The fission season is back

For more than 20 years, vocal political support for nuclear science and engineering has been non-existent. But faced with the dual threats of energy security and global warming there is now a renewed fondness for nuclear energy.

The construction of new nuclear power plants is back on the agenda in countries including Australia, the US, and – just this week – the UK.

Several countries have decided to extend the life of their existing nuclear reactors. Others, including France, Finland, Japan, Korea, India and China plan to, or are, building, new ones.

Across Europe, national governments’ positions on nuclear energy remain mixed: While the French derive more than 75 percent of their electricity needs from nuclear, reactors are being shut down in Germany and Sweden as these countries move ahead with policies to phase out nuclear power.

But overall, Europe is taking a positive stance. In June, the European Parliament came out strongly in favour of nuclear research when it voted to give nuclear power more funding than all other energy technologies combined in the Framework Programme 7 (FP7).

In short, the desire to be self-sufficient has put nuclear power firmly back on the agenda as a means to supply burgeoning energy needs while tackling global warming.

A new study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development published in June 2006 says there is plenty of uranium. Luis Echavarri, head of the OECD's nuclear energy agency, says there is likely enough uranium to fuel nuclear power plants for the next 150 years.

The future’s bright, the future’s nuclear

So, the future for nuclear energy research in Europe certainly looks bright. Although a tough budget settlement saw the European Commission pare down its proposed FP7 spending from over €70 billion to €50 billion, nuclear was spared the knife.

While almost all other budget headings took a hit, nuclear’s share of the pie was increased. Before the settlement €3.092 billion was earmarked for Euratom, the European Atomic Energy Community, but this was increased to €4.05 billion. This will be a timely present for Euratom, which next year celebrates its 50th birthday.

The money will be divided into €750 million for the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and €3.3 billion for outside grants. Of this, €2.9 billion will be spend on nuclear fusion research – in the global ITER (International Tokamak Experimental Reactor) project – and €411million on improving fission technologies.

Downside-free?

ITER, to be built in Cadarache, France, aims to provide all the advantages of nuclear with none of the downside. Its construction will involve a huge technology transfer programme, as the fruits of a decade of pan European collaboration on its forerunner, the Joint European Torus, are fed into the detailed design of ITER.

The promise of clean energy from ITER is a glittering prospect, but the immediate priority of nuclear research in FP7 is firmly fixed on the past, with yet more work to find an acceptable and safe way of dealing with spent fuel and related radioactive waste, and making the operation of existing installations safer.

In the medium term the focus is to make fission more palatable by reducing the amount of waste it generates. For example, it has been shown at a laboratory scale that it is possible to reduce the activity and volume of nuclear waste. If done at a large scale, spent fuel could become fresh raw material.

Other key areas of research in FP7 continue be defensive – for example, improved radiation protection for staff, emergency management, rehabilitation of contaminated areas.

Converting the general public

The European Commission will also use FP7 funding to go on a public relations offensive to win support for nuclear energy. As the JRC is the science policy advisory body of the European Commission, part of its brief will include promoting the benefits of nuclear energy to the general public. These campaigns will not be small beer. If the politicians agree they would involve long-running information campaigns to encourage debate and inform decisions.

This is inspired by the latest Eurobarometer findings, which show the general public is beginning to appreciate nuclear’s carbon-free credentials, but remains concerned about the safety of plants and of the environmental impact of waste disposal.

The poll found 37 per cent in favour of nuclear power, while 55 per cent are opposed. But if the issue of nuclear waste were to be resolved, 38 per cent of the ‘nos’ would change their opinion. According to the poll, “overall there is a low level of knowledge of nuclear energy and major gaps in the perception of risk”.

The option's still open

Even when nuclear power was out of fashion, universities maintained research partnerships behind the scenes.

As a result, research and skills pipelines are very much alive. “It’s not as though every university has a nuclear department or even nuclear expertise,” says Jeremy Nicholson of the UK Energy Intensive Users Group, “But some universities have worked hard to keep the option open.”

For the most part, this was supported by funding from utility companies and government research grants. “Nuclear research is extremely expensive, and the technology developed does not translate to other areas, which means that only big groups can afford to pay for it,” according to Richard Clegg, Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, at Manchester University, UK.

The Dalton Research Institute is itself a good example of how the nuclear option has been kept open, and how nuclear power has of late become respectable again. Launched with great fanfare a year ago, the Institute has set itself the target of becoming one of the leading centres for nuclear research and teaching worldwide.

Clegg took up the position of director after 20 years in the nuclear industry at the government-owned company, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL). And he was keen to emphasise Manchester’s long running nuclear credentials at the launch of the institute, pointing out that it was almost 100 years since Ernest Rutherford began his research at the university, leading to the eventual splitting of the atom.

Research alliances

The Dalton Institute is home to two of four UK university research alliances set up by BNFL in the 1990s, in materials performance and radiochemistry. The other two centres are in particle technology at Leeds University, and waste immobilisation at Sheffield University.

This research is now funded by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. “Research is still required to support legacy aspects of the industry such as waste management and decommissioning,” says Paul Howarth, director of nuclear research at the Dalton Institute.

Plans to make the Institute a world-leading centre for nuclear research were boosted recently by a star appointment from the US to lead radiation science work. A similar selection process is underway for the head of the decommissioning centre, says Howarth.

Meanwhile, in Finland the utility companies Fortum and TVO are required by law to fund nuclear research. Funding is collected from the Finnish utilities in proportion to their shares in Finnish power plants. Additional money comes from the National Technology Agency, Tekes, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT and the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority.

This funding is directed into three national research projects on safety, waste management and fusion at several institutes, involving the universities of Helsinki, Kuopio, Tampere and Jyvaskyla and the technical universities in Helsinki and Lappeehranta.

To date Finland is the only country in the EU to have an agreed policy for dealing with high-level waste by putting it deep underground.

Nuclear is the new IT

The decisions by countries like Finland, the US and the UK and others to expand their nuclear power programmes has markedly increased the attractiveness of nuclear energy as a career. “A new generation of students see nuclear science and engineering as good long-term opportunities,” according to the Dalton Institute’s Howarth.  “It is to the 00s what IT was to the 80s. If you get in early, you will be ahead of the game.”