Nuclear Power

History of Nuclear Power

-Nuclear power started in the 1950s by making power
plants
-1979 was when the first time the public found out that
nuclear energy could be dangerous
-1996 was the most recent year a power plant was built

Top 5 countries using nuclear power

1. U.S.A. 770,000 GWH
2. France 407,000 GWH
3. Russia 166,000 GWH
4. South Korea 143,000 GWH
5. Germany 94,000 GWH
(Jacobs, H., March, 6, 2014)

Nuclear Reactors
The United States have 99 nuclear reactors with in 61
power plants
The rest of the world has a combined 338 nuclear reactors
71 power plants are under construction
Nuclear reactors has become the cheapest energy source
there is, it also has low carbon, which will help the
economy in the future because when carbon prices rise, it
will not affect nuclear power.

How do nuclear reactors work

How nuclear reactors work are water is turned
to steam and then the steam will turbine
generators to make it turn to steam and
produce energy. How they get the water to turn
to steam is by splitting the uranium which is
called fission.

How does fission produce heat

When you split the uranium it makes heat because if all the
mass got added up together you will not get a starting
mass. The loss of mass is the heat of the fission and
makes a lot energy to be produced. It also produces atoms
to make to reactions to keep going.

There are two types of Nuclear

Reactors

Pressurized water reactors

When the water goes through the reactor, the
water gets pressured so it can get heated but it
will not boil then the water goes to the
generator and makes steam

Boiling Water Reactors

In boiling water reactors work by the fission
boiling the water to make the steam to make
the turbine turn. Then the steam turns back to
water and repeats the process.

Nuclear reactor safety

There are multiple ways to make sure to make nuclear
reactors safe.
The ways are, safe design and construction, create
equipment to prevent human error and operational
disturbances, always monitored and tested to make sure its
safe for the environment, keep oil damage restricted in one
area
The 3 main rule are to control reactivity, to cool the fuel,
and to contain radioactive substance

Cooling the Fuel

THere is 3 ways of cooling the fuel:
1. Direct Cooling- If a nuclear reactor is next to a large body of water like a
lake, sea, river, or an ocean, they run a large amount of water once
through the reactor and put it back to where it was.
2. Indirect Cooling- If the reactor is not next to a large body of water, they
could use the steam to cool it down where the updraught air through the
water droplets cool it
3. Dry cooling.- They only use air to cool the reactor with a high forced air
cooler.

Direct Cooling

Indirect Cooling

Containing Nuclear Waste

Nuclear Reactors are the only large product electric producers to take full
responsibilities for its waste. There is 2 ways of containing nuclear waste.
Reprocessing and direct disposal.

Reprocessing
Reprocessing is when you recover fissile and fertile material in order to provide
new fuel. It started about 50 years when nuclear reactor workers would recover
unused uranium and plutonium which has gave the nuclear reactors 25%-30%
more energy and reprocessing helps make sure there is less nuclear disposal
which helps less radiation

Direct Disposal
Direct disposal happens by taking high levels of radiation waste and disposing
it. The high heat of the waste limits the amount that you can dispose. They
shield the waste and put the waste in a isolated place until the radiation
disappears

Environmental cost
A big risk with nuclear reactors is a meltdown
from the reactors. If the reactors meltdown it
could cause reactions to the human body.
Cancer and radiation sickness. Radiation
sickness is a bad illness, some symptoms are
skin burns, nausea, puking, diarrhea, hair loss,
muscles get weaker, and sometimes death.

How can you get Cancer

You can get cancer from having high level of radiation exposure. You can get
the same diseases from consuming other harsh chemicals like smoking and
alcohol consumption. If consume low level of radiation it might now be harmful
to your your body.

http://www.businessinsider.com/countries-gen
erating-the-most-nuclear-energy-2014-3#5-ger
many-13
http://bravenewclimate.com/2010/11/28/nuclear
-is-the-least-cost-low-carbon-baseload-powersource/