• Question: what is the most common issue that happens with nuclear energy ?

    Asked by anon-201743 to Andy, Emily, George, Meirin, Sarah, Sophia on 13 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: George Fulton

      George Fulton answered on 13 Mar 2019:

      In all machines, faults or breaks happen. In a nuclear reactor, replacement and repairing of parts can be really difficult. Firstly, the environment is not very nice for humans to be in, so we put robots in to do our work for us, and secondly, at least from a nuclear fusion point of view, the reactor designs themselves are not very modular or easily accessible. In other words, the reactor is made of very big blocks fitted together rather than a lot more smaller bits which are easier to replace and handle and these big blocks are difficult to get to – they are surrounded by a lot of other ‘stuff’. This means that the robotic maintenance must deal with big objects in relatively cramped spaces. This is a real issue moving forward, but its one that UKAEA has embraced and now they run a world leading robots group dedicated to solving these issues. 🙂 (It’s called RACE, one of the engineers there helped design BB-8 for the new star wars films)

    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      One big issue fission has is an aging workforce. Nuclear was previously very big and so recruited a lot of people but then less recruitment happened. As the older generations retire, we’re finding there’s a bit of a lack of skilled workforce between the older experienced workers and the newer intakes because of this lull. This can impact how quickly work can get done simply due to the available hands that can help complete a job

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