NUCLEAR ENERGY

Daniel Chung

NUCLEAR ENERGY General Info…

-Nuclear energy is released by splitting (fission) or merging together (fusion) of the nuclei of atoms. -It is discovered by a French Physicist, Henri Becquerel in 1896.

-Mainly utilizes the heat that is caused by the nuclear fission.

-Massive amount of energy is created with just a simple opportunity cost.-No air pollution caused during the process of creating the energy.

-Relatively commonly used among many nations. Nations with power such as US, Japan, and lot of other nations in Europe use the nuclear energy to create energy. (Source of more than 15% of the world’s electricity.)

NUCLEAR ENERGY General Info…

-To use the nuclear energy, U-235 which can be found in the Uranium.

-The problem is that only 0.3 of U-235 is extracted from the Uranium. The rest of over 99% of other materials are other substances and U-238, which are considered, nuclear waste. These wastes can cause severe radioactive pollution if they are released.-Just using few grams of U-235 can create same energy as few thousand barrels of fossil oil.

-In South Korea, about 25 nuclear reactors exist. These nuclear power plant create over 50% of all the electricity used in Korea.

-To use the U-235, cooling water is required. North Korea couldn’t use nuclear energy because the US forced them to blow up the cooling water system structures.

-If neutron and U-235 nucleus absorb each other, the result can not be split for over 30~40 years.

NUCLEAR ENERGY General Info…

-Nuclear chemistry can be used as a form of alchemy to turn lead into gold or change any atom to any other atom (albeit through many steps). Radionuclide (radioisotope) production often involves irradiation of another isotope (or more precisely a nuclide), with alpha particles, beta particles, or gamma rays. Iron has the highest binding energy per nucleon of any atom. If an atom of lower average binding energy is changed into an atom of higher average binding energy, energy is given off. The chart shows that fusion of hydrogen, the combination to form heavier atoms, releases energy, as does fission of uranium, the breaking up of a larger nucleus into smaller parts. Stability varies between isotopes: the isotope U-235 is much less stable than the more common U-238.

NUCLEAR ENERGY General Info…

NUCLEAR ENERGY Comparing nations…

North Korea US

NUCLEAR ENERGY Pros and Cons…

Pro Con

-Little air pollution. Compared to burning oil, gas, or coal, the use of nuclear energy evidently minimizes the air pollution. In fact, no carbon dioxide is produced in the process. -The great outcome. Using just small amount of fuel can create massive amount of energy.

-Reliable and safe. Leaves small amount of waste.

-Uranium can be deposited around the world.

-Meltdown. The meltdown effect can cause deadly problems by exposing radioactive materials to the public. -Radiation. The radiation effect not only is very deadly but is also very long lasting. -Waste disposal. Although the waste is not that big of a amount, the material itself is deadly dangerous. Little exposure of the material can kill millions of people.

NUCLEAR ENERGY Opinion…

-Looking at pros and cons, it is able to realize that nuclear energy can both help and kill us. Thus, should we use it? I think the answer should be yes. As fossil fuels and other sources of energy continue to disappear or cause a severe case of solution, a new method is needed. The nuclear energy not only gives us ultimate amount of energy but it also gives us less drawback effects such as air pollution. I understand that there are numerous dangerous risks to use the nuclear energy. However, we just have to understand. Everything has opportunity cost. We just got to give up something to gain something. It is necessary and almost required for us to use the nuclear plant to gain the massive amount of energy. The technologies develop day by day, and we are going to usemore and more energy as time goes by. Although we riskour lives to the danger of the nuclear energy, we can’t doanything to stop using it. Unless a new system or a sourcefor greater amount of energy is discovered.

NUCLEAR ENERGY Citation…

-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_energy (and wiki/Nuclear_power)

-dirtyglasses.typepad.com

-www.eisenhowerinstitute.org

-visual.merriam-webster.com

-rrwr.blogspot.com

-kin.search.naver.com/search.naver?where=kin&sm=tab_jum&query= %uC6D0%uC790%uB825

-www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf81.html

-members.tripod.com/funk_phenomenon/nuclear/procon.htm

FIN…