Effect of nuclear and coal-fired power plants on the environment for the example of the tripol'e state regional power plant and the southern ukraine nuclear power plant

Abstract

A supply of energy is a necessary condition for maintaining the economy and the health and welfare of the people. For this reason, data on energy consumption are often used as an indicator of the level of development of a country.The Ukrainian economy is characterized by high consumption of energy resources. Heat and electric power plants make the main contribution to the production of electricity. In the last few years, in connection with the sharp increase in the price of fuel, changes have been made in the structure of fuel utilization at heat and electric power plants. The demand for oil and coal started to increase in 1992 (coal now comprises 60% of the total fuel consumption). At the present time there is a trend toward decreasing the consumption of oil and gas, which are imported into Ukraine, and correspondingly the consumption of local fuel resources has increased.The total reserves of lignite in the Donetsk and L'vov-Volynskii Basins amount to 150290 million tonnes. The Dneprov Basin of lignite contains total reserves of 9000 million tonnes. Oil deposits are located in three oil-and gasbearing regions: western, southern, and eastern Ukraine. The reserves are equal to 125 million tonnes, and the present production reaches 4.9 million tonnes per year. The gas reserves exceed 4100 billion m 3. Moreover, Ukraine has large reserves of oil shales (2 billion tonnes) and peat (3.5 billion tonnes). All this creates the necessary prerequisites for further development of heat and power generation in Ukraine.Nuclear power plants make a large contribution to the production of electricity. At the present time 14 powergenerating units are operating at five nuclear power plants in the country: Roven, Chernobyl, Southern Ukraine, Zaporozh'e, and Khmel'nitsk. They contribute about 30% of the total production of electricity.In summary, heat and nuclear power production are the most promising directions for the development of power production in Ukraine. The effect of these plants on the environment and the public health must be taken into account.In the present work we have initiated the development of a method for making a comparative assessment of the effect of nuclear power plants and heat and power plants on the environment for the example of the Tripol'e State Regional power plant and the Southern Ukraine nuclear power plant.The estimates show that the general degradation of health that could be caused by power production by means of one or another source is only a very small fraction of the degradation caused by other factors operating in society. In a report by the American Academy of Engineers on making decisions involving risk, it is pointed out that people voluntarily expose themselves to risks such as driving automobiles, flying in airplanes, and smoking, which lead to at least one death per 100,000 people per year. The voluntary risk fluctuates from 4-10 -5 deaths per year (playing football in the USA) to 500-10 -5 (smoking 20 cigarettes per day) and 2.10 -2 (riding a motorcycle). The risk associated with auto...