Nuclear Energy
Nuclear Power Plants:
Nuclear Power Plants are facilities which generate electricity through the use of nuclear reactions. It is referred to as a thermal power station because it creates a nuclear reaction, in which a lot of heat and energy is created. Due to the production of heat, the plan creates a lot of steam which is used like in coal or gas-fired power stations to drive turbine generators to generate electricity.
Nuclear Reactions
The are two nuclear reactions capable of producing immense amounts of heat and energy, one being fission and the other fusion. The fusion reaction involves two atoms which will smash together and merge to produce its energy. Meanwhile, a fission reaction will use one atom which …show more content…
This usually happens because the reactor core of the power plant overheats due to the inadequate process of cooldown or something happened to the rods which regulate the chain reaction. This makes the fission chain reaction unstoppable and will cause the reactor core to explode, and also it will melt the uranium rods in the process. When it explodes, there is a release of nuclear fallout because this is a nuclear explosion. Nuclear fallout is very dangerous as it contains high amounts of radiation and is spread when the wind pushes it. It can contaminate very vast quantities of land very fast as currents of air always move. Two such incidents can be seen at the Chernobyl and Fukushima power …show more content…
It took place on April 26, 1986, in the city of Chernobyl and Prypiat, Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster involved a newly build power plant which was composed of 4 nuclear reactors exploding and causing significant damages around Europe. This occurred when trying to shut down reactor number four. A sudden power surge took place at which point the reactor was not receiving sufficient amount of water to keep it cool. There was a backup generator which is supposed to be initiated within 15 seconds of the power going out but it took 60 seconds for the emergency generator to reach full power instead. At that point, the reactor overheated and exploded releasing radioactive decay. This nuclear meltdown was stopped by pouring lots of neutron absorbent into the reactor which stopped the fire and also the water under the reactor was drained to prevent further explosions from