Sustainable Green Living With Other Energies

What are advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy?There are many cons and pros of nuclear energy but one thing is certain, it’s one of the long term energies solutions that we use on a large scale. So you might ask yourself what are sources of nuclear energy. Right now nuclear energy provides for approximately 16% of the world’s electricity. Unlike the sun, the nuclear reactors that we have today work on what is called nuclear fission. Scientistsare trying to make fusion reactors which have the capability of providing more energy with fewer disadvantages than fission reactors.

Like coal or natural gas plants, nuclear plants create electricity by boiling water and creating steam. The steam then turns turbines that create electricity. The actual heat is created through the physical process of fission, which involves separating the atoms in uranium inside a nuclear reactor. Hard water is used to cool the water, creating the steam. Uranium is an unstable chemical, and once an atom is split it releases neutrons, which hit other atoms and causes a chain reaction. Uranium comes in long, hard vertical tubes and is added to the reactor in bundles.

Nuclear power plants do not burn fossil fuel, but there is some nuclear waste left from uranium. Uranium is a physical substance and has to be collected through mining. Raw uranium ore must be processed by leaching it with solvents, filtering it, and then converting it to uranium hexafluoride. The uranium hexafluoride hardens when it cools, and then can be used in a nuclear reactor.

Nuclear power plants do not take up a lot of space. They also do not use fossil fuels to create energy or produce pollutants in the traditional form. The greatest disadvantage is the possibility of a nuclear meltdown, where the fission process goes out of control and creates enough heat to melt iron, cement, and everything in its path. Some scientists estimate the risk of a nuclear meltdown at a million to one. There have been at least two high-profile nuclear emergencies: near Three-Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986. Uranium used in nuclear plants does produce a waste, called plutonium, which cannot just be thrown away.