DRAMA WHICH WE DON’T WANT TO SEE...!!!

During the contract awarding phase for our 1^st NPP, everyone seems happy, positive, and optimistic. The team started huge. Everyone wants their slice. Everyone is happy to gain profit.

Halfway during the construction of our NPP...As problems emerge and tension rises,the team gets smaller.



During the operational phase, things got wild and out of control.

We wish and hope for continuous support from every Malaysians to make sure that our  NPP is an engineering marvel. 1 MALAYSIA!!!

BLOG SUMMARY

I’ve received several complaints saying that they want to read but they don’t know which post to read. Also several questions were asked repeatedly. Hence I decided to help out by posting a synopsis on several posts I’ve made so far.

·      If you are interested to know what are the desired condition to run a nuclear reactor in physics which is reactor criticality state, please read post entitled = class on 28^th September.....Posted on 29/9/2010

·      If you want to read a soft article (light and easy) on Chernobyl incident, please read post entitled = Chernobyl.....Posted on 29/9/2010

·      If you want to know in depth about Pressurized Water Reactor condition, please read post entitled = Why we don’t want a moderator to boil in a PWR.....Posted on 30/9/2010

·      If you are concern about can Malaysia run a NPP, green energy, and applications of renewable energy such as solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal in Malaysia, please read post entitled = Topic B for 30^th October.....Posted on 1/10/2010

·      If you are interested to know what factors that affect stability (desired condition) of reactor, please read post entitled = Class Summary on 5^th October 2010.....Posted on 6/10/2010

·      If you are interested to read in details about Chernobyl in terms of Xenon and reactivity, please read post entitled = Chernobyl Continuity.....Posted on 6/10/2010

·      If you prefer myth about radiation in Bandar Baru Bangi, please read post entitled = Topic 13^th October 2010.....Posted on 13/10/2010

·      If you want to know why people fear NPP, please read post entitled = Topic 14^th October 2010.....Posted on 13/10/2010

·      If you want to have an Idea of where is it suitable to build NPP in Malaysia and how far can a radiation travels, please read post entitled = Nadia Aaron asked.....Posted on 16/10/2010

·      If you want to know about safety concerns related to NPP, please read post entitled = Final Class Review: Things that you might want to know.....Posted on 20/10/2010

·      If you want to know about Nuclear fuel and waste management, please read post entitled = Nuclear Fuel and Waste.....Posted on 26/10/2010

Owh owh I’ve just realized that I had actually post a lot. No wonder people argue they are lazy to read it. For additional information you could read recent updates and also older post. Please do not hesitate to post comments even in the old posts as we check it regularly. Your comment is most welcome and we value it. Apparently our readers are knowledgeable thus this blog seems to self sustain even when we are not around. Readers, please pursue your knowledge in Nuclear Power Plant. Don't stop here. You can use it to score in MEHB513, or propose for your Final Year Project, or for your post graduate studies, or even a wealthy carrier.

Nuclear Fuel and Waste

Regarding waste management, I can assure you that it is tedious and I would prefer pass my notes to you rather than posting it here. As how paranoid the safety implementation in a NPP, same goes with its wastes. They created a standard codes to build virtually an indestructible “dustbins” and I’m not joking or lying. Then these “dustbins” are buried deep in the earth within a fortress of thick concrete. Again I remind you, Malaysia agreed to NPT or NNPT which means that IAEA will stuck their nose in this matter as well if we have a NPP (Read post entitled: Things that you might want to know.....Posted on 20/10/2010 for IAEA and NPT or NNPT). That’s why I prefer buying the complete package offered by the Russians -They design the NPP, they build the NPP, we run the NPP, and they take back ALL of its waste either from building phase, assembly phase, operating phase, and even depleted fuel. - This is cheaper considering we only need one NPP and the waste is small rather than we have to build an underground fortress and indestructible “dustbins” which complies with the strict paranoid standards. We only require one nuclear reactor in Malaysia so cut the chase and buying is more reasonable solution.

Regarding Nuclear Fuel. In Malaysia we have no Uranium discovered yet for mining. Even if we have our own Uranium source, by nature it is 99.3% Uranium 238 which is fertile and 0.7% Uranium 235 which is fissile. We want to have fission means that we prefer fissile which concludes that in a block of rock containing Uranium, only 0.7% is the one we want. So here comes the processing part which is called enrichment. NPT or NNPT remember? Enrichment needs to abide the NPT or NNPT article. I prefer not to explain further as it is not feasible in Malaysia. Better we simply buy it rather than producing it. Why? In Russia, there is a NPP with 4 reactors. Guess what? 3 of the reactor are used just to empower the enrichment plant using gasses diffusion process. Imagine up to 3000Mw. We only require one nuclear reactor in Malaysia so cut the chase and buying is more reasonable solution. In addition, 95% of depleted fuel can be recycled to produce MOX fuel. Uranium from mining is called Yellowcake before convert into HEX fuel.

Transportation of either nuclear waste or fuel abides the same extremely safe standards designed by the experts nuclear industry. Yes again, it might sounds like paranoid. Let me give you a clue, you have to construct a ship designed specifically for transportation of nuclear waste which I had mentioned just now being placed in an indestructible "dustbins".  Russian package includes transportation and thus we can lay our hands of this matter.

I do apologize if this post is less informative as I personally think this matter is not suitable for most Malaysians to know in depth. But obviously it is extremely important for Malaysians who are keen to join this industry.

Faradilla asked...

Is it possible to built NPP in Malaysia? Do we have expertise in this field and how about the cost to have NPP?? It’s very expensive.What a waste rite??

I've mentioned some regarding this matter in my post entitled Topic B for 30^th October.....Posted on 1/10/2010. Maybe you could spend some time to read through my posts. We don't have the expertise to build our own NPP, same goes to most other countries. Out of 30 countries with NPP, 60 considering or building NPP, only 5 countries have this expertise. The game plan works this way, we buy the NPP then we run it on our own. Though not yet an expert, we do have sufficient knowledge and expertise to operate one.

As for the cost, to build one costs between 1 to 3 Billion USD (RM 3.5 Billion to 10.5). If you draw a cash flow diagram for NPP, even if you only consider useful life to be 40 years, NPP would emerge as the undisputed champion. If you have no idea of how a cash flow diagram works, MARR, IRR, ROI… does it rings any bell? If not then put it this way. Spend RM150,000 to buy a Honda Civic Hybrid or RM80,000 for a Honda City. Comparing both in terms of fuel consumption with same usage rate for 20 years and the Hybrid would be the champ. NPP is expensive in terms of its initial cost but its production cost; say for 1000MW of power, it requires 1km² of land area compared to 100km² of Photovoltaic Solar Panels. Hence it is the cheapest and cleanest compared to any other power production method.

UNITEN students should be aware that our upcoming Solar Ranger 2 plans to use the best PV solar panel which costs roughly rm350,000 for 1.2m² (Price is ONLY for PV solar panel. Exclude inverter and battery or everything else) so if anyone from UNITEN tries to argue saying PV solar is cheap, please join the Solar Ranger 2 crew by contacting Assoc Prof Dr Azree Idris, or Mr Zafri Baharuddin, or Mr Mikhail Fong Abdullah, or Assoc Prof Ir Dr Hanim Salleh. Forgive if i'm wrong but I can assure you that my figures are close.

JASON FRANCIS asked...

I'll try to represent my team to answer these questions. I'll answer in accordance to my understandings. Hope it would be sufficient.Is it possible to revert global warming and climate change?
No one could say 100% sure though it might be possible to revert back but it is 100% sure that it won’t worsen. Truth is emission of Green House gases in area with relative humidity in excessive of 60% such as Malaysia has almost zero contribution towards global warming.

The problem is that at our current rate, earth temperature will increase 2 degrees centigrade within 15 to 20 years from now and this could increase probability of species extinction. What scientist had recently discovered is that there are massive amount of methane hydrate lying on our sea bed. If the earth temperature increases by 6 degrees centigrade, this frozen methane could melt down and released to our ozone. The effect is 5 to 10 times more compared to other greenhouse gasses if I'm not mistaken. That's why it is important for humans to drastically reduce the production of green house gasses by any means whereby the major contribution is from transportation (22%) and energy production (16%). Looking at the ever increasing energy demand, nuclear is the most efficient and significant way to achieve it without sacrificing our leisure comfort style of living.