Nuclear energy makes a difference | Alice Cunha | TEDxLaçador

Alice is passionate about nuclear energy production, which produces no greenhouse gases and reduces the number of people who die due to air pollution. She is young and focused, and she talks about nuclear energy as she talks about banalities of life. And she sends a message, "Women do have a place in engineering and in science." She believes that each one of us has the capacity of bringing positive changes to our society.

Alice is a 25-year-old Nuclear Engineering student, winner of the Nuclear Olympiad in 2015, being the only woman at the finals. The Olympiad's theme was "Nuclear Techniques for Global Development" and her focus was on nuclear medicine. She graduated from the second class of Nuclear Engineering in Brazil, at UFRJ, being the founding member of the first student section of Nuclear Engineering of Latin America. She believes in the use of nuclear energy as part of the global warming solution. She also believes that education and information are essential for preventing and solving any problem.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Nuclear energy makes a difference.

And I'm here to tell you a little bit
about how I found that out.

I'm a nuclear engineer,

graduated from the Federal University
of Rio de Janeiro.

As a child, I didn't picture myself
studying nuclear engineering.

Actually, this course didn't even exist
in Brazil at that time.

During high school, I took
a technical course in computer science.

I would go to the technical course
in the morning,

regular high school in the afternoon,
and English classes at night.

And to get the technical degree,
I had to do an internship,

and I ended up doing it
at a nuclear company.

I'd fix the employees' computers,

and that would take me to their offices,
which were around the power plants.

I would go there,
look at the reactor building

and I'd have no clue of what was in there.

I'd just imagine, with curiosity,
how all that worked.

At that time, I still didn't think
about going into this field,

but I already knew
I wanted to be an engineer

because I wanted to use calculus
and physics to solve problems.

When I was about to enter college,
the Federal University had just created

its undergraduate course
in nuclear engineering,

and, at the time of registration,

I didn’t have much idea
of what that field was,

but I was still curious.

During the first week of classes,
I fell in love with it.

Throughout the course,
I found out that radiation is used

for the diagnosis of diseases

and for the treatment
of diseases like cancer;

that it's used for the sterilization
of medical equipment, like syringes;

that it's used to sterilize even
mosquitoes and eradicate diseases.

It's used in space applications.

Curiosity, that robot on Mars,

is powered by a nuclear battery.

It can even be used to change
the color of a precious stone

or to help in the process
of restoring a painting.

And I finally discovered
what was inside that building

and how all that worked.

And I'm going to talk to you
a little bit about that.

It seems like a lot,

(Laughter)

but it's quite simple.

(Laughter)

The process of producing energy
inside a reactor comes from fission:

a neutron hits a uranium atom,

which splits up,
and in this division, this fission,

it produces two other parts,
from two to three neutrons, and energy;

and these two to three neutrons
split other uranium atoms,

and that's the chain reaction.

This energy is used to heat
the water that's inside the reactor,

that red system.

This water heats
the water in another system,

which then becomes steam,
makes the turbine spin,

and the generator transforms
this rotation of the turbine into energy

that's then distributed to houses.

And the most important thing
I found out is that this energy is clean.

It's part of the solution
for climate change.

I know that this isn't the first thing

that comes to your minds
when you think about nuclear energy.

But it should be, because this process
doesn't produce any greenhouse gases.

Nothing.

All of us have been feeling
the climate changes.

Heat waves: in Rio de Janeiro, there have
been days with a heat sensation of 50º C.

Agencies and institutes have researched

what we do to cause so much
release of greenhouse gases.

And one of the main reasons
is the use of fossil fuels, like coal.

Coal is still the most used
energy source in the world.

The world still burns a lot of coal
to produce energy.

During our water crisis,

when our reservoirs
reached critical levels,

Brazil used its fossil fuel
thermal power plants in full power

to supply its energy needs.

Aside from that, energy consumption
has a tendency to grow.

It's an indicator of the availability
of basic services in societies,

like the treatment of waste
and sewage, hospitals --

That is, energy consumption
is directly associated

to a country's development index.

And we're not likely to stop
charging our phones,

using microwaves, fridges, TVs,

heaters, or air conditioning
as in the case of Rio de Janeiro.

So, what will the world do
when the need for more energy arises?

Burn more coal?

The ideal solution
is to opt for clean energy,

which includes renewable
and nuclear sources.

I know that many might think
that, Brazil being a tropical country,

we could use only solar and wind power.

And I think that they are
part of the solution too.

But these are two intermittent
sources of energy.

They rely on the climate to produce power.

On a cloudy, rainy day, a solar plant
will not produce that much energy.

With a lot of wind, or a little wind,

since wind power plants work
within a specific variation of wind;

if there's too much or too little,

wind power plants won't produce
so much energy either.

But a nuclear plant will produce
24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

It's a reliable, basic energy,

and you know exactly how much
it will produce, in how much time.

Besides that, it has…

This is a graph
about greenhouse gas emissions

in the production
of different kinds of energy.

If you consider the whole cycle,

the fuel fabrication,
its transportation in trucks,

the maintenance of diesel generators
in the nuclear plant,

then yes, you'll see a small production
of these greenhouse gases.

But compared to other sources,
according to research,

nuclear energy produces
even less than solar.

And it has a great energy density.

A seven-gram uranium pellet produces

the same amount of energy
as around 800 kg of coal.

A nuclear power plant occupies a space,

on average, a hundred times less space

than a solar power plant needs

to produce the same amount of energy.

Currently, nuclear power is responsible

for ten percent of the world's
energy production.

And this number will grow,
because dozens of plants are being built.

More than 20 only in China.

In France, more than
70 percent of its energy

comes from nuclear, over 50 plants.

In the US there are "only" 99.

In Brazil, we currently
have two in operation.

Nuclear energy annually
prevents the emission

of around 2 billion tons
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Imagine if we replaced

fossil fuel sources for nuclear.

A research conducted by NASA
and Columbia University,

in New York, in 2013,

concluded that the lives
of 1.8 million people

have been spared from death
caused by air pollution

due to the use of nuclear power.

Nuclear energy saves lives.

That was actually the title of my video

when I applied, last year,
to the World Nuclear Olympiad.

In the video I chose to talk
about medical applications,

because my grandmother
was undergoing cancer treatment

and she was going through
those radiotherapy treatments.

But before talking about the Olympiad,
I want to tell you about how I got there.

I started my undergraduate
studies in 2011,

and in my class there were
around 25 students, only 3 girls.

Since the beginning of my studies,
I got involved in everything possible.

In the first week of classes,

I went to talk to a professor,
to understand the field better,

and he offered me a position in his lab.

And as soon as he could,
he offered me a research scholarship,

and I finally started using calculus
to research about nuclear reactors.

Also in the first year,
listening to a talk by a researcher

of a lab in the United States,
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee,

he offered to talk more
with the PhD students

to establish an agreement
and share research,

and I, at the height
of my first graduation period,

went to tell him I wanted in.

After a lot of effort on my part,
and mainly on his part

to convince the people from the lab,
I got a two-month internship,

and it was my first trip abroad.

During those two months,
I developed a software

using the knowledge acquired
in my technical training,

a graphic interface on a nuclear database

that was submitted
and added to the database

of the Radiation Safety Information
Computational Center, in the USA.

(Applause)

I participated in and organized
technical visits

that allowed me to finally enter
that reactor building

that seemed, at first,
so mysterious to me.

And in 2014, I took part
in the Science Without Borders program

and studied in the USA for a year,

which was, by the way, a childhood dream.

I had even considered going
to the United States as a babysitter

in order to achieve this dream,
but God knows best,

and when I managed to fulfill this dream,
it was in the best way possible.

Over that year, two of my colleagues and I
were able to do an internship

in one of the largest nuclear
companies in the world,

based in the United States,

and I am currently an intern
in this company, in its Brazilian office,

and this week I was formally hired.

(Applause)

The Nuclear Olympiad happened in 2015.

I submitted this video
on medical applications,

and one of the Olympiad stages
was to promote this informative video.

And it was incredible to notice
how people's perception changed

when they found out
the benefits of this application.

Throughout my experiences in college,

I came to learn more and more,
and to notice the importance

of making the benefits
of this technology known to the public

and encouraging the expansion of its use.

I took the responsibility
of talking about it.

The final stage of the Nuclear Olympiad
happened in Vienna, Austria.

I was the only finalist
representing the Americas

and the only woman.

(Applause)

And I won.

(Applause) (Cheers)

My biggest satisfaction, when I won,

was seeing the benefits
of this application being widely promoted

and being able to prove that women do have
a place in engineering and in science.

(Applause)

I took the responsibility of promoting

and showing that we need
to take urgent action,

because the climate changes
we've been feeling are drastic.

We need to change the fossil fuels
that are being used, for clean energy,

and nuclear energy is clean,

it is an energy of high density

and it is safe.

And, besides, I wanted to tell you
a little bit about my trajectory

because I believe that each one of us

has the capacity to bring
positive changes to our society.

My wish and desire for each one of you

is to have found, or find yourself
in your field of expertise, as I have.

And that, in this way,
you can help solve problems,

and seize the opportunities,

not only the ones that appear,

but create your own opportunities
for growing and learning.

And through this, you can bring about
positive changes to society,

to the world, to your community.

Because, just as I believe
that nuclear energy makes a difference,

you and I also make a difference.

Thank you.

(Applause) (Cheers)

Oh! I forgot!

The picture of me receiving the award.

(Applause)