NUCLEAR ENERGYDONGQI WU

ENGL 106I

Crowd in China rushing to buy salt

NUCLEAR ENERGY

Use exothermic atomic fission to produce heat to drive steam turbo to produce electricity.

Contribute about 13% of all electrical energy to the world.

Although it is defined as sustainable energy source, nuclear energy comes from uranium, a nonrenewable resource that must be mined.

The Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, PA

MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT NUCLEAR ENERGY

Nuclear Weapons—The fuel used in nuclear power plants is only 5% enriched uranium, in nuclear weapons the uranium is 95% enriched.

Nuclear plants produce dangerous wastes—The longest lived waste products will become stable elements within a few hundred years

Iodine-131 8.02 days

Cobalt-56 77.27days

Caesium-134 2 years

Strontium-90 30 years

BENEFITS

Environmental-----Nuclear power facilities can produce energy at a 91% efficiency rate 24/7, while maintaining no emissions.

Each year, U.S. nuclear power plants prevent 5.1 million tons of SO2, 2.4 million tons of NO2, and 164 million metric tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere.

Economical-----Nuclear energy saved 30% of pollution reducing cost in the US.

A nuclear plant provides 600~700 work opportunities whose salary are 40% higher than the similar positions in a fossil-fuel plant.

PROBLEMS & RISKS

The ”Coffin” of Chernobyl

Possibility of a nuclear meltdown

Radioactive Fallout

Nuclear reactors produce nuclear waste

PROSPECTIVE FUTURE—NUCLEAR FUSION

Turn a small proportion of mass into energy during reaction— similar to fission

4 times as effective as fission reaction

No way to control the reaction now

THANK YOU!