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 = Nuclear Energy''' By Daniel Star  24/4/14= '''

Description
Nuclear energy is created when uranium atoms split. This process is called nuclear fission. At a nuclear power plant, fission is used to create heat to produce steam, which is used to power a turbine generating electricity.

Global Involvement
There are 31 countries worldwide that currently use nuclear power as an energy source. The largest producers of nuclear energy include: The United States of America, France, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Canada all the way to Armenia. Since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, Germany and Switzerland have decided to shut down their nuclear plants to prevent the same disaster as what Japan had.

Discovery
Many scientists have made contributions to the discovery of nuclear energy, from Antoine Henri Becquerel who discovered radiation in 1896, to Albert Einstein. Then in 1932, James Chadwick discovered neutrons. Finally, in 1935, Enrico Fermi discovered that when neutrons bombard a radioactive substance, the nuclei of the uranium atoms break apart and release huge amounts of energy in the process. All of these contributions and experiments later led up to the discovery of nuclear energy.

First Discovered
It was first used in 1938, when German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman conducted experiments to investigate Fermi’s claims of discovering a new element from induced radioactivity.

First Use
Nuclear energy was first discovered in Germany by experiments conducted by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman. The source of energy was first used at the University of Chicago on December 2nd 1942.

Generation of Electricity
Nuclear energy starts with mining uranium, converting it into a stable form and then sending it to a processing plant. After being processed, the enriched uranium containing more than 0.7 U-235, is then used to make fuel rods for a nuclear reactor. After the rods are built, they are placed inside the reactor. At this time nuclear fission takes place, which is when a neutron collides with the radioactive uranium, and the result is a reaction that breaks apart the nuclei of the uranium atoms, which will result in releasing a vast amount of energy. This energy is used to heat water and produce steam to power a turbine which generates electricity. Nuclear generating stations use nuclear reactions to create energy. In order to get rid of isotopes created by fission, 3% of the uranium is placed in a spent fuel pool. It will approximately take five years for the rod to cool down and be reprocessed or stored.

Advantages Towards Using Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy does not release many smoke particles and no carbon dioxide; therefore it has a very small effect on global warming and emitting green house gases so, it is a safe source of energy to use because it does not cause a lot of damage to the environment.

Nuclear power plants are built on coasts and do not take up a large area of land like a wind farm does. Nuclear energy is the most ecologically efficient because it generates more electricity compared to its small impact on the environment.

The technology needed to create nuclear energy is always available so it does not have to be built first. Nuclear energy can be produced in any weather condition, unlike wind and solar energy, which only produce electricity if there is wind or sunlight. Nuclear plants generate power 24/7 and are only shut down for maintenance.

Disadvantages Towards Using Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy is non-renewable because there is a limited amount of uranium on Earth. It is estimated that the amount of uranium will last for about 30 to 60 years based on the demand and use for it.

Nuclear waste produced from nuclear power plants cause a lot of damage and is expensive to remove. Since it is radioactive, the waste has to be carefully contained in a way that is not harmful to the environment. Nuclear waste is very dangerous and has to be carefully looked at for about 10 000 years before it will become less harmful.

Radiation emitted from nuclear plants and waste is very dangerous. Radiation can spread also producing radiation particles wherever it goes. This is especially harmful to the human body. The radiation damages cells, which can cause serious illness or death. An illness can occur in the body years after it is exposed to radiation as well as genetic complications occurring too. A meltdown is a reactor disaster that is caused when an atom becomes extremely unstable from a fission reaction. This will lead to a nuclear explosion, releasing vast amounts of radiation particles into the environment, making that area uninhabitable. One such disaster occurred at Chernobyl.