Tag: nuclear energy

In nuclear power plants, the heat generated by nuclear fission is used to boil water, create steam, and drive turbines that generate electricity.

Coolant is used to remove the heat produced from the reactor core. This heat is then transferred to the electrical generators or the environment. Water, liquid sodium, helium and carbon dioxide are most commonly used coolants.

Nuclear fusion releases significantly more energy per unit mass of fuel compared to nuclear fission, which is why it is the process that powers the sun.

A hydrogen bomb (thermonuclear weapon) relies on uncontrolled nuclear fusion, usually triggered by an initial fission reaction.

Nuclear fusion produces far less radioactive waste compared to nuclear fission, making it a cleaner energy source in terms of pollution.

Nuclear fusion requires overcoming the electrostatic repulsion between positively charged nuclei, which necessitates extremely high temperatures and pressures.

U-235 is fissile, meaning it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction, which is a property often associated with its instability in the context of nuclear reactors compared to the more abundant U-238.

Atom bombs (fission bombs) operate by splitting heavy nuclei like Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239, releasing a massive amount of energy in a very short time.

Enrichment is the process of increasing the concentration of the isotope U-235 relative to U-238, as U-235 is required for nuclear fission in reactors.