Nuclear Waste Research Paper

Modern concerns about global warming have rekindled ideas about nuclear power in the United States but one concern still remains: what is to be done with the waste? Right now most spent nuclear fuel is stored in large casks at the plants where it was used with plans in the works for a common location to store the waste for long periods of time. Long term storage is not the only option, technology exists to take this spent nuclear fuel and remove the unused plutonium and uranium from the waste products to create more fuel. The remaining waste would be stored in a long term facility as discussed above. This process is highly controversial due to economic and safety concerns, but could increase the capacity of a long term storage facility.

Karl Grandin, Peter Jagers, and Sven Kullander wrote an article called Nuclear Energy that explains what some of the key concerns of using nuclear energy are. They say that everyone 's worried about six key issues while using nuclear energy. These key issues are safety, nuclear waste, non-proliferation, fuel availability, life cycle analysis, and economic competitiveness. In this article they state “Nuclear energy can play a role in carbon free production of electrical energy, thus making it interesting for tomorrow’s energy mix. However, several issues have to be addressed. In fission technology, the design of so called fourth generation reactors show great promise, in particular in addressing materials efficiency and safety issues”

Although nuclear energy has many upsides, there is one most commonly worried about problem with these facilities, the danger of radiation. Radiation poisoning can severely handicap people, animals, plants, and with bad exposure to high radiation it can cause death. A good example of the dangers of nuclear energy is Chernobyl. This was a place in the Ukraine where there was a steam explosion which in turn lead to a fire in the nuclear reactor. This produced a cloud of deadly radioactive gas which is a called a plume. This plume can get into waterways, get in the rain cycle, and be taken by weather all over the

Nuclear Fission has a greater affect on our planet than greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are chemicals that go towards the atmosphere and cause global warming. This may sound severe, but wait until you learn what nuclear fission leaves for our future generations. Nuclear fission seems like a good source to produce a massive amount of energy, but a small neglection of its waste can wipe out an entire town.

Discuss medical applications of nuclear radiation and their effects on society. Explain briefly how the applications work. Include some of the scientists involved in their discovery and development.

In late December in 1938, a chemist going by the name of Otto Hahn discovered radioactive fission between the element Uranium. He had started off by causing impact between it and causing a Uranium atom to split into two. When that happened it was known as a process called fission, a topic known little about in 1930’s. When a radioactive element such as Uranium enters the process of fission it splits the atom causing a specified amount of energy to foil out. Just the split of one atom during their experiment caused an entire grain of sand to jump in the air. Imagine what 50 pounds of that could do, let alone 100! Well this is what they did with 500 pounds of it.

There are many reasons why I could be a nuclear engineer. First, nuclear engineers get a lot of money. In addition, they use math and science a lot. Lastly, creativity is a main aspect of doing this job. It seems that this this would be a great job for me.

In an article called Nuclear Power states, “Unfortunately nuclear power is not renewable as it uses radioactive ‘heavy’ metals such as uranium as its fuel which is not very abundant. . .” (William Parker 1). Unlike other alternative ways to gather energy, nuclear energy is a way to gather energy that doesn’t last for very long. Lisa Zyga says in her article “Why nuclear power will never supply the world's energy needs” that “at the current rate of uranium consumption with conventional reactors, the world supply of viable uranium, which is the most common nuclear fuel, will last for 80 years. Scaling consumption up to 15 TW, the viable uranium supply will last for less than 5 years. (Viable uranium is the uranium that exists in a high enough ore concentration so that extracting the ore is economically justified.)”. Most nuclear power plants can create energy for about five years, maybe less, until the plant is no longer a use to gather nuclear energy. This in terms makes nuclear energy practically a lost cause. Nuclear power is not efficient and it is a very unstable element to use. After most nuclear power plants are all used up, in a sense, the area around the plant can no longer be used. Due to all the pollution a plant causes, the area surrounding the plant just becomes a useless piece of land that is no longer benefiting

Nuclear energy is the energy kept inside of an atom. This energy can be released by going through the process of fission or fusion. Fission is the separation of considerably large atoms into smaller ones. Fusion is the opposite of fission; it is the combining of small atoms into a large one. We receive nuclear energy every day by using fission in nuclear power plants across the world.

Eight-four percent, 84% of energy used globally comes from fossil fuels. These include oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. All of which are very pollutive and are nonrenewable resources. You can see how this would be a problem for us as a species and our survival. For something that we rely on so heavily for food, medicine, government and so many other important things. I had to know what scientists were doing to further their research on separating themselves from something we've relied on since we discover how to harness power itself. i as well as many others understand It's time for us as humans to further our evolution and develop cleaner, more powerful energy so I set out to find the best energy alternatives and highlight what

There is probably the capability of nuclear energy is colossal, yet there are additionally drawbacks. Advantages of nuclear energy are first and foremost; using nuclear energy saves money , for example, The underlying development expenses of nuclear power plants are substantial. On top of this, when the influence plants first have been manufactured, we are left with the expenses to advance and process the nuclear fuel (e.g. uranium), control and dispose of atomic waste, and the support of the plant. The reason this is under favorable circumstances is that atomic vitality is cost-focused. Producing power in atomic reactors is less expensive than power creating from oil, gas and coal, not to discuss the renewable energy sources. Nuclear energy is also good for low pollution and base load energy. It is by and large more gainful, as far as the atmosphere emergency, to supplant other energy outfitting strategies we utilize today with nuclear

It is established that energy cannot be created nor destroyed and it could not be made out of nothing according the law of conservation of energy. The way that science explains the phenomenon of energy conservation is by portraying the conservation of energy as a physical transfer of energy between mediums through various forms such as heat, sound, and light. Since the discovery of fire in the early days of humanity, it can be understood that heat is the most versatile form of energy. On the expense of sacrificial physical matter, heat is produced particularly natural resource such as fossil fuels. While time progresses, the anticipated rate of decrease in fossil fuels has lead to the exploration of prospectively innovative long-term energy supplies. Nevertheless, like fossil fuels, injurious resources have professed many questions regarding the discarding of nuclear waste. This controversy paper will be mainly focusing on the question of whether nuclear waste can be disposed of safely.

It is established that energy cannot be created nor destroyed and it could not be made out of nothing according the law of conservation of energy. The way that science explains the phenomenon of energy conservation is by portraying the conservation of energy as a physical transfer of energy between mediums through various forms such as heat, sound, and light. Since the discovery of fire in the early days of humanity, it can be understood that heat is the most versatile form of energy. On the expense of sacrificial physical matter, heat is produced particularly natural resource such as fossil fuels. While time progresses, the anticipated rate of decrease in fossil fuels has lead to the exploration of prospectively innovative long-term energy supplies. Nevertheless, like fossil fuels, injurious resources have professed many questions regarding the discarding of nuclear waste. This controversy paper will be mainly focusing on the question of whether nuclear waste can be disposed of safely.

Nuclear waste is the substance that nuclear fuel becomes after it has been used in a reactor. Although the metal rods appear unchanged after their use, the material inside has changed greatly. Before it was used to produce power, the fuel mainly consisted of uranium. In order to create heat energy in the reactor, U235 undergoes fission. Fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts. As a result of this, there is a chain reaction which creates heat. The control rods control the fission rate and the temperature. In the steam generator, the heat and cooling water create pressured steam which moves the turbine. The turbine creates energy that goes into a generator which gives off electricity. The water from the turbine is able to become usable since it gets cooled. Once a reactor reaches its lifetime, it becomes spent fuel and is treated as waste. Most countries bury the spent fuel or reuse it. In the U.S., we haven’t decided what to do with the spent fuel so most of the spent fuel rods are stored in temporary storage pools. In the future, the United States plans to bury the waste in the Yucca Mountains which are located in Nevada. This would be a suitable place since it is not close to humans or the environment.

For over 50 years, scientists have been debating against whether nuclear energy is the ideal source to use. On one hand, the plant requires the use of less acreage than a solar or wind farm, thus preserving homes for plants and animals. On the other hand, the potential risk of radiation exposure puts the general population at stake. There are many pros and cons for both sides of the problem but I believe that there is more of a negative outcome when nuclear energy is used rather than traditional forms of extracting energy, such as, solar, wind or the use of fossil fuels. To have a better understanding of nuclear energy, one should know the basics of it. the process begins with small pellets of uranium placed into rods and stacked closely together. Then, a neutron is exposed to the first rod, causing it to break down or split and release two more neutrons that will hit the other uranium pellets and so on.This repetitive process is known as fission, “the action of dividing or splitting something into two or more parts”. In this case, that “something” represents atoms. The chain reaction produces heat that boils water, produces steam, spins turbines (fans) which results in the creation of electricity. As simple as the procedure may sound, its impact on the planet brings concern to many environmentalists.