Nuclear Energy Introduction
Main material used in nuclear power plants is actually metal called uranium and it is mined in various parts of the world. There is also another, very important role of nuclear reactions and they are used to power big military ships and submarines. Today, there is also some other very important aspect of nuclear power, and it can be used in so called “nuclear medicine”.
The truth is that many people praise this low-cost and low-emission and an alternative to widely used fossil fuels while other emphasize negative side effects, which is also very important to consider before making your final judgment. Before going any deeper of explaining how power plants actually work it’s important to say that in 2009, there were total of 430 operating nuclear power plants and altogether they were producing 15% of the world’s total electricity. While some countries made laws that forbid building power plants or any similar structures that depend on this technology, some countries greatly depend on them. For example, in France total of 77% of electricity comes from nuclear power plants and Lithuania comes in second, with 65%.
Interestingly, the main idea of producing electrical energy, if we compare modern nuclear plants and older fossil-burning plants is generally the same – the heat is produced, which powers the generators whose role is to produce electrical energy. The main difference is in the way this heat is produced. In older fossil-burning plants, fossil is burned to produce heat and steam and in nuclear plants, chemical reaction called nuclear fission is responsible for heat and steam which powers massive generators.
Present lifecycle of nuclear power plant is about 25 years. Many scientists say that with technology that we have today, lifecycle could be extended up to 40 years. China plans to build more than 100 power plants, while in US the licenses of almost half its reactors have already been extended to 60 years, and USA plans to build 30 more. In 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) predicted that nuclear power capacity could double by 2030, so we could really expect that nuclear science will continue to be developed rapidly.