It was 16th of July 1945 in the northern desert of Alamogordo (New Mexico) infamously known as “Jornada del Muerto” or “Journey of Death” that the world bore witness to its first ever explosion of a nuclear weapon named “Trinity”.
As a result of bipolar world born out of the second world war, the race for filling up one’s arsenal already began that culminated into bringing the best of nuclear weapons under one’s control.
One can still sense that old familiar feeling but in an entirely different context.
Certain space-driven countries have even chalked out their respective ambitious plans to bet it big on nuclear energy to power their trips to mars and moon.
Nuclear batteries have motorized spacecrafts for more than sixty years now and are heading for a new technology called nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP). For example: in China’s Chang’e 3 or NASA’s Perseverance rover. India is also working hard to join the bandwagon as most of its spacecrafts are powered on Solar.
Why? It is to note that the amount of energy or energy density produced by NPT is four million times greater than the fuel used in chemical propulsion (Hydrazine).
Why is all this rush for?
The world has seen the worst of all challenges come alive in the last few years: climate change, supply chain interferences, energy crunch in almost all continents, zonal conflicts etc.
Especially with the continued fight between Ukraine and Russia and the consequent geopolitics, it has become severely difficult to gain energy security and satiate the global demand for fuels.
It has indeed been a cause of worry for the countries importing such commodities and hence, the attraction is profound for nuclear energy.
Even the International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for the doubling of capacity for nuclear power by 2050.
According to certain data sets, nuclear power has played a critical role in strengthening the world economy back in 2021, filling in for the swift increase in electricity generation post its abrupt fall because of the lockdowns.
Asia registered the biggest climb, with nuclear power generation growing by 10 percent i.e., the highest in a decade demonstrating its seasoned reliability.
New found love for Nuclear Energy:
Nuclear power does not account as a renewable energy source, rather it is viewed as ‘green’ by many countries.
The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe added: “Nuclear power is an important source of low-carbon electricity and heat that can contribute to attaining carbon neutrality and hence help to mitigate climate change.”
Despite its proclaimed challenges, Nuclear remains the second largest source of cleaner technology emitting lesser emissions. Advanced as well as emerging economies have recently embraced energy strategies with greater roles for nuclear power in their countries.
But nearly 63% of the installed nuclear capacity comes from plants that are nearly three decades old which were built only after the oil shocks in 1970.
Fukushima Daiichi disaster (Japan) in 2011 has brought out the safety concerns and subsequent withdrawal in this deployment was visible along with the bankruptcies of global nuclear giants like Westinghouse, Areva etc.
With the total operating nuclear power capacity over 389.5 GW(e) at the end of 2021, more than 30 nations in the world are either considering, strategizing or implementing nuclear power programmes, in addition to 20 more who have registered an interest in the same including Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco etc.
Their contribution is not expected to boom the nuclear capacity in the upcoming future but the growing trend for urbanization in less fortunate countries will greatly add to the demand for energy. That is where Nuclear can fit in.
A gradual growth of 20.7 GW(e) in the past decade comes from an increase in capacity from new units in the existing grids or the latest upgrades to existing reactors.
In India, the connection of Kakrapar-3 (PHWR) nuclear reactor yielded 630 MW(e) in 2021.
While the government financing can help mobilize investments for the construction of such plants in countries where nuclear technology remains primitive, it is also needed to develop newer technologies and bring these projects within budget to maintain the nuclear-generated electricity a competitive art.
Providing a fillip to nuclear energy generation setup in the country in early 1960s, it has been an ultimate goal to harness the country’s available thorium-232 reserves that can yield uranium domestically.
Nevertheless, Nuclear isn’t everyone’s favorite. Recent takeover of a nuclear plant in Ukraine by Russia has exposed the possible vulnerabilities of nuclear power plant. This only creates disagreement to the vision of Nuclear as ‘green’.
For instance, Germany was quick to oppose EU’s green context on the similar lines: “The Federal Government has expressed its opposition to the taxonomy rules on nuclear power. This ‘no’ is an important political signal that makes clear: Nuclear energy is not sustainable and should therefore not be part of the taxonomy.”
It may serve the ambition for climate goals or bring greater security to the energy needs of the people, the world will remain cautious of nuclear energy.