Hey everyone, this is Sira,
and you’re watching Tech
for Luddites.
One of the major differences
between developed countries
and ours
is the pattern of energy use.
They use a lot...lot.
To fuel
their decadent lifestyles.
And if we are to become the
golden bird of the world again,
we need to generate and consume
a lot more power too.
I know the fashionable thing
to say nowadays,
is that we need to scale down
our consumption of energy,
live more sustainably etc.
But that’s not going to happen.
Neither China, nor us are going
to sacrifice development
at the altar of carbon.
Currently we depend on coal
to produce the bulk
of our energy.
And that’s not great.
Whether you care
about climate change or not,
the quality of air
we breathe affects everyone.
But what if I told you that
one of our great sages
had peered through
the mists of time,
and given us a blueprint
for clean, plentiful energy.
Let’s talk Physics.
This is a Uranium 235 atom.
It’s quite big and unwieldy,
and has two major forces
acting on it.
The strong force which attracts
neutrons and protons together,
and the electromagnetic force,
which repulses protons away.
This strong force has a very
limited area of influence,
so when Uranium-235 reaches out
to grab a neutron,
the electrostatic force
rips it down the middle.
The fission products zip away
from each other
at 3% of the speed of light.
The process also creates
3 additional neutrons.
In order that they don’t fly
away we have to slow them down.
And this is accomplished by
surrounding the fuel with water.
These slow neutron then
…fiss…other Uranium-235 atoms,
the process repeats and we have
a chain reaction on our hands.
And remember how temperature
just means kinetic
energy of particles.
Well, the fuel starts to heat up
and this heat is carried away
by the water to generate steam.
The steam turns a turbine,
and the turbine fairy
then creates electricity.
This process is used in almost
every nuclear plant
around the world.
The only problem
is that Uranium-235,
comes along with
non-fissile Uranium-238,
which constitutes
99.3% of the mix.
So we have to enrich Uranium-235
to around 3%
to be able to use it
with regular water.
In India, we decided we didn’t
want to go through that process,
so we use heavy water
instead of light water.
Which got us and our friends
in trouble
with the United States
a couple of times,
but that’s a different story.
India has another problem.
We only have 2% of the world’s
reserves of Uranium.
And remember; only 0.7% of it
is the good stuff.
We do however have
a lot of Thorium.
Almost a third of
the world’s total supply
is to be found
in the form of Monazite,
in the sands of Kerala.
Thorium is not fissile,
but it is fertile.
When you bombard it
with a neutron,
it undergoes beta decay twice,
to become Uranium-233,
which, you guessed it,
is fissile.
This kind of reactor is
called a breeder reactor,
because it produces
more fissile material
than you initially started with.
The fact that Thorium
cannot be used
for nuclear weapons is great.
Because it means we make nuclear
energy universally available.
In fact when I heard the news
that the North Koreans
hacked into our systems
to extract information
about Thorium power,
I was like…
Why don’t we just
give it to them.
There are many types of reactors
being designed
and tested that run on Thorium.
The most exciting among which
are the Molten salt reactors.
In conventional reactors,
the water has operate at
200 to 300 degrees celsius.
And because water boils
at a hundred degrees,
so it has to be kept
under high pressure with pumps
to maintain a liquid state.
If the pumps fail,
the water will expand suddenly,
flash into steam
and lead to an explosion.
MSRs avoid this because the salt
can remain liquid
up to temperatures
of 2-3 thousand degrees celsius.
So this removes the need
for high pressures.
There are also intrinsic
safety features,
like a plug of frozen salt,
which melts
when the reactor overheats,
and drains the fuel
into storage tanks
where the reaction will stop.
They could also help us solve
the water crisis for good,
by allowing for cheap
desalination of sea-water.
There are quite a few drawbacks
to this technology as of now.
The molten salts
that act as fuels,
cause corrosion in the tubes,
which is a problem because then
they need to be replaced.
And for that the reactor
would have to be shut down.
But we seem to be developing
countermeasures against this.
From simply using thicker tubes,
to different materials,
to trying to reduce oxidation
property of the molten salt.
I’m going to link some articles
below for you
to catch up on the current
state of progress.
The biggest reason though,
is economic.
Uranium is very cheap.
I could buy
a couple of kgs of it
from what this channel earned
just last month.
In the meantime, there are
several other plants planned.
We are finally beginning to use
Light Water Reactors,
the main benefit of which is
that they are well understood,
We have agreements with
multiple countries
to supply us with Uranium.
A lot of people worry
about nuclear waste.
But we already have adequate
methods of dealing with it.
And if we can make it
to the Thorium age,
the nuclear waste will be
a hundredth
of what is generated by U-235.
What are the other arguments
against nuclear energy.
Well, the major one is risk
of Chernobyl like disaster.
That cannot happen today
as modern reactors have
containment buildings.
Well, What if terrorists
fly a plane into it?
Good question.
The plane will disintegrate.
What about using the fuel
to create weapons.
Can’t happen. You need to enrich
the fuel to 85% Uranium-235
for it to be weapons grade.
And if you can enrich Uranium.
Well, you can get it
from anywhere.
It’s in the very soil
you standing on.
You don’t need to get it
from nuclear fuel.
We need to give nuclear energy
an image makeover.
I mean look at this
I feel my DNA breaking down
by looking at this picture.
Instead of nuclear power,
can we call it Fission Energy?
It avoids most of
the negative connotations
around nuclear weapons.
And sounds nice and clean.
Like you’re on silent lake.
Fission.
And this ridiculous symbol?
Let’s replace it with a Clover.
We’ll import some from Canada
and plant them around
all nuclear reactors.
What about the colours.
This kawaii colour palette
should go a long way
towards ensuring
that people feel more secure
around fission plants.
Let’s also make these
cooling towers works of art
so that they add
to the landscape,
instead of looking…
vaguely foreboding.
So are we ready to usher
in a new Golden age
of Thorium based nuclear energy
in our country?
It is there if we want it.
The things
I think may hold us back
is a romance for Solar
and Wind Energy.
I think they are
a big part of our future,
but they do not provide
the consistent power
that civilization needs thrive.
The hardest things we have to do
sometimes is to be rational
despite the feeling in our gut.
In human interactions,
our instincts serve us well,
but in matters of science
and policy,
an objective look
at the evidence
is often the path to prosperity.
As the world increasingly looks
to decarbonize,
nuclear technology
is our best bet
for a cleaner air
and a safer planet.
If you’re interested further
in this topic,
there are links
in the description
where you can learn a lot more.
I hope you guys
enjoyed this video.
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I’ll see you really soon.
Bye.
