Materials For Energy

France’s Nuclear Power Program Continues in Force

By Dr. Russell Chianelli, The University of Texas at El Paso, MRTI

In spite of the recent Japanese nuclear accident, France’s nuclear power program continues in force. As reported in the Energy Quarterly section of the June issue of MRS Bulletin, France decided to expand its nuclear program shortly after the oil crisis in 1974, while simultaneously reducing its use of coal. The country shut down its coal mining industry in 2004. Currently, 75% of their electric power comes from 58 nuclear reactors. France is now the largest exporter of electric power in the world, and it has the lowest CO₂ emissions per capita of any country. Also, their nuclear efficiency is improving with each generation of reactor designs. These are just some of the reasons why France continues to heavily pursue nuclear energy.¹

French Nuclear Reactor – Saint Laurant -Nouan²

As a frequent visitor to France, I can attest to the beauty of the French countryside and the popularity of nuclear reactors because of low-cost electricity and clean air. The Energy Quarterly section of the June issue of MRS Bulletin also discusses advances in fuel processing, reactor design, and waste disposal issues in France.

1. Jon Palfreman, "Why the French Like Nuclear Energy", PBS: Frontline, June 2011;
2. T.A.F.K.A.S., Saint-Laurent Nuclear Power Plant, Wikipedia, 18 July 2006;
3. Philip Ball (2011). France’s nuclear power program continues in force. MRS Bulletin, 36, pp 418-421 doi:10.1557/mrs.2011.140

Learning from Failures

In the Energy Quarterly section of the June issue of MRS Bulletin, Angela Saini discusses what we have learned from notable technological failures around the world, namely the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, last year’s Macondo Oil Spill, and now the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi accident. Officials in the United States and worldwide are closely scrutinizing nuclear reactors to determine future policy.^1,2 In each accident scenario, new engineering techniques and safety inspection technologies were developed and applied over time, but in spite of our best efforts “accidents happen.” In addition to reducing risk with better equipment and procedures we need to be prepared to respond to unexpected accidents.

A good example was the 2010 Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.³ Safety measures and equipment have been rightly called into question, but in this instance, panic ensued because the media, and the public did not understand a basic fact about the ocean environment: Huge amounts of oil are naturally being put into the sea on a daily basis, and natural organisms called “hydrocarbon degraders” are constantly turning the petroleum into natural food sources for higher organisms. So responding to oil spills requires stockpiling dispersants to make the oil more easily available to the organisms and adding nutrients to enhance the rate at which the hydrocarbon degraders can grow. Where oil production is present, these materials and the ability to apply them need to be readily available. They were not.

This type of deep understanding is needed to be prepared for future accidents that have the potential to create large disasters.

1. “U.S. Boosts Scrutiny of Nuclear Reactors”, Chemical Engineering News, 19, May 23(2011).
2. “What is the Future for Nuclear Energy?” MRS Bulletin, Energy Quarterly, June 2011.
3. “The Microbes Come Through”, Materials Research Society, Materials for Energy Blog, 2011.

What is the Future of Nuclear Power?

The Energy Quarterly section of MRS Bulletin’s June issue discusses, in detail, the future of nuclear power throughout the world, starting with an editorial by Robin Grimes of Imperial College London. With the recent Japanese nuclear disaster, current and future nuclear nations are examining the options for nuclear powered electricity and maintenance of existing nuclear facilities, some of which are entering old age. Germany has decided to halt nuclear energy production¹, whereas the French would prefer to continue with nuclear power.² China and India, with emerging economies and large, growing populations, consider nuclear power a necessity. All of this must be tempered with the global situation regarding the availability of hydrocarbons and coal. The United States is also actively debating the future of nuclear energy. A projection of world energy demand is included below.

Can we learn from our failures and previous accidents? Although much can be done regarding introspections of safety rules and monitoring, there are numerous challenges for the materials community.

1. Bernd Radowitz and Jan Hromadko, "Merkel:German Nuclear Exit Gradual; 2022 Irreversible End-date," The Wall Street Journal, Monday, June 6, 2011;
2. Jon Palfreman, "Why the French Like Nuclear Energy", PBS: Frontline, June 2011;

Shale Rock Fracking Keeps U.S. Economy from Cracking

By Russell R. Chianelli, The University of Texas at El Paso, MRTI

In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal titled “Stepping on the Gas,” Daniel Yergin, noted for his book The Prize, which covers the rise of the major oil companies, describes how gas from shale rock can lead the United States out of dependence on foreign oil imports.¹  In this article, he discusses how independent energy producers in the Houston, Texas, area have tapped a resource called the Barnett Shale reserve located around Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas. This is now producing massive amounts of natural gas using techniques developed over the past 30 years to open reservoir rocks. Specifically, a technique called fracking expands rock fractures, releasing gas. Fracking has changed the U.S. energy equation. As part of the so-called Unconventional Natural-Gas Revolution, the technique has turned a natural gas shortage into a surplus, resulting in lowering of the price of natural gas. It is now estimated that the United States has a resource base of natural gas across the country of 2,500 trillion cubic feet (see Reference 2 for worldwide production). This makes it probable that the United States will become a net exporter of natural gas.

Fracking has critics who speak about threats to groundwater and the handling of water recovered from the operation. However, the industry states that they have a long, untarnished safety record. In an accompanying article titled “The Road to Clean Energy?” environmentalist Mark Brownstein discusses the risks and appeals to the industry to allay such fears. Besides the obvious direct uses of natural gas for energy applications, the abundance of natural gas also offers opportunities to the catalytic materials community to convert it to useful transportation liquids. Future blog entries will discuss this in more detail.

1. D. Yergin, “Stepping on the Gas,” The Wall Street Journal, Saturday/Sunday, April 2-3, 2011;
2. M. Brownstein, “The Road to Clean Energy?,” The Wall Street Journal, Saturday/Sunday, April 2-3, 2011;

EQ Interview: Brazil’s energy policies: An interview with Sérgio Rezende, former S&T minister

(See interview in Energy Quarterly (EQ) in the March 2011 issue of MRS Bulletin)

Brazil’s efforts in science and technology only emerged in the last 40 years and investment in it increased by a factor of 10 in just the last 10 years. Until recently, their Minister of Science and Technology was Sérgio Rezende (2005–2010), a materials researcher himself. He recently addressed questions from MRS Bulletin representative Guillermo Solórzano for Energy Quarterly about Brazil’s plans for the energy challenges ahead.

It is well known that Brazil has invested in renewable energy sources such as hydro and biofuels “long before the issues of a low-carbon economy entered the global agenda,” Rezende said. By the mid-1980s ethanol had replaced over 30% of gasoline there. Yet, Brazil does not rely only on biofuels. All possible energy sources are needed, Rezende said, and their aim is to achieve the lowest possible cost to allow economic growth at reasonably high rates for the majority of the population. Brazil has been developing offshore petroleum along with environmental remediation, stimulating the private sector to deploy wind farms, and pursuing a nuclear energy program. Rezende said that with only 30% of its territory prospected, Brazil has the sixth largest world reserve of uranium mineral. Brazil has self-sufficiency in the exploration, mining, processing, and production of uranium oxide (yellowcake); the production of powder and tablets; and the fabrication of fuel elements; and expects to become self-sufficient in uranium enrichment by 2015, he said.

In the area of biofuels, after the expansion of ethanol from sugarcane into the 1980s, the amount of ethanol used in the 1990s declined when subsidies were lifted, Rezende said. Then in 2003 flexible-fuel vehicles were introduced, making biofuels competitive again. Now over 90% of cars manufactured in Brazil are flex-fuel and more ethanol is used for fuel than gasoline. Rezende also said that while Brazil has plenty of sugarcane to produce ethanol using conventional methods, they also have a major effort in producing cellulosic ethanol, estimating that conversion efficiency can be increased by about 30% by using the stalks and leaves of the plants and also improving fermentation technology.

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Elizabeth L. Fleischer, Principal Development Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

EQ Energy Sector Analysis: Variable States

Corinna Wu
Feature Editor: Paulina Jaramillo

(Article in Energy Quarterly (EQ) in the March 2011 issue of MRS Bulletin)

On August 14, 2003, a downed high-voltage power line in Ohio triggered a massive blackout across eight states in the Northeast and throughout Southeastern Canada. A total of 50 million people lost power for up to two days. The episode cost an estimated $6 billion and is considered to be the worst electrical system failure in the history of the United States.

The cascade of failures—due to both human error and equipment malfunction—made clear the problems of the United States’ aging and balkanized electrical transmission grid. The blackout spurred the U.S. Congress to pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which enforces mandatory reliability standards. Investment in the transmission grid had fallen during the 1980s and 1990s, but after the blackout, funding picked up again.

Against this backdrop, power companies and regulating authorities now have another challenge to face: how to integrate variable and intermittent renewable resources such as solar and wind into the mix. Currently, electricity from non-hydro renewable resources accounts for 3.8% of the total electricity produced in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 2009, half of non-hydro renewable electricity came from wind and less than one percent from solar.

Although wind and solar are attractive because they do not produce greenhouse gases, they also pose difficulties because of their inherent variability. If wind and solar must supply a third of the energy generated, the job of meeting changing demand for electricity throughout the day becomes much more difficult. Power plant operators must meet the net load—the difference between user demand and this highly variable renewable output—by scheduling power generation from conventional sources.

An Energy Sector Analysis article published in the Energy Quarterly section in the March 2011 issue of  MRS Bulletin discusses various options to manage net load variability in the electric grid, with a focus on energy storage technologies. For materials scientists, a lot of potential research for grid-level energy storage lies in developing advanced battery technologies. Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems are another option and have been used since the 1970s, mostly to release short bursts of energy to smooth out fluctuations in the power supply.

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Gopal R. Rao
Editor, MRS Bulletin
Materials Research Society (MRS)