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The Quest for Energy
June / July 2004
Volume 2 Number 3
America's attitude about what we once called atomic energy has shifted from gratitude for the resolution to warfare and presumed protection that our weapons brought us, through appreciation for the, again presumed, blessings of clean and abundant energy that would power our ever-expanding worldwide economic hegemony, to fear and anger that even atoms for peace were not as fail-safe as we had imagined.
We are again at the decision point of investing our national will and wealth in nuclear energy for peace and prosperity. Over the past six decades, though, the game and the players have changed. Now, to move forward with a new nuclear energy policy, we need to assure ourselves, our friends and our enemies that we can manage the present and future outcomes of nuclear reactors and their fuel in a manner that assures their protection and secure disposition.
The energy policy currently advanced by the White House recommends an expansion of nuclear energy in this country to enhance energy security. Studies by DOE/NNSA also recommend growth in nuclear power. The consensus is that to achieve this goal, the U.S. scientific community must demonstrate technical options to
—€ Expand the use of nuclear energy worldwide
—€ Manage radioactive waste
—€ Reduce the threat of nuclear material misuse
—€ Enhance national security
Sandia National Laboratories is following these recommendations by advancing a concept it calls the Global Nuclear Future. This model envisions a world that has an abundant, sustainable and environmentally friendly supply of nuclear energy produced in ways that keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists or rogue states. Robert J. Egan, Sandia's senior vice president for special projects, says, "The time is right for America to revisit nuclear energy —€” only now with a new expanded sense of what it means in light of September 11 and looming economic and environmental developments in the world." Eagan notes that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have expressed support for pragmatic approaches to solving these problems. "I think there's a high probability we'll get a favorable hearing on the Global Nuclear Future concept."
Seven DOE/NNSA laboratories are investing in this Global Nuclear Future, with Sandia both performing research and acting as a system integrator. Sandia is joining with Argonne, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories to reinvigorate nuclear power in the 21st century. "Sandia has offered to the rest of the labs our experience and expertise as —€˜system integrators' for this effort," says Sandia President C. Paul Robinson. Each lab in the partnership has expertise in particular areas of nuclear technology that it will bring to the table, Robinson adds, "but we thought that what was most needed was an impartial system integrator that could serve as the honest broker to build the pieces —€” only as appropriate —€” into a system solution."
The technology vision for this partnership outlines three major goals necessary to achieve the vision of global expansion of nuclear energy systems.
—€ Reduce air pollution and improve global climate by increasing the use of nuclear power. Among the objectives are 50 percent of U.S. electricity produced by nuclear power and 25 percent of U.S. transportation fuels produced by hydrogen by 2050
—€ Achieve a 90 percent reduction of reactor waste requiring repository disposal by 2050. Objectives include demonstration of a "closed" (more efficient) fuel cycle system by 2020 in a pilot facility and use of the new fuel system with an advanced reactor.
—€ Reduce the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation while expanding nuclear technology worldwide. To achieve this, the plan calls for demonstration of affordable technologies and safeguard systems to minimize proliferation risk.
To achieve these goals, DOE and its labs will have to reach some near-term objectives that include demonstrating an advanced Generation IV (Gen IV) reactor to support both electrical generation and hydrogen production and accelerating the initiative to develop a closed fuel cycle that will be economically, socially and politically sustainable.
Within the Gen IV reactor development program, the Next Generation Nuclear Plant project will demonstrate high-temperature reactor technology and the capability of this technology to power the affordable production of hydrogen and electricity. The Gen IV program will also invest in the development of new reactor technologies that hold significant promise for advancing sustainability goals and reducing nuclear waste generation.
Closely coupled to the Gen IV program is the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative (NHI). This program contributes to the overall goals by demonstrating hydrogen production technologies using nuclear energy. A commercial-scale demonstration plant could be coupled with a Gen IV demonstration facility in the middle of the next decade.
Reaching the Global Nuclear Future goals will also require the transition from the current once-through fuel cycle to an advanced fuel cycle. The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) is a focused R&D program that addresses types of fuel, fuel fabrication and separation techniques, and disposal technologies to reduce spent fuel volume, separate long-lived and highly radiotoxic elements, and reclaim spent fuel's valuable energy. The AFCI technologies will support both current and future nuclear energy systems.
In addition to satisfying a systems-integration role, Sandia is working with the AFCI team to establish technologies for limiting inappropriate or unsafe nuclear proliferation. This work presents a key opportunity for Sandia, says Tom Sanders, manager of Sandia's Global Nuclear Futures department. "By developing a smart fuel cycle, we can take advantage of advanced manufacturing, robotics, and automation to create additional data at a nuclear plant that can assess the intent of the facility in terms of uses of materials." To maximize this opportunity, Sandia is investing in projects to develop risk-informed proliferation assessments and transparency systems for fuel cycle components.
This work includes efforts to develop systems that focus on verification of legitimate use and those that prevent the diversion of nuclear materials by removing humans from process controls. As these and other projects advance along the research-to-application curve, commercial partners will have the opportunity to participate with Sandia and the other labs in cooperative and licensing agreements.
It is still uncertain if today's U.S. leaders and their constituents are ready to make the economic, social and political commitments to nuclear energy, but the nation's scientists and engineers are working on the technologies that will be needed when, or if, America welcomes in a new atomic age. What is certain is that to bring about the Global Nuclear Future Sandia has proposed, it and the other national laboratories are applying their decades of experience with nuclear materials, reactor engineering and construction, environmental stewardship, waste management, and safeguards and security to ensure that the nation will be ready for this future, which could be arriving sooner than was expected and, perhaps, just in time.
Margaret Lovell is a senior technical writer at Technically Write, assigned to sandia national laboratories.
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