Currently, the most used source of energy has been fossil fuels, more specifically oil and natural gas. To put it into perspective, oil leads the global energy consumption at thirty-two percent, with coal and natural gas behind at twenty six percent and twenty three percent respectively. Fossil fuels have been the primary source of energy for many years now due to them being highly energy-dense, readily available, and relatively inexpensive. However, a problem that has been highlighted recently with fossil fuels is the pollution they cause. Fossil fuels account for over seventy-five percent of greenhouse gas emissions, ninety percent of all carbon dioxide emissions, and are responsible for more than a 0.3 degrees Celsius rise in global warming.
Due to these devastating effects on the environment, people have been moving into researching new and different energy sources. Some of these include solar, wind, and geothermal. However, more research has gone into nuclear energy, a form of energy released from the core of atoms. Nuclear energy could be a good alternative to fossil fuels due to its carbon-free electricity, high power output, and small land footprint.
Nuclear power has been experimented on for some quite some time, dating back to around the 1940’s-1950’s. One of the biggest applications of nuclear material was the atomic bomb used in World War 2. After this intense use of nuclear material, people decided to research this incredibly powerful source of energy for more peaceful uses. In the years after, there was a lot of buzz going around that going nuclear was the new era. Lights, cars, and everything else would be powered by nuclear energy. However, a significant slump in research occurred around the 1970’s-1980’s. There were some incidents like The Three Mile Island accident and the Chernobyl disaster that created opposition and stricter regulation on nuclear power. Due to this, people realized that working with nuclear energy was incredibly complicated and expensive. During this time, major companies decided that nuclear power was just too risky and chose to stay with the more reliable fossil fuels to get energy from. At the end of the 1990’s and early 2000’s, attention went back to nuclear energy due to the increase in price for oil and gas. Now, there are around 440 nuclear power plants operating in 32 countries around the world. Nuclear energy also makes up around 10 percent of the global energy usage.
How does a nuclear power plant produce energy? The answer is fairly simple. Power plants that use fossil fuels burn the fuels to then cause heat. This heat is then used to make water into steam which goes on to turn a turbine connected to a generator. This generator then converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy and is then transported to wherever the energy needs to go. Now nuclear power plants do the exact same process except instead of burning fossil fuels to make water into steam, this is done by nuclear fission. The process of nuclear fission is when a bigger atom is split into two or more smaller ones. The way this is done in a power plant is by stacking uranium into fuel rods. These rods are then placed into a reactor vessel. Inside this vessel, the uranium is then blasted with a lot of neurons in order to cause nuclear fission. When the uranium is split into smaller atoms, about two or three neurons are released. After the release of the neurons, they hit more uranium atoms and cause a chain reaction of nuclear fission. The vessels also have some sort of acid, usually boric acid and control rods in order to make sure the chain reaction is under control. The chain reaction causes the temperature to rise to about 320 degrees Celsius. This then causes the water to be extremely hot. A pressure regulator is next to the reactor in order to keep the reaction at high pressure to make sure the water does not boil in the reactor. After the water is heated, it is then transferred to a steam generator where it begins to heat up another pool of water that is then converted into steam. This steam then drives a turbine which is connected to a generator and a transformer, which isolates the final product of energy. There are different types of nuclear reactors that do follow different steps, but most power plants follow this process.
One of the biggest reasons why nuclear energy has gotten more popular recently is due to the fact that nuclear power plants do not cause carbon emissions. Since the process of heating up water is by nuclear fission, there are no emissions produced in the process. This is a huge improvement in protecting the environment compared to fossil fuels. Nuclear power plants also have a small land footprint compared to other ways of collecting power. For comparison, wind farms need 360 times more land and solar plants need 75 times more land than nuclear power plants to produce the same amount of power as nuclear energy. This is way more efficient considering more energy can be produced in a smaller amount of land compared to renewable sources for energy. Another positive of nuclear energy is that uranium is incredibly energy dense, meaning there is a lot of energy even in a small sample. An interesting fact is that one uranium pellet is equivalent to 17,000 cubic ft of natural gas, 120 gallons of oil, and 1 ton of coal in terms of energy produced. This statistic alone shows the efficiency of nuclear energy.
Although nuclear energy definitely is popular due to its positives, it is not the most perfect solution either. One reason is the fact that uranium is not a renewable source. Just like fossil fuels, uranium is a finite resource on this planet, and when it runs out, there is no more. It can be argued that a renewable source of energy is simply better because it cannot run out. Another issue of nuclear power is the potential of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is a hazardous waste that contains radioactive materials. These type of wastes can be pretty detrimental to the environment and human health because they can remain radioactive for thousands of years. Although there is not as much nuclear waste compared to wastes from fossil fuels, these “high-level” wastes are still very dangerous. Another negative for nuclear energy is the cost and labor it takes to attain it. In getting the land, building the plant, and getting all the resources is incredibly expensive. Also, mining uranium also causes carbon emissions so it’s almost like polluting in order to try and stop pollution.
In our world, there has been an overwhelming concern for the environment. There has been a growing debate about changing certain things in order to make our impact on the environment less severe. One of these has been attempting to move away from fossil fuels and try new sources of energy. Renewable energy has been a popular one, all due to the fact that we can’t run out of sunlight, wind, and water. These sources also have low or no carbon emissions, making it much better for the environment. However, the most efficient source of energy is nuclear power, having the highest energy density. Although it does have some drawbacks, it is definitely worth it in the end. Nuclear energy has only kept growing in popularity. For example, Amazon has had a mission to meet all of their energy demands through renewable sources or carbon-free way. This year, they have introduced smaller nuclear reactors that produce a lot of energy, are carbon-free, and have a smaller land footprint. This is an incredible feat to utilize such a great source of energy like nuclear power. Hopefully, the world can start to move a little more away from fossil fuels and start experimenting more on different energy sources like solar, wind, and nuclear power.