NUCLEAR ENERGY By: Sami Power & Andrea Hunt

History  December 20, 1951, in Arco, Idaho, USA, for the first time electricity was produced by nuclear energy.  On June 26, 1954, at Obninsk, Russia, the nuclear power plant APS-1 with a net electrical output of 5 MW was connected to the power grid, the world's first nuclear power plant that generated electricity for commercial use. On August 27, 1956 the first commercial nuclear power plant, Calder Hall 1, Eng-land, with a net electrical output of 50 MW was connected to the national grid.  As of February 2, 2012 in 31 countries 435 nuclear power plant units with an installed electric net capacity of about 368 GW are in operation and 63 plants with an installed capacity of 61 GW are in 15 countries under construction.  As of end 2010 the total electricity production since 1951 amounts to 67,240 billion kWh.

How the System Works

What is required to make it work  There are two ways that nuclear energy is produced  Nuclear fission is when nuclei are split and releases energy and the main fuel used to start the reaction is uranium  The other way is nuclear fusion which is when nuclei atoms and joined together that only happens when there is a tremendous amount of heat.

Costs and Building Maintance  The first few plants in the U.S. are expected to cost $3500 per KW of capapcity.

 Pros: - Lowers the effect of green house gases that are released into the atmosphere in power generation. -low operating cost -Well-operated plants don’t release harmful gases into the enviroment Cons: -if explosion happens then the release of all that radiation could make the residents around the plant either sick or even die!!!! -Nuclear reactors only last for about forty to fifty years. -lots of waste disposal problems, people could die if the touch the reactors, so they are stored in cooling pools.

Environmental Impact Operating nuclear power plants have almost no carbon emissions because they only let out heat and radioactive waste. They have to be constructed, and uranium has to be mined processed and transported, waste has to be stored, and then the plant would have to be decommissioned.

Pollutants and Geo. distribution  Thermal Pollution  Air Pollution  Nuclear waste  Radioactive Pollutants  Geo. Dis.  Nuclear power plants are most popular in the USA

Research Point 1  Vermont has 38 percent nuclear energy supply

Research Point 2  Wyoming has very little amounts of nuclear energy.

Work Cited  plant-world-wide.htm plant-world-wide.htm plant-world-wide.htm   er er er  Livestrong.com/article/ environment-impacts-of-nuclar- energey/