Non-renewable Resource

How many years can we use Nuclear Energy and how many more do we have left?

Nuclear Energy

Are there any debates going on about Nuclear Energy?

By: Michael, Chiron and Rachel

In June 2015, there was a nuclear debate going on which included many people from the UK, USA and Australia. For example, Chris Goodall, who is a green party activist in the UK, Ben Heard, who is a climate change activist from Australia, and Dr Patrick Moore, who is a co-founder of Greenpeace from the US. They are discussing the anti-nuclear power points such as if uranium mines create pollution in the environment, if uranium tailings retain there full radioactivity, if uranium is potentially hurting the miners, if there is no safe way to be exposed to radiation, if nuclear waste is an unresolved problem and more. People are debating if using nuclear power is actually worth the harm.

According to Christine Todd Whitman, who is part of a nuclear advocacy group, the U.S alone would need 25-30 nuclear power plants by 2030 just to stay in the 20% use figure. Considering that it takes 6-12 years to make a nuclear power plant, and that the power plant needs to be replaced after 40-60 years of operation which takes 50 years on average to replace. Would people take the time and effort to do this for nuclear energy? From 2010-2040, there is an predicted increase in nuclear power use in China, the U.S and India. China goes from 100 trillion KW to 1,200 trillion. The U.S stays at 800 trillion and India goes from 0 to 250 trillion KW. So far it is predicted that nuclear energy is reliable, affordable and important to our worlds' future and we are going to try to use it later on, as long as the price doesn't rise beyond the reasonable price.

How is it produced and how is it used

What is the cost of using nuclear energy?

Nuclear power plants use the heat from the atoms to produce electricity by boiling water into steam. The steam turns the turbines to produce electricity. This process is called fission, It splits atoms of uranium in a nuclear reactor. Small ceramic pellets are packed into long vertical tubes. The turbines spin and the generators produce the energy into the transmission towers. Around 11 percent of the world's electricity is generated by about 450 nuclear power reactors. Nuclear power plants can be built in your city or town because they are environment friendly.

When creating a new nuclear power plant, the cost rose from somewhere around $2 billion and $4 billion to around $9 billion per unit according to the 2009 report from UCS. There are also many places where the cost is placed. For example, the construction and investment cost, the financing cost, and the overnight cost. Also, for delayed completion companies have to pay $1.2 million per day. The cost all together would tally up to $14 billion in 2016, which proves that the costs are rising over the years. The cost of using nuclear energy is split up in many ways. For example, out of 200%, equipment and construction and instillation make up all 200%, but it is broken down further into categories. For example, construction materials is worth 12%, the balance of the plant is worth 18%, the labor on site is worth 25%, and the nuclear island is worth 28% of the cost.

Video

The history of nuclear energy.

1895-Roentgen discovers x-rays

1896- Becquerel discovers rays in uranium salts

1898- the Curies find two radioactive nuclides

1899-Rutherford distingishes between alpha and beta radiation

For more information about the history of nuclear energy, go to https://whatisnuclear.com/history.html

Pros: Low pollution: Nuclear power has a lot less greenhouse emissions. It has been determined that the amount of greenhouse gases have decreased by almost half because of the prevalence in the utilization of nuclear power.

What Is It and Where did it come from?

Environmental Impacts

Pros and Cons

Nuclear energy is energy in the nucleus (or the core) of an atom. Atoms are tiny particles that make up every object in the universe. Nuclear energy can be used to produce electricity, but the electricity must first be released. Nuclear power plants use nuclear fission to produce electricity. Lithuania, Slovakia and France create almost all of their electricity from nuclear power plants. Uranium is the fuel that is most likely to be used to produce nuclear energy. Uranium is a non-renewable resource that must be mined. Every 18-24 months a power plant must shut down to remove their spent uranium fuel which becomes radioactive waste. It produces 20 percent of U.S electricity. Nuclear power was first found before 1895 and had a long and interesting future ahead.

Some environmental Impacts is water consumption and risks. During the process of nuclear power generation, big volumes of water are used. The uranium fuel inside the nuclear reactors undergoes induced nuclear fission which releases great amounts of energy, that is later on used to heat water. The water turns into steam and rotates a turbine, creating the electricity.

Cons: Radioactive Waste Disposal:

a nuclear power plant creates 20 metric tons of nuclear fuel per year and along with that you get nuclear waste. When you consider each nuclear plant on Earth, you will find that that number is about 2,000 metric tons a year.