Nuclear Power - A Short History
Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nuclei of (normally) very heavy or unstable elements (normally heavier than iron), resulting in a release of large amounts of energy as well as the unstable, radioactive isotopes of lighter elements, as well as any logical number of neutrons. For uranium 235, the most abundant usable fuel present in nature, the number of neutrons released is about 2.4 per atom, and the energy released is about 215 MeV per atom (Example, nd), or about
215 MeV * 6.02*10^23 235U * 1000 g * joule
235U 1 * g * Kg * MeV * 1.602*10-13
= 8.05*10^15 joule or 8.05 petajoule per kilogram of uranium 235
However, uranium is not found in natural concentrations of more than 0.7% of any given amount of uranium; in order to efficiently obtain energy from uranium, one must "enrich" the uranium, or concentrate the usable isotopes (Uranium, nd).
Leo Szilard, a Hungarian scientist who had recently escaped Berlin for London, first entertained the idea of a chain-reaction of radioactive isotopes in 1933 (Szilárd, 2006); he patented his idea in 1936 in the U.K., and shared a patent with Enrico Fermi in the United States. Later, Otto Hahn and Fritz Stressmann, along with Lise Mietner and her nephew Otto Frisch, discovered fission when Hahn and Stressmann bombarded uranium with neutrons, resulting in the emission of a few smaller atoms in addition to neutrons and energy; Mietner and Frisch interpreted the resulting energy and atoms as being the results of fission of the uranium atoms' nuclei ("History," Georgia State University, nd); this fission resulted in huge amounts of energy per reaction (on the order of 200 mega electron-volts per atom of uranium 235). In 1942 and after deciding that ura...
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...n the Accident at Three Mile Island. Retrieved August 2, 2006 from http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/
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Nuclear Tourist. (2005, December 19) Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). Retrieved August 2, 2006 from http://www.nucleartourist.com/type/pwr.htm
Wikipedia. (2006, August) Chicago Pile 1. Retrieved August 2, 2006 from
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Wikipedia. (2006, August) Leó Szilárd. Retrieved August 2, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd
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Non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels have been used up by society on a daily basis and have forced the world to find a new, clean energy source. The rising price of oil and the constant emission of carbon dioxide are proof that in the future our lives will be much harder to live. One answer to this problem is nuclear power, which has shown its efficiency during the times of World War II but has not been used commercially due to the challenges of dealing with nuclear waste and proliferation. In today?s modern era, nuclear power has been used in liquid metal fast breeder reactors, reactors that use uranium-238 to produce plutonium-239.
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...
In a fission reaction, the nucleus of an atom is split. Neutrons are released, forming nuclear energy, and the remaining nuclei are lighter.1 Think of fission a little bit like opening a nutshell, for example, a pistachio. As you put pressure and force into breaking the shell, it breaks in two and pieces may fly off. Similarly, when the atoms are forced apart, they break in two and neutrons fly away and energy is released.
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.
Nuclear power, or nuclear energy, is the use of exothermic nuclear processes,[1] to generate useful heat and electricity. The term includes nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion. Presently the nuclear fission of elements in the actinide series of the periodic table produce the vast majority of nuclear energy in the direct service of humankind, with nuclear decay processes, primarily in the form of geothermal energy, and radioisotope thermoelectric generators, in niche uses making up the rest. Nuclear (fission) power stations, excluding the contribution from naval nuclear fission reactors, provided about 5.7% of the world's energy and 13% of the world's electricity in 2012.[2] In 2013, the IAEA report that there are 437 operational nuclear power reactors,[3] in 31 countries,[4] although not every reactor is producing electricity.[5] In addition, there are approximately 140 naval vessels using nuclear propulsion in operation, powered by some 180 reactors.[6][7][8] As of 2013, attaining a net energy gain from sustained nuclear fusion reactions, excluding natural fusion power...
Physicists from 1939 onward conducted much research to find answers to such questions as how many neutrons were emitted in each fission, which elements would not capture the neutrons but would moderate or reduce their velocity , and whether only the lighter and scarcer isotope of uranium (U-235) fissioned or the common isotope (U-238) could be used. They learned that each fission releases a few neutrons.
Many believe that nuclear power plants are a hazard to the people that live around them and the environment in which they are built. However, these assumptions are based mostly on the fact that the nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants of today are built to the same standards that the old nuclear plants from many years ago. Nuclear power today is designed to be much safer than outdated nuclear power plants and have a very minimal chance of causing a nuclear catastrophe. Nuclear power plants are a safe and viable option for generating electricity for the foreseeable future.
Nuclear energy is sometimes considered a renewable energy source. Enriched uranium is a very abundant resource. It is found in most rocks. Despite its abundance there is a finite supply of u...
Nuclear fission is the process in which a nucleus spits into two or more smaller nuclei. Nuclear reactors use a controlled chain reaction to produce electricity. The rate at which the chain reaction occurs can be controlled by manipulating the amount of non-fissionable material present. Uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring isotope that undergoes fission. The energy released through nuclear fission is 20 million times more than the energy released burning fossil fuels. The critical mass is the maximum size a sample of uranium ore can reach. If the sample is larger then the critical mass it will start an uncontrolled reaction. 99.3% of uranium ore is made up of uranium-238 and 0.7% is uranium-235.
Like I said before, no source of energy comes without flaws. First of all, uranium mining isn’t a sanitary process, and can provide pollution hazards in the radius that the uranium was disposed of. Also, Nuclear waste is extremely difficult to store, as it is highly radioactive and has to be stored properly. Consequently, it would take hundreds of years for the radioactive material to actually be at a safe level. Nevertheless, accidents that release chemicals can have harmful effects on the people near the area, the environment, and will leave the area contaminated, or at a uninhabitable
Nuclear fission occurs when a neutron collides with an atom, which causes the atom to break apart, giving off “heat and radiation,” as well as two to three fission products and several neutrons. During the reaction, a small amount of matter is converted into a large amount of energy, per Einstein’s formula E = mc^2, where energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared, the last being a large number which accounts for the high level of energy from the small mass.
There are two main types of nuclear reactors used in the world, Pressurized Water Reactors, known as PWR’s, and Boiling Water Reactors, known as BWR’s. The former is more complicated and thusly more safe and more commonly used, while the latter presents several unnecessary hazards and is quickly being phased out of usage (Duke, n.d.). In both systems, reactions take place inside of a reaction chamber located within a co...
Nuclear power, the use of exothermic nuclear processes to produce an enormous amount of electricity and heat for domestic, medical, military and industrial purposes i.e. “By the end of 2012 2346.3 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity was generated by nuclear reactors around the world” (International atomic energy agency Vienna, 2013, p.13). However, with that been said it is evident that the process of generating electricity from a nuclear reactor has numerous health and environmental safety issues.
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.