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Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Fission

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Is Nuclear Fission a Viable Alternative to Fossil Fuels as a Power Source For Australia?
Australia has developed something of an allergic reaction to any mention of uranium or nuclear energy. With fears of its safety and impact on the environment again heightened by the devastating nuclear event that was the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Blessed as we are with abundant reserves of coal, oil and gas, we have never had to ask the hard questions many other nations have had to ask – the answer for which has been ‘nuclear’. Yet with the looming spectre of climate change and greater calls for a shift away from fossil fuels, nuclear power is once again on the agenda. The South Australian government has even called for a royal commission to investigate the plausibility of nuclear power in this country (Wroe). …show more content…

Atoms such as 235U (uranium), 233U and 239Pu (plutonium) can be forced to undergo nuclear fission when they absorb (capture) slow neutrons. Slow neutrons, sometimes called ‘thermal’ neutrons because they have energies usually associated with energies of hot gases, can be captured by nuclei. These neutrons have energies typically about 0.03eV or 5 * 10-20 Joules. With this kinetic energy they have speeds of approximately 20000ms-1.
Because the neutrons have no charge, they can enter a nucleus without any coulombic repulsion and once in the nucleus fission occurs.
A typical induced (forced) fission of 235U by a neutron can be represented as shown in figure

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