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Nuclear power has been a touchy subject ever since it has been discovered. In many ways nuclear energy is both man’s greatest hope for the future and his biggest fear. We have seen the devastation that has been caused by things like the Atomic bomb. Even more so we have seen how disastrous meltdowns at nuclear plants can be. If you browse the Internet for stories about Chernobyl, or Fukushima, details and accounts are devastating. However, at the same time nuclear power is also perhaps the most powerful and effective discovery in the last century. Harnessing the power, to its full potential, would revolutionize the world. It is clean, and reusable, and potent enough to power the world, and yet it is somewhat untamable.

The Parts

It is somewhat strange to imagine the toaster you used this morning to be powered by nuclear energy, but this is the case all over the world. Nuclear power plants are providing energy almost everywhere. The plants have a few main parts: the generator, the spark, the jets that cause steam, the radioactive uranium that heats water, and finally the nuclear reactor core. The water is used to cool the system and keep it from melting. When this system fails it is called a meltdown, and the world has seen how devastating these types of meltdowns can be.

How It Works

The world nuclear invokes a lot of thought. Most people have sci-fi movies play in their heads when they think about nuclear energy, but the power plants don’t really work any different than coal burning power plants. Both heat water into pressurized steam, which then is used to power a generator, the difference lies in how the water is heated. Coal plants burn fossil fuel for their heat source. Nuclear plants rely on the heat created from nuclear fission- the heat that is made when one atom splits into two and releases energy. Uranium is in constant fission, just at a very slow rate and therefore is an excellent choice for nuclear reactors. Perhaps, the most impressive thing about uranium is the sheer might of it. The decay of a single uranium atom releases roughly 200 MeV (million electron volts). Granted that doesn’t seem like a lot, but there are lots of uranium atoms in a pound of uranium. So many, that a pound of highly enriched uranium that is used to power a nuclear submarine is equal to about a million gallons of gasoline. The stuff is potent.

Miles To Go

Nuclear energy is somewhat sticky. We have so much potential energy on our hands, and were still learning how to harness it. The reason that nuclear energy has not made its way into the public life is that there are still so many unknowns that go along with it. The world might be more open to trying it out if it hadn’t already experienced how awful it can. But the future of nuclear energy is bright, and one it might be a part of our daily lives.

As the full time administrator for an online marketing business, Daniel Holdeman operates as a guest-poster with the intention of helping enterprises within the U.S. like Don Rowe. He works in LA, and is drinking in these days, alongside his charming woman and their three munchkins. D. man encourages readers to scan through his G Plus blog as soon as they can.

About the author
Andreas co-founded Xavier Media® in 1996 and has since been involved in all kinds of development, marketing and making money online.