![]() For this trend to reverse, public education about nuclear energy and continually advancing safety precautions, including those related to the issue of nuclear waste, must continue to be developed.Īnother possible source of nuclear energy is nuclear fusion. In fact, the rate at which new nuclear power plants are being built is decreasing dramatically. These public concerns are coupled with the low price of natural gas which makes the cost of constructing a new reactor a relatively more expensive source of electricity. As a result, in the past 20 years, only a few nuclear powerplants have been built in the United States. However, the public often still has concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants because of past accidents. Over the past years, nuclear fission power plants have been constructed to much higher standards of safety than they were at the end of the 20th Century. ![]() These past accidents and the fear of mismanagement of nuclear waste has led to changes in the safety protocols of nuclear fission reactors. Because this spent reactor fuel is very hot, thermally, it is first cooled in pools of water, then encased in casks of steel and concrete. This includes preventing contamination of water sources such as rivers or streams. Radioactive spent fuel from a reactor must be stored in a way that avoids any chance of people being exposed to radiation. The byproduct of fission reactions in a nuclear power plant is called spent fuel. Nuclear waste is also a major issue with nuclear fission reactions. The lack of a containment building over the reactor, as was used in reactors designed in the West, also contributed to the large scale spread of nuclear contamination. These conditions led to the reactor core overheating and creating a huge steam explosion. This accident was largely caused by poor management of workers in the power plant, as well as a general absence of safety culture. This incident and the following nuclear contamination are estimated to have killed between 4,000-90,000 people. The Chernobyl accident occurred on April 26, 1986, when a nuclear fission reactor core in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union overheated causing a steam explosion and fire. Past accidents from nuclear fission energy include the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, the Fukushima accident in 2011, and, the most damaging, the Chernobyl accident in 1986. ![]() The possibility of radioactive accidents and the long-term storage of nuclear waste often raise concern from the public. However, there are still problems with nuclear fission energy. The question arises - why exactly is nuclear fission energy a good power source for the world? Well, nuclear fission energy has high power output, is comparatively inexpensive, renewable, does not release air pollutants, and has a low carbon footprint. Therefore, new nuclear fission reactions are continuously created, and energy is continuously released in a chain reaction. This starts an entirely new fission reaction releasing energy and three more neutrons. This is because these three neutrons are able to collide with other Uranium-235 atoms in the reactor. Surprisingly, the three neutrons that are released during the reaction are the most important part of the reaction. This means that the "binding energy" of the reactants is greater than the "binding energy" of the products, and that energy must be released. Energy is released because the total mass of the products (the atoms created) is less than the mass of the reactants (original atoms). Because this atom is unstable, it almost immediately breaks into two more stable atoms - Barium-141 and Kronium-92, as well as emitting three additional neutrons. When an additional neutron collides with this atom, it creates an even more unstable atom, Uranium-236. This causes the atom to be predisposed to reach a state where the protons and neutrons are much more balanced. An unstable atom has an excess of either protons or neutrons. ![]() Uranium-235 is used in most fission reactions because, given that it contains 92 protons and 143 neutrons, it is an unstable atom. In simple terms, nuclear fission is when a heavy unstable nucleus splits upon impact with another particle, releasing energy. About 11% of the world's power is generated from nuclear fission energy. Finding a new energy resource to take coal's place - one that does not contribute carbon emissions to climate change - is also important. As of now, coal remains the world's main source of energy. That means that finding a cheap, safe, and high-power energy source is extremely important to advancing the world around us. Energy powers our world, homes, businesses, and practically everything we use on a day-to-day basis.
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