Non-Renewable Nuclear Power

What is Nuclear Power?

• It is the useable energy that is extracted from atomic nuclei.
• It is energy that is released by heat from a chain reaction in the in a radioactive element such as uranium.

Facts

• Generates 17 percent of world electricity supplies
• Produced by enhancing the radioactive decay of natural elements whose atoms can be split by thermal neutrons.
• Consist of Uranium Ore and Plutonium
• The worlds first nuclear power plant to create electricity was before 1979.

Limitations and Concerns

• Safety for lives is a concern
• Nuclear accidents, considered unsafe after the Three mile Island accident
• It produces two types of fissile material that can be used in nuclear weapons.
• High capacity of cost

The steps

• The reactor uses Uranium rods as fuel and the heat is generataed by nuclear fission
• Neutrons smash into the nucleus of the uranium atoms which split roughly in half and releases energy in the form of heat
• CO2 or water is pumped through the reactor to take the heat away, this makes the water turn into steam.
• The steam drives the turbines which makes the generators produce energy

Pollutants

• Nuclear subatomic particles that rise and attack the human body which can damage cells and cause cancer.

Uses

• 20 percent of the United States uses about 104 of the power plants
• Supplys 90 percent of the worlds electricity