The atomic bomb was human's first introduction to nuclear power and since then we have been using nuclear energy to the extent of now having nuclear power plants which has broken down a lot of times and scared a lot of people in history but then, a lot of false things have been said about nuclear energy, and it we have held on to them but first, we need to understand what nuclear energy is and if what we have heard about it is true.
Nuclear fission was discovered in 1938 when scientist combined an atom of uranium with a neutron causing it to divide into two releasing a large amount of energy and that isn't all because during the nuclear fission reaction, neutrons are ejected that would trigger further fission reaction of more atoms which would produce more energy in a reaction known as chain reaction.
Before nuclear plants were created, America used the principle to create atomic bombs during world war 2 but in the year 1955 the principles were used to create a nuclear plant for the purpose of generating energy. As you would expect humans would expect the worst from a killing machine that is now used to generate electricity but this didn't become evident until the year 1979 with the thriller The China Syndrome where it showed a fictional nuclear reactor meltdown. While the movie sent chills down people's spine, a real reactor had a partial meltdown happened on March the 28th, 1979 at three mile island.
From the release of the movie to the year 1988, there were about 67 nuclear plants cancelled even before they started and Chernobyl fueled it more. Chernobyl was a human error reactor meltdown which lead to a nuclear cloud all over Europe. In 2011, there was the Fukushima nuclear disaster was another event that got everyone scared of nuclear power plants again.
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While these meltdown occurred, the casualty has no been large for instance, in the Three Mile Island, there was no casualty and epidemiologist are still researching he consequences and in about 30 years, only 51 people have died from the nuclear incident at Chernobyl with few health risk connected to radiation in the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The deaths from fossil fuel burning and is over the last 50 years.
Radiation from nuclear plant is extremely less compared to what is gotten from flights, and coal. A study on abdomen CT scan showed that people who get scanned receive 10 times the radiation exposure similar to the average radiation a nuclear worker get yearly. This reactor core uses low enriched uranium which control chain reactions to heat pressurized water which heats other water in the secondary circuit causing steam to rotate the turbine which then produces electricity.
It is not like nuclear wastes are disposed to the public, rather they are kept in repositories underneath the ground and they cannot release radiation to the outside world. They can also be recycled to make fuel and fuel-byproducts.
While nuclear energy has faced misconceptions and challenges, it remains a viable and relatively safe source of power. Understanding the facts about nuclear energy is essential for informed discussions and decision-making regarding its role in meeting global energy needs while mitigating environmental impacts.
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