A nuclear reactor works by putting 200 uranium rods together to make a fuel assembly. varying reactors use different amounts of fuel assemblies but most of them are over hundreds to make the reactor core. The fuel rods are then drowned in water inside the reactor vessel. The reason why they need to drown the vessel is to do two things, one to cool the rods to make sure they don’t overheat and two to moderate them. Water turns into steam because of nuclear fission, which spins a turbine to produce electricity.
Impact of scientific solution
Advantages
Environmental factor
An advantage of nuclear energy is how environmentally friendly, it is in the NEI Nuclear Energy Institute they said that overall they avoided 16811.83 tons of greenhouse gases which is a lot equivalent to 11207 cars.Nuclear energy also helps the environment by being a low carbon energy and emitting the least greenhouse gases while making the most energy the CO2 emission rate is four times less than solar. While producing over 200 million times the amount of energy than solar. This can power up to 800 houses and countries for example France which 70% of their energy is from nuclear energy and Ukraines which uses 50%.
Disadvantages
Ethical factor
Sadly nuclear is one of the biggest double edged swords with the highest energy rates and highest area to energy rate but it also has one of the highest danger rates with disasters like Chernobyl 1986 and Fukushima 2011 the two rated the highest seven on the INES International Nuclear Event Scale the highest ranking with a combined over 30000 victims dead and a combined 50km exclusion zone with the aftermath still present and billions dollars spent by Ukraine and Japan on the cleanup it is speculated that it will take over 40 years to clean them up also over half a million people evacuated.
Evaluation
The efficiency of nuclear energy is so high that most countries' highest contributing energy source is nuclear since it is so powerful but the thing holding it back is the fact that it is the risk of a catastrofe even if it is a very low chance.
Works Cited
“Annual Emissions Avoided by U.S. Nuclear Industry.” Nuclear Energy Institute, www.nei.org/resources/statistics/old/emissions-avoided-by-us-nuclear-industry.
Bottom Line. “The 10 States That Run on Nuclear Power.” NBC News, NBC News, 23 Feb. 2012, www.nbcnews.com/businessmain/10-states-run-nuclear-power-169050.
“Fission vs Fusion.” Photonics and Computer Systems, research.binus.ac.id/rigpcs/2013/12/06/fission-vs-fusion/#:~:text=The%20main%20difference%20between%20these.
Iaea. “Climate Change and Nuclear Power 2022.” Www.iaea.org, 19 Aug. 2020, www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-power-and-climate-change/climate-change-and-nuclear-power-2022.
“Is Nuclear Power a Renewable Energy?” Orano.group, www.orano.group/en/unpacking-nuclear/is-nuclear-power-a-renewable-energy.
Office of Nuclear Energy. “3 Reasons Why Nuclear Is Clean and Sustainable.” Energy.gov, Office of Nuclear Energy, 31 Mar. 2021, www.energy.gov/ne/articles/3-reasons-why-nuclear-clean-and-sustainable.
---. “NUCLEAR 101: How Does a Nuclear Reactor Work?” Energy.gov, Office of Nuclear Energy, 29 Mar. 2021, www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nuclear-101-how-does-nuclear-reactor-work.
Rutledge, Kim. “Nuclear Energy | National Geographic Society.” Education.nationalgeographic.org, 20 May 2022, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/nuclear-energy.
