I have been saying for years that in the end it will be a matter of economics that will end the use of nuclear power in the United States. It will either be the steady drop of prices for renewables and the cheap fossil fuels that will scare off investors or it will be the massive public rejection of nuclear power after another major nuclear accident.
       The International Energy Agency just released a new report with the title World Energy Investment 2018. According to the report, the world invested about one trillion eight hundred billion dollars in energy last year. This represented a decline of about two percent over the previous year. Most of this decline took place in the power generation sector where there were fewer new builds of coal, hydro and nuclear energy sources. Although there was increase investments in solar photovoltaics, they were not enough to offset the decline in traditional generating capacity. Over seven hundred and fifty billion dollars were spent in the electricity sector in 2017 while seven hundred and fifteen billion were spent on oil and gas supplies. Investments in renewables and energy efficiency fell by three percent in 2017.
       Four new reactors were commissioned in 2017.
Three of those were in China. Over five gigawatts of nuclear generating capacity was retired in 2017. The net result was a two gigawatt loss of nuclear generating capacity worldwide. In the last ten years, nuclear generating capacity has risen by about ten gigawatts. Plants that will generate sixty gigawatts of nuclear power are under construction globally but only three gigawatts of that is represented by new construction starts.
       About half of the total investment in nuclear power last year involved modernization and upgrades of existing commercial power reactors. The IAE said, “Large investments have recently been made in OECD countries to extend lifetime operation and power uprates of the existing nuclear fleet. In general, spending on existing plants yields more output per dollar invested.”
        In the past five years, nuclear power plants with a combined capacity of over forty gigawatts have been authorized to extend their operations life time beyond the original forty years for which they were licensed. For comparison, funding for such purposes over the last five years was about seven billion dollars a year which is three times the annual average investment in the previous five years.
       The IEA said that, “Assuming these plants run an extra ten years, generation from lifetime extensions over the past five years is equivalent to 15% of expected lifetime output from solar PV and wind investments over the same period, at just 3% of the cost. At 20 years of long-term operation, the output from these upgrades would be equivalent to one-third of expected lifetime output from the solar PV and wind investments.”
       The IEA report states that with proper supportive regulatory and technical factors taken into account, extending the life time of existing nuclear power reactors could be, “a cost-effective transitional measure for maintaining low-carbon generation in the face of uncertainties for new nuclear plant development or that for other low-carbon sources”.
       The report said that both direct and indirect government financing would remain a very important factor in nuclear power investment. The government is also important with respect to other areas of concern such as market structure, price regulation and financing. The report also mentioned that “Most investment in new nuclear capacity has occurred in markets where the government retains full ownership or a majority stake in most of the utilities.”

Ambient office  = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 168 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 140 nanosieverts per hour

Scallion from Central Market = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 133 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 138 nanosieverts per hour

Peach from Central Market = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 150 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 154 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 67 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 56 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 52 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 87 nanosieverts per hour

       Elementary particles such as electrons also behave as waves. An electron has a wave function which charts the probability of the electron being located in a particular position in 3-D space. It is possible for particular interference patterns generated by colliding laser beams to affect electrons via interaction with their wave function.
       In February of this year, there were experiments where the excitation of an atomic nucleus via the absorption of an electron was observed. This is called the NEEC effect which stands for “nuclear excitation by electron capture”. It had been theorized to exist over forty years ago but had never been seen.
       Electrons are usually though to obit far out from the nuclear of the atom but it turns out that the electron wave function indicates that there is a possibility that electrons could actually be in the nucleus. A free electron can be absorbed by a hole in a normally filled electron shell. If the kinetic energy and the binding energy of the free electron exactly match the difference between two nuclear states, then nuclear excitation can occur.
        Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have just reported on a new process for exciting and controlling the energy inside an atomic nucleus as explained by the NEEC effect. They have achieved a more precise control of electrons by light than was possible in the past by coherent manipulation of free-electron wave function at an attosecond (An attosecond is 1×10−18 of a second or one quintillionth of a second) timescale. It is possible that they may be able to accomplish a similar level of control at a zeptosecond (An zeptosecond is 1×10−21 of a second or one sextillionth of a second) timescale.
       In order to control the electron, the researchers created an interaction between a free-electron wave function. (A free electron is not attached to an atom or ion or molecule and it is free to move under the influence of an electric field.) (A wave function mathematically describes the wave characteristics of a particle.) and a light field created by the intersection of two tiny pulse of intense laser light. The amplitude and phase of the resulting electron wave function was measured with ultrafast electron spectroscopy. This breakthrough could possibility be developed into a way to release and harvest the energy inside an atomic nucleus. This would pave the way for more efficient nuclear technologies.
       A press release from the researchers said, “This breakthrough could allow physicists to increase the energy yield of nuclear reactions using coherent control methods, which relies on the manipulation of quantum interference effects with lasers and which has already advanced fields like spectroscopy, quantum information processing, and laser cooling.”
       The process developed by the Swiss researchers may inspire the next generation of nuclear energy-harvesting systems.
       One of the researchers remarked that “Ideally, one would like to induce instabilities in an otherwise stable or metastable nucleus to prompt energy-producing decays, or to generate radiation. However, accessing nuclei is difficult and energetically costly because of the protective shell of electrons surrounding it.”

Ambient office  = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 150 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 154 nanosieverts per hour

Beefsteak tomato from Central Market = 67 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 56 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 52 nanosieverts per hour