Thorium is the nuclear fuel that should have been. Thorium has many advantages over uranium but was and most likely will never be used as a nuclear fuel source. There is only one primary reason thorium was never used as a nuclear fuel source - this reason is wartime politics. There are also reasons we aren’t going to make a switch anytime soon. These reasons include our lack of experience with Thorium, the amount of money it would take to convert uranium nuclear reactors to thorium (or build new reactors), and lack of infrastructure in place for thorium. However, other countries are investing heavily on thorium. India is planning to handle 30% of their electrical needs with thorium in the near future. China is also heavily investing with the same general plan - 30% dependency.
Uranium dependent nuclear power began fairly early. In WW2, during the end of the war, uranium had to be processed into plutonium 239. Uranium is a fissile, radioactive metal with a half life of 4.5 billion years. In a nuclear reactor, uranium 238 goes to uranium 239 which decays into neptunium 239 - 23.5 minutes - to plutonium 239 - 2.36 days. The plutonium created in this process is the plutonium that was used in the Fat Man bomb. The source of fuel used for the Little Boy bomb was
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Thorium is about 3.3 times as common as uranium. The Earth’s crust is made up of 0.0006% thorium as opposed to 0.00018% uranium. Almost all thorium found in the Earth’s crust is thorium 232 - the desirable kind for a reactor. The major source of the thorium extracted is from monazite phosphate. Monazite phosphate contains cerium, neodymium, lanthanum, and of course phosphorus and oxygen. Monazite phosphate is typically 3-5% thorium dioxide. Most of the world’s current demand for thorium comes from Malabar Coast in india where monazite is deposited. Extracting the thorium from the monazite uses standard mining equipment and
In my opinion nuclear power is pretty amazing, and I doubt that people really believe otherwise. The amount of energy that it can produce compared to other sources of energy is huge. I believe that as long as it is done with the utmost care, nuclear power is the best source of energy we can
From its time of discovery in 1941 Plutonium has been both beneficial and detrimental to the human race. The isotope most detrimental is Plutonium-239 which has been used to create nuclear weapons. Plutonium-239 was used in the atomic bomb codenamed “Fat Man” that was dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. Normally a nuclear bomb uses 10 kilograms of Plutonium, but “Fat Man” used even less and still caused a lot of destruction. To put it in perspective again just 1 kilogram of Plutonium-239 causes an explosion equal to that of 20,000 tons of TNT. The way Plutonium-239 works in an atomic bomb is it is controlled by explosives until it goes critical and cause a fission chain reaction. When this happens all the energy is released causing a nuclear
Plutonium, which is a byproduct of the fission process, can also be used for manufacturing weapons and only requires 2-10kg to develop weapons. The atom bomb that landed in Nagasaki contained plutonium fuel. Depleted uranium, which is the left over from the enrichment process, is used to make military grade armor piercing bullets. These DU penetrators have been used in wars throughout history, the most recent being the Gulf wars. This is a disadvantage because the depleted uranium is toxic and has been scientifically proven to cause birth defects, cancer, and death where it was used.
Nuclear energy is a very powerful source of energy. Just a little bit is required to make large amounts of electricity, which powers 1 in 5 households in the U.S. Nuclear energy has been advanced over the years and has been relied on heavily by many countries today.
Cost and availability of fuel is a considerable factor when dealing with nuclear power. Fission requires an element that can be easily split in a particle accelerator, such as uranium or plutonium. Fusion, on the other hand, uses isotopes of hydrogen atoms, specifically deuterium and tritium, that can be obtained from ordinary water. Uranium ores occur naturally in many parts of the world but must go through a costly purification process before used as fuel. The unprocessed ore contains approximately 99.3% uranium-238, a non-fissionable isotope of uranium, and only about 0.7% of U-235 required for fission. One hydrogen atom out of 6700 appears as deuterium, a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen with an extra neutron, and can easily be separated from the rest. Uranium-235 is a non-renewable resource that will eventually run out, much like the fossil fuels. The abundance of deuterium and lithium provide a virtually unlimited supply of fuel for nuclear fusion. Therefore, nuclear fusion seems to be the better choice.
Take a look into a person’s mind and you never know what you may find. House is an amazing television program where Dr.House has his very own drug addiction. He has doctors that follow him and his crazy way of diagnosing patients in New Jersey. Being able to act like him for the following assignment was different but enjoyable all at the same time.
After the United States developed the atomic at the end of World War II, interest in nuclear technology increased exponentially. People soon realized that nuclear technology could be used for electricity, as another alternative to fossil fuels. Today, nuclear power has its place in the world, but there is still a lot of controversy over the use of nuclear energy. Things such as the containment of radiation and few nuclear power plant accidents have given nuclear power a bad image. However, nuclear power is a reliable source of energy because it has no carbon emissions, energy is available at any time, little fuel is needed for a lot of energy, and as time goes on, it is becoming safer and safer.
Due to the natural processes of magma flow, hydrothermal gradients, sedimentation, and evaporation, minerals are concentrated in various areas of the Earth’s crust. Obtaining these minerals for human use involves four general steps. • Locating the minerals • Then, extracting the minerals from the Earth in the form of ore or rock Then, processing (smelting) the ore to separate the impurities from the desired mineral. Finally, creating a useful product from the minerals. Procedure 1.
Nuclear Weapons date back to World War II when the world was on the verge of one of the greatest wars in history. In 1942 German physicists learned how to split an atom which caused fear throughout the world. With Germany attempting to create an atomic bomb Einstein and Fermi developed a plan to defeat Axis forces. Fermi informed American Government officials of the situation but very few people saw it as an issue. Einstein then made an attempt of bringing awareness by sending a letter to President Roosevelt asking him to start an atomic research program. Roosevelt found it unnecessary but slowly over time he agreed towards Einsteins request. Thus the Manhattan Project began with a slow start but assured start.
The nuclear bomb was the most devastating weapon ever created by man. It was developed between 1942 and 1945 during the second World War. The project to build the worlds first atomic weapon was called The Manhattan Project. The nuclear bomb was based on the idea of splitting an atom to create energy, this is called fission. Three bombs were created, “Trinity”, “Little Boy”, and “Fat Man”. “Trinity” was dropped on a test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, proving the theories, engineering and mathematics of the bomb to be correct. Shortly after that, not more than 2 months, the U.S. performed the first actual nuclear attack in the history of war. The bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on the town of Hiroshima, instantly killing thousands. “Fat Man” was dropped shortly after on the town of Nagasaki. After the bombing almost all scientist involved with the creation of the bomb regretted its construction and spoke out against the abolishment of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons came into power on August 6, 1945. The Manhattan project was a Top Secret project to develop the atomic bomb hidden from American citizens, Russia, Japan and the rest of the world to ensure no one would create it first. Many people to this day still only think about Hiroshima, but Nagasaki was also bombed with an atomic bomb. On July 16, 1945 they tested the first atomic bomb in New Mexico, and it was a success. The blast radius could break windows, 100 miles away, and a mushroom cloud expanding over 40,000 feet. Once U.S. dropped the atomic bombs the death toll reached over 150,00 devastating Japan and forcing them to surrender to the Allie forces.
Another nuclear weapon used in World War II was the Uranium bomb. The Uranium bomb uses the energy released in Uranium-235. The explosive device can be made by positioning two masses of Uranium-235 so they can be forced together so quickly that they will form a critical mass and a rapid, uncontrolled fission chain.
After World War II, nuclear power became the world’s shining energy hope. Technically it is produced when neutrons split the nucleus of uranium atoms releasing heat which is used to boil water and produce the steam that drives a plant’s turbines. Nuclear...
The Industrial Revolution sparked a need for large sources of energy. Human and animal labor could not provide the power necessary to power industrial machinery, railroads, and ships. The steam engine and later the internal combustion engine provided the bulk of the energy required by the industrial age. Today most nations are still heavily reliant on energy that comes from combustion. Usually coal, petrolium, and natural gas are used. Some hydroelectric, wind power, and nuclear fission sources are used, but in the US they accounted for less than 20% of the total energy consumption in 1997 (1). Many experts are worried that natural resources such as coal and petrolium are being depleted faster than they are being replenished, which could result in an energy crisis. Nuclear fission produces highly radioactive waste that is expensive to dispose of properly. Nuclear fusion reactors would produce much less radioactive waste and would be more efficient than nuclear fission, but to date there have been no nuclear fusion reactors that have generated usable energy output. Why is fusion power, which could be very beneficial, so hard to come by?
As one of the greatest alternatives to fossil fuels, an important advantage of nuclear energy is the significantly lower emission rate of CO2 in comparison to plants which use coal and natural gas.2 Nuclear power is not reliant on fossil fuels and therefore producing energy by this method reduces pollution and the contribution to climate change. However, whilst the actual process of generating energy releases few emissions, uranium must be mined and purified and in the past this has not always been an environmentally clean process.2 Ultimately, uranium will one day run out, but nuclear reactors are versatile and may also run on Thorium. Despite being finite, this would allow nuclear power stations to function for a longer period of time.