Scientists discovered nuclear energy at the end of the nineteenth century. Within fifty years it became a decisive factor in our war with Japan and has affected international arms policies ever since. A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical in all conventional thermal power stations the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to an electric generator which produces electricity. In a nuclear-fueled power plant – much like a fossil-fueled power plant – water is turned into steam, which in turn drives turbine generators to produce electricity. The difference is the source of heat. At nuclear power plants, the heat to make the steam is created when uranium atoms split – called fission. Advantages of nuclear power generation: Nuclear power generation does emit relatively low amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). The emissions of green house gases and therefore the contribution of nuclear power plants to global warming is therefore relatively little. Disadvantages. Like fossil fuels, nuclear fuels are non-renewable energy resources. And if there is an accident, large amounts of radioactive material could be released into the environment. In addition, nuclear waste remains radioactive and is hazardous to health for thousands of years. Nuclear power stations do not produce smoke particles to pollute the atmosphere or emit gases that contribute to acid rain. Nuclear energy is by far the most concentrated form of energy - a lot of energy is produced from a small mass of fuel. This reduces transport costs - (although the fuel is radioactive and therefore each transport that does occur is expensive because of security implications). Nuclear power is reliable. It does not depend on the weather. We can control the output from a nuclear power station to fit our needs. Nuclear power produces a small volume of waste DISADVANTAGES: Disposal of nuclear waste is very expensive. As it is radioactive it has to be disposed of in such a way as it will not pollute the environment. Decommissioning of nuclear power stations is expensive and takes a long time. (In fact we have not yet decommissioned one!) Nuclear accidents can spread 'radiation producing particles' over a wide area, This radiation harms the cells of the body which can make humans sick or even cause death. Illness can appear or strike people years after they were exposed to nuclear radiation and genetic problems can occur too. A possible type of reactor disaster is known as a meltdown. In a meltdown, the fission reaction of an atom goes out of control, which leads to a nuclear explosion releasing great amounts of radioactive particles into the environment. See Chernobyl. For an Essay useful: The study of nuclear energy began in the nineteenth century when Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive elements radium and polonium. Before this only uranium and thorium were the only radioactive elements that were known. Radium and polonium were hundreds of times more radioactive than uranium. The Curies won the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics for these discoveries. Seven years later Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for refining radium. She was the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice. In 1905, Albert Einstein developed a theory about the relationship of mass and energy. The formula, E=mc2 is probably the most famous outcome from Einstein's theory of relativity. The formula states that Energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light squared. In essence, it means mass is just one form of energy. Since the speed of light is an enormous number, 186,000 miles per second, and in the equation it is squared, a small amount of mass can be converted to a phenomenal amount of energy. Nuclear reactors are based around this theory because small amounts of mass can produce large amounts of energy. n December 1938, two German scientist demonstrated nuclear fission. These two scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, found they could split the nucleus of a uranium atom by bombarding it with neutrons, which are the uncharged part of atoms. As the uranium nucleus splits, some of its mass is converted to energy by Einstein's Law.

• published: 01 Sep 2015
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