Introduction to Chemistry: What is Nuclear Power?
Thearesa Lima
12/11/12
Unit 5 – Assignment
SC155 – Intro to Chemistry
What is nuclear power? Nuclear power is a power source that uses fission of uranium to generate heat. The heat is used to create steam from water that is used to create electricity that people use every day at home or work. There are about four-hundred nuclear power plants in the world and one-hundred of them are located in the United States. We will be looking at the risk and relative gains of using nuclear power over other systems as well as what factors need to be considered before building and operating a nuclear power plant. Then we will discuss how I might go about deciding where to put a nuclear plant. Also how I would react if I found out a new nuclear power plant was going to be built one-hundred and twenty-five miles from my home along with my reaction to a new nuclear power plant being built only twelve point five miles from my home. I do not have any personal experience with nuclear power so I will go over what happened in Japan in 2011 as well as what I think is important for informed citizens to know about nuclear power. After going over all of this I hope I have been able to bring you some information that may be helpful to someone in the future. Nuclear power is something not to mess with and needs to be handled by the proper trained technicians. If not handled properly it can cause serious damage to the health of the environment and to the health off all species.
There is no energy source that is one-hundred percent clean. Let’s take a look at some pros and cons on nuclear power and other sources of power. Fossil fuel power is the largest producers of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane which negatively impact the ozone layer. On the other hand nuclear power plants do not produce smoke. The smoke you see coming out of the nuclear plants is nothing more than steam. Electricity is made from nuclear fusion that splits atoms in a series of nuclear
12/11/12
Unit 5 – Assignment
SC155 – Intro to Chemistry
What is nuclear power? Nuclear power is a power source that uses fission of uranium to generate heat. The heat is used to create steam from water that is used to create electricity that people use every day at home or work. There are about four-hundred nuclear power plants in the world and one-hundred of them are located in the United States. We will be looking at the risk and relative gains of using nuclear power over other systems as well as what factors need to be considered before building and operating a nuclear power plant. Then we will discuss how I might go about deciding where to put a nuclear plant. Also how I would react if I found out a new nuclear power plant was going to be built one-hundred and twenty-five miles from my home along with my reaction to a new nuclear power plant being built only twelve point five miles from my home. I do not have any personal experience with nuclear power so I will go over what happened in Japan in 2011 as well as what I think is important for informed citizens to know about nuclear power. After going over all of this I hope I have been able to bring you some information that may be helpful to someone in the future. Nuclear power is something not to mess with and needs to be handled by the proper trained technicians. If not handled properly it can cause serious damage to the health of the environment and to the health off all species.
There is no energy source that is one-hundred percent clean. Let’s take a look at some pros and cons on nuclear power and other sources of power. Fossil fuel power is the largest producers of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane which negatively impact the ozone layer. On the other hand nuclear power plants do not produce smoke. The smoke you see coming out of the nuclear plants is nothing more than steam. Electricity is made from nuclear fusion that splits atoms in a series of nuclear