Nuclear Energy

NUCLEAR

ENERGY

HISTORY

1847- Start conversation of energy

1876- Goldstein’ experiment

1895- Wilhelm Roentgen

1896- Becquerel

1898- Rutherford

1911- Thomson atomic model

1913- Hypothesis Bohr

1914- Protons

1939- Bohr uranium fragmentation

1942- Fermi atomic battery- Great Britain

1945- White sands

1956- First nuclear central

1957- International agency of atomic power

ADVANTAGES

1/3 of energy produced in Europe is from nuclear energy, this supposes this issue 700 millions of tons of CO2 and other types pollutants produce for burning of fossil combustible.

Actually we consumed more fossil combustibles than others which in the future can’t exist. The fossil combustibles decline the problems with global warming.

One of the advantages more important of this energy is the relation between the amount of combustible used and the energy obtained.

How the energy, we can used coil and oil, avoid the problem of global warming

It can improve the air that we use to hearth, thanks to this decline diseases and the quality of life.

One little energy of this is to road transport.

DISADVANTAGES

The most important disadvantages of nuclear energy it’s the use because is very dangerous for humans. If we don’t take responsible decisions can produce accidents in nuclear centrals but, most dangerous, it can use for military ideas. (One of these things for example is the attack in Japan in the World War 2 with two nuclear bombs).

In civil navel, one of principal disadvantages is the generation of nuclear wasters and the difficult for sort because they are meet very long time for lose radioactivity and dangerousness.

In the countries of produce nuclear energy for maintain the number of active reactors should built 80 new reactors in next 10 years.

Is good in economic is profitable, but if we talk from point of look of combustible consumed respect of energy obtained, there isn’t much if we change the costs of construction and put nuclear plant (live 40 years).

Disadvantages of security system now increased with international terrorism. Besides proliferation of nuclear energy that forced return to plutonium as fuel.

If the security system doesn’t go good the control system can fail and produce radioactive explosion.

This energy is very expensive because the temperature, gas and pressure in core produce a little of nuclear energy.

WHERE THEY ARE?

IN THE WORLD

As you can see in the map the principal groups of nuclear centrals are in:

· United States especially in the east

· Europe mostly in western and central Europe

· Western and Easter Asia especially in India and Japan

The places where there´re more nuclear plants are in United States ,like we can see before, France and Japan.

PLACES	NUMBER OF CENTRALS
E.E.U.U.	104
FRANCE	58
JAPAN	50
RUSSIA	33
SOUTH COREA	21

Actually we´re building new nuclear plants for produce more nuclear energy and the places where they are building more centrals are in China, Russia and India.

PLACES	NEW CONSTRUCTION
CHINA	26
RUSSIA	10
INDIA	7
SOUTH COREA	5
JAPAN	2

IN SPAIN

In Spain there´re are 7 plants:

2 nuclear centrals in Almaraz (Caceres)

2 nuclear plants in Ascó (Tarragona)

1 in Cofrentes(Valencia), Trillo (Guadalajara) and Vandellos( Tarragona)

The other plant in Vandellos, Santa Maria de Garoña and Jose Cabrera stopped to work and they are going to take away them.

Finally in Cabril( Cordoba) there´s a storage of radioactive waste with low and intermediate activity. And a fabric of fuel in Juzbado (Salamanca)

COST

I divided the cost in four parts:

CONSTRUCTION

Now the construction of a nuclear central have a cost of 4.000 million € for each gigawatt of power.

PERFOMANCE

It work 24 hours/day but every years it stop for revise the machines so it can work 7.780 hours per year and it produce 5.750 gigawatt. This cost 609.500.000€, and include:

· Energy for make it work to produce nuclear energy

· Cost of capital for pay the employers and the materials that they use.

· Cost of operations that the personal made in the central like the fusion of atoms to produce plutonium

· Maintenance of the central for don´t produces any accident such as the revisions that they do all the years in the centrals for see its state.

· Transmission and transport of the energy to the different places in the world

PRODUCTION

They´re the cheapest energy as we can see in the table, it cost 5.3€ per kWh. In 2012 they produce 21% of the electricity in Spain

OTHERS

Safe the waste that is produced in the processes to obtain the energy need a special contained to prevent any problem for the environment. The security to avoid any accident need specials systems like the refrigeration system for cool the reactors. And the process to take away a central that is very slow and sometimes complicate have a cost of 64.000.200€ per reactor. Normally nuclear plants have several reactors.

HOW IT WORKS

The water enter in to a tube driven by a water pump. Little by little go inside the reactor core, here it’s heated by the reaction of nuclear fission, that rises the temperature and the water pressure.

In the place where the water is heated ( reactor) there are some uranium bars that control the nuclear reaction.

After that water goes to the secondary circuit. In the steam generator, the water becomes gaseous. By that way , it’s driven to the turbines. Finally they move with high speed.

The turbines and the generator transform mechanical energy to electricity, and this electricity goes to the current.

At the end, steam gets colder because of the temperature exchange that it’s produce in the cooling towers, because og the water of the river or the sea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igf96TS3Els

FACILITIES

· 448 nuclear reactors in commercial operation

· Power plants installed in developed countries

· 144 nuclear reactors in the European Union

TYPES

FISSION

· The discovers are Otto Han and Fris Starsman

· It’s the most popular form in the nuclear power plant

· It produce the “ chain effect “:

A neutron broke an Uranium nucleus. It start to divided in two parts and the result is that it is divided in two nucleus and produce energy and more neutrons. These neutrons do the same processes. And we called chain effect. All of this process produce energy that we use it to heat the water.

FUSION

· The discover is Andrei Sakarou

· Nowadays the scientist still investigating this process

· It’s less common than fission

· The fusion make that the nucleus get together:

We have one neutron and three nucleus and when they get together, they produce energy. We use this energy to heat the water.

Environmental impact

Nuclear power plants emit lows levels of radioactivity. This radioactivity affects the fauna, the vegetation and the humans. This radioactivity changes the NDA of the animals, plants, and humans. When the radioactivity changes the NDA this alteration produces cancer.
Also, when we use water in the process to obtained nuclear energy, this water can be alternated in the temperature. When the water cool the reactor, the temperature of the water increase. This increase of temperature kills water plants and water animals.

The nuclear power can be use for terrorism, because terrorists use it for produce nuclear bombs and army. The nuclear bombs can produce a lot of damage and destruction in the explosion, and radioactivity to. In many countries is prohibited by the laws.

How can we prevent it? Well, we can use contained barriers in nuclear reactors, anti-microwaves costumes for pick up radioactive elements, a lot of security controls in the nuclear power plant with regular inspections in the security controls.

Chernóbil

- Чорнобильська катастрофа

- Date: 26th April 1986

- Northwest of Ukraine (URSS)

- Suddenly increased the reactor 4 power

- 500 times the nuclear bomb of Hiroshima

- Worst nuclear accident in history, there died 31 people

- After that, there was radioactivity in 13 countries

- Government didn’t let people pass, neither to leave in an area of 30km in all directions

- Near 200.000 received 100 miliSieverts; 20.000, 250 mSv and some people 500 mSv

- 10.000 mSv can kill a human in a month

- Nowadays, we don’t know the real consequences