 Nuclear Power Giovanni Marchesi Nick Scena

Source of Fuel  Uranium, the fuel to produce nuclear reactions. It’s the heaviest element in nature, and breaks apart easily.  In a nuclear power plant the goal is to create fission.  Fission uses Uranium fuel to slow down or speed up the process.  It’s used to control the amount of energy being produced.

Generating Electricity  In nuclear power plants steam provides mechanical energy by hitting the blades and turning the fan.  Blades connect to a shaft that is connected to the generator.  In the generator, magnets spin inside wire coils to produce electricity.

Pros  Low impact on environment because it does not require fossil fuels.  Nuclear power plants produce plutonium as a by-product of the nuclear reaction. Plutonium can be reprocessed into fuel.

Cons  The risk of catastrophic accident is low, but if one were to occur it would have severe consequences. Aftermath could last for decades.  There has not been a solution on what to do with the accumulating waste.

Additional Information  In 1998 the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported that for every 200,000 hours of work performed in nuclear power plants, there were.34 accidents that resulted in injury. Where as for all the other industries the number was seven times greater.  To provide power equivalent to that of nuclear power plants, immense numbers of large wind farms would have to be built.  Nuclear power is not subject to weather conditions, solar power requires consistent sunshine, so not all areas are suitable. Likewise, ocean wave power, and tidal power are limited to unpredictable weather patterns.

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Resources  Alternative Energy, Ed. Neil Schlager and Jayne Weisblatt. Vol. 2: Hydrogen, Nuclear Energy, Solar Energy. Detroit: UXL, 2006  Nuclear Power: Facts, Issues, The Future by Neil Morris  Environmental Science: In Context, Ed. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2009.