[Save] Oct. 1 E&S Seminar: The Future of Nuclear Power

[Karen Gibson]

We hope you will join us for the first LFEE seminar of the semester on Oct. 1!

Environment and Sustainability Seminar Series
Sponsored by the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment
<http://lfee.mit.edu>


The Future of Nuclear Power: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study

Ernest J. Moniz
Professor of Physics, and
Director of Energy Studies, Laboratory for Energy and the Environment


Wednesday, October 1, 2003
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Room E40-496

ABSTRACT

An interdisciplinary MIT faculty group studied the future of nuclear 
power because it is an important option for meeting electricity needs 
without emitting carbon dioxide.  The economics, safety, waste 
management, and nonproliferation challenges of enabling a possible 
global mid-century deployment of about 1000 GWe were addressed 
through a set of findings and policy recommendations.

* Such a mid-century growth scenario will be based primarily on 
thermal reactors operated in a once-through mode.
* A merchant plant model of costs shows that, if nuclear power is to 
be competitive with coal and natural gas, industry must demonstrate 
its plausible but unproved claims of significant reactor capital cost 
reduction and the social costs of greenhouse gas emission need to be 
internalized.  For the United States, we recommend electricity 
production tax credits for a set of "first mover" plants.
* Long term storage of spent fuel prior to geological emplacement, 
specifically including international spent fuel storage, should be 
systematically incorporated into waste management strategies.  The 
scope of waste management R&D should be expanded significantly; an 
extensive program on deep borehole disposal is an example.
* The current international safeguards regime should be strengthened 
to meet the nonproliferation challenges of globally expanded nuclear 
power.  The Additional Protocol needs to be implemented; the 
accounting/inspection regime should be supplemented with strong 
surveillance and containment systems for new fuel cycle facilities; 
safeguards should be implemented in a risk-based framework keyed to 
fuel cycle activity.
* A major international effort should be launched to develop the 
analytical tools and to collect essential scientific and engineering 
data for integrated assessment of fuel cycles.  Large demonstration 
projects are not justified in the absence of advanced analysis and 
simulation capability.
* Public acceptance is critical to expansion of nuclear power.  In 
the United States, the public does not yet see nuclear power as a way 
to address global warming.

(The full report is available electronically at 
http://web.mit.edu/nuclearpower/.)

Light refreshments will be provided.
___________________________________________________

Part of a series of talks on issues of environment and sustainability
sponsored by the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment.

If you would like to be added or removed from this mailing list, please
contact Karen Gibson, kgibson at mit.edu
-- 
_________________________________
Karen  L. Gibson
Program Assistant
MIT Laboratory For Energy and the Environment
77 Massachusetts Avenue, E40-469
(1 Amherst St., E40-469 - for DHL and FedEx)
Cambridge, MA 02139  USA
Tel:  1 (617) 258-6368; Fax:  1 (617) 258-6590
http://lfee.mit.edu
http://globalsustainability.org
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