Nuclear Energy: Uranium Fission :: essays research papers

atomic Energy atomic number 92 FissionThousands of years ago human beings well-read to make fire. By collectingand burning wood they were able to speedy themselves, cook food, and manufactureprimitive tools. Later, the Egyptians discovered the principal of the sail.Even more than recent was the invention of the water wheel. All of these activitiesutilize various forms of energy-biological, chemical, solar, and hydraulic.Energy, the index to do work, is essential for meeting basic humanneeds, extending the life expectancy, and providing a rising living standard.This is where the need for nuclear power comes in. Uranium fission is rough a million times more efficient than the vernacular practice of burning coal oroil. For comparison, coal combustion produces somewhat 20-30 MJ/kg of heat energywhile uranium, in a closely breeder reactor, produces more than 24,000,000 MJ/kg(Energy 27). Those numbers alone are astounding.Uranium is also abundant, thanks to recent discoveries o f large reserves.At present, uranium is lone(prenominal) being mined and separated from ore. However, ahuge untapped parentage is our oceans. Sea water contains 3.3x10(-9) (3.3 partsper billion) of uranium, so the 1.4x1018 tons of sea water contains 4.6x109tons of uranium. All the worlds electricity usage, 650GWe could therefore besupplied by the uranium in sea water for 7 million years(Energy 25). This is aonly a theoretical number beca physical exercise it is not thinkable to get all of the uraniumout of our vast oceans. Also, it does not take the fact that in that manyyears, half of the uranium will no longer exist due to radioactive decay. So,at worst, we would get about 2 million years of power from it. Thorium isanother particle than can be used in nuclear reactors. Thorium is well-nighfour times more abundant than uranium. It is obvious that we are in no dangerof exhausting these sources of energy. We need to exploit these resources an duse them to our reward. God has given us the knowledge to use uranium forpower, so why shouldnt use it? There are many benefits to using nucleargenerated power over our other common sources.A big advantage of nuclear power plants is that they do not burnanything, they are non-polluting, and they are kind to the environment. Unlikecoal-, gas-, and oil-fired power plants, nuclear power plants do not emit carbondioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.This is not to say that no waste is produced in a nuclear reaction. An sightly size nuclear reactor produces 1000 MWe and leaves behind about 25 tonsof spent fuel.