Question

Please type down (easy for me to copy and paste) your response (thoughts, ie agree or diagree and why?) after your reading the following paragraphs. (min 5 sentences, 150-200 words)

Climate change is a great environmental threat that requires attention. It exacerbates extreme weather patterns and changes in temperature, which in turn affect the livelihoods and lifestyles of people around the world. The biggest cause of climate change is the emission of CO2. One solution to climate change is the use of current renewable energy. Renewable energy is an adequate form of energy that does not require fuel. Its advantage is that it is virtually inexhaustible in duration; they are constantly replenished. However, they are limited in flow; solar energy and wind power are not always available. Another solution is nuclear power, which is a less appealing solution compared to renewable energy. Advancing technology nuclear power can increase the risk that the nuclear power will be used for malevolent purposes, such as creating weapons. Nuclear power is also dangerous in that errors in operation can lead to a disaster similar to that of Chernobyl, where a nuclear reactor explosion caused numerous deaths resulting from radiation exposure.

Bill Gates’ proposed solution for the climate change problem is TerraPower. TerraPower “breeds [the 99%, the 238] uranium as it goes along, so it's kind of like a candle” (Gates, 2010). The 238 uranium is thus essentially a “miracle battery,” storing enough fuel for the entire lifetime on the planet (Gates, 2010). I think if we depend on nuclear power for energy, there is always the risk of equipment malfunction and radiation exposure, which is extremely detrimental. Nonetheless, Gates understands the value of discovering innovative ideas through research and technology in order to benefit the public. Essentially, his wish for efficient, low cost energy is an idea worth spreading.

Answer 1

I agree with the Terra power. Terrapower aims to provide the world with a more affordable, secure and environment friendly form of nuclear power. Terrapower's activities in the fields of nuclear energy and related science are yielding significant innovations in the safety and economics of nuclear power, hybrid energy and medical applications. The terrapower accepted a lot of challenges such as

1) Developing next generation safe, affordable, clean and secure technologies.

2) Providing word-class leadership for dynamic reactor engineering and innovation.

3) Inventing and developing new nuclear concepts and products

4) Commercializing industrial and human health applications

These all pose very difficult challenges. Add one of the world's leading nuclear innovation companies, TerraPower accepts them.

TerraPower is solving one of the greatest problem such as what to do with the world's growing stockpile of nuclear waste.

TerraPower has chosen Traveling wave reactor as its primary technology. The major benefit of such reactors is high fuel utilisation in a manner that doesn't require reprocessing and could eventually eliminate the need to enrich uranium. TWR are designed to convert typically non fissile fertile nuclides into fissile nuclides in situ and then shift the power from the highly burned region to the freshly bred region, as an integrated breeder reactor. This allows the benefits of a closed fuel cycle without the expense and proliferation risk of enrichment and reprocessing plants typically required to get them. Enough fuel for 40 to 60 years of operation could be in the reactor from the beginning.By using depleted uranium as fuel, this reactor could reduce stockpiles from uranium enrichment. The high fuel efficiency of TWRs, combined with the ability to use uranium recovered from the river or sea water, means enough fuel is available to generate electricity for 10 billion people at US per capita consumption levels for million-year timescales.