What is Nuclear Energy?
Nuclear energy is a hot topic in today’s world. Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind haven’t yet proven themselves as viable solutions to meet the population’s wide-scale energy needs. With constantly growing energy demands, it’s imperative we explore nuclear as a dependable energy source. The process used to produce nuclear energy is called fission. Nuclear fission occurs when the atom of a nucleus is split, releasing very large amounts of energy. In nuclear power plants, atoms are continuously split, creating chain reactions that provide high amounts of sustainable energy for a long period of time. Nuclear Energy is not renewable.
Some Pros about Nuclear Energy: Low Greenhouse Gas Emissions, High Power Output, Inexpensive Electricity
Some Cons about Nuclear Energy: Past History of Nuclear Accidents, Target for Terrorism, Not a Renewable Fuel Source
Source: Kernenergie
Situation in Switzerland
In Switzerland there are 3 nuclear power plants. In the last few years the nuclear power plants lost their popularity, if you can say that like that. The danger and the waste produce of them is just too high. In 2017 the Swiss Voters accepted the energy strategy 2050. This means the nuclear power plants will shut down until 2050 and there will be no new ones built.
Impact on humans and the environement
If nuclear power is not handled correctly and there is a mistake, it can directly kill cells, or it can cause mutations to DNA. If those mutations are not repaired, the cell may turn cancerous. However Nuclear energy has perhaps the lowest impact on the environment. Including air, land, water, and wildlife of any energy source. It produces no harmful greenhouse gases, isolates its waste from the environment, and requires less area to produce the same amount of electricity as other sources.
How Long does it last
At the current rate of uranium consumption with conventional reactors, the world supply of viable uranium, which is the most common nuclear fuel, will last for 80 years.
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the extraction of uranium from uranium deposits. The largest uranium mining countries are Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Niger, Namibia, Uzbekistan and the USA. Much of the uranium is extracted from civil engineering at depths of 100 to over 2000 m. Inadequate ventilation used to be the main cause of lung cancer among many miners. Mainly kidney damage has been found because everything the body excretes goes through the kidneys. As poisons, readily soluble uranium salts also damage the liver or lungs, they are nerve toxins and can cause diseases of the immune System.
2 Examples
Efficiency of Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy has by far the highest capacity of any other energy source. This basically means nuclear power plants are producing maximum power more than 92% of the time during the year. That's about 1.5 to 2 times more as natural gas and coal units, and 2.5 to 3.5 times more reliable than wind and solar plants.
Usage of Nuclear Energy
Nuclear Energy is mostly used to produce electricity for our households.
Quiz Question:
Ho much of the worlds electricity is produced by Nuclear Energy?
A) 20% B) 14% C) 49%
Source: Nuclear Power Facts
Vocabulary:
Renewable -> Erneuerbar
Fission -> Kernspaltung
Target -> Ziel
Nina & Elena