Nuclear Power? What Is That?

Have you ever heard about nuclear power? If yes, what sort of it you have heard of? Oh, are there sorts of it? Actually, there are. One bad, one good. Very interesting but could also be frightening. First of all, let me explain what nuclear power is.

The nuclear power or energy stems from simply splitting uranium atoms. Not that simple indeed, but you start a reaction where the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. This process is called fission. The fission process produces gamma photons and releases a very large amount of energy.

When you get that enormous energy, you have many possibilities to use it, either for good or for evil. Namely, your purpose defines how you will use it. If you use this energy to produce heat to get steam to be taken by a turbine generator to produce electricity, you name it how to use it for anything good. For instance, for household appliances, TVs, computers, washing, watering fields, for cars, in the industry, science, medicine and thousands other uses. However, unfortunately, nuclear power can be used to produce atom bombs, other weapons of mass destruction. But, in this piece of my writing I want to emphasize on the good side of nuclear power. Nuclear power is used for the well-being of human race has its own pros and cons. Eventually, we are talking about a massive source of energy which needs to be handled with extreme care.

Pros of nuclear energy are carbon and methane-free electricity, small land footprint, high power output, reliable energy source. Cons of nuclear energy are, very high upfront costs, uranium is non-renewable ,nuclear waste. Nuclear energy has the highest capacity factor of any other energy source. Based on the capacity factors, you need almost two coal or three to four renewable plants. Nuclear energy is 1.5 to 2 times more reliable than natural gas and coal units. Also 2.5 to 3.5 times more reliable than wind and solar plants. Nuclear plants require less maintenance. Also, it doesn’t pollute the environment like fossil fuels. Nuclear energy emits low greenhouse gases compared to other sources.

In brief, using nuclear energy complying with scientific regulations, internationally accepted norms and standards will bring about a sustainable development for all nations and the world.

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