Nuclear Energy: An Overview

Abstract

Nuclear energy is the way of the future. It is definitely economical. The only question has to do with the environment and the destruction of human cells of the workers giving them cancer and other unpalatable maladies: skin burns, blood conditions etc. A little mass of uranium gives rise to much energy: the loss of one gram of matter in Einstein’s equation releases energy sufficient to heat about 200 tonnes of water from 0 ^oC to 100 ^oC. Running a nuclear energy programme contends with the risk of radiation, accident, waste management , nuclear weapon proliferation, inadequate technology, negative and frightful politics, weak and inefficient government e.g in the third world. For all that, Fast Breeder Reactors seem to hold the promise of consuming present day nuclear waste stockpiles of U-238 while also meeting the world’s energy demands.

Keywords: energy, fission, fusion, reactor,  moderator, isotope, breeder reactor, fast reactor, chain reaction, half life, radioactive decay, nuclear waste.