How Nuclear Energy is Produced (as promised)

I was comforted to see that I was not the only one who really didn’t know much about nuclear power. But I knew that would be the case because the group that Richard went with consisted of about 20 intelligent, community leaders and business icons and most of them were learning a lot that day too. So I decided to consult a couple of websites (this one and this one OR http://www.aboutnuclear.org/) to make sure I got my facts straight. I wouldn’t want that one person who was ready to write a thesis (yes, I know who you are) to get all up in my face or anything. So, here it is. I tried to keep it pretty simple.

As of July 2008, there were more than 430 operating nuclear power plants and, together, they provided about 15 percent of the world's electricity in 2007. Of these 31 countries, some depend more on nuclear power than others. For instance, in France about 77 percent of the country's electricity comes from nuclear power [source: NEI]. Lithuania comes in second, with an impressive 65 percent. In the United States, 104 nuclear power plants supply 20 percent of the electricity overall, with some states benefiting more than others.

Here in Chicago, over 2 million homes get their electricity from nuclear power.

Despite all the cosmic energy that the word "nuclear" invokes, power plants that depend on atomic energy don't operate that differently from a typical coal-burning power plant. Both heat water into pressurized steam, which drives a turbine generator. (This was the part I didn’t know. I thought there was some magic power involved, but it’s really just that the heat that heats the water is produced with nuclear energy. Much more simple than I thought.) The key difference between the two plants is the method of heating the water. While older plants burn fossil fuels, nuclear plants depend on the heat that occurs during nuclear fission, when one atom splits into two.

 Nuclear Fission: In nuclear fission, the nuclei of atoms are split, causing energy to be released. The atomic bomb and nuclear reactors work by fission. The element uranium is the main fuel used to undergo nuclear fission to produce energy since it has many favorable properties. Uranium nuclei can be easily split by shooting neutrons at them. Also, once a uranium nucleus is split, multiple neutrons are released which are used to split other uranium nuclei. This phenomenon is known as a chain reaction.

Fission of uranium 235 nucleus. Adapted from Nuclear Energy. Nuclear Waste*.

So, there’s this little Uranium pellet (about the size of a pencil-end eraser) which has about as much energy as 3 barrels of oil OR 1 ton of coal OR 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas. That info. came from the pass-along card that Richard brought home. It’s amazing really.
Of course there are pros AND cons. Here they are.

Advantages of Nuclear Energy
The Earth has limited supplies of coal and oil. Nuclear power plants could still produce electricity after coal and oil become scarce.
Nuclear power plants need less fuel than ones which burn fossil fuels. One ton of uranium produces more energy than is produced by several million tons of coal or several million barrels of oil.
Coal and oil burning plants pollute the air. Well-operated nuclear power plants do not release contaminants into the environment.

Disadvantages of Nuclear Energy
The nations of the world now have more than enough nuclear bombs to kill every person on Earth. The two most powerful nations -- Russia and the United States -- have about 50,000 nuclear weapons between them. What if there were to be a nuclear war? What if terrorists got their hands on nuclear weapons? Or what if nuclear weapons were launched by accident?

Nuclear explosions produce radiation. The nuclear radiation harms the cells of the body which can make people sick or even kill them. Illness can strike people years after their exposure to nuclear radiation.
One possible type of reactor disaster is known as a meltdown. In such an accident, the fission reaction goes out of control, leading to a nuclear explosion and the emission of great amounts of radiation.
In 1979, the cooling system failed at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Radiation leaked, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. The problem was solved minutes before a total meltdown would have occurred. Fortunately, there were no deaths.
In 1986, a much worse disaster struck Russia's Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In this incident, a large amount of radiation escaped from the reactor. Hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to the radiation. Several dozen died within a few days. In the years to come, thousands more may die of cancers induced by the radiation.
Nuclear reactors also have waste disposal problems. Reactors produce nuclear waste products which emit dangerous radiation. Because they could kill people who touch them, they cannot be thrown away like ordinary garbage. Currently, many nuclear wastes are stored in special cooling pools at the nuclear reactors.
The United States plans to move its nuclear waste to a remote underground dump by the year 2010.
In 1957, at a dump site in Russia's Ural Mountains, several hundred miles from Moscow, buried nuclear wastes mysteriously exploded, killing dozens of people.
Nuclear reactors only last for about forty to fifty years.

But, there are disadvantages to all forms of electricity, and with energy resources in such great demand, perhaps nuclear is a great alternative.

I hope you've learned something. . . and don't ask me anything else about this. I would have to direct you to the thesis writer. I'm pretty much tapped out at this.