本书内容丰富全面，涵盖核能相关的各方面内容，叙述分析确切到位，语言表达简练而精确。本书很适合作为大学“核能概论”之类课程的英文教材，也可以作为核工业界各类培训班的教材。

FOREWORD
By Dr. Patrick Moore
Today our foremost energy challenge is to meet increasing needs without adding to ourenvironmental and economic problems, notably air pollution and the cost of energy.
Though there is much talk of the need to severely limit greenhouse gas emissions, asignificant reduction seems unlikely given our continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Yet nuclear energy offers the possibility of eventually replacing much of the fossil fuel used to generate electricity, and if battery-powered automobiles become widely used, muchof the oil used to power transportation.
But environmental activists, notably Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, continue to lobby
against clean nuclear energy, and in favour of the failed Kyoto Treaty, offering unrealistic claims about replacing reliable base-load power with highly intermittent, unpredictable, and costly wind and solar energy. We can agree that renewable energies such as hydroelectric, biomass, and geothermal are part of the solution. But nuclear energy will prove to be even more effective in replacing fossil fuels and satisfying global demand for energy, and there is virtually no limit to the fuel supply for hundreds of years. The rigid and anti-scientific opposition to this proposition goes back to the mid-1980s when Greenpeace and much of the environmental movement made a sharp turn to the political left, adopting extreme agendas that abandoned science and logic in favour of emotion and sensationalism.
For the past two decades I have pursued the concept of sustainable development and sought to develop an environmental policy platform based on science, logic, and the recognition that seven billion people need to survive and prosper, every day of the year. Environmental policies that ignore science can actually result in increased risk to human health and the ecosystem. The zero-tolerance policy against nuclear energy that has been adopted by so many activist groups is a perfect example of this outcome. By scaring people into fearing atomic energy they virtually lock us into a future of increasing fossil fuel consumption.
Even though there have been three serious accidents at nuclear power plants during the 60 years they have been operating, nuclear energy is still one of the safest energy technologies we have invented. Not one person was killed by radiation at either Three Mile Island in the USA or at Fukushima in Japan, and according to the best experts there will be no discernable health effects from either incident. Chernobyl was an exception as the Russians designed a reactor that was inherently unsafe and will never be built again. Even so there were very few deaths – 56 according to the World Health Organization – compared with other major industrial accidents.
That is why I am pleased to commend this book, effectively a tenth edition of a comprehensive introduction to nuclear power, with a scientific basis and pitch. That is where I believe discussion and public debate on the question – and energy policies generally – needs to begin and remain based.
Nuclear energy can play a number of significant roles in improving the quality of our environment while at the same time providing abundant energy for a growing population. First, as mentioned above, it can replace coal and natural gas for electricity production. Coal-fired power plants alone produce about 30% of global CO2 emissions. Under present scenarios, even with aggressive growth in renewable technologies, coal and natural gas consumption will continue to increase rather than decrease. The only available technology that can reverse this trend is nuclear energy.
France, for example, now obtains over 75% of its electricity from nuclear plants. Another 12% is hydroelectric therefore making France’s electricity very low in fossil fuel use. Both Sweden and Switzerland, through a combination
of nuclear and hydroelectric energy, provide a high standard of living with virtually no fossil fuel used for electricity production. If other countries had followed these three countries’ example there would be far less fossil fuel used for power production than there is today.
Second, electricity from nuclear plants can be used to run ground-source heat pumps, also known as geothermal heat pumps, in all buildings. Buildings consume about 35% of the energy in an industrialized country, mostly using fossil fuels for heating and domestic hot water production, and electricity from the grid, often produced with fossil fuels. Heat pumps can provide heating, hot water, and air conditioning with no fossil fuels if the electricity is produced with
nuclear, hydroelectric, or other renewables.
Third, nuclear energy can be used to desalinate seawater to provide water for drinking, industry, and irrigation. A growing population, shrinking aquifers, and increased irrigation demand all add up to the need to make our own fresh
water in the future. Nuclear can provide the energy to do it without causing pollution or greenhouse gas emissions.
Fourth, high-temperature nuclear reactors can be used to produce hydrogen for stationary fuel cells that replace natural gas and petroleum as a source of hydrogen in the petrochemical and coal-to-liquid fuel industries. A nuclear plant can produce sufficient heat to split water into hydrogen and oxygen thermally. This is much more efficient than using electricity to split water. There are a lot of technical hurdles to overcome, and the hydrogen economy may still be years away, but there is no other alternative to using fossil fuels for hydrogen production in the offing.
We will continue to use fossil fuels, hopefully at reduced levels, far into the future. As conventional supplies of oil diminish we will turn to the vast shale gas, shale oil, and oil sand deposits. This is already a growing industry in northern Canada where the oil sands contain as much proven supply as Saudi Arabia. But the oil costs more because it must be separated from the sand. This is done by burning large volumes of natural gas to make steam; then basically
steam-cleaning the sand to get the oil. By using one fossil fuel to obtain another there is even more greenhouse gas emissions than from using conventional oil supplies. One solution to this would be to use nuclear energy to make the
steam, and electricity, to run these oil sand and shale oil projects. This would substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
There are 433 nuclear reactors operable in 30 countries producing 13% of the world’s electricity. There are over 60 reactors under construction at this printing. The production of nuclear energy could be doubled or tripled if the
political will were brought to bear on the issue of reducing fossil fuel consumption. I believe that the environment would benefit from moving in this direction. Let’s hope the future takes us there.
Co-founder of Greenpeace, Dr. Patrick Moore is Chairman and Chief Scientist of
Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in Vancouver, Canada.
www.greenspiritstrategies.com

CONTENTS
Foreword by Dr. Patrick Moore vii
Introduction 1
1. Energy use 4
1.1 Sources of energy 4
1.2 Sustainability of energy 4
1.3 Energy demand 5
1.4 Energy supply 5
1.5 Changes in energy demand and supply 6
1.6 Future energy demand and supply 7
2. Electricity today and tomorrow 10
2.1 Electricity demand 10
2.2 Electricity supply 11
2.3 Fuels for electricity generation today 14
2.4 Provision for future base-load electricity 15
2.5 Renewable energy sources 18
2.6 Coal and uranium compared 21
2.7 Energy inputs to generate electricity 22
2.8 Economic factors 24
3. Nuclear power and its fuels 26
3.1 Mass to energy in the reactor core 26
3.2 Nuclear power reactors – basic design 27
Panel: Components common to most types of nuclear reactor 28
3.3 Uranium availability 31
3.4 Nuclear weapons as a source of fuel 33
3.5 Thorium as a nuclear fuel 35
3.6 Accelerator-driven systems 35
3.7 Physics of a nuclear reactor 36
4. Types of nuclear power reactor 42
4.1 Today’s power reactors 42
4.2 Advanced power reactors 43
4.3 Floating nuclear power plants 45
4.4 Modular light water reactors 45
4.5 High temperature reactors 46
4.6 Fast neutron reactors 48
4.7 Very small nuclear power reactors 51
5. The ‘front end’ of the nuclear fuel cycle 52
5.1 Mining and milling of uranium ore 52
5.2 The nuclear fuel cycle 54
Panel: Uranium enrichment 56
5.3 Thorium cycle 59
6. The ‘back end’ of the nuclear fuel cycle 60
6.1 Nuclear wastes 60
6.2 Reprocessing used fuel 63
6.3 High-level wastes from reprocessing 65
Panel: Transporting radioactive materials 65
6.4 Storage and disposal of high-level wastes 68
6.5 Decommissioning nuclear reactors 71
7. Other nuclear energy applications 74
7.1 Transport 74
7.2 Hydrogen production and use 75
7.3 Process heat 79
7.4 Desalination 80
7.5 Marine propulsion 81
7.6 Radioisotope systems and reactors for space 84
7.7 Research reactors, making radioisotopes 86
8. Environment, health and safety 90
8.1 Greenhouse gas emissions 90
8.2 Other environmental effects 91
8.3 Health effects of power generation 93
8.4 Radiation exposure 95
8.5 Reactor safety 98
9. Avoiding weapons proliferation 104
9.1 International cooperation to achieve security 104
9.2 International nuclear safeguards 105
9.3 Fissile materials 108
9.4 Recycling military uranium and plutonium for electricity 110
9.5 Australian and Canadian nuclear safeguards policies 111
10. History of nuclear energy 114
10.1 Exploring the nature of the atom 114
10.2 Harnessing nuclear fission 115
10.3 Nuclear physics in Russia 116
10.4 Conceiving the atomic bomb 116
10.5 Developing the concepts: bomb and boiler 117
10.6 The Manhattan Project 118
10.7 The Soviet bomb 119
10.8 Revival of the ‘nuclear boiler’ 121
10.9 Nuclear energy goes commercial 122
10.10 The nuclear power renaissance 122
Appendices
1. Ionising radiation and how it is measured 124
2. Some radioactive decay series 126
3. Environmental and ethical aspects of radioactive waste management 127
4. Some useful references 128
Glossary 129
Index 135

Figures
Chapter 1
1. Consumption of fossil fuels 4
2. Primary energy supply 6
3. World primary energy demand 7
4. World electricity consumption 8

Chapter 2
5. Load curves for a typical grid 11
5A. Load curves with overnight charging 13
6. Fuel for electricity generation 14
7. Fuel and waste comparison for uranium and coal 20
8. US electricity production costs 23
9. Projected electricity costs, Finland 23

Chapter 3
10. Fission in conventional and fast neutron reactors 26
11. Pressurised water reactor 28
12. Known uranium resources and exploration expenditure 33
13. World uranium production and demand 34
14. Neutron cross-sections for fission 37
15. Distribution of fission products 38

Chapter 4


Chapter 5
16. The open nuclear fuel cycle 55
17. The closed nuclear fuel cycle 58
18. The fast neutron reactor fuel cycle 59

Chapter 6
19. What happens in a light water reactor 61
20. Vitrified waste (simulated) 67
21. Fission product decay in used fuel 68
22. High-level waste from used fuel decay curve 69

Chapter 8
23. Greenhouse gas emissions in electricity production 91
24. Deaths from energy-related accidents 93
Chapter 9
25. Plutonium in the reactor core 108

Tables
1. Electricity production growth 5
2. Fuel energy conversion data 9
3. Projected capacity additions and investment 13
4. Actual costs of electricity 25
5. Nuclear power’s role in electricity production 30
6. Uranium concentrations in nature 31
7. Known recoverable resources of uranium 32
8. Operable nuclear power plants 42
9. Advanced nuclear power reactors 44
10. High temperature reactors 47
11. Fast neutron reactors 49
12. Commercial reprocessing capacity 63
13. MOX fuel fabrication capacities 65
14. Energy production accident statistics 93
15. Energy-related accidents 94
16. Ionising radiation 96
17. International Nuclear Event Scale 100
18. Serious reactor accidents 101