When we talk about nuclear energy we immediately relate it to the production of electricity and to various historical events, such as the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl on September 9, 1982 and, as the most recent nuclear disaster, the earthquake and tsunami accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011. Nuclear power is relatively young, having come into use not long ago weather. The first nuclear bomb that was created was by the US during World War II and it was from then on that this type of nuclear energy began to be used in the civil world, after verifying its potential. From this moment the first nuclear power plants began to be developed in order to use nuclear energy to generate electricity.
Currently, France is the leading country in nuclear energy production, followed by the US, Sweden and Russia. Most of nuclear energy is generated through nuclear fission in nuclear reactors to generate electricity and by harnessing the heat generated by fission. If you are interested in knowing the uses and the way in which this energy is obtained, keep reading this interesting article by Green Ecologist about 10 examples of nuclear energy and its uses.
What is nuclear energy and how is it produced?
Nuclear energy is that which is obtained from the atoms in a plant nuclear, specifically of the energy inside its core. An atom is the smallest or smallest unit of an element, its nucleus is composed of neutrons and protons and in its orbit it has several electrons, the number of electrons depends on the type of chemical element in question.
What are the types of nuclear energy? There are two types of nuclear energy that exist. To release this energy from the interior of the atoms, fission or nuclear fusion must occur in a controlled environment in a nuclear plant, it is not possible to release this energy chemically.
Nuclear fision
Nuclear fission releases energy from inside atoms through fragmentation. For this division to occur, the atomic nucleus is bombarded by neutrons to make it more unstable and decomposes into two nuclei with the same mass.
Null Fusion
Nuclear fusion releases energy after the union of two atomic nuclei that fuse after colliding at very high speeds to obtain a new atomic nucleus. The energy that is useful results from how much of the matter in the nuclei is transformed into photons.
Regarding the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy We can say that the most relevant thing is that nuclear energy allows reducing the use of fossil fuels and therefore reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, as well as the amount of electrical energy that is produced since nuclear power plants are operating all the time . As a disadvantage we have the great catastrophes mentioned at the beginning of the article that use this type of energy in armed conflicts. You can delve into this topic with this other post on the Advantages and Disadvantages of nuclear energy.
The uses of nuclear energy are diverse, the most common of which is the production of electricity, different ones will be named below. examples of nuclear energy and its applications:
- Generation of electricity.
- Military applications and nuclear weapons.
- Nuclear medicine.
- Pest control in food crops.
- Food preservation.
- Nuclear cars.
- Water purification.
- Space missions.
- Archaeological finds.
- Nuclear mining.
Generation of electricity
It is the best known and most common use of nuclear energy, since electricity It is a necessary resource in today's society for its development. They generate large amounts of energy in an inexpensive way from uranium atoms through nuclear fission.
You can learn more about this example of the use of nuclear energy by knowing more about what is electrical energy and examples.
Nuclear weapons and other military applications
The industries dedicated to the manufacture of armaments are always the pioneers in new technologies, even in the field of nuclear energy. Two uses of nuclear energy stand out in this field: propulsion and explosion.
On the one hand, propulsion It is used as a source of heat and electricity, as an example we have the case of military aircrafts, and on the other hand, The explosion that causes a chain of nuclear reactions, as an example we can indicate the atomic bomb.
Nuclear medicine
In medicine, nuclear energy is used for both diagnostic tests and x-rays, like to give treatments, like radiotherapy against cancer. More and more patients around the world have been treated with nuclear energy, since it gives good results and quickly, although not without some side effects.
Application of nuclear energy to food: pests and conservation
This technique is based on the pest control using nuclear powered radiation that causes the sterilization of insects, is a technique that has both defenders, who assure that it does not affect food or the people who consume them, as detractors who are in favor of traditional production methods and see several drawbacks in this app.
This technique with nuclear energy will allow extend the life of food that spoil quickly, such as fruit or fish.
Nuclear cars
It is proposed to use the nuclear power for cars in order to limit carbon dioxide pollution. One of the bets that are being developed is the creation of a battery that works with hydrogen that would be in charge of feeding the car for its movement.
Space missions
For these missions the chemical element from which the energy is extracted is the Plutonium-238, its energy is obtained by Nuclear fision to generate heat or electricity that will be used in space probes. This technique has already been used on missions to Saturn, Jupiter, and Pluto. The last mission to use this nuclear energy was on Mars.
Archaeological finds
In this activity the nucleating energy is used to determine the age of archaeological finds, geological or anthropological by means of a test with radioactive carbon, Carbon 14. Carbon 14 has a radioactive isotope that allows us to determine the years of any remnant that has organic matter.
Nuclear mining
Mining is an activity that implies a strong impact on the environment, since to be carried out requires deforestation, loss of biodiversity, erosion, contamination of aquifers and also requires a large amount of energy that is currently obtained from fuels fossils, specifically diesel.
For this reason, various projects have been proposed to obtain this energy from nuclear energy and, for this, they would be built small nuclear power plants near the place where the mining activity.
Water purification
This application is very useful for countries that have severe droughts and scarcity of fresh or potable water, but at the moment it is not easily applied. Thanks to the heat generated in the Nuclear reactors could be used for seawater desalination in a fast and efficient way, guaranteeing its potability and solving the great problem of the drought that affects so many countries.
Now that you know various examples of the uses of nuclear energy, we encourage you to learn more about it with this video about its advantages and disadvantages.
If you want to read more articles similar to Examples of nuclear energy, we recommend that you enter our category of non-renewable energies.
