NUCLEAR ENERGY: BENEFITS VERSUS RISKS

BENCHMARK I

Student Anastasia Gorbunova

Teacher Olga Cherepanova

Seversk Gymnasia

Seversk 2008

CONTENTS

1. Introduction.

2. Nonrenewable energy sources.

- coal

- oil

- gas

3. Renewable energy sources.

- solar energy

- wind energy

- biomass energy

- ocean energy

- hydrogen energy

4. Nuclear energy.

- supply of uranium

- nuclear power plants in the world

5. Conclusion.

INTRODUCTION

/www.encarta.msn.com/

Much of the world’s energy comes from nonrenewable resources, such as oil, coal, and natural gas. Although these resources are distributed over a large geographical region, consumption of energy centers in industrialized nations. This table shows the percent of the world’s total energy supply used by each region. Oil is not the only resource involved in the comparison; oil equivalents are provided to give perspective to the percentages. /www.encarta.msn.com/

From the beginning of time, right up to the present, mankind has always been motivated to use all the resources provided by nature to make his life easier and more pleasant. And, of course, energy has always been man’s best friend in this quest.

What is the oldest form of energy used by man? Without any doubt, it is fire! Our distant ancestors, men of prehistoric times, learnt to use wood to keep themselves warm and to cook their food. While rubbing two sticks against each other the man made a great discovery – the fire. The first match is over half a million years old!

So wood was the first and, for most of human history, the major source of energy. It was readily available, because extensive forests grew in many parts of the world and the amount of wood needed for heating and cooking was relatively modest. Thanks to a chance or maybe something else our ancestor invented the wheel. This invention was the first lucky attempt of the man to save energy, his own at least.

The evolution went on slowly. And only natural kinds of energy were used. But in the first millennium BC we can find the first energy transformation “machines” that influenced our civilization development greatly then.

Greeks investigated the possibilities of using wind and found out that it could rotate vanes of a mill.

In 100 BC the Romans applied the same principle to use water energy. These inventions spread though Europe.

Under the earth surface the Chinese found a new energy source – gas. They used natural gas for almost industrial salt evaporation.

In the meanwhile the most important fuel reserves continued to build up in the Earth's interior. Coal started to form about 350 millions of years BC. Gradually huge forests disappeared, which first became peat (1), then brown coal (2) and further – coking coal (3). Oil (4) and natural gas (5) are of the same ancient origin. Sea organisms died and formed enormous layers on the sea bottom changing under the influence of bacteria. In the course of time all this has been covered with sand and stones and under the influence of warmth turns into great reserves of natural fuel.

During the Middle Ages wood began to be used to make charcoal. The charcoal was heated with metal ore to break up chemical compounds and free the metal. As forests were cut and wood supplies dwindled at the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century, charcoal was replaced by coke (produced from coal) in the reduction of ores. Coal, which also began to be used to drive steam engines, became the dominant energy source as the Industrial Revolution proceeded.

In 1765 Polzunov projected large 32 h.p. steam machine for air pumps for steel furnaces.

The machine was assembled during winter and spring of 1766, the machine hall had very thin walls and a lot of draughts. In 1769 Watt invents a steam machine. His machine is constantly changed and improved and in this it contributes to the development of textile and steelmaking industries. In the very same year there appears the first automobile.

Luigi Galvani, Alessandro Volta and Andre-Marie Ampere investigate electricity and its properties.

The first locomotive in the world was built by Richard Trevithick in 1804. In 1872 Lodygin invented the first incandescent lamp. After that it dawned upon Edison and the first electricity lamp appeared.

In 1859 oil became the main course of industrial progress after its first discovery in USA in Pennsylvania.

On 8 Nov, 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (accidentally) discovered an image cast from his cathode ray generator, projected far beyond the possible range of the cathode rays (now known as an electron beam). Further investigation showed that the rays were generated at the point of contact of the cathode ray beam on the interior of the vacuum tube, that they were not deflected by magnetic fields, and they penetrated many kinds of matter. The discovery of natural radioactivity in 1896 opened the way for control of the atom. The energy from nuclear fission was born.

In 1905 Albert Einstein developed a theory about the relationship of mass and energy. The formula, E=mc², is probably the most famous outcome from Einstein's special theory of relativity. The formula says energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light (c) squared. In essence, it means mass is just one form of energy. And in 1911 Ernest Reserford discovered the atomic nucleus.

Ancient energy sources such as oil, coal etc. are used even more nowadays, but of course, with vastly improved technology. And other energy forms have made their entrance onto the stage: modern energy sources.

And then, there are the energy sources of the future.

Energy from the biomass, in other words the energy used in chemical form by human beings, had just found its first applications.

Of these, the use of solar energy remains the most recent (from the beginning of the 1970’s). Strangely enough, the discovery of how sunlight could be changed into an electrical current (the photovoltaic effect: the transformation of sunlight into electrical current) is older than that of radioactivity, dating as it does from 1839. But industrialists waited for the first oil crisis in 1973 before becoming seriously interested.

In the case of geothermal energy, the water in the deep substrata that is naturally warm or very hot is used for heating purposes or for the production of electricity. Like solar energy, the use of geothermal energy dates from the second half of the 20^th century.

And then, there are those sources we do not yet know how to handle … Energy sources that man has not yet managed to control to his advantage.

Natural electricity, otherwise known as lightning. A flash of lightning abounds with furious energy. Unfortunately, after a lot of attempts that have failed, we still do not know how to recover it. It is too intense and too violent, and besides, we don’t know how to forecast when or where it is going to occur next. At best, thanks to lightning conductors, we manage to protect houses and buildings, where it could otherwise do an awful lot of damage.

The tides, sea currents and ocean waves all possess enormous energy, but we don’t yet know how to capture it economically. Research is ongoing. Only one plant exists that produces energy from the tides on an industrial scale, and it is located in France. It is the tidal plant at Reims in Brittany. The temperature difference between the surface and the depths of the oceans also theoretically gives us a way to produce electricity. But at present this thermal energy of the oceans seems to be too difficult and costly to recover.

And perhaps the inexhaustible energy source really does exist. It is nuclear fusion, the energy of the stars, the transformation of two tiny atoms of hydrogen into an atom of helium that is hardly any larger, liberating an enormous quantity of energy when there are billions and billions of atoms that fuse together! Hydrogen is present in large quantities on Earth; it is one of the components of water; so this source of energy would be abundant and available for a very, very long time.

For the moment, scientists do a lot of research, but there are so many technical difficulties that no one knows if we will be successful one day. In the meantime, the military know how to liberate this energy; but without being able to control it: it is known as the H-bomb (the hydrogen bomb) that, unfortunately, cannot be used for civil purposes such as producing electricity. /www.planet-energies.com/

NONRENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

COAL

Coal has been used worldwide as a fuel for centuries.

How Coal Forms

/www.encarta.msn.com/

Accumulated, compacted and altered plants form a sedimentary rock called coal.

Two theories have been proposed to explain the formation of coal.

The popular theory held by many uninformitarian geologists is that the plants which compose the coal were accumulated in large freshwater swamps or peat bogs during many thousands of years. This first theory which supposes growth-in-place of vegetable material is called the autochthonous theory.

The second theory suggests that coal strata accumulated from plants which had been rapidly transported and deposited under flood conditions. This second theory which claims transportation of vegetable debris is called the allochthonous theory.

Cyclothems

Coal commonly occurs in a sequence of sedimentary strata called a cyclothem. An idealized Pennsylvanian cyclothem may have strata deposited in the following ascending order: sandstone, shale, limestone, underclay, coal, shale, limestone, shale. A typical cyclothem will normally be missing one or more of the component strata. In any one locality cyclothems commonly repeat tens of times with each cycle of deposition accumulated on a previous one. There are fifty successive cycles in Illinois and over a hundred in West Virginia.

Although the coal bed forming a portion of the typical cyclothem is usually quite thin (commonly an inch to a few tens of feet thick), the lateral extent of coal is often incredible. Modern stratigraphic research has correlated the Broken Arrow coal (Oklahoma), Croweburg coal (Missouri), Whitebrest coal (Iowa), Colchester coal (Illinois), Coal (Indiana), Schultztown coal (W. Kentucky), Princess coal (E. Kentucky), and Lower Kittanning coal (Ohio and Pennsylvania). These form a single, vast seam of coal exceeding one hundred thousand square miles in area in the central and eastern United States. No modern swamp has an area remotely approaching the great Pennsylvanian coals.

If the autochthonous model for coal formation is correct, a very unusual set of circumstances must have prevailed. An entire region, often encompassing many tens of thousands of square miles, would have to be raised simultaneously relative to sea level to permit swamp accumulation, and then lowered to permit the ocean to flood the area. If the coal forest was raised too far above sea level, the swamp and its antiseptic water necessary for the accumulation of peat would have been drained. If during the peat accumulation time the sea invaded the swamp, the marine conditions would have killed the plants, and other sediment instead of peat would have been deposited. According to the popular model, the formation of a thick bed of coal, then, would indicate the maintenance of an incredible balance over many thousands of years between the rate of peat accumulation and the rise of sea level. Such a situation seems most improbable, especially when the cyclothem is known to recur a hundred times or more in a vertical section.

Coalification

The nature of the process of metamorphosis of peat to form coal has been disputed for many years. One theory suggests that time is the major factor in coalification. The theory, however, has become unpopular because it has been recognized that there is no systematic increase in the metamorphic rank of coal with increasing age. There are some blatant contradictions: lignites representing low metamorphic rank occur in some of the oldest coal-bearing strata while anthracites representing the highest metamorphic rank occur in some of the youngest strata.

A second theory supposes pressure to be the major factor in coal metamorphosis. The theory is refuted by numerous geological examples where metamorphic rank does not increase in highly deformed and folded strata. Furthermore, laboratory experiments demonstrate that increase of pressure can actually retard the chemical alteration of peat to coal.

A third theory (by far the most popular) suggests the temperature is the important factor in coal metamorphosis. Geological examples (igneous intrusions into coal seams and underground mine fires) demonstrate that elevated temperature can cause coalification. Laboratory experiments have also been quite successful. One experiment⁸ produced a substance like anthracite in a few minutes by using a rapid heating process with much of the heat being generated by the cellulosic material being altered. Thus, the metamorphosis of coal does not require millions of years of applied pressure and heat, but can be produced by quick heating. /www.icr.edu/

Chinese coal miners in an illustration of the Tiangong Kaiwu Ming Dynasty encyclopedia./www.en.wikipedia.org/

Coal Industry

Around 1800 coal became the main energy source for the Industrial Revolution, the expanding railway system of countries being a prime user. Britain developed the main techniques of underground mining from the late 18th century onward with further progress being driven by 19th and early 20th century progress.

Because it is found almost exclusively underground, it must be mined or extracted prior to use. Large-scale coal mining developed during the Industrial Revolution, and coal provided the main source of primary energy for industry and transportation in the West from the 18th century to the 1950s. Coal remains an important energy source, due to its low cost and abundance when compared to other fuels, particularly for electricity generation.

However oil and its associated fuels began to be used as alternative from this time onward. By the late 20th century coal was for the most part replaced in domestic as well as industrial and transportation usage by oil, natural gas or electricity produced from oil, gas, nuclear or renewable energy sources. /www.en.wikipedia.org/

Despite the reduction of coal in energy use coal industry is still one of the leading industries in the world. Its relative stability can be explained by the fact that there are not only such users as power industry and ferrous metallurgy but better resources supply as well in comparison with oil industry. The world proven coal resources are mainly in economically developed countries, about 66%.

Reserves of coal, coal production in the entire world, in its particular regions and in some countries

The entire world, particular regions and major countries	Proven oil reserves (billions of tons)	Production (millions of tons)					%
		1950	1960	1970	1980	1990
The entire world	1250,0	1280	2575	2860	3750	4950	100,0
CIS	280	261	490	624	716	700	14,1
Russia	-	-	-	345	390	395	8,0
Ukraine	-	-	-	-	-	165	3,3
Kazakhstan	-	-	-	-	-	130	2,6
Europe	280	800	1020	1080	1452	1350	27,3
Germany	90	202	238	225	210	435	8,8
Poland	25	83	114	170	230	215	4,3
Czechoslovakia	5	45	84	110	123	106	2,1
Great Britain	90	220	197	145	128	90	1,8
Yugoslavia	13	13	23	30	52	76	1,5
Romania	5	4	7	20	35	38	0,8
Bulgaria	5	6	18	32	30	32	0,7
Asia	165	165	564	448	845	1140	29,2
China	105	43	397	245	605	1080	21,8
India	23	33	53	75	114	225	4,3
DPRK	2	5	10	25	50	60	1,2
Turkey	6	4	8	15	20	50	0,9
Japan	9	40	52	40	18	8	0,2
Africa	75	35	45	60	115	200	4,0
Republic of South Africa	70	27	38	55	110	175	3,6
North America	415	525	404	555	787	1015	20,5
USA	400	508	394	540	750	945	19,1
Canada	15	17	10	15	37	70	1,4
Latin America	10	10	15	18	20	45	0,9
Columbia	5	1	3	3	4	20	0,4
Australia	85	24	37	75	115	210	4,0

[V.P. Maksakovskiy “Geographical view of the world”, part I, 1998, Yaroslavl, “Verkhnyaya Volga”]

As we can see China holds leadership in this industry. In USA coal industry started to develop after the energetic crisis in the middle of the 70s. But in Russia the situation is completely different. Developing numerous oil and gas fields the country did not pay attention to coal industry development.

OIL

Oil Origin

Discovering oil has been a formidable stroke of luck for man. Being a liquid and hence easily transportable, it makes a perfect energy product. When burnt in small quantities, it produces sufficient energy to turn the motors that drive all sorts of vehicles and make all sorts of machines work. Moreover, it can be transformed into a huge number of products which have themselves become the raw materials of our day-to-day lives: plastics, synthetic textiles … and many other diverse and varied products.

How are these hydrocarbons formed? Where are they found?

Accumulations of petroleum are usually found in relatively coarse-grained, permeable, and porous sedimentary reservoir rocks that contain little, if any, insoluble organic matter. Oil is believed to have been generated in significant volumes only in fine-grained sedimentary rocks (usually clays, shales, or clastic carbonates) by geothermal action on kerogen, leaving an insoluble organic residue in the source rock. The release of oil from the solid particles of kerogen and its movement in the narrow pores and capillaries of the source rock is termed primary migration.

Accumulating sediments can provide energy to the migration system. Primary migration may be initiated during compaction as a result of the pressure of overlying sediments. Continued burial causes clay to become dehydrated by the removal of water molecules that were loosely combined with the clay minerals. With increasing temperature, the newly generated hydrocarbons may become sufficiently mobile to leave the source beds in solution, suspension, or emulsion with the water being expelled from the compacting molecular lattices of the clay minerals. The hydrocarbon molecules would compose only a very small part of the migrating fluids, a few hundred parts per million.

The oil and gas consist of hydrocarbons, molecules composed of carbon and hydrogen. We know that these hydrocarbons cannot exist for very long at the surface of our Earth because they are attacked by oxygen and devoured by bacteria that live in surroundings where air is present (aerobic bacteria). Thus, they are quite rapidly transformed into carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water. Incidentally, hydrocarbons do not exist in deep layers of the Earth because, beyond a certain depth (around 10 km), they would be destroyed, since the temperature is too high. /www.britannica.com/

So, where do these hydrocarbons come from? Their composition shows that they result from a transformation of organic matter consisting of living organisms that died a long time ago. When a plant or an animal dies on the surface of the earth, other living creatures generally recycle its matter. What is not devoured by predators, like vultures or bacteria, is oxidized into carbon dioxide and water, and this carbon dioxide feeds the growth of new plants. Nevertheless, a tiny part, perhaps 0,1%, of this organic mass escapes from the implacable cycle. In certain cases the remains of dead beings sink to the bottom of the seas. In this environment, very calm and poorly oxygenated, the organic remains are mixed with mineral matter (particles of clay, very fine sand) to form dark and foul-smelling mud. This bad odor is characteristic of the action of anaerobic bacteria which don’t need air to live.

A part of this organic matter is therefore preserved. The animals that produce it are minuscule or microscopic: principally marine plankton. The plant debris is carried away by the rivers that feed the sea. This organic matter, mixed with mineral sediments, accumulates little by little. For large quantities of oil or gas to be produced later, the proportion of organic matter must be sufficient, that is to say at least 1 to 2%, to constitute the source rock for our oil. 1 to 2 % does not seem a lot, but exceptional conditions are required to attain this percentage: a lot of plankton or plant debris and not too much mineral matter. A warm climate favorable to plankton; the absence of mountains nearby to limit the volumes of mineral sediment; and a delta or mouth of a major river to carry a lot of plant debris…all of these elements contribute to the formation of the source rock. Nevertheless, whilst this rock remains on the surface of the sea floor, it is unable to produce oil.

The newly born hydrocarbons are molecules of small size and they take up more space in the source rock than the original kerogen. They are therefore going to be permanently expelled into the rocks that surround the source rock. The gas and oil being lighter than water (which impregnates all the rocks in the substratum) then begin a slow rise towards the surface. That is migration. If they can, they slide between the mineral particles of rocks to climb vertically. Their speed of migration depends on the capacity of each rock in their path to allow the circulation of fluids. This capacity is called the permeability. If an impermeable rock stops them, they follow a lateral path along this rock, still in an upward direction, or they pass by paths through cracks and weaknesses in the rock. The molecules of gas that are smaller and more mobile climb more quickly and slide more easily into rocks that are not very permeable.

A proportion of the hydrocarbons, mainly gas, are dissolved in the water that impregnates the rocks they traverse. Other hydrocarbons remain stuck to the grains of the rocks. These hydrocarbons interrupt the ascent; they represent what are called the migration losses. Such losses can be very significant, especially if the oil and gas take the longest path upwards.

If nothing stops the hydrocarbons reaching the surface, the lightest fractions (gas and volatile liquids) are dispersed into the atmosphere before being destroyed. The heaviest are oxidised or devoured by bacteria. The only ones that continue to exist for some time are the extreme, heaviest fractions, in the form of almost solid tars buried a few meters to tens of mof meters below the Earth’s surface.

/www.planet-energies.com/

The reservoir has the capacity to accumulate very large quantities of hydrocarbons. The seal prevents them from rising towards the surface. But all that is insufficient for the accumulation of the hydrocarbons and for the formation of an oil or gas field. Indeed, once they arrive under the seal, these hydrocarbons slide into the empty spaces where they can continue to rise, via all the escape points. It is therefore necessary to have a large, closed volume so that the hydrocarbons accumulate in sufficient quantity to be profitably exploitable. This closed volume is called a trap. It is created by deformations in the rock layers. The lower its escape point compared to its summit, the bigger the trap.

A trap filled with hydrocarbons can – depending on conditions – contain just oil or gas, or both. If there is oil and gas, the latter, being lighter, will collect at the top of the trap with the oil lying beneath. It is important to remember that even when it appears there is only oil, significant quantities of gas is present. The gas is dissolved in the liquid. Similarly when it appears there is an accumulation of gas only, there is invariably present a fraction of light liquids called condensate. Furthermore, a little water always remains stuck to the grains of the reservoir rock. This is called the residual water./www.planet-energies.com/

/www.planet-energies.com/

The extra-heavy oil, Athabasca, as an outcrop or scarcely buried, is particularly difficult to exploit because of its very high density and viscosity. In the raw state it looks like a thick and sticky paste, thus its name of natural tar. /www.planet-energies.com/

Oil Industry

Oil industry is the leading fuel and energy industry which has a great impact on the world economy. Oil production and its processing allow the humanity to develop not only its progress but its comfort as well.

At the beginning of the 20^th century oil was produced in 20 countries and mostly it was produced in USA, Venezuela and Russia. By 1940 40 countries developed this industry already. The major producers were USA, the USSR, the Near East countries and Venezuela.

Since the 1960s the major increase of energy use was due to the increase of oil and natural gas production that was transported to different parts of the world. This period is usually called the epoch of cheap oil. Actually 1 ton of oil cost about $20 at the beginning of the 1970s. However, in the middle of the 70s there were great changes in the development of the world power engineering. On the one hand, they were connected with mining and geological conditions comedown, with the gradual displacement to the areas of extreme weather conditions (the North, the Sahara), to the continental shelf, with the increased attention to environmental problems. On the other hand, they were due to the aggravated contradictions in the world economy, fight of the developing countries for their oil resources, which led to the rise in prices to $250-300 for a ton. As a result, the epoch of the cheap oil was over and the economy of western countries experienced the real shock. There began an energy crisis.

The following table shows proven oil territories. It shows that the share of the industrially advanced counties accounts 86%, the share of the OAPEC countries is 77% and the share of the Middle and Near East is 66%. It is important to mention that only the countries of the Persian Gulf have reserves of oil of more than 10 billion tons. [V.P. Maksakovskiy “Geographical view of the world”, part I, 1998, Yaroslavl, “Verkhnyaya Volga”]

Reserves of oil, oil production in the entire world, in its particular regions and in some countries

The entire world, particular regions and major countries	Proven oil reserves (billions of tons)	Production (millions of tons)					%
		1950	1960	1970	1980	1990
The entire world	150,0	525	1060	2270	3000	3100	100,0
CIS	9,0	40	150	350	605	570	18,4
Russia	7,5	-	-	285	550	515	16,6
Kazakhstan	0,8	-	-	-	-	26	0,8
Europe	2,8	18	30	35	150	255	8,2
Great Britain	0,7	-	-	-	80	95	3,1
Norway	1,4	-	-	-	25	80	2,2
China	3,2	-	5	25	105	140	4,5
South and South-East Asia	2,5	5	20	55	95	140	4,5
Indonesia	1,2	5	20	45	80	70	2,2
India	0,6	-	3	7	10	35	1,1
South-West Asia	100,0	90	265	690	965	810	26,1
Saudi Arabia	45,8	25	60	180	500	325	10,5
Iran	13,2	30	50	190	75	155	5,0
the United Arab Emirates	12,9	-	-	35	85	105	3,4
Iraq	13,3	6	50	75	130	100	3,2
Kuwait	13,7	15	85	150	85	60	1,9
Africa	7,8	2	15	290	260	300	9,7
Nigeria	2,2	-	-	55	100	90	2,9
Libya	3,4	-	-	160	85	65	2,1
Algeria	1,1	-	10	45	454	35	1,1
Egypt	0,7	1	1	15	30	45	1,4
North America	5,9	270	375	545	500	505	16,3
USA	4,4	265	350	475	425	430	13,8
Canada	1,5	5	25	70	75	75	2,4
Latin America	17,5	100	195	270	290	350	11,3
Mexico	7,5	10	15	20	100	135	4,4
Venezuela	8,7	80	150	190	115	90	3,4
Australia	0,3	-	-	8	20	30	0,9
The developing countries	118,5	197	500	1350	1620	1600	51,6
OAPEC countries	103,0	-	-	1160	1340	1220	39,3

[V.P. Maksakovskiy “Geographical view of the world”, part I, 1998, Yaroslavl, “Verkhnyaya Volga”]

As we can see during the cheap oil epoch plenty of oil was produced and there was substantial reduction after the economical crisis which led to substantial price rise though production increased greatly.

The principal oil producer countries in 2003 were the following:

Country	2003 production 10^3b/d	Variation in production over 10 years	Year of maximum production
United States	5,681	- 17%	1970
Mexico	3,371	+ 26%	still increasing
Canada	2,306	+ 37%	still increasing
Venezuela*	2,335	- 5%	1997
Brazil	1,496	+ 33%	still increasing
Argentina	741	+ 25%	1998
Norway	2,486	+ 21%	2000
United Kingdom	2,093	+ 9%	1999
Russia	8,132	+ 21%	still increasing
Kazakhstan	893	+ 119%	still increasing
Saudi Arabia*	8,848	+ 8%	still increasing
Iran*	3,743	+ 6%	still increasing
United Arab Emirates*	2,348	+ 9%	2000
Iraq*	1,308	- 55% (1)	1989
Kuweït*	2,178	+ 18%	still increasing
Oman	819	+ 6%	2000
Qatar*	797	+ 93%	still increasing
Nigeria*	2,241	+ 14%	2001
Libya*	1,421	+ 4%	1997
Algeria*	1,611	+ 39%	still increasing
Angola	903	+ 77%	still increasing
Egypte	618	- 31%	1996
China	3,409	+ 18%	still increasing
Indonesia*	1,151	- 24%	1996
Australia	512	+ 2%	2000

*Member countries of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) Since 1989 /www.planet-energies.com/

The principal oil consumer countries in 2003 were the following:

Country	2003 Consumption (10^3b/d)	Change in consumption over 10 years	Consumption per inhabitant (barrels/year)
United States	20,034	+ 16%	25.6
Canada	2,079	+ 25%	24.5
Mexico	1,938	+ 10%	7.0
Brazil	2,132	+ 31%	4.5
Venezuela	571	+ 24%	8.3
Germany	2,677	- 8%	11.9
France	2,060	+ 10%	12.5
Italy	1,874	- 1%	11.8
United Kingdom	1,722	- 6%	10.5
Spain	1,544	+ 46%	14.1
Netherlands	920	+ 20%	21.0
Turkey	658	+ 15%	3.5
Belgium	624	+ 25%	22.8
Russia	2,675	- 29%	6.7
Saudi Arabia	1,514	+ 41%	26.3
Iran	1,425	+ 29%	7.2
Egypt	566	+ 26%	3.0
South Africa	484	+ 20%	4.0
Japan	5,578	+ 4%	16.0
China	5,550	+ 88%	1.6
India	2,320	+ 77%	0.8
South Korea	2,168	+ 29%	16.8
Indonesia	1,155	+ 51%	2.0
Taiwan	915	+ 48%	15.2
Australia	876	+ 15%	16.8
Malaysia	510	+ 52%	8.1

/www.planet-energies.com/

It comes as no surprise, that the principal consumer countries are the developed countries in North America, Europe and Asia. The champions of oil consumption: the United States. With a little less than 5% of total world population, they consume a quarter of all the oil produced each year. And their consumption is not slowing down: +16 % in the 10 years from 1993 to 2003, approximately the world average.

Among the developed countries, we have, on the one hand, the high-consumption-per- inhabitant countries (the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium) and on the other hand the countries with more reasonable consumption habits, like the major European countries, where each inhabitant consumes on average half as much oil as in the high per inhabitant consumption countries.

In Asia, consumption is rocketing. China has almost doubled its consumption in the last 10 years and will certainly not stop there. During the same period, the total consumption of the Asia/Pacific zone has overtaken that of the North American zone, with an increase of 39% on average over the 10-year period. Asia has become the new oil giant. But who can blame these developing countries for wanting to offer their populations the same comforts as those experienced by the populations of the rich countries? Even more so, because on average, a Chinese person consumes 15 times less oil than an American and an Indian 30 times less!

Until now, it has been possible for the increase in oil consumption to be compensated by an equivalent increase in production, even if certain tensions are starting to appear, as indicated by the increase in crude prices in 2004/2005. The countries which have made the biggest efforts in terms of production over the last 10 years have not been those belonging to OPEC, which, with 80% of world reserves, produced only 37% of the oil extracted world-wide in 2003. Overall, OPEC production has even slightly decreased. There are two main reasons for this:

- In 1982, following a very violent reaction to the oil crisis, crude prices decreased substantially. That same year, OPEC decided to introduce its quota policy: that is to say, to allocate to each of its members crude production volumes that could not be exceeded; the aim being to control extraction and hence prices and thus to preserve reserves for future generations. Overall, this policy has worked efficiently. It has allowed OPEC to dig less into its reserves than the non-OPEC countries, whilst ensuring relative price stability.

- Some OPEC countries possess very large reserves, in particular those on the Arabian Peninsula together with Iraq, but their production capacities have changed very little over the last 20 years. Increasing capacity would require very heavy investment, which, for the moment, has not been undertaken. As a result, for most of these countries, their maximum production year was at the end of the 1990’s.

Conversely, exploration and development of new fields has significantly progressed in several non-OPEC zones (around the Caspian Sea, in the Atlantic deeps of Brazil and Angola).

Other countries, whether members of OPEC (Indonesia) or not (the United States, Norway, United Kingdom, Egypt), have seen their production levels drop over the last 10 years or even since the end of the 1990’s. For them, it is a case of declining reserves: these countries have probably already attained their production peak (1970 in the United States, 1996 in Indonesia and in Egypt, 1999 in the United Kingdom and 2000 in Norway) and will never be able to exceed it in the future. Their production levels will gradually decrease in the coming years. These countries have without any doubt attained their local Hubbert Peak.

NATURAL GAS

Natural gas, which belongs to the same family as oil, that of the hydrocarbons, is systematically found with it in all the oil fields. Natural gas is a highly efficient energy product, especially for burning. In addition, certain of its compounds are used to manufacture polymers that are the basic elements of everyday items.

The importance of gas industry consists in the fact that it holds the third place in the world energy consumption structure after oil and coal – about 20%. Another its major advantage is that it is the cleanest energy.

The principal consumers of gas in 2003 were the following.

Country	Consumption (billions of m^3)
United States	634
Canada	91
Mexico	52
Argentina	35
Venezuela	30
United Kingdom	95
Germany	94
Italy	77
Netherlands	50
France	44
Russia	433
Ukraine	86
Uzbekistan	47
Iran	79
Saudi Arabia	60
United Arab Emirates	38
Egypt	27
Japan	87
Indonesia	35
China	33
Malaysia	29
Thailand	29

/www.planet-energies.com/

Natural gas resources, production and its export in the world, particular regions and in major countries:

The entire world, particular regions and major countries	Explored reserves (billions/m^3)	Gas production in 1990 (in billions/m^3)	Export in 1990 in (in billions/m^3)
			total	Crude gas
The entire world	135,0	2100	315	80
CIS	45,0	815	110	-
Russia	-	640	90	-
Turkmenistan	-	88	-	-
Uzbekistan	-	41	-	-
Ukraine	-	28	-	-
Europe	9,0	260	70	-
the Netherlands	1,7	75	32	-
Great Britain	0,6	45	-	-
Norway	2,3	30	30	-
Romania	0,2	27	-	-
Italy	0,3	17	-	-
Germany	0,2	15	1	-
China	2,0	15	-	-
South and South-East Asia	9,0	100	40	40
Indonesia	2,5	35	30	30
Malaysia	2,0	20	10	10
Pakistan	0,6	12	-	-
South-West Asia	34,0	100	20	15
Saudi Arabia	6,0	30	10	10
Iran	16,0	25	-	-
the United Arab Emirates	5,7	20	5	5
Africa	8,5	70	35	20
Algeria	4,0	40	30	20
North America	8,0	620	40	1
USA	5,4	510	2	1
Canada	2,6	110	38	-
Latin America	7,5	100	-	-
Argentina	0,8	25	-	-
Mexico	2,1	23	-	-
Venezuela	3,1	15	-	-
Australia	1,0	20	4	4

[V.P. Maksakovskiy “Geographical view of the world”, part I, 1998, Yaroslavl, “Verkhnyaya Volga”]

There are numerous actors in the world of oil and gas. The best-known are, of course, the major oil companies and OPEC. But they are not the only ones. A myriad of companies, organizations and consultants all play a part in the “hydrocarbon universe”:

· National companies, which, in many countries, manage oil production and defend national interests in the hydrocarbon sector;

· Companies specializing in gas distribution, such as Gaz de France;

· National agencies & government departments with responsibility for energy matters (in France the DGEMP, the Department of Energy and Raw Materials; in the United States the DOE, the Department of Energy);

· International organizations, such as OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), OAPEC (the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) or the IEA (the International Energy Agency);

· Small independent oil companies, which take over oil fields near the end of their useful lives, or develop fields that have been abandoned by the major companies. Examples are Maurel et Prom in France, and many small independent companies in the United States;

· Companies operating in the oil sector as suppliers of services to oil companies, mainly for exploration and production. Among the best known: Schlumberger, Halliburton, Gophysique, Goservices, Transocean Sedco Forex These companies are involved in specific technical areas (geophysical surveying and analysis, drilling, depth imaging, production equipment ), supplying oil companies with personnel and equipment that the latter do not own or employ themselves (for cost control reasons). The world of the petroleum services industry is vast and linked closely to exploration and production activities throughout the world;

· Research institutes, which are often training centers too. The best known in France is the IFP (Institut Franais du Ptrole, or the French Oil Institute);

· Independent consultants and other organizations or individuals who offer consultancy & design services and technical audits to the oil companies.

Tomsk Oblast Oil Companies

Here we would like to give two examples of the companies developing oil and gas reserves in Russia and Tomskaya oblast and Kazakhstan.

/www.rosneft.com/

Rosneft is one of the leading energy companies in Russia and the world, with dozens of projects in the South and North of European Russia, in Siberia, Russia’s Far East, as well as in Kazakhstan and Algeria. Today, the Company’s subsidiaries are developing and operating over 300 oil and gas fields.

The Company’s oil reserves are sufficient to last for three decades at the production level achieved in 2006. Despite its wealth of reserves, the Company is continuing to increase its resource base both through geological research at existing fields and structures, and through acquisitions. In 2006, the replacement ratio of proved hydrocarbon reserves including acquisitions reached 272.6% — a record for the sector — including 285.7% for oil and 177.3% for gas.

Over the last six years, Rosneft has been vigorously pursuing a strategy of optimizing expenditures, implementing state-of-the-art technologies, developing and diversifying its resource base and expanding its portfolio of high-quality assets. This strategy has resulted in daily oil production rising sixfold, from 270,000 barrels in 2000 to 1.6 million barrels in 2006. Oil production growth in 2006 was several times higher than the Russian average.

In April and May 2007, Rosneft significantly increased the number of production assets in its vertically integrated structure, including Samaraneftegaz in the Samara Region and Tomskneft in Eastern Siberia, as well as an additional five major oil refineries: the Kuibyshev, Novokuibyshev and Syzran refineries in the Samara Region and the Achinsk Refinery and Angarsk Petrochemical Company in Eastern Siberia. The Company also purchased a series of other significant assets.

Rosneft Oil and Gas Reserves

	2005	2006
Proved reserves of oil, gas condensate and gas
mln. barrels of oil equivalent	18 942	20 089
Proved reserves of oil and gas condensate
mln. tons	2 047	2 195
mln. barrels	14 877	15 963
Proved gas reserves (bln. cubic meters)	691	701
Probable reserves of oil, gas condensate and gas
mln. barrels of oil equivalent	10 920	11 305
Probable reserves of oil and gas condensate
mln. tons	1 143	1 206
mln. barrels	8 305	8 758
Probable gas reserves (bln. cubic meters)	444	433
Possible reserves of oil, gas condensate and gas
mln. barrels of oil equivalent	9 778	10 410
Possible reserves of oil and gas condensate
mln. tons	987	1 073
mln. barrels	7 219	7 827
Possible gas reserves (bln. cubic meters)	435	439

/www.rosneft.com/

Prospective resources are defined as potential recoverable or undiscovered deposits on a particular date and as such are highly conditional in nature. There is the possibility that prospective resources will not lead to successful exploration results and the discovery of economically recoverable reserves. In this event, commercial development will not take place.

As of 31 December 2006, Rosneft had 42.8 billion barrels of gross prospective oil resources and 3.359 trillion cubic meters of gross prospective gas resources. (SPE, best estimate). The Company’s resource base is one of the key competitive advantages that set it apart from other oil companies and creates a unique foundation for future long-term growth.

Prospective resources

	Oil (mln. barrels) Best estimate	Oil (mln. tons) Best estimate	Gas (bcm) Best estimate
Exploration projects in Russia
Timano-Pechora
Vorgamusursky block	212.85	28.84	0.00
Eastern Siberia
Vankor group of licensed blocks	4 199.36	569.02	128.13
Licensed blocks in Irkutsk Region and Evenkia	2 336.99	316.67	0.00
Russian Far East
Veninsky block (Sakhalin-3)	1 203.50	163.08	312.62
West-Schmidtovsky block (Sakhalin-4)	1 734.94	235.09	360.51
East-Schmidtovsky block (Sakhalin-5)	3 811.48	516.46	408.20
Kaygansko-Vasyukansky block (Sakhalin-5)	4 562.93	618.28	109.85
West Kamchatka block	13 267.94	1 797.82	2 031.91
Kaurunani area	10.23	1.39	7.66
Southern Russia
Tuapsinsky Trough	4 324.15	585.93	0.00
Temryuksko-Akhtarsky block (Sea of Azov)	410.01	55.56	0.00
Slavyansko-Temryuksky block	18.09	2.45	0.00
International exploration projects
Kazakhstan
Aday block	2 166.83	293.6	0.00
Kurmangazy structure	1 111.27	150.58	0.00
Algeria
245-S block	Audit not performed	Audit not performed	Audit not performed
Other prospective resources
Yuganskneftegaz	1 764.22	239.05	0.00
Purneftegaz	1 671.12	226.44	0.00
Total prospective resources	42,805.9	5,800.3	3,358.9

/www.rosneft.com/

Being one of the largest enterprises dealing with production of natural resources Rosneft has branch establishments all over Russia and the Tomsk region is not an exception.

The Tomsk region is located in the south-eastern part of western Siberian lowland. Its territory is 317,000 square kilometers (ranked13th in Russia). It is the second largest territory of west Siberia, after the Tyumen region. The region stretches 600 kilometers from north to south. The climate is continental, though it varies. Almost the entire region is located within the taiga zone. Winters are long and severe (average temperature in January is minus 20 Celsius); summers are warm and short. Agricultural lands occupy 1,373 hectares, or 4.3 percent, of the region's territory. There are extensive water resources: about 100,000 large and small lakes and 18,000 rivers that belong to the Karskoye Sea basin. The main river is the Ob. The population of the region is over 1 million people (ranked 57th in Russia). 698,000 are urban, and 373,000 are rural. 500,000 live in Tomsk, the regional center.

The Tomsk region provides a remarkable combination of rich natural resources, developed science and industry, a highly educated labor force, and old cultural traditions. The Tomsk region has rich reserves of oil, gas, wood, and other natural resources. It has developed industries, including energy, machine building, and power engineering. Certain industry sectors, like food processing, telecommunications and consumer goods, require modernization and radical expansion. /www.map2.spaceimaging.com/

Nipineft is a branch establishment of Rosneft in our region. It is a leading engineering institute developing equipment for oil and gas production. The company is currently increasing the number of mined reserves and improving the technology of oil production. Great attention is paid to revegetation of the used territory as ecological problems are of major concern of the company. All the employees of the company constantly have refresher courses which allow them to improve their knowledge and working skills.

But the stroke of luck represented by oil and gas has also become one of the major challenges of the present time. The ever increasing consumption of hydrocarbons threatens the ecological balance of our planet, particularly that of the Earth’s climate. Renewable energy sources may be one of the solutions to the energy problem.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

Questions about the present state and developments in utilizing solar energy, wind energy, and biomass in the world are discussed. The earth provides us with many natural sources of energy.

/www.livescience.com/

Traditional energy engineering based on fossil fuels is detrimental to the environment and in the future can lead to undesirable global changes in the climate. Nuclear energy faces active hostility by the population because severe accidents can occur in which large territories can be contaminated by radiation.

During the past few years, energy consumption in the industrially advanced countries of the world has either decreased or has grown at a much smaller rate. As a result, a great deal of uncertainty arises in planning for the construction of large new electric power stations and, therefore, a risk is involved here. Electric power utilities prefer to increase their capacity by constructing relatively small power units; this is typical for alternative renewable sources of energy, as well.

Several industrially advanced countries (Japan, for example) have few of their own fossil-fuel resources and operate their power industry on imported supplies. This reduces the energy security of the country and forces it to rely, as much as possible, on local energy resources, which are the alternative renewable sources of energy under consideration.

The shortage of funds for large capital investments, which is the typical case in the developing countries of the world, excludes the possibility of constructing large electric power stations of the traditional kind there. At the same time, installations of alternative renewable sources of energy are modular in structure. This allows comparatively small capacities to be commissioned at one time, with new modules added as demand increases.

A large part of the population of developing countries live in rural areas in comparatively small settlements that are far away from each other. Under these conditions, it would not be profitable to construct power systems of the type that have been created in the industrially advanced countries, where electricity is generated at large power stations and delivered to highly populated areas over transmission lines. In this case, the creation of isolated power installations of small capacity that utilize alternative renewable sources of energy for supplying local consumers is, evidently, a better proposition.

This last circumstance is also typical of several rural areas in Russia, which are not connected to systems of centralized power supply; several estimates indicate that 20 million people are presently living in these areas. The supply of electricity and, in several areas, heat on the basis of alternative renewable sources of energy is a problem of great social importance. /www.intersolar.ru/bulletin/

The State Of Development Work Abroad

The oil crisis that took place in the 1970's and 1980's motivated people to intensify work on introducing alternative renewable sources of energy in practice. At that time, prices for oil increased, and the prices for other fossil fuels increased in line with them, and it seemed that all these prices would continue rising in the future. It became difficult to import oil, and the problem of the energy security of countries that import energy carriers also arose.

Though prices for the usual kinds of fuel on the world market are currently much lower than expected the interest in alternative renewable sources of energy has not died out. The main arguments in favor of renewable energy sources have become somewhat different.

The majority of the industrially advanced countries have adopted state sponsored programs for developing more advanced equipment that utilizes alternative renewable sources of energy; large firms have organized the manufacture of this equipment, turnkey projects are being created, and their maintenance is being organized.

Today, most interest is focused on installations utilizing solar energy, wind energy, and biomass.

SOLAR ENERGY

Today, utilization of solar energy mainly amounts to the production of low-potential solar heat with the aid of the simplest kinds of flat-plate solar collectors. In 1990, in the United States of the 3.6 million GJ of energy produced as a result of solar radiation, 3.5 million GJ were in the form of low-potential heat. This heat was used for hot-water supply, for warming the water in swimming pools, and, to a smaller extent, for purposes of heating. In Israel, in accordance with a law requiring that every house be equipped with a solar water-heating installation, about 800 000 such units were installed that produce almost 15 million GJ of energy annually and provide 70% of the population with hot water. [Tabor, H., Forty Years of Solar Energy Development and Exploitation in Israel, Sun World, 1993, vol. 17, no. 7].

A complete water-heating installation, in addition to collectors, has an accumulator-tank, in which a stand-by electric heater is accommodated, as well as all necessary fittings and automation. The collector is usually immobile and installed at an angle to the horizon that is about equal to the latitude of the locality of the installation. Usually one or two collectors having an absorber area of 1 to 1.5 m² each and an accumulator-tank holding about 1501 are installed in a separate house having an area of about 100 m². Today, on the Western market this installation costs about 500 US$ per square meter of collector area. The heating capacity of such an installation greatly depends on the insulation, the ambient temperature, and other parameters of the climate. The efficiency of the solar collector depends on its optical characteristics, the quality of the heat insulation, the insulation, the temperature of the heat carrier, and the ambient temperature. In most existing installations, the mean annual operating efficiency of the collector is from 40 to 50%. This means that at latitude of about 30°, we can obtain 3 to 5 GJ of heat at a temperature of 60-70°C from every square meter of the collector. The cost of heat with the above parameters and a service life of 30 years is almost 3 to 4 US$ per GJ, which makes these installations attractive to the consumer. At higher latitudes, solar water heating for seasonal operation turns out to be preferable.

Passive methods based on optimization of the architectural treatment and layout are employed, along with collectors, in utilizing solar heat for heating houses. Moreover, the development of so-called transparent insulation for the walls of houses, of selective films for the windows there, and of other measures, are of interest.

Electricity can be obtained from using solar energy in thermal plants, in which the heat from burning the fuel is replaced by a beam of concentrated solar radiation, or in installations that directly convert energy; the latter are based on semi-conductor photo-voltaic converters (PVC).

The PS10 solar power tower near Seville concentrates sunlight from a field of heliostats on a central tower. /www.en.wikipedia.org/

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, seven pilot solar power stations (SPS) of the "tower type" were constructed in different countries of the world. Their capacity ranged from 0.5 to 10 MW. The largest solar power station of them of 10 MW capacity (Solar One) was built in California. The same principle was used in building all of these solar power stations; the field of the ground-based mirrors-heliostats that follow the Sun and reflect its rays to a receiver installed at the top of a high tower. The receiver is, in essence, a solar boiler, in which steam having moderate parameters is generated and then delivered to a standard type of steam turbine.

The second project is the tower-type solar power station Phoebus. It is being implemented by a German association. This project envisions the creation of a demonstrational hybrid (solar-fuel) solar power station of 30 MW electrical capacity with a bulk receiver, in which free air will be heated up and then delivered to a boiler that generates steam; this boiler will work in a Rankine cycle. A burner is provided in the air path from the receiver to the boiler for combustion of natural gas in an amount that is controlled to maintain a specified output during the day-time. Calculations have shown that, for example, when 6.5 GJ/m² of solar radiation is received annually (this is close to the figure that is typical for several areas in southern Russia), this solar power station, having a total heliostat surface of 160 thousand m², will obtain 290.2 GWh of solar energy annually, while the annual amount of energy introduced by the fuel will be 176,0 GWh. In this event, the solar power station will generate 87.9 GWh of electricity annually at an annual average efficiency of 18.8%. With such parameters, the cost of the electricity generated by the solar power station is expected to be at the level of a fossil-fuel power station. [Matthias Haeger, Phoebus Technology Program Solar Air Receiver, Plataforma Solar de Almeri].

Today more interest is being aroused in the world concerning installations that directly convert solar radiation into electricity with the aid of photovoltaic converters. Currently, the cost of energy produced at photovoltaic installations (PVI) is several times higher than that produced at a solar power station in a heat cycle. Nevertheless, photovoltaic installations are being put into service intensively in the industrially advanced countries, as well as in the developing countries of the world. Here, two opposite trends can be seen.

In the developing countries, we observe applications of relatively small installations for the power supply of individual homes in far distant villages, for the supply of cultural centers (where photovoltaic installations can serve as the power supply for television sets), and for other purposes. In these applications, it is not the cost of the electricity that is most important, it is the social effect that electricity produces. Programs for introducing photovoltaic installations in the developing countries are actively supported by international organizations; the World Bank is participating in financing them on the basis of the "Solar Initiative" that was proposed by it. In Kenya, for instance, 20 000 houses in rural areas were electrified with the aid of photovoltaic installations during the past five years. A large scale program for introducing photovoltaic installations is being carried out in India, where 690 million rupees were spent for commissioning them in rural areas from 1986 to 1992. [Anderson, D. and Kulsum, A., World Bank Technical Paperno. 279, Energy Series, the World Bank, Washington, D.C.]

A solar cell

/www.en.wikipedia.org/

Photovoltaic installations are being actively introduced in the industrially advanced countries for several reasons. First, photovoltaic installations are considered to be environmentally friendly sources that are capable of reducing detrimental impacts to the environment. Secondly, the use of photovoltaic installations in private dwellings can increase energy independence and safeguard the owners from problems in the event of failures in centralized electricity supply. Note that the government of several countries (i.e. Germany) encourage the use of alternative renewable sources of energy by home owners; here, the government is willing to make additional payments to the power utilities if they will buy surplus electricity from the home owners at a higher price. Third, the dynamics of the parameters of the photovoltaic installations during the past two decades are quite important; from these dynamics we can forecast whether the photovoltaic installation will be competitive in the near future when used for several different purposes. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Energy forecasted that the cost of an installed watt of peak-demand capacity at a photovoltaic installation will drop to 2 US$ provided the market for using PVI expands. This will make the photovoltaic installation competitive in the field of decentralized power supply. On this basis, projects for large pilot photovoltaic installations are being worked out in several countries. All the necessary experience will be acquired at these installations; at the same time, the cost of these installations will drop because of the higher scale of production, as will the price for electricity.

In this respect, the experience of Japan is interesting, where, at present, in the prefecture of Okinawa a 750 kW photovoltaic installation is under construction. In the United States, 90 power utilities have formed the Photovoltaic Group, which is planning to commission a total of 47 MW of photovoltaic capacity in the next five years. Out of this capacity, 17 MW will be at small isolated installations and 30 MW at large installations (having unit capacities from 100 kW to 1 MW) [Eaten, M.A., Renewable Energy Program in the United States, Int. Symp. on the Grand Solar Challenge, Maku- hari, Japan, Oct. 1995]

WIND ENERGY

/www.buzzle.com/

The importance of wind power was recognized quite in early period. Over 5000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians used wind power to sail their ships over the Nile River. Later people built windmills to grind grain. The earliest known windmills looked like large paddle wheels.

Centuries later, the Holland people improved the windmill. They thought of propeller shape blades and made it so it could be turned to face the wind. Windmills helped the Holland to become the world's most industrialized countries by the 17th century. American colonists used windmills to grind wheat and corn, to pump water and to cut wood at sawmills. In the early 1970's, oil shortage created and environment eager for alternative energy sources, paving the way for there-entry of the electric windmill on the American landscape. Today wind energy is one of America's greatest natural resource. /www.buzzle.com/

Wind-energy installations today have reached the level of commercial maturity and can compete with traditional sources of power supply in places where wind velocities are favorable. Turbo-machines with a horizontal shaft that is in line with the direction of the wind are employed, in the greater majority of cases, as units that convert the energy of the wind into mechanical work. Units with a vertical shaft are used much more rarely.

The kinetic energy transferred by the wind current per unit of time through an area of one square meter (the specific capacity of the current) is proportional to the cube of the wind velocity. Therefore, wind-energy installations are desirable only in places where the annual mean wind velocity is sufficiently high.

A wind-wheel placed in a free air current can theoretically convert into shaft power at best 16/27 = 0.59 of the power in the air current passing through the cross-sectional area of flow through the wind-wheel (the Bets criterion). This coefficient can be called the theoretical efficiency of the ideal wind-wheel. In actuality, the efficiency is less (about 0.49 in the best wind-wheels). This means that, for example, a wind-wheel having blades 10 m long will develop a shaft power that is at best 85 kW when the wind velocity is 10 m/s.

Today, the most common types of installations connected to the network are wind-energy installations that have a unit capacity ranging from 100 to 500 kW. The specific cost of a 500 kW wind-energy installation is presently about 1200 US$ per kW, but there is a tendency for the cost to drop.

At the same time, wind-energy installations are being created that have much higher unit capacities. In 1978, the first experimental wind-energy installation of the megawatt class was created in the United States; it had a design capacity of 2 MW. After this, in 1979-1982, five wind-energy installations having a unit capacity of 2.5 MW were constructed and tested in the United States. In 1984, the largest wind-energy installation of the time (Grovian) with a capacity of 3 MW was constructed in Germany. Unfortunately, it operated for only several hundred hours. Wind-energy installations WTS-3 and WTS-4 were subsequently built in Sweden; they had a capacity of 3 and 4 MW and were commissioned in Sweden and the United States. The first unit worked 20 thousand hours and the second 10 thousand hours.

Projects are under way in Canada for creating large wind units with a vertical shaft (a Darier rotor). One such unit of 4 MW capacity has been under tests since 1987. In the period 1987-1993, a total of about 25 wind-energy installations of the megawatt class were constructed in the world [Hau, E., Large Wind Turbines: A European Coordinated Development Program, Int. Jour, of Solar Energy, 1994, vol. 15, nos. 1-4].

The design wind velocity for large wind-energy installations is usually taken to be 11-15 m/s. As a rule, the larger the capacity of the unit, the higher the wind velocity is for which it is designed. However, since the wind velocity is not constant a large part of the time, the wind-energy installation will develop less power. If the annual mean wind velocity in a given place is not less than 5-7 m/s and rated capacity is generated at least 2000 equivalent hours of the year, this place is favorable for a large wind-energy installation and even for a wind farm. Isolated installations of the kilowatt class that are designed to supply energy to relatively small consumers can be used in areas where the mean annual wind velocities are lower.

As explained earlier windmill is machine for wind energy conversion. A wind turbine the vital part of power generation converts the kinetic energy of the winds motion into mechanical energy transmitted by the shaft. It is further converted into electric energy with the help of generator, thus producing electricity. Windmills are generally categorized into two types as:

1) Horizontal axis type and

2) Vertical axis type

Further depending on their axis of rotation they are sub classified as:

1) Horizontal axis type windmills are further classified as: a) Single bladed b) Double bladed c) Multi bladed d) Bicycle multi bladed type e )Sail type f) Wing type

2) Vertical axis type windmills are further classified as:

a) Savonius type machines

b) Darius type machines Wind electric energy systems are classified into the following categories of utilization:

1) Wind electric energy systems connected to grid without need for energy storage facility.

2) Stand alone (isolated) wind electric energy system with need for energy storage facility.

3) Non-critical wind electric or wind mechanical energy system, without need for energy storage.

4) Wind electric hybrid or wind electric, solar electric, battery hybrid. For remote applications, farms, energy conservation non-conventional schemes. /www.buzzle.com/

Today, the installed capacity of wind-energy plants in several industrially advanced countries of the world is quite noticeable. In the United States, for example, more than 1.5 million kW of wind-energy capacity has been commissioned. [Ayling, G., Wind Energy in the USA, Sun World, 1995, vol. 19, no. 2]. In Denmark, wind-energy installations produce about 3% of the energy consumed in the country. The installed capacity of wind-energy installations is large in Sweden, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Germany. Here, a wind farm consisting of 10 wind-energy installations is being created presently not far from Leipzig. The first five units, each having a capacity of 600 kW, were to be commissioned in 1995. The programs for these countries call for a further increase in the number of wind-energy installations that are found there.

As the equipment of the wind-energy installation is advanced, and a larger number of units will be manufactured, their cost will drop, as will the cost of the energy they produce. In 1981, the cost of the electricity produced by wind-energy installations amounted to about 30 US cents per kWh; today, it is 6-8 cents. Considering that only in 1995 the United States began to work on developing four large wind-mill electric generating farms that will have a total capacity of 200 MW, it is clear that reducing the cost of one kWh of electricity produced at wind-energy installations to 2.5 cents, which is planned by the Department of Energy, has a good chance of coming true.

In the developing countries, interest in wind-energy installations is mainly shown in small isolated installations that can be used in villages far away from systems of centralized power supply. Today, such installations are already competitive to diesels burning imported fuel. However, in several cases, the variable wind velocity forces installation of a storage battery in parallel with the wind-energy installation or to back up the latter with a fossil-fuel unit. This, naturally, will increase the cost of the installation and of its operation. That is why such installations are not extensively employed yet. /www.intersolar.ru/bulletin/

The Future Potential of Wind Technology

The wind industry internationally is able to provide at least 12% of the world’s future electricity needs by 2020 – even if current consumption doubles. Wind has been the fastest growing energy technology in the world for the past decade, and the pace of growth has been greatest in Europe, where around 80% of the world's wind equipment is installed. Much of that growth is due to cost reductions and progressive government policies. Wind power currently makes up a small percentage of our total energy picture, but the rate at which it is growing promises to make it an important part of our energy mix in the future.

In the long term, the EU objective is to create a sustainable energy supply based to a large extent on Renewable Energy Sources (RES). Wind can contribute substantially to total EU power generation.

/www.ec.europa.eu/

Wind turbines will continue to be used for the direct generation of pollution-free electricity. Future applications are increasingly focused on integration of wind turbines with the existing power grid and with energy storage devices.

Wind energy is already used to a large extent in several Member States of the European Union. While most present installations are on land, the trend is towards large size offshore wind parks with generating capacities comparable to conventional power stations. Wind energy can also be used off grid, e.g. for electricity supply to isolated residences or charging of batteries and for non-electric applications like water pumping.

BIOMASS ENERGY

Biomass is one of the oldest sources of energy. However, until recently it was utilized by burning it directly either in open places or in ovens and furnaces. Here, the efficiency is very low. Of late, much more attention was paid to effectively utilizing biomass for energy purposes. The following new arguments were stated in favor of the above:

• utilization of plant biomass that is continuously restored (for example, through planting new forests after felling old ones); it does not increase the CO2 content in the atmosphere
• in industrially developed countries, there has been an excess of cultivated land in recent years; it could be used as plantations for energy uses
• energy use of wastes (agricultural, industrial, and domestics) also settles environmental problems
• newly created technologies enable biomass to be used much more efficiently.

The potential of biomass that is suited for energy usage is sufficiently large in most countries, and much attention is paid to efficient utilization of biomass.

In the United States, using biomass resulted in the generation of 31 billion kWh of electricity in 1990; moreover, solid domestic garbage was used to obtain another 10 billion kWh of electricity. The figures planned for the year 2010 are 59 and 54 billion kWh, respectively. An appraisal made in Germany of the technical potential of different kinds of biomass indicated that the leftovers of the forestry and woodworking industries yield 142 million GJ annually, straw yields 104 million GJ annually, and biogas yields 81 million GJ annually.

These are cautious estimations: in particular, the amount of waste from the forestry industry was taken to be 25% of the annual growth of wood production. Similarly for straw, the amount that must stay in the field for supporting the humus content in the soil is accounted for. Concerning biogas, only farms that have at least 20 heads of cattle or an equivalent number of pigs and poultry are taken into account.

The energy use of solid domestic garbage is a serious problem. Installations that burn garbage (incinerators), which exist in many countries of the world, are not effective and function unsatisfactorily from the environmental protection standpoint. Therefore, it would be timely to develop new systems for utilizing solid domestic garbage.

The problem of using biomass effectively in the developing countries is especially acute, primarily for countries where biomass is the only available source of energy. By this we mean the expedient use of wood and various agricultural and domestic wastes. We know that today the population of several countries, for the most part in Africa, is felling forests to obtain firewood for cooking; this process of deforestation is a threat to the local climate and also to the global climate. Today, places where firewood is used for cooking have an efficiency of 14-15%. If more sophisticated facilities are used, this efficiency could easily rise to 35-50%, that is, it could cut down the requirements for initial fuel by more than three times. [Ravindranath, N.H. and Chanakya, H.N., Traditional and Modern Use of Fuelwood in Indian Villages, Sun World, 1994, vol. 18, no.].

The program of Brazil devoted to obtaining methane from the waste of sugar cane is well known; this methanol can be used as a fuel for motor transport. This example may be of interest only to countries having an appropriate climate.

Small one-family installations utilizing waste have found widespread use in several countries (i.e. China, India). In millions of such installations, biogas is produced for domestic purposes as a result of anaerobic fermentation. These installations are very simple but not efficient. More efficient biogas installations are being created for large farms where there is a great deal of waste. /www.intersolar.ru/

Renewable Sources of Energy in Russia

In Russia, the potential of alternative renewable sources of energy is very great but is not the same in every region of the country. However, every region has the technical potential of at least one of these sources (sun, wind, biomass, geothermy, and small rivers) and can cover the entire energy demand of the region. In spite of the fact that in the past few years Russia has been somewhat successful in creating installations that utilize these alternative renewable sources of energy [12], the part these sources play in the energy balance of the country is very modest. This can be explained by the fact that the energy strategy of the last few years gave priority to the creation of large energy installations using fossil fuel, uranium, and the energy of large rivers, and to powerful high-voltage transmission lines that transfer electricity over distances of hundreds and thousands of kilometers. The enormous investments required for constructing these facilities were drawn from the national budget.

Today, the economic and political situation in the country has radically changed. No large-scale capital investments on the part of the state are being made, and independence of the subjects of the Federation (the different krai (territories) and oblasti (regions)) has been proclaimed. These factors undoubtedly work in favor for widespread utilization of alternative renewable sources of energy (ARSE). In addition, the creation of energy installations based on ARSE right near the consumers could create new jobs in areas where there is a surplus in the labor force. However, the inertia of the enormous fuel-energy complex, and the inertia of people that manage the power industry of the country, is still very great. Even the modest means that are at the disposal of the state and regions, the power pools and power systems are to support traditional energy needs.

Further widespread use of alternative renewable sources of energy in the power industry of Russia, and to some extent in the world as well, is restrained by the fact that the industrial potential required for manufacturing the equipment for ARSE has not been created. Here, we fall into a vicious cycle because the characteristics of the equipment for ARSE can be improved, and its cost reduced, only if this equipment is manufactured industrially on a large scale. However, in order to organize such large-scale production and to attract investors, we must have a market that has already been formed; this means that characteristics must be acceptable. It is impossible to get out of this vicious cycle only on the basis of market mechanisms. Here, we must rely on a far-sighted state policy that has been well thought out. Moreover, the matter lies not only in direct state investments and subsidies, although they are important, but in the creation of favorable legislative and economic foundations for ARSE; a protective policy of taxation and credits, preferential customs duties, a favorable policy of tariffs for selling the energy from the ARSE installations to the network. Conversion of the enterprises of the defense complex and orienting them to manufacture the equipment for ARSE can be of great importance. Today, these enterprises are already participating in the manufacture of wind-energy installations of different capacity in Russia, as well as of installations that utilize solar and geothermal energy, and other kinds of energy.

The fact that the energy of the sun and the wind are not constant is a more serious shortcomings. For installations connected to the network, this shortcoming is not so serious because power from the network can smooth out these variations if the capacity of the ARSE does not exceed 10-15% of the network capacity. For isolated installations, various measures can be taken, depending on the nature of the load; storage batteries may be used; the ARSE installation may be backed up by an installation burning fossil fuel (most frequently a diesel-generator); the ARSE installation itself may be turned into a hybrid installation (this is only for solar power stations). A good solution for isolated installations may be the joint use of solar and wind facilities that could reduce the factor of variability. In several cases, the role of leveling out the production of energy can be played by an installation working on biogas, in addition to the combined operation of solar and wind-energy installations.

The creation of demonstrational centers and advertisements that are well thought out are very important for advancing ARSE on the Russian market. Within the framework of the state-sponsored scientific and technical program "Environmentally Friendly Energy," attention is given to this question. For example, the demonstrational park "Fili" was created in Moscow and is continuing to be equipped; this park was intended to demonstrate the possibilities of ARSE in environmentally clean recreation areas. A demonstrational center for ARSE is being created in Barnaul (in the Altai territory). A specific feature of this center is that, in addition to advertising functions, it will be used as an educational center for training specialists of different level in the field of alternative renewable sources of energy. An important landmark for more widespread introduction of ARSE will be Russian participation in World Solar Program as well as in European Community programs "Altener" and "Thermie".

To organize Russian participation in the World Solar process, to support the European Community programs it has been established "Intersolarcenter" under the auspices of UNESCO, Russian Ministries of Sciences and Fuel and Energy. /www.intersolar.ru/

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth. It's clean and sustainable. Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma.

Almost everywhere, the shallow ground or upper 10 feet of the Earth's surface maintains a nearly constant temperature between 50° and 60°F (10° and 16°C). Geothermal heat pumps can tap into this resource to heat and cool buildings. A geothermal heat pump system consists of a heat pump, an air delivery system (ductwork), and a heat exchanger-a system of pipes buried in the shallow ground near the building. In the winter, the heat pump removes heat from the heat exchanger and pumps it into the indoor air delivery system. In the summer, the process is reversed, and the heat pump moves heat from the indoor air into the heat exchanger. The heat removed from the indoor air during the summer can also be used to provide a free source of hot water.

The Earth's heat-called geothermal energy-escapes as steam at a hot springs in Nevada. Credit: Sierra Pacific /www.renewableenergyaccess.com/

Hot dry rock resources occur at depths of 3 to 5 miles everywhere beneath the Earth's surface and at lesser depths in certain areas. Access to these resources involves injecting cold water down one well, circulating it through hot fractured rock, and drawing off the heated water from another well. Currently, there are no commercial applications of this technology. Existing technology also does not yet allow recovery of heat directly from magma, the very deep and most powerful resource of geothermal energy.

Many technologies have been developed to take advantage of geothermal energy - the heat from the earth. NREL performs research to develop and advance technologies for the following geothermal applications:

Geothermal Electricity Production - generating electricity from the earth's heat.

Geothermal Direct Use - producing heat directly from hot water within the earth.

Geothermal Heat Pumps - using the shallow ground to heat and cool buildings.

/www.renewableenergyaccess.com/

OCEAN ENERGY

The ocean can produce two types of energy: thermal energy from the sun's heat, and mechanical energy from the tides and waves.

Oceans cover more than 70% of Earth's surface, making them the world's largest solar collectors. The sun's heat warms the surface water a lot more than the deep ocean water, and this temperature difference creates thermal energy. Just a small portion of the heat trapped in the ocean could power the world.

Workers install equipment for an ocean thermal energy conversion experiment in 1994 at Hawaii's Natural Energy Laboratory. Credit: A. Resnick, Makai Ocean Engineering, Inc. /www.renewableenergyaccess.com/

Ocean thermal energy is used for many applications, including electricity generation. There are three types of electricity conversion systems: closed-cycle, open-cycle, and hybrid. Closed-cycle systems use the ocean's warm surface water to vaporize a working fluid, which has a low-boiling point, such as ammonia. The vapor expands and turns a turbine. The turbine then activates a generator to produce electricity. Open-cycle systems actually boil the seawater by operating at low pressures. This produces steam that passes through a turbine/generator. And hybrid systems combine both closed-cycle and open-cycle systems.

Ocean mechanical energy is quite different from ocean thermal energy. Even though the sun affects all ocean activity, tides are driven primarily by the gravitational pull of the moon, and waves are driven primarily by the winds. As a result, tides and waves are intermittent sources of energy, while ocean thermal energy is fairly constant. Also, unlike thermal energy, the electricity conversion of both tidal and wave energy usually involves mechanical devices.

A barrage (dam) is typically used to convert tidal energy into electricity by forcing the water through turbines, activating a generator. For wave energy conversion, there are three basic systems: channel systems that funnel the waves into reservoirs; float systems that drive hydraulic pumps; and oscillating water column systems that use the waves to compress air within a container. The mechanical power created from these systems either directly activates a generator or transfers to a working fluid, water, or air, which then drives a turbine/generator. /www.renewableenergyaccess.com/

HYDROGEN ENERGY

Hydrogen is the simplest element. An atom of hydrogen consists of only one proton and one electron. It's also the most plentiful element in the universe. Despite its simplicity and abundance, hydrogen doesn't occur naturally as a gas on the Earth - it's always combined with other elements. Water, for example, is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen (H₂O).

Hydrogen is also found in many organic compounds, notably the hydrocarbons that make up many of our fuels, such as gasoline, natural gas, methanol, and propane. Hydrogen can be separated from hydrocarbons through the application of heat - a process known as reforming. Currently, most hydrogen is made this way from natural gas. An electrical current can also be used to separate water into its components of oxygen and hydrogen. This process is known as electrolysis. Some algae and bacteria, using sunlight as their energy source, even give off hydrogen under certain conditions.

NASA uses hydrogen fuel to launch the space shuttles. Credit: NASA /www.renewableenergyaccess.com/

Hydrogen is high in energy, yet an engine that burns pure hydrogen produces almost no pollution. NASA has used liquid hydrogen since the 1970s to propel the space shuttle and other rockets into orbit. Hydrogen fuel cells power the shuttle's electrical systems, producing a clean byproduct - pure water, which the crew drinks.

A fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water. Fuel cells are often compared to batteries. Both convert the energy produced by a chemical reaction into usable electric power. However, the fuel cell will produce electricity as long as fuel (hydrogen) is supplied, never losing its charge.

Fuel cells are a promising technology for use as a source of heat and electricity for buildings, and as an electrical power source for electric motors propelling vehicles. Fuel cells operate best on pure hydrogen. But fuels like natural gas, methanol, or even gasoline can be reformed to produce the hydrogen required for fuel cells. Some fuel cells even can be fueled directly with methanol, without using a reformer.

In the future, hydrogen could also join electricity as an important energy carrier. An energy carrier moves and delivers energy in a usable form to consumers. Renewable energy sources, like the sun and wind, can't produce energy all the time. But they could, for example, produce electric energy and hydrogen, which can be stored until it's needed. Hydrogen can also be transported (like electricity) to locations where it is needed. /www.renewableenergyaccess.com/

NUCLEAR ENERGY

Primary energy use in the world (1994)

/www.tacisinfo.ru/

Nuclear power taps the ultimate source of energy, which powers the universe. It exploits the famous E=mc2 [e1] equation, which shows that matter, can change into energy. There are two possibilities for extracting useful energy from nuclear reactions.

Fission - the splitting of large molecular weight nuclei (uranium) and the associated release of heat energy. This is a slow natural process (in uranium ores for example) which is accelerated in a controlled fashion in a nuclear reactor. It forms the basis of all existing nuclear power stations and was derived from the development of the ‘uranium bomb’ at the end of the Second World War which produces an uncontrolled chain nuclear reaction and devastating energy release.

Fusion - the combining of low molecular weight nuclei to produce a heavier element (e.g. hydrogen to helium) with release of heat energy. This is the reaction that sustains the heat of the sun and takes place at a temperature of around 15 million degrees centigrade! Scientists have been trying to simulate and harness this fusion reaction in very large ring-shaped electromagnetic fields (called a torus). These machines can accelerate atoms to vast speeds in a vacuum in an attempt to create the right conditions for fusion to occur.

Nuclear fusion offers the promise of nuclear power without the radiation dangers and waste disposal problems of conventional nuclear fission reactors. However, despite extensive international research, nuclear fusion has still not been proven to be economically feasible. Commercial power generation from nuclear fusion will not be available for many years, if it proves to be possible at all. /www.tacisinfo.ru/

So this nuclear energy mostly ends up as heat from which you can make steam to drive turbines and generators, and make electricity in power stations. In the Sun, atoms of hydrogen fuse to create helium and liberate the seemingly endless stream of energy we call sunlight. Without this solar fusion reactor 150 million kilometers away, our home planet would be a frigid lifeless world. Scientists hope to reproduce this fusion reaction in a controlled way to yield almost unlimited energy supplies with far fewer radioactive waste problems.

Isotopes

Isotopes are forms of an element which have nearly identical chemical and physical properties but different nuclear properties. The chemical properties of elements are fixed by the number of positively charged protons in their nuclei and by the corresponding number of negatively charged electrons that they carry. The isotopes of an element have nuclei containing the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. Neutrons are electrically neutral, and they are important in causing the nucleus to fission, releasing a relatively large amount of energy.

Many isotopes are radioactive. They emit several main kinds of radiation, including: alpha particles, which carry positive charges and consist of two protons and two neutrons (the helium 4 nucleus); beta particles which are energetic electrons (negatively charged) or positrons (positively charged); and gamma rays, electromagnetic radiation which has no charge and are highly penetrating.

Nuclear energy, which is primarily generated by splitting atoms, only provides six percent (6%) of the world's energy supplies. And it is not likely to be a major source of world energy consumption because of public pressure and the relative dangers associated with unleashing the power of the atom.

In 1942 at the University of Chicago Enrico Fermi supervised the design and assembly of an "atomic pile", a code word for an assembly that in peacetime would be known as a "nuclear reactor". Today, a plaque at the site reads: "On December 2, 1942, man achieved here the first self-sustaining chain reaction and thereby initiated the controlled release of nuclear energy."

/www.osti.gov./

SUPPLY OF URANIUM

• Uranium is a relatively common metal, found in rocks and seawater at an abundance of 2.8 parts per million in the Earth's crust.
• Its availability to supply world energy needs is great both geologically and because of the technology for its use.
• Quantities of mineral resources are greater than commonly perceived.

Uranium is ubiquitous on the Earth. It is a metal approximately as common as tin or zinc, and it is a constituent of most rocks and even of the sea. Some typical concentrations are: (ppm = parts per million).

High-grade ore - 2% U,	20,000 ppm U
Low-grade ore - 0.1% U,	1,000 ppm U
Granite	4 ppm U
Sedimentary rock	2 ppm U
Earth's continental crust (av)	2.8 ppm U
Seawater	0.003 ppm U

/www.world-nuclear.org/

An orebody is, by definition, an occurrence of mineralization from which the metal is economically recoverable. It is therefore relative to both costs of extraction and market prices. At present neither the oceans nor any granites are orebodies, but conceivably either could become so if prices were to rise sufficiently.

Measured resources of uranium, the amount known to be economically recoverable from orebodies, are thus also relative to costs and prices. They are also dependent on the intensity of past exploration effort, and are basically a statement about what is known rather than what is there in the Earth's crust.

Reasonably assured reserves (or proven reserves) refers to known commercial quantities of Uranium recoverable with current technology and for the specified price. As well there are estimates of additional and speculative reserves in extensions to well explored deposits or in new deposits that are thought to exist based on well defined geological data.

As of the beginning of 2003 World Uranium reserves were:

• Reasonable Assured Reserves recoverable at less than $US130/kgU (or $US50/lb U3O8) [4] = 3.10 - 3.28 million tU.
• Additional reserves recoverable at less than $US130/kgU (or $US50/lb U₃O₈) = 10.690 million tU.

As of the beginning of 2005 World Uranium reserves were

• Reasonable Assured Reserves recoverable at less than $US130/kgU (or $US50/lb U3O8) = 4.7 million tU.
• Additional recoverable Uranium is estimated to be 35 million tU.

The substantial increase (almost 50%) from 2003 shows the results of the world-wide renewed exploration effort spurred by the increase in Uranium prices which commenced in 2004. This increase in activity has continued through to 2006. Thus, the provable uranium reserves amount to approximately 85 years supply at the current level of consumption with current technology, with another 500 years of additional reserves. /www.uspatentserver.com/

With current technology, ²³⁵U is the only fuel for nuclear reactors. Uranium-235 represents 0.72% of natural uranium. Future technological developments could allow other elements to fuel nuclear reactors. Thorium-232 is a possible nuclear fuel and has a similar abundance to uranium, though there are as yet no commercial reactors operating or planned that would utilize thorium. Fast breeder reactors could utilize both ²³⁵U (Uranium-235) and ²³⁹Pu (Plutonium-239) as a fuel. Plutonium-239 is created when ²³⁸U (99.27% of naturally occurring uranium) is bombarded with neutrons. Plutonium-239 is a by product of nuclear power generation with the current mix of ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U. It is currently a waste product of concern due to its extreme toxicity and link to nuclear weapons. If reactors could be made to utilize ²³⁹Pu the potential of known reserves of uranium would be greatly extended since ²³⁸U could then be turned into a fuel. The Super Phoenix fast breeder reactor in France has demonstrated the technology. Currently electricity from such a plant would cost around three times the amount per kilowatt as that from conventional nuclear power plants. Fast breeder reactors have a higher risk profile due to the need to handle large quantities of Plutonium, and so present a different balance between utility and risk than the other types of reactors. /www.uspatentserver.com/

With those major qualifications the following Table gives some idea of our present knowledge of uranium resources. It can be seen that Australia has a substantial part (about 24 percent) of the world's low-cost uranium, Kazakhstan 17 percent, and Canada 9 percent.

Known Recoverable Resources of Uranium

Country	tons U	percentage of world
Australia	1,143,000	24%
Kazakhstan	816,000	17%
Canada	444,000	9%
USA	342,000	7%
South Africa	341,000	7%
Namibia	282,000	6%
Brazil	279,000	6%
Niger	225,000	5%
Russian Fed.	172,000	4%
Uzbekistan	116,000	2%
Ukraine	90,000	2%
Jordan	79,000	2%
India	67,000	1%
China	60,000	1%
Other	287,000	6%
World total	4,743,000

/www.world-nuclear.org/

Current usage is about 66,500 tU/yr. Thus the world's present measured resources of uranium (4.7 Mt) in the cost category somewhat above present spot prices and used only in conventional reactors, are enough to last for some 70 years. This represents a higher level of assured resources than is normal for most minerals. Further exploration and higher prices will certainly, on the basis of present geological knowledge, yield further resources as present ones are used up.

There was very little uranium exploration between 1985 and 2005, so the significant increase in exploration effort that we are now seeing could readily double the known economic resources. On the basis of analogies with other metal minerals, a doubling of price from present levels could be expected to create about a tenfold increase in measured resources, over time.

/www.world-nuclear.org/

This is in fact suggested in the IAEA-NEA figures if those covering estimates of all conventional resources are considered - 10 million tons (beyond the 4.7 Mt known economic resources), which takes us to over 200 years' supply at today's rate of consumption. This still ignores the technological factor mentioned below. It also omits unconventional resources such as phosphate/ phosphorite deposits (22 Mt U recoverable as by-product) and seawater (up to 4000 Mt), which would be uneconomic to extract in the foreseeable future.

Uranium Mining

Both excavation and in situ techniques are used to recover uranium ore. Excavation may be underground or open pit mining.

In general, open pit mining is used where deposits are close to the surface and underground mining is used for deep deposits, typically greater than 120 meters deep. Open pit mines require large holes on the surface, larger than the size of the ore deposit, since the walls of the pit must be sloped to prevent collapse. As a result, the quantity of material that must be removed in order to access the ore may be large. Underground mines have relatively small surface disturbance and the quantity of material that must be removed to access the ore is considerably less than in the case of an open pit mine.

An increasing proportion of the world's uranium now comes from in situ leaching (ISL), where oxygenated groundwater is circulated through a very porous orebody to dissolve the uranium and bring it to the surface. ISL may be with slightly acid or with alkaline solutions to keep the uranium in solution. The uranium is then recovered from the solution as in a conventional mill.

The decision as to which mining method to use for a particular deposit is governed by the nature of the orebody, and safety and economic considerations.

In the case of underground uranium mines, special precautions, consisting primarily of increased ventilation, are required to protect against airborne radiation exposure. /www.wise-uranium.org/

Uranium Milling

A uranium mill is a chemical plant that extracts uranium from mined ore. Most mining facilities include a mill, although where mines are close together, one mill may process the ore from several mines. At conventional mills, the ore arrives via truck and is crushed and leached. In most cases, sulfuric acid is the leaching agent, but alkaline leaching can also be done. The leaching agent not only extracts uranium from the ore but also several other constituents: vanadium, selenium, iron, lead, and arsenic. Conventional mills extract 90 to 95 percent of the uranium from the ore. Mills are typically in areas of low population density, and they process ores from mines within 50 kilometers (30 miles). Milling produces a uranium oxide concentrate that is then shipped from the mill. It is sometimes referred to as yellowcake and generally contains more than 80% uranium. The original ore may contains as little as 0.1% uranium.

In situ uranium leaching /www.wise-uranium.org/

In situ leach (ISL) facilities are one means of extracting uranium from underground. ISL facilities recover uranium from low grade ores that may not be economically recoverable by other methods. In this process, a leaching agent, such as oxygen with sodium carbonate, is injected through wells into the ore body to dissolve the uranium. The leach solution is pumped from there to the processing plant and ion exchange separates the uranium from the solution. After additional purification and drying, the yellowcake is placed in 55-gallon drums.

Because the uranium is not enriched, there is no criticality hazard and little fire or explosive hazard for it. The ISL process does present a fire hazard, however. The primary hazards associated with milling operations are occupational hazards found in any metal milling operation that uses chemical extraction plus the chemical toxicity of the uranium itself.

Radiological hazards are low at these facilities as uranium has little penetrating radiation and only moderate non-penetrating radiation. The primary radiological hazard is due to the presence of radium in the uranium decay chains and the production of radon gas from the decay of radium and radon progeny (short-lived radon decay products).

The solid (sandy) waste from the conventional uranium milling process is called mill tailings. Uranium mill tailings, which contain most of the progeny of uranium, are a significant source of radon and radon progeny releases to the environment. The hazards from radon involve inhalation of radon progeny that may be deposited in the respiratory tract. Alpha radiation could be emitted into those tissues and can pose a cancer risk to those workers.

Once uranium becomes 'spent fuel' (after being used to produce electricity), the 'back end' of the cycle follows. This may include: temporary storage, reprocessing, recycling, and waste disposal.

Nuclear Fuel Cycle Diagram /www.uraniumsa.org/

Conversion

The product of a uranium mill is not directly usable as a fuel for a nuclear power reactor. After the yellowcake is produced at the mill, the next step is conversion into pure uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas suitable for use in enrichment operations. During this conversion, impurities are removed and the uranium is combined with fluorine to create the UF6 gas. The UF6 is then pressurized and cooled to a liquid. In its liquid state it is drained into 14-ton cylinders where it solidifies after cooling for approximately five days. The UF6 cylinder, in the solid form, is then shipped to an enrichment plant. UF6 is the only uranium compound that exists as a gas at a suitable temperature.

As with mining and milling, the primary risks associated with conversion are chemical and radiological. Strong acids and alkalis are used in the conversion process, which involves converting the yellowcake (uranium oxide) powder to very soluble forms, leading to possible inhalation of uranium. In addition, conversion produces extremely corrosive chemicals that could cause fire and explosion hazards.

Enrichment

Natural uranium consists, primarily, of a mixture of two isotopes (atomic forms) of uranium. Only 0.7% of natural uranium is "fissile", or capable of undergoing fission, the process by which energy is produced in a nuclear power reactor. The fissile isotope of uranium is uranium-235 (²³⁵U); the remainder is uranium-238 (²³⁸U).

In the most common types of nuclear reactors, a higher-than-natural concentration of ²³⁵U is required. The enrichment process produces this higher concentration, typically between 3.5% and 5% ²³⁵U, by removing over 85% of the ²³⁸U. This is done by separating gaseous uranium hexafluoride into two streams, one being enriched to the required level and known as low-enriched uranium. The other stream is progressively depleted in ²³⁵U and is called 'tails'.

There are two enrichment processes in large-scale commercial use, each of which uses uranium hexafluoride as feed: gaseous diffusion and gas centrifuge. They both use the physical properties of molecules, specifically the 1% mass difference, to separate the isotopes. The product of this stage of the nuclear fuel cycle is enriched uranium hexafluoride, which is reconverted to produce enriched uranium oxide. /www.wise-uranium.org/

Fuel fabrication

Reactor fuel is generally in the form of ceramic pellets. These are formed from pressed uranium oxide which is sintered (baked) at a high temperature (over 1400°C). The pellets are then encased in metal tubes to form fuel rods, which are arranged into a fuel assembly ready for introduction into a reactor. The dimensions of the fuel pellets and other components of the fuel assembly are precisely controlled to ensure consistency in the characteristics of fuel bundles.

In a fuel fabrication plant great care is taken with the size and shape of processing vessels to avoid criticality (a limited chain reaction releasing radiation). With low-enriched fuel criticality is most unlikely, but in plants handling special fuels for research reactors this is a vital consideration.

Power generation

Inside a nuclear reactor the nuclei of U-235 atoms split (fission) and, in the process, release energy. This energy is used to heat water and turn it into steam. The steam is used to drive a turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity. Some of the U-238 in the fuel is turned into plutonium in the reactor core. The main plutonium isotope is also fissile and it yields about one third of the energy in a typical nuclear reactor. The fissioning of uranium is used as a source of heat in a nuclear power station in the same way that the burning of coal, gas or oil is used as a source of heat in a fossil fuel power plant.

As with as a coal-fired power station about two thirds of the heat is dumped, either to a large volume of water (from the sea or large river, heating it a few degrees) or to a relatively smaller volume of water in cooling towers, using evaporative cooling (latent heat of vaporization).

Used fuel

With time, the concentration of fission fragments and heavy elements formed in the same way as plutonium in a fuel bundle will increase to the point where it is no longer practical to continue to use the fuel. So after 12-24 months the 'spent fuel' is removed from the reactor. The amount of energy that is produced from a fuel bundle varies with the type of reactor and the policy of the reactor operator.

Typically, some 36 million kilowatt-hours of electricity are produced from one ton of natural uranium. The production of this amount of electrical power from fossil fuels would require the burning of over 20,000 tons of black coal or 8.5 million cubic meters of gas.

Used fuel storage

When removed from a reactor, a fuel bundle will be emitting both radiation, principally from the fission fragments, and heat. Used fuel is unloaded into a storage pond immediately adjacent to the reactor to allow the radiation levels to decrease. In the ponds the water shields the radiation and absorbs the heat. Used fuel is held in such pools for several months to several years.

Depending on policies in particular countries, some used fuel may be transferred to central storage facilities. Ultimately, used fuel must either be reprocessed or prepared for permanent disposal.

Reprocessing

Used fuel is about 95% U-238 but it also contains about 1% U-235 that has not fissioned, about 1% plutonium and 3% fission products, which are highly radioactive, with other transuranic elements formed in the reactor. In a reprocessing facility the used fuel is separated into its three components: uranium, plutonium and waste, containing fission products. Reprocessing enables recycling of the uranium and plutonium into fresh fuel, and produces a significantly reduced amount of waste (compared with treating all used fuel as waste).

Uranium and Plutonium Recycling

The uranium from reprocessing, which typically contains a slightly higher concentration of U-235 than occurs in nature, can be reused as fuel after conversion and enrichment, if necessary. The plutonium can be directly made into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, in which uranium and plutonium oxides are combined.

In reactors that use MOX fuel, plutonium substitutes for the U-235 in normal uranium oxide fuel.

Used fuel disposal

At the present time, there are no disposal facilities (as opposed to storage facilities) in operation in which used fuel, not destined for reprocessing, and the waste from reprocessing can be placed. Although technical issues related to disposal have been addressed, there is currently no pressing technical need to establish such facilities, as the total volume of such wastes is relatively small. Further, the longer it is stored the easier it is to handle, due to the progressive diminution of radioactivity. There is also a reluctance to dispose of used fuel because it represents a significant energy resource which could be reprocessed at a later date to allow recycling of the uranium and plutonium. (There is a proposal to use it in Candu reactors directly as fuel.)

A number of countries are carrying out studies to determine the optimum approach to the disposal of spent fuel and wastes from reprocessing. The general consensus favors its placement into deep geological repositories, initially recoverable.

Wastes

Wastes from the nuclear fuel cycle are categorized as high-, medium- or low-level wastes by the amount of radiation that they emit. These wastes come from a number of sources and include:

• low-level waste produced at all stages of the fuel cycle;
• intermediate-level waste produced during reactor operation and by reprocessing;
• high-level waste, which is waste containing fission products from reprocessing, and in many countries, the used fuel itself.

The enrichment process leads to the production of much 'depleted' uranium, in which the concentration of U-235 is significantly less than the 0.7% found in nature. Small quantities of this material, which is primarily U-238, are used in applications where high density material is required, including radiation shielding and some is used in the production of MOX fuel. While U-238 is not fissile it is a low specific activity radioactive material and some precautions must, therefore, be taken in its storage or disposal.

Material balance in the nuclear fuel cycle:

The following figures make various assumptions (see footnote 2) but may be regarded as typical for the operation of a 1000 MWe nuclear power reactor:

Mining	20 000 tonnes of 1% uranium ore
Milling	230 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate (with 195 t U)
Conversion	288 tonnes UF6 (with 195 t U)
Enrichment	35 tonnes UF6 (with 24 t enriched U) - balance is 'tails'
Fuel fabrication	27 tonnes UO2 (with 24 t enriched U)
Reactor operation	7000 million kWh of electricity
Used fuel	27 tonnes containing 240kg plutonium, 23 t uranium (0.8% U-235), 720kg fission products, also transuranics.

Footnote: Concentrate is 85% U, enrichment to 4% U-235 with 0.25% tails assay - hence 140,000 SWU required, 80% load factor for reactor, core load 72 tU, refuelling annually with one third replaced. /www.world-nuclear.org/

Uranium concentrations are sometimes expressed in terms of U₃O₈ content (U₃O₈ is a mixture of two uranium oxides approximately as they occur in nature). Pure U₃O₈ product contains about 85% uranium metal.

NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN THE WORLD

Despite there are lots of people who are against using nuclear energy and thus building nuclear power stations on their territory still the amount of such type of plants grows from year to year. This might be due to natural resources depletion and lower cost of nuclear energy.

/www.inb.gov.br/

Country	Nє of operating units	Generation capacity MW	Nє of units under construction	Generation capacity MW
South Africa	2	1800
Germany	19	21122
Argentina	2	935	1	692
Armenia	1	376
Belgium	7	5712
Brazil	2	1855
Bulgaria	6	3538
Canada	14	9998
China	3	2167	8	6420
China (Taiwan)	6	4884	2	2560
Korea	16	12990	4	3820
Slovenia	1	676
Spain	9	7512
USA	104	97411
Finland	4	2656
France	59	63073
Great Britain	35	12968
Holland	1	449
Hungary	4	1755
India	14	2503
Iran			2	2111
Japan	53	43491	3	3190
Lithuania	2	2370
Mexico	2	1360
Paquistan	2	425
Slovak Republic	6	2408	2	776
Czech Republic	5	2569	1	912
Romênia	1	650	1	650
Russia	29	19843	3	2825
Sweden	11	9432
Switzerland	5	3192
Ukraine	13	11207	4	3800
Total	438	351327	31	27756

/www.iaed.org/

Nowadays in the world there are several types of reactors that work on uranium:

Pressurized water reactor [pwr]

boiling water reactor [bwr]

light water cooled graphite moderated reactor [lwcgr]

pressurized tube reactor [rbmk]

gas cooled graphite moderated reactor [gcr]

advanced gas cooled reactor [agr]

pressurized heavy water reactor [phwr]

high temperature gas cooled reactor [htgr]

fast breeder reactor [fbr]

boiling light water cooled heavy water moderated reactor [bwchwr]

gas cooled heavy water moderated reactor [gchwr]

liquid metal fast breeder reactor [lmfbr]

pressurized light water cooled heavy water moderated reactor [pwchwr]

thorium high temperature reactor [thtr]

Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)

The PHWR reactor uses heavy water as coolant and moderator.

The fuel is natural uranium. The fuel elements are located in pressure tubes which are located in a steel vessel (the calandria). The heavy water circulating through the pressure tubes is prevented from boiling. Like in PWRs PHWRs have a secondary cooling circuit with steam generators (called boilers) -using normal water.

The space between the pressure tubes is filled with an insulating gas. Thus the moderator in the calandria is kept cool. The pressure tube design allows on-load refuelling as in GCR and RBMK reactors. Most frequently used is the Canadian designed CANDU reactor.

/www.ecology.at/

PHWRs have been popular in several countries because they use less expensive natural (not enriched) uranium fuels and can be built and operated at competitive costs. The continuous refueling process used in PHWRs has raised some proliferation concerns because it is difficult for international inspectors to monitor. Additionally, the relatively high Pu-239 content of PHWR spent fuel has also raised proliferation concerns. The importance of these claims is challenged by their manufacturers. PHWRs, like most reactors, can use fuels other than uranium and the ACR series of reactors is intended to use slightly enriched fuels.  Particular interest has been shown in India in thorium-based fuel cycles. /www.npp.hu/

Boiling Water Reactor

BWRs are cooled and moderated by water. The main difference to the PWR is that the water in the Reactor Cooling System (RCS) is boiling and the steam produced in the core is directly conducted to the turbine. The core is similar to a PWR core and is also confined in a vessel. In the upper part of Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV), steam separator and drier ise located. Only a small part of the coolant is converted to steam. The remainder is circulated by pumps in the bottom part of RPV.

Because the upper part of reactor pressure vessel is filled with the steam separator, the control rods have to be inserted from the bottom. Whereas PWR containments are generally designed to withstand the full pressure generated by a large LOCA, BWR containments depend on pressure suppression systems: The steam escaping e.g. after a pipe rupture is conducted into a heat sink (a water pool).

/www.ecology.at/

ABWR

First ABWR started operation in Japan, its design is basically traditional BWR technology except for some items: the ten internal recirculation pumps are positioned inside the reactor pressure vessel. The new design permits improved control rod drive insertion capability and reduction of containment radiation.

The control room provides the operator with a wide array of support features.

The emergency core cooling system ECCS) has three full-range divisions (high/low pressure), each of which includes a diesel generator. The ECCS includes a reactor steam driven turbine pump that does not rely on AC power.

The ABWR has passive severe accident mitigation features to protect the containment from overpressurization: One system floods the lower drywell - this system is passive, initatited by high temperatures. The suppression pool traps most fission products in water and the containment has a overpressurization protection device.

Core melt frequency is estimated to be lower than 0,0000001 .

Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR)

Of all NPPs PWRs are the most frequently used type world-wide.

In PWRs water is used as coolant and moderator simultaneously. The core, where heat is produced by nuclear fission is located inside a pressure vessel. The coolant through the core is circulating through a separate coolant circuit, which in most PWRs is completely confined in the containment. Pressure in the primary coolant system is high enough to prevent coolant from boiling. Integrity of primary system is a crucial point for safety of a PWR. Neutron flux and stress to the components is high and leads to embrittlement and fatigue. The primary circuit is divided into several loops with the corresponding number of SGs and pumps. The number of loops is different and reaches from 2 e.g. some Westinghouse PWRs to 6 in WWER-440 reactors.

The steam which is necessary for driving the turbine is generated in a special heat exchanger, the Steam Generator (SG), where the heat from the closed primary coolant circuit is transferred to a second coolant circuit (secondary or feedwater circuit).

The containment is supposed to isolate the primary system in case of accidents. Because of several penetrations into the containment the isolating function can be degraded e.g. by valve failures. Hydrogen explosions and pressure build-up can cause destruction of the containment under accident conditions.

1. containment: prestressed concrete (2 m thick)

2. secondary containment: steel

3. accumulator tank

4. concrete shield

5. protection against missiles

6. water-cooled fuel pool

7. control rod drives

8. steam generator

9. reactor pressure vessel

10. reactor core : consists of a large number of fuel elements composed of fuel rods.

/www.ecology.at/

RBMK Reactors

RBMK reactors are existing only in countries of the former USSR. The RBMK is a boiling water reactor, with pressure tubes containing the fuel elements. The moderator is graphite. The core consists of a graphite stack with drill holes for the pressure tubes. The coolant flows through the channels from bottom to the top of the core. The reactor cooling system consists of 2 loops. The steam- water mixture leaving the core is led to 2 separators, from where the steam is led to the turbines.

Control rods are inserted into the core from above. Integrity of the confinement system (hermozone) depends on suppression pools like in BWRs. /www.ecology.at/

1. refueling machine
2. gas-tight steel vessel
3. concrete confinement
4. steam/water separator
5. steam pipe
6. refueling tube
7. reactore core: consists of a cylindrical stack of graphite (height 7 m, diameter 12m), with channels. The coolant flows through the channels which contain the pressure tubes with the fuel.
8. main coolant pump
9. cooling water from separator /www.ecology.at/

Gas Cooled Reactors

GCRs are cooled with carbon dioxide and moderated with graphite.The core consists of graphite bricks with coolant channels, in which the fuel elements are contained. The core is confined in a steel or concrete pressure vessel. The turbine is driven by a secondary steam-water circuit.

GCRs are designed for on-load refuelling. GCRs are nearly exclusively operating in Great Britain (Magnox reactors).

Advanced Gas Reactor cycle is illustrated in the sketch below:

/www.nucleartourist.com/

Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR)

The AGR is evolved from the gas cooled Magnox reactors. To achieve higher thermal efficiency AGRs use low enriched uranium oxide fuel. Coolant gas temperature is significantly higher than in Magnox reactors.AGRs have reinforced concrete pressure vessels. Steam generators and gas recicoulation pumps are housed within the concrete RPV. /www.ecology.at/

Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR)

The principal reactor cooling system design of a FBR is similar to a PWR. The major difference is that the coolant in a FBR is liquid sodium instead of water. there are 2 sodium circuits, where heat transfer is generated by a heat exchanger. The secondary sodium circuit transfer the heat to a steam generator.

FBRs have been designed not only to produce electricity, but also to generate (breed) fuel, namely plutonium out of uranium.

The FBR fuel is plutonium which needs fast neutrons to generate fission, therefore water cannot be used as a coolant, because of its moderating function.

FBRs are designed for on-load refuelling.

/www.npp.hu/

The core of a fast breeder reactor consists of two parts. The fuel rods, which contain a mixture of uranium dioxide and plutonium dioxide, are found in the inner part. Here fission reactions dominate, while in the outer part the predominant process is conversion of U-238 to Pu-239. This part contains depleted uranium (i.e. uranium, in which the U-235 content is even lower than the natural 0.7%). In such a reactor one can achieve that more fissile plutonium nuclei be produced in a unit time than the number of fissile nuclei which undergo fission (hence the name "breeder"). On the other hand, neutrons are not thermalized, since fast neutrons are needed for the above described processes.

/www.npp.hu/

1 Fuel (fissile material)	9 Cover	17 Condenser
2 Fuel (breeder material)	10 Na/Na heat exchanger	18 Cooling water
3 Control rods	11 Secondary Na	19 Cooling water pump
4 Primary Na pump	12 Secondary Na pump	20 High pressure turbine
5 Primary Na coolant	13 Steam generator	21 Low pressure turbine
6 Reactor vessel	14 Fresh steam	22 Generator
7 Protective vessel	15 Feedwater pre-heater	23 Reactor building
8 Reactor cover	16 Feedwater pump

/www.npp.hu/

The heat of primary sodium is transferred to the secondary sodium in an intermediate heat exchanger, while the third heat exchanger is the steam generator. Application of three loops is necessitated by safety considerations (liquid sodium is very dangerous: the primary sodium is highly radioactive because of neutrons activation, which results in Na-24; the second sodium loop prevents radioactive sodium from accidental contact with water.) /www.npp.hu/

Reactor Fuel Requirements

The world's power reactors, with combined capacity of some 370 GWe, require about 67,000 tons of uranium from mines (or the equivalent from stockpiles) each year. While this capacity is being run more productively, with higher capacity factors and reactor power levels, the uranium fuel requirement is increasing but not necessarily at the same rate. The factors increasing fuel demand are offset by a trend for higher burnup of fuel and other efficiencies, so demand is steady. (Over the 18 years to 1993 the electricity generated by nuclear power increased 5.5-fold while uranium used increased only just over 3-fold.) It is likely that the annual uranium demand will grow only slightly to 2010.

Reducing the tails assay in enrichment reduces the amount of natural uranium required for a given amount of fuel.

Reprocessing of spent fuel from conventional light water reactors also utilizes present resources more efficiently, by a factor of about 1.3 overall.

A nuclear plant like any other enterprise requires both employees whose knowledge can be applied at different workplaces, for example, an accountant or a stock keeper and those who are required only at this type of industrial production.

We tried to investigate what kinds of jobs are required at a reactor. We took two examples of professions and the duties employees will have according to their grade, education and knowledge.

Radiation supervisor

2^nd grade

Work characteristics. Dosimetric and radiometric contamination measurement with alpha – beta - and gamma –active substances of various surfaces, working clothing and shoes, personal protection equipment, equipment, transport vehicles, etc. of ionizing radiation capacity and doses defining with the help of particular dosimetric and radiometric devices. The environment sampling, individual dosimetric control.

A radiation supervisor must know basic properties of ionizing radiation and their registration methods, ionizing radiation biological impact, applied dosimetric and radiometric devices action, sanitary rules of working with radioactive substances and ionizing radiation sources, dosimetric and radiometric measurements practices and environment sampling.

3^d grade

Work characteristics. Defining dosimetric and radiometric devices sensitivity with the help of control sources. Radiation safety control on working places. Preprocessing of dosimetric and radiometric measurements results and of individual dosimetric control.

A radiation supervisor must have elementary knowledge of atom, radioactivity, basic properties of ionizing radiation, means and security facilities from ionizing radiation damaging action, organization of dosimetric and radiometric devices of average complexity and their sensitivity control methods, dosimetric and radiometric measurements methods of average complexity, sampling methods, environment sampling preparing and measuring, radiometric survey methods.

4^th grade

Dosimetric and radiometric measurements of particular kinds of radiation with the help of various devices. Dosimetric control during the most important work type. Working places control of close adherence to the rule of protection from ionizing radiation. Radiometric survey of the territory and of the roads. Processing of dosimetric and radiometric measurements results and of individual dosimetric control. Preparation of diagrams, charts, maps and tables.

A radiation supervisor must have basic knowledge of nuclear physics, basic radioactivity laws, properties of ionizing radiation and their registration methods, organization of dosimetric and radiometric devices of higher complexity and their sensitivity control methods, environment sampling preparing and measuring methods.

5^th grade

Work characteristics. Dosimetric and radiometric measurements of various complexity of all kinds of radiation with the help of various devices. Studying and measuring biological protection efficiency. Direct control of all kinds of dangerous radiation work. Dosimetric and radiometric devices control and its rejection during the operational process. Initial estimation of biological protection equipment results. Statistical processing of dosimetric and radiometric measurements results.

Working up union documentation. Participation in making up reports on dosimetric control. Participation in work with new dosimetric and radiometric control devices. A radiation supervisor must know nuclear physics basics, radioactivity laws, ionizing radiation properties and their registration methods, protection calculations from all kinds of ionizing radiation, organization of dosimetric and radiometric devices of highest complexity, their calibration principles, their sensitivity control, measurement interpretation methods.

Specialized secondary education is required.

Deactivator

2^nd grade

Work characteristics. Special motor transport, equipment, inventory deactivation of premises with the help of deactivation devices by given methods applying various devices and regulated deactivating solutions. Equipment dismantling which is to be deactivated. Manual degassing of contaminated objects, equipment, inventory and premises by way of washing-off contaminants with the help of eluting solvents (kerosene, benzene, etc.), by skimming of contaminated soil or snow, etc. Delivery from the warehouse of necessary substances to prepare degassing substances. Transporting and lifting work while moving deactivating equipment. Cleaning up traps and cleaning settlers at the deactivation point.

A deactivator must know deactivation and degassing surfaces rules, composition and properties of main deactivating solutions, working equipment keeping rules, lifting work rules and radiation hygiene, principles of operation of deactivating equipment, dosimetric and radiometric equipment, degassing substances nomenclature.

3^d grade

Work characteristics. Protective clothing and personal protection equipment deactivation with the help of deactivating equipment. Preparing to pump deactivating solutions and eluting solvents as well as lifting devices, laundry devices. Defining the type of deactivating solution depending on contamination surface type by radioactive materials. Deactivation of contaminated objects, equipment, inventory and premises with the help of deactivating devices by deactivating substances. Preparation of deactivating solution, deactivating substances according to the given formula. Current repairs of the inventory, equipment and devices. Equipment corrective adjustment.

A deactivator must know basic physicochemical deactivating solutions properties, preparation rules of deactivating solutions and degassing substances, effect produced on the equipment, protective appliances, materials and personal protection equipment, dosimetric, radioactive technology and degassing devices, maximum permissible radiation contamination, sanitary rules of working with radioactive substances and ionizing radiation sources, function and application of monitors.

4^th grade

Work characteristics. Deactivation of valuable materials, protective clothing and personal protection equipment in ultrasonic baths, smelting furnaces and washers, etc. Checking accuracy and aptitude of the equipment and monitors. Disassembling and assembling work when deactivating the equipment. Defining deactivating process completion with the help of dosimetric control by comparing with the maximum permissible level for a definite radiation type. Adjustment of the equipment for the given operating conditions.

A deactivator must know ultrasonic baths function and operation, smelting furnaces, washers and stop valve, deactivation technological process, physicochemical properties of the applied material, monitor s’ function.

5^th grade

Work characteristics. Wash waters deactivation. Calculating and working up formulas according to the radioactive contamination type and deactivated material. Operation and supervision of the deactivated equipment work and monitors and fault handling. Regulation of the technological regime figures subject to the sampling results. Keeping report documentation. Participation in developing and introduction of new deactivation methods.

A deactivator must know kinematic and electrical schemes of ultrasonic baths smelting furnaces and washers, physicochemical reagents and materials properties, radioactivity laws, all types radiation properties, adjustment and regulation monitors’ rules, repair rules of the corresponding equipment.

/www.dis.ru/slovar/

CONCLUSION

Unlike the metals which have been in demand for centuries, society has barely begun to utilize uranium. As serious non-military demand did not materialize until significant nuclear generation was built by the late 1970s, there has been only one cycle of exploration-discovery-production, driven in large part by late 1970s price peaks. This initial cycle has provided more than enough uranium for the last three decades and several more to come. Clearly, it is premature to speak about long-term uranium scarcity when the entire nuclear industry is so young that only one cycle of resource replenishment has been required. It is instead a reassurance that this first cycle of exploration was capable of meeting the needs of more than half a century of nuclear energy demand.

Another dimension to the immaturity of uranium exploration is that it is by no means certain that all possible deposit types have even been identified. Any estimate of world uranium potential made only 30 years ago would have missed the entire deposit class of unconformity deposits that have driven production since then, simply because geologists did not know this class existed.

What concerns the nuclear energy in general it has quite a short development history and even for such a short period of time this industry has had its ups and downs which were due to the revaluation and reappraisal of calculations and forecasts.

The first programs created in the 50-60s in USA, Great Britain, the USSR were not mostly realized which could be explained by low competitiveness between nuclear power stations and thermoelectric power stations on oil, black oil and gas. But with the beginning of the world energy crisis the use of nuclear power increased fast especially in the countries which did not possess huge oil, gas and coal resources like France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Korean Republic. Moreover, nuclear energy development programs were introduced in USA and the USSR and by the end of the 70s the majority of experts considered that nuclear power stations capacity would reach 1300-1600 millions kW or about a half capacity of all power stations. According to the forecast of World Energy Conference there would be nuclear power stations in 50 countries in the world. [V.P. Maksakovskiy “Geographical view of the world”, part I, 1998, Yaroslavl, “Verkhnyaya Volga”] and the nuclear industry share in power generating would reach 30%. But by the mid 80s nuclear industry rate of growth slowed down on account of various reasons. First of all, energy saving policy has proved rather successful. Also as we can see in the case of Rosneft lots of oil and gas production companies improve their reservoir engineering and oil pool development which again pots off the issue of natural resources depletion (let it be for a period of a hundred years or so but still…). And finally, such reactor disasters as Three Mile Island in USA and Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union did not contribute to the popularity of nuclear power stations. Many projects on nuclear power construction were blocked and never resumed. Many people got frightened of nuclear power and even cheapness of such energy does not attract them and cannot change their viewpoint.

It would be difficult to change the current state of affairs but it could be possible. It would be a good start to demand that anyone who talks about nuclear risks also talk about alternatives. For example, if you complain about radioactive wastes, what you will do about the chemical wastes from producing power with coal - aren't those carcinogenic too, and more likely than nuclear wastes to get into one’s body? Answering such questions isn’t as important as asking them. Reasoning about nuclear energy on the same plane with other sources of energy will help people to address the real issues.

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