• Question: How can nuclear energy be made more efficient?

    Asked by anon-201342 to Sophia, Sarah, Meirin, George, Emily on 13 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: George Fulton

      George Fulton answered on 13 Mar 2019:

      The nuclear fusion reaction is actually very efficient. We can make the fusion reaction happen on a much higher density than the sun. Only problem is that the sun is massive!!! The fusion reaction itself is very efficient. You can power all your energy needs from 3 litres of ordinary tap water and your phone battery. The equivalent power in coal would be 800 wheelbarrows worth. So, quite efficient really. The difficulty is getting the energy out and stopping the heat escaping out of the machine. The energy is taken out the same way that most systems generate electricity. Boiling of water to steam that can turn turbines. The heat loss can be controlled by for example making the reactor larger – this is why the new nuclear fusion reactor called ITER is 8 times the volume of the old reactor, JET. 🙂

    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      Fission reactions are very efficient because the fuel is so energy dense we use very little of it compared to say, coal. Where fission is inefficient is their cost. They’re expensive and slow to build but could really be improved by what we call “economy of scale”. Building one nuclear power plant is expensive but building two together isn’t as expensive as two individually. It would be more efficient on costs if we could build at a greater scale or if we moved to small modular reactors, which are smaller and have lower energy outputs but we could afford to build more. There’s also a lot of political flip flopping over nuclear that makes the process very inefficient because there’s inconsistent commitment to the plans

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