Nuclear Cycle and Ukrainian Energy

• The lesson aims to build students' knowledge of the nuclear cycle and Ukrainian energy.
• Students should be able to define the nuclear cycle, discuss the pros and cons of radioactive waste storage, know Ukraine's nuclear power plants, their total capacity, and analyze the Chernobyl disaster's causes and consequences.

Nuclear Fuel Advantages

• Nuclear fuel's energy efficiency surpasses traditional fuels by millions of times.
• Nuclear fuel's energy efficiency is 2 million times higher than oil and 3 million times higher than coal.
• Nuclear fuel reserves are dozens of times larger than hydrocarbon fuels.
• Burning nuclear fuel does not require oxygen.

Nuclear Cycle

• The nuclear cycle involves extracting nuclear fuel from ore, manufacturing fuel elements, using fuel elements in nuclear power plants, and reprocessing radioactive waste.
• Ukraine ranks 11th globally in uranium ore reserves, with enough deposits for several centuries.
• Fuel element (fuel rod) is part of a reactor containing nuclear fuel (uranium dioxide tablets).

Fuel Element Production

• Specialized industries are need to create fuel elements.
• The country does not have the capacity to create them.
• Fuel elements for Ukrainian nuclear power plants are manufactured abroad.
• Fuel elements are replaced when a portion of their nuclear fuel degrades.
• Used fuel elements are highly radioactive.
• Used fuel elements are stored deep underground in specialized containers for hundreds of years.
• The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is the only one in the country with its own storage facility for used fuel elements.
• Other nuclear power plants send used fuel elements to Russia, costing Ukraine a lot of money.

Ukraine's Nuclear Energy

• Ukraine operates four nuclear power plants.
• The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is Europe's largest, with 6 nuclear reactors.
• The Rivne Nuclear Power Plant has 4 nuclear reactors.
• The South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant has 3 nuclear reactors.
• The Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant has 2 nuclear reactors.
• There are 15 active nuclear reactors in Ukraine.
• The total capacity is 13,580 MW.
• Nuclear power plants generate nearly half of the country's electricity.
• Highly skilled professionals operate nuclear power plants.

Chernobyl Tragedy

• The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, with an explosion at the 4th reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
• Regions of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus were contaminated by radiation, and a 30-kilometer zone around the station was evacuated.
• A sarcophagus (concrete structure) was built over the destroyed reactor to prevent further spread of radioactive contamination.
• All Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant power units have been decommissioned.
• Ukraine, along with international organizations, built another, more advanced sarcophagus.
• In 2011, a similar disaster happened in Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear plant due to an earthquake and tsunami that disabled coolant pumps, leading to reactor overheating and environmental contamination.

Rivne Nuclear Power Plant Production Calculation

• Two units use VVER-440 reactors (440 MW electric power), and two use VVER-1000 reactors (1000 MW electric power).
• The total energy produced per day at full capacity is 69.12 x 10^7 kW·h.

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Calculations

• One reactor is under maintenance, and the remaining are operating, the total energy produced per day is approximately 432 terajoules.