What are the dangers of nuclear fission and nuclear power, and how does increased electricity consumption in the summer affect the construction of nuclear power plants?

Compare the dangers of nuclear fission in real life with nuclear missiles in the game StarCraft, and explain the principles of nuclear power generation and the effects of radiation. Analyze the problems of the industrial electricity pricing system related to the increase in electricity demand during the summer, and explore the future of nuclear power plant construction and reducing the growth rate of electricity consumption.

 

One of the characters in the game StarCraft, Ghost, has the ability to launch nuclear missiles into enemy territory. Many of the enemies hit by a nuclear missile are killed instantly. This ability to turn the tide in a losing situation is a huge risk in the real world, not in a game. While radiation is not a consideration in the game, in the real world, it has led to treaties that prevent the proliferation of nuclear missiles internationally, unlike other weapons. Nuclear missiles and nuclear power plants are essentially the same in that they utilize nuclear fission. Nuclear power plants are less dangerous than nuclear missiles, of course, but they do have their own inherent dangers.
Nuclear fission is the splitting of one element into two other elements, which releases energy from the nucleus of the element. This energy is released in an explosion, which can be used to create a nuclear missile or, if the amount of energy is properly controlled, a nuclear power plant. If you move a magnet around a coil made of wires and change the magnetic field inside the coil, electricity is generated in the coil. This is called electromagnetic induction, and it can be used to convert power into electricity. This is what happens inside a nuclear power plant: the energy from nuclear fission is used to boil water, and the evaporated water is used to turn a turbine to generate electricity. But the problem comes afterward. The elements that come out after fission are in a very unstable state and will decay on their own. This is where radiation comes in.
Radiation can have a serious impact on living organisms because it affects the cells of living organisms and modifies their cells or DNA. In humans, it can cause cancer. Radiation can pass through most materials, and strong radiation can even penetrate concrete walls. The material left over from nuclear fission in nuclear power plants (nuclear waste) emits this radiation, and it’s very difficult to deal with it. In fact, rather than disposing of it, it’s buried in the ground, surrounded by a thick layer of concrete that doesn’t allow radiation to escape. Radioactive material can emit radiation for decades, so if an earthquake or certain tectonic movements cause cracks in the buried material, radiation can leak out. Because of these issues, the idea of a nuclear power plant in an area can be met with resistance from local residents.
Some say it’s just a coincidence. Chung, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyunghee University, claims that no one has died in Korea from a nuclear accident, and not a single person was killed in the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 or the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011. Of course, being near highly radioactive materials emits intense radiation, so just being around them can be fatal within hours or weeks. Imagine a nuclear missile exploding: first, the energy generated by fission is converted into heat, which burns everything around it. Secondarily, the intense radioactivity from the fission would kill people at a slightly greater distance by changing the cells in their bodies. People further away would slowly die from cancer or other diseases caused by radioactive materials carried by the wind. Nuclear power plants have these steps properly regulated, so that if an accident occurs, people in the immediate vicinity do not die or become immediately aware of the problem. This is natural, otherwise nuclear power plants would be classified as high-risk and would not be developed.
It is not clear how much the previous nuclear accidents have increased the incidence of cancer or mortality from other diseases. Suppose a drug is developed, and it is known that when it enters the body, it changes into a specific conformation, which can attach to the outer surface of cells and directly destroy them. It is theoretically known that if a person takes this drug, they will die. But we don’t have clinical results. Who would take the drug? Nuclear accidents have not harmed humans, so it is a myth that nuclear power plants are safe. If an experiment were to be conducted to determine the damage caused by nuclear power plants, who would participate? The dangers of nuclear power are theoretically clear, but it’s the same as not having clinical results.
In the summer, many people use air conditioners to keep their rooms at a comfortable temperature, which inevitably leads to a peak in electricity demand. Another way to look at it is that the use of air conditioners has a significant impact on electricity demand. In fact, the decision to run or not to run a factory that uses electricity is hardly seasonal. Of course, if a factory produces a product that has different demand in different seasons, it may have an impact, but if you look at the industry as a whole, the impact will be minimal. According to the Korea Energy Agency, the peak time for electricity usage in the summer is around 2pm. Where are Koreans at 2pm? Most are at school, work, or other places of business. Not many people are at home. Also, power reserves in the summer are higher on weekends than during the week. This suggests that businesses are the main culprits of increased electricity demand due to cooling.
In reality, the electricity bill of a business is shared by many people. If it’s a company, the company pays for it, and if it’s a business that receives customers, such as a department store, the business owner pays for it. Employees don’t care about the electricity bill. Customers have no reason to care even more. They just want to be comfortable and not overheated. Whether it’s an office or a business, the cooler it is in the summer, the better. The electricity bill is the company or business owner’s concern. But in reality, they don’t pay much attention to it. The current electricity pricing system is progressive for households, but not for industrial electricity. For the same amount of electricity, electricity costs less at a business than it does at home.
Many devices use electricity. Electricity is easy to deliver, store, and use, making it the most widely used form of energy after fossil fuels like coal and oil. Current power generation facilities don’t account for storage. Since storage is not possible, generation must always be higher than demand. In order to maintain higher generation than demand in the summer, the power reserve ratio is as high as 30% in the spring and fall. A 10% reserve is said to be in line with supply and demand, so in general, 20% of electricity is wasted in the spring and fall. As times change, so do the technologies involved. Battery technology is no exception. When generators start thinking about storage by applying battery technology to their generation fleet, they will be able to flexibly meet demand without building more power plants. In fact, in mid-2014, a large-scale battery power plant consisting of 25,600 lithium-manganese cells began operating in Germany. The idea is to store excess electricity from power plants and return it to the grid when demand increases.
According to the latest statistics from Statistics Korea, the average annual growth rate from 2015 to 2023 is as follows 1.6% in 2015, 2.1% in 2016, 2.0% in 2017, 1.3% in 2018, 0.5% in 2019, 1.9% in 2020, 1.7% in 2021, 1.2% in 2022, and 1.1% in 2023. It’s possible that electricity demand could fall even in the next year or two. Building additional nuclear power plants is time-consuming and expensive, and at this rate of growth in electricity consumption, it could become wasteful in the future. In addition to waste, nuclear power also poses a threat to us, so it’s not easy to calculate the costs. Realistically, finding ways to meet our electricity needs, such as adjusting electricity rates and changing generation facilities, is the way to reduce future waste.