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Nuclear Power by Sean So, 10 W


 * __Introduction __**

What is nuclear power? According to Wikipedia’s definition “Nuclear power is any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nuclei via controlled nuclear reactions”. The power which is usually electrical or motive power is produced either by nuclear fission or fusion. A nuclear fission is a reaction in which a larger atomic nucleus breaks apart into two roughly equal, smaller nuclei while a nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two small nuclei combine with each other to form one larger nucleus.

Today, nuclear power plants provide more than 17 percent of electricity and there are about 400 nuclear power plants in the world, operating in 31 countries. Many countries have generated about 50 percent of electricity by using their nuclear power plants. The United States, France and Japan account together more than 56% of nuclear generated electricity of the world’s energy with France producing the highest percentage of its electrical energy, 76% as of 2007.


 * __How do nuclear power plants work? __**

There are six different parts in a nuclear power plant. They are the fuel, reactor, pressurizer, steam generator, turbine and condenser coolant.


 * The Fuel ** - The origin source of nuclear energy is powered by the fuel known as uranium which is manufactured into small pieces of round pellets about an inch long that produces the same amount of energy as coal. It is then placed into over 200 fuel rods which are about 12 feet long and grouped together known as fuel assembly.


 * Pressurizer ** - The third part is the pressurizer. When heat is produced in the reactor, it is transferred to the primary coolant which is the first water system. The primary coolant is heated to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit. With the pressurized water reactor, it keeps the water under pressure to prevent it from boiling.


 * Steam generator ** - The steam generator is the fourth part and whereby the hot, pressurized water passes through thousands of tubes in the steam generators. These tubes are then surrounded by the secondary coolant or known as the second water system. The heat from the primary coolant is transferred to the secondary coolant which then turns into steam. Both primary and secondary systems are closed systems ensuring it does not mix with the water from the other systems or the lake and hopefully, there will be no leakage of radioactive water outside of the nuclear plant.


 * Turbine **- The fifth part is the turbine in which steam is put into the turbine building from the containment building to push the big blades of the turbine. The turbine is linked to an electric generator by a rotating shaft. As the turbine blades begin to spin, the generator at the same time also turns to generate electricity.

In summing up briefly, a nuclear power plant uses Uranium-235 to power its core. The uranium is formed into rods and then dipped into water. The water heats up very quickly to create steam; the steam is ultimately channeled and forces turbine blades to spin. It is the turbine that creates the needed energy. This is a highly effective method of creating energy. In fact, 1 pound of the uranium-235 can create the same amount of energy as 1 million gallons of gasoline.
 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Condenser Coolant **<span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> - Finally, the condenser coolant forms the third water system whereby the steam is cooled by passing it over the tubes in this system. Steam is cooled so that it condenses back into water and is returned to the steam generator to be reused again and again.