Nuclear Power
...plants. Thermal power plants use fuel to boil water which
makes steam. The steam turns turbines that generate electricity. Hydroelectric
power plants use the great force of rushing water from a dam or a waterfall to
turn the turbines. The majority of thermal power plants burn fossil fuels
because thermal power plants are cheaper to maintain and have to meet less of
the governments requirements compared to nuclear power plants. Fossil fuels are
coal and oil. The downfall of using fossil fuels is that they are limited.
Fossil fuels are developed from the remains of plants and animals that died
millions of years ago. Burning fossil fuels has other downfalls, too. All the
burning that is required to turn the turbines releases much sulfur, nitrogen
gases, and other pollutants into the atmosphere. The cleanest, cheapest, and
least polluting power plant of the two types is the hydroelectric power plant.
The main reason most countries use thermal versus the hydroelectric is because
their countries don't have enough concentrated water to create enough energy to
generate electricity. (World Book vol. 14, 586) Nuclear power plants generate
only about eleven percent of the world's electricity. There are around 316
nuclear power plants in the world that create 213,000 megawatts of electricity.
(INFOPEDIA) Radioactive, or nuclear, waste is the by-product of nuclear fission.
Fission occurs when atoms' nucleus' split and cause a nuclear reaction. (General
Information) When a free neutron splits a nucleus, energy is released along
with free neutrons, fission fragments that give off beta rays, and gamma rays.
A free neutron from the nucleus that just split splits another nucleus. This
process continues on and is called a chain reaction. (World Book vol. 14, 588)
The fission process is used to create heat, which boils water inside the nuclear
reactor. The steam that...
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