Task 5: Nuclear Power

The first commercial nuclear power stations started operation in the 1950s. “The first nuclear reactor to be connected to an electricity distribution network in the United States began operation in 1957 at Shippingport, Pennsylvania”(Microsoft Encarta 2008). Today some 435 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries, with 370,000 MWe of total capacity and over 16% of the world's electricity is produced from nuclear energy, more than from all sources worldwide in 1960. “By 2001, 435 nuclear power plants were operating in 33 countries”(Microsoft Encarta 2008).
A nuclear reactor produces and controls the release of energy from splitting the atoms of certain elements. In a nuclear power reactor, the energy released is used as heat to make steam to generate electricity. (In a research reactor the main purpose is to utilise the actual neutrons produced in the core. In most naval reactors, steam drives a turbine directly for propulsion.)
The principles for using nuclear power to produce electricity are the same for most types of reactor. The energy released from continuous fission of the atoms of the fuel is harnessed as heat in either a gas or water, and is used to produce steam. The steam is used to drive the turbines which produce electricity (as in most fossil fuel plants).”The product of fission a reaction (a neutron incident upon a U235) emerge with very large kinetic energy (some 200 MeV)” ( Duderstadt and Hamilton 1942:10).
Reference:

Duderstadt J. J. & Hamilton L. J. (1942). Nuclear reactor analysis. JOHN WILLEY & SONS, Inc: New York.

Microsoft Encarta 2008