission products from coated particle fuel by about two orders of magnitude. At medium temperature of 650 °C, less expensive corrosion resistant materials such as type 316 stainless steel are applicable and their performance in CO₂ have been proven during extensive operation in AGRs. In the previous study, the CO₂ cycle gas turbomachinery weight was estimated to be about one-fifth compared with He cycles. The proposed medium temperature CO₂ gas turbine reactor is expected to be an alternative solution to current high-temperature He gas turbine reactors.     

Utilization of solar and nuclear energy for hydrogen production

Although the world-wide energy supply situation appears to have eased at present, non-fossil primary energy sources and hydrogen as a secondary energy carrier will have to take over a long-term and increasing portion of the energy supply system. The only non-fossil energy sources which are available in relevant quantities, are nuclear energy, solar energy and hydropower. The potential of H₂ for the extensive utilization of solar energy is of particular importance. Status, progress and development potential of the electrolytic H₂ production with photovoltaic generators, solar-thermal power plants and nuclear power plants are studied and discussed. The joint German-Saudi Arabian Research, Development and Demonstration Program HYSOLAR for the solar hydrogen production and utilization is summarized.     

Insulation characteristics of triple mixtures of c-C4F8/N2/CO2 under lightning impulse voltage

This paper has researched the insulation characteristics of 10%c-C₄F₈/N₂/CO₂ mixtures under lightning impulse voltage by experiment. It is shown that the positive and negative lightning impulse breakdown voltages of 10%c-C₄F₈/N₂/CO₂ gas mixtures rise linearly as the electrode gap distance and gas pressure increase and under the same conditions, the positive lightning impulse breakdown voltage of the gas mixtures is always higher than the negative lightning impulse breakdown voltage. As the gas mixtures have a little higher liquefied temperature than SF₆ and the comprehensive GWP is about 5% of SF₆ , and the positive and negative lightning impulse breakdown voltages can both reach 60% of SF₆ , 10%c-C₄F₈/N₂/CO₂ gas mixtures can be applied as insulation gas in electrical equipment such as C-GIS, GIT, GIL and so on.     

Role of nuclear energy in environment, economy, and energy issues of the 21st century – Growing energy demand in Asia and role of nuclear

The economic growth of recent Asia is rapid, and the GDP and the energy consumption growth rate are about 8–10% in China and India. The energy consumption forecast of Asia in this century was estimated based on the GDP growth rate by Goldman Sachs. As a result, about twice in India and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and about 1.5 times in China of SRES B (Special Report on Emission Scenarios) are forecasted. The simulation was done by Grape Code to analyze the impact of energy increase in Asia. As for the nuclear plant in Asia, it is expected 1500 GWe in 2050 and 2000 GWe in 2100, in the case of the environmental constrain. To achieve this nuclear utilization, there are two important aspects, technically and institutionally.

A. Development of the CANDLE core and/or the Breed and Burn core.

B. The establishment of the stable nuclear fuel supply system like “Asian nuclear fuel supply organization”.

Radiation shielding design of the CFETR polarimeter interferometer and CO2 dispersion interferometer

A three-wave based laser polarimeter/interferometer and a CO₂ laser dispersion interferometer are used to determine the electron and current density profiles on a Chinese fusion engineering test reactor (CFETR). Radiation shielding is designed for the combination of polarimeter/interferometer and CO₂ dispersion interferometer. Furthermore, neutronics models of the two systems are developed based on the engineering-integrated design of CFETR polarimeter/interferometer and CO₂ dispersion interferometer and the major material components of CFETR. The polarimeter/interferometer and CO₂ dispersion interferometer's neutron and photon transport simulations were performed using the Monte Carlo neutral transport code to determine the energy deposition and neutron energy spectrum of the optical mirrors. The energy depositions of the first mirrors on the polarimeter/interferometer are reduced by three orders with the whole shielding. Since the mirrors of CO₂ dispersion interferometer are very close to the diagnostic first wall, shielding space is limited and the CO₂ dispersion interferometer energy deposition is higher than that of the polarimeter/interferometer. The dose rate after shutdown 10⁶ s in the back-drawer structure has been estimated to be 83 μSv h⁻¹ when the radiation shield is filled in the diagnostic shielding modules, which is below the design threshold of 100 μSv h⁻¹. Radiation shielding design plays a key role in successfully applying polarimeter/interferometer and CO₂ dispersive interferometer in CFETR.     

Enhanced CO2 decomposition via metallic foamed electrode packed in self-cooling DBD plasma device

A self-cooling dielectric barrier discharge reactor, packed with foamed Cu and Ni mesh and operated at ambient conditions, was used for the composition of CO₂ into CO and O₂. The influences of power, frequency, and other discharge characteristics were investigated in order to have a better understanding of the effect of the packing materials on CO₂ decomposition. It is found that porous foamed Cu and Ni not only played a role as the carrier of energy transformation and electrode distributed in discharge gaps but also promoted the equilibrium shifting toward the product side to yield more CO by consuming some part of O₂ and O radicals generated from the decomposition of CO₂. The maximum CO₂ decomposition rates of 48.6% and 49.2% and the maximum energy efficiency of 9.71% and 10.18% were obtained in the foamed Ni and Cu mesh, respectively.     

应用于等离子体排灰气处理的甲烷水汽重整反应的热力学分析

Tokamak装置中的等离子体反应一段时间后,需对产生的排灰气进行净化处理,以回收其中的氘氚。目前拟采用甲烷水汽重整反应将化合态的氘氚转化为单质并回收。本文运用Gibbs自由能最小化方法,对应用于等离子体排灰气处理的水汽重整反应进行热力学分析,考查反应温度、原料比例、反应压力、O₂、CO₂、H₂、CO等因素对反应平衡的影响,确定了适宜的反应条件,即反应温度范围650～700 ℃,压力1×105 Pa,水碳比1.5～2.0。此外,原料气中O₂或CO₂的存在有利于减少积碳的生成量,并获得较高的氢同位素平衡转化率;H₂的存在对重整反应的热力学平衡无明显影响;CO的存在会使积碳量增加,对反应产生不利影响,在进入重整反应器前应将其去除。     

Low energy nitrogen ion doping into GaAs using combined ion-beam and molecular-beam epitaxy method

Low energy nitrogen (N) ions were irradiated during the epitaxial growth of GaAs using combined ion beam and molecular beam epitaxy (CIBMBE) method as a function of N⁺ ion acceleration energy (E_a) and N⁺ ion beam current density (I_N). E_a was varied from 70 to 170 eV I_N from 900 pA/cm² to 75 nA/cm². GaAs growth rate was fixed to 1 μm/h. In 2 K photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the samples with I_N = 3 nA/cm² and E_a = 70–100 eV, two sharp emissions at 1.508 eV (X₁) and 1.495 eV (X₂), which have been attributed to the emissions of excitons bound to isolated N atoms, and another one at 1.443 eV (X₅) were observed. These results show that nitrogen (N) atom in GaAs becomes optically active as an isoelectronic impurity at least in as-grown condition. For N⁺ ion-irradiated samples with rather high I_N, e.g., with I_N = 75 nA/cm² and E_a = 100 eV, a broad emission together with multiple sharp ones were observed after furnace annealing at 750°C which were ascribed to emissions of excitons bound to nitrogen-nitrogen (N---N) pairs.     

Materials for coal gasification plants utilizing nuclear process heat generated in a high temperature reactor

In coal gasification plants based on nuclear process heat, materials are subjected to high temperature corrosion in process gas atmosphere at 750 to 900° C. The process gas consists of steam, CO, CH₄, CO₂ and, depending on the gasified coal, low or high H₂S-concentrations. Materials for heat exchangers must be resistant to high temperature corrosion. They should also have adequate creep rupture strength. Therefore the commercial alloy Incoloy 800 and various model alloys were exposed to a process gas atmosphere to determine the corrosion behaviour and also stressed mechanically to investigate the interaction of high temperature creep behaviour and corrosion.

Compared with Incoloy 800, one of the new model alloys (30–32% Ni, 25–27% Cr, and Ce, Fe-balance) exhibits a very good corrosion resistance even when sulphur rich coal is gasified. The creep rupture strength at 900° C is in the range of the creep strength for Incoloy 800.     

Photon-induced impurity production in TEXTOR

Analysis of the residual neutral gas during plasma discharges in the tokamak TEXTOR shows considerable amounts of neutral CO and CO₂. Details of these observations have suggested that the CO₂ and part of the CO neutral gas is released from the surfaces by photon-stimulated desorption processes. To prove this suggestion additional mass-spectroscopic measurements have been performed in a chamber vacuum-sealed from the TEXTOR vacuum by a MgF₂-window which is transparent for wavelengths above about 110 nm. It has been confirmed that CO₂ and CO molecules together with H₂ are released from the walls of the chamber by the photons penetrating from the TEXTOR plasma through the window. The overall desorption rate has been estimated to be between 10⁻⁴ and 10⁻⁵ molecules/photon and a linear relation between the amount of desorbed molecules and the total radiation from the plasma has been found. The results are discussed in view of the overall impurity release from the walls and limiters of TEXTOR.     

高温堆非纯氦气中预氧化对3种高温合金的腐蚀行为影响研究

高温气冷堆（简称高温堆）中,由于一回路冷却剂氦气中含有微量（ppm级）不纯杂质,其在高温环境中会对高温堆合金材料造成腐蚀,影响设备的性能。Inconel 617、Hastelloy X、Incoloy 800H是3种高温堆中间换热器及蒸汽发生器设备候选材料。研究表明,镍铬合金在高温下表面生成的富铬氧化层是防止合金在高温下发生严重腐蚀的重要因素。本文对3种合金在高温含杂质氦气中的腐蚀行为进行研究,探究预氧化对3种合金腐蚀行为的影响。并通过称重、扫描电镜、X射线能谱、电子探针显微分析仪以及碳硫分析仪对腐蚀结果进行分析。结果表明,3种合金均出现了不同的氧化和渗碳现象,预氧化对Hastelloy X合金抗腐蚀能力的提升不明显,对Inconel 617合金的抗氧化和渗碳能力有一定提升,对Incoloy 800H合金的抗渗碳腐蚀能力有一定提升。