- Answered - Considered a clean energy source yet highly controversial. Nuclear power plants can continuously generate large-scale, around-the-clock electricity for many months at a time, without interruption. As is typical in all conventional thermal power stations the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity. The reactor is the heat source for the power plant, just like the boiler is for a coal plant. It’s not new. As well as being the unwilling workplace of Homer Simpson, the nuclear power station is the breeding ground of civil nuclear power across the world. Nuclear power is clean, efficient, and cheap. These plants are always on: well-operated to avoid interruptions and built to withstand extreme weather, supporting the grid 24/7. Nuclear power plants use heat produced during nuclear fission to heat water. Each uranium fuel pellet provides up to five years of heat for power generation. These facilities are running out of storage space, so the nuclear industry is turning to other types of storage that are more costly and potentially less safe (2). Currently, there are no long-term storage solutions for radioactive waste, and most is stored in temporary, above-ground facilities. Protecting nuclear reactors and safeguarding nuclear material should be a central concern for everyone interested in nuclear power. Nuclear powers space exploration, sterilizes medical equipment, provides potable water through desalination, supplies radioisotopes for cancer treatment and much more. In the late 1930s, it was discovered that some particularly large atoms can split in two (or fission), releasing a shockingly large amount of energy. The resultant steam turns generators to create electricity. GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is a world-leading provider of advanced reactor technology and nuclear services. Uranium is the dominant nuclear fuel used in nuclear reactors, and its fission reactions are what produce the heat within a reactor. This process is called fission. Many redundant safety systems are built to keep the plant operating safely. The reactor is a key component of a power plant, as it contains the fuel and its nuclear chain reaction, along with all of the nuclear waste products. In nuclear fission, atoms are split apart to form smaller atoms, releasing energy. The heat source in the nuclear power plant is a nuclear reactor. In almost all countries risks and non-direct costs are passed on to the government (the public, the taxpayers); longterm management of the waste, security of the nuclear power plant, costs of transport for instance. An energy source that has zero emissions, provides electricity around-the-clock and propels our society into the future? Nuclear power offers many benefits for the environment as well. A nuclear weapon (also called an atom bomb, nuke, atomic bomb, nuclear warhead, A-bomb, or nuclear bomb) is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or from a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb).Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. Powering communities. Commercial nuclear power plants range in size from about 60 megawatts for the first generation of plants in the early 1960s, to over 1000 megawatts. Nuclear power - revive it or allow a slow death? Nuclear power plants use low-enriched uranium fuel to produce electricity through a process called fission—the splitting of uranium atoms in a nuclear reactor. Nuclear power, electricity generated by power plants that derive their heat from fission in a nuclear reactor. Nuclear power plants are extremely expensive and hard to finance. nuclear: [adjective] of, relating to, or constituting a nucleus. Nuclear energy comes from splitting atoms in a reactor to heat water into steam, turn a turbine and generate electricity. Steam is generated with the thermal energy generated. A typical nuclear reactor uses enriched uranium—usually uranium 235 or plutonium 239—to generate power. Nuclear power is generated by splitting atoms to release the energy held at the core, or nucleus, of those atoms. READ ABOUT THE ADVANTAGES OF NUCLEAR ENERGY, SEE WHAT NUCLEAR ENERGY OFFERS BEYOND ELECTRICITY, Reactor Developers Are Building a Pipeline of Carbon-Free Technology, Advanced Reactors Will Stand on the Shoulders of Giants, Nuclear Energy in a Low-Carbon Energy Future, Nuclear Energy: Essential Clean Energy for a Low-Carbon Economy. When it comes to efficiency and reliability, no other electricity source can match nuclear. 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