Nuclear Power

Most of the world s electricity is generated by either thermal or

hydroelectric power plants. Thermal power plants use fuel to boil water

which makes steam. The steam turns turbines that generate electricity.

Hydroelectric power plants use the great force of rushing water from a

dam or a waterfall to turn the turbines.

The majority of thermal power plants burn fossil fuels because thermal

power plants are cheaper to maintain and have to meet less of the

governments requirements compared to nuclear power plants. Fossil fuels

are coal and oil. The downfall of using fossil fuels is that they are

limited. Fossil fuels are developed from the remains of plants and

animals that died millions of years ago. Burning fossil fuels has other

downfalls, too. All the burning that is required to turn the turbines

releases much sulfur, nitrogen gases, and other pollutants into the

atmosphere.

The cleanest, cheapest, and least polluting power plant of the two types

is the hydroelectric power plant. The main reason most countries use

thermal versus the hydroelectric is because their countries don t have

enough concentrated water to create enough energy to generate

electricity. (World Book vol. 14, 586)

Nuclear power plants generate only about eleven percent of the world s

electricity. There are around 316 nuclear power plants in the world

that create 213,000 megawatts of electricity. (INFOPEDIA)

Radioactive, or nuclear, waste is the by-product of nuclear fission.

Fission occurs when atoms nucleus split and cause a nuclear reaction.

(General Information) When a free neutron splits a nucleus, energy is

released along with free neutrons, fission fragments that give off beta

rays, and gamma rays. A free neutron from the nucleus that just split

splits another nucleus. This process continues on and is called a chain

reaction. (World Book vol. 14, 588)

The fission process is used to create heat, which boils water inside the

nuclear reactor. The steam that boiling the water makes is used to turn

turbines, which in turn, generate electricity. Fission happens inside a

carefully monitored nuclear reactor, when being used in a nuclear power

plant. The fission process that nuclear power plants use spends

approximately 30,000 tons of highly radioactive waste a year.