Does any one know what nuclear energy means?what it is? how it works??

Question

im doing this science report on nuclear energy, im totaly confused! HELP ME PLEASE!!! here are some of the questions im stuck on

How is nuclear energy easily renewed?

what is the cost of using nuclear energy ?

what are the positive aspects?

whats the science behind it?

how is it stored for later use?

what are the wast by-products of nuclear energy?

currently, what is keeping this form of energy from wide spread use?

when is nuclear energy expected to be easily accessible to the general public?

yea its alot, but im totaly stuck!! so if u can help me , that would be awesome!!!! thanks!

Answer 1

Nuclear energy is typically energy that comes from the nucleus of atoms, as compared to chemical reactions which take place amoung the electron shells.  When an atom is destroyed or changed into an other element, energy is produced per Einsteins equation E= MCsquared.

The energy heats water which turns to steam and drives steam turbines, which produce electricity.

good luck on your research project.

Answer 2

It is when you split atoms for energy. The energy comes from the amount of mass that is lost in the process. It produces heat which turns water to steam to turn turbines that turn generators. Waste is radioactive. Process does not use up oxygen. Meltdown is worst case scenario. This is if you are talking about Fission. Fusion is another story.

Answer 3

Your first response answered your tech questions reasonably well, however I disagree on a few points. It's correct to say that the initial environmental overhead for nuclear is low compared with burning fossil fuels, however I think we should be comparing it with other options as well. Uranium mining is distrastrous, locally, and associated with exploitation of rural communities. This is not incidental--it's a direct consequence of the need to keep the overhead down and the option viable. Waste disposal carries similar consequences. There is no known disposal method which deals effectively with the waste over the entire period it is unsafe. Waste leakage is definitely not desirable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pow...

Two more points. At present, nuclear power has limited applications on a small scale. I think there is a case to be made for the trend toward decentralized power production--this means, for instance, individual buildings or people producing power as appropriate for their purposes and locale (with wind, solar, etc.). It's a different paradigm, but if implemented well, could increase and stabilize our overall production, and reduce both impact and energy waste. I don't see nuclear in this lineup anytime soon. My second point is an ethical one. All systems break down now and then. With nuclear, no matter how unlikely it is, meltdowns will happen eventually. These disasters cause large-scale long-term damage quickly. You don't have to know anything about nuclear to observe this, and there are alternatives which have no such inevitable consequences that we know. Given that it also produces waste which we are unable to competently make safe, it seems clear to me that true ingenuity involves moving on for the time being. Until we know how to deal with the outcomes.

Nuclear is not renewable. It is a fuel energy, requiring mining, just like fossil fuels. There is a finite quantity of usable fuel materials. Uranium is not abundant. Its concentrated energy is offset by its rarity.

On another note, it is invalid to blame the detractors for directing our current energy production toward fossil fuels. Perhaps we should consider that it is the same drive for "limitless" energy which "fueled" both systems. Perhaps a reexamination of priorities is in order.

Answer 4

Good answer, Gary. I might add that France uses Nuclear Power plants for over 80% of it's power. Japan uses about 50-60%.

If it wasn't for Nuclear Power, there would probably be no Sony, Toyota, etc. Japan has almost no Coal, Gas, Oil. When the "Environmentalists" killed our Nuclear program, they caused the majority of our addition to CO2 Pollution. Most CO2 comes from Electrical Power Plants, not cars.

I guess we can blame Global warming on the well meaning environmentalists, eh>

Answer 5

1. Most of the high grade enriched uranium used in US reactors now comes from decommissioned Russian nukes.

2. merely the infrastructure and labor required to distribute it, and the uranium itself.

3. No greenhouse gasses, no coal or natural gas burning. There is more energy contained in a enriched uranium pellet the size of a peanut than in 500 barrels of crude oil.

4. A controlled chain reaction, whereby a uranium atom is split into two, and then those two two more, and on and on exponentially for an ongoing controlled chain reaction is achieved. This process gives off tremendous quantities of heat, which makes steam, which turns steam turbines, thus creating electricity.

5. Technically, it is not stored, except in extreme cases where it is stored in huge banks of batteries for emergency use.

6. When the uranium becomes depleted of it's reactive atoms, it becomes high level nuclear waste. This is a problem awaiting a solution other than burying it.

7. People have an unreasonable fear of the tech. There are some 700 reactors in use world wide today, and with the exception of Chernobyl, there has never been a life threatening meltdown since. People distrust something as powerful as this that they don't understand.

8. It already is....every time you plug something that uses electricity, some of that (20% in the U.S) comes directly from a nuclear reactor.