BC: From United States to United Kingdom to Ukraine to Japan, many nuclear accidents had happened in the past years. This book tells you information about nuclear energy, radiation, nuclear meltdowns and explosions worldwide.
FC: Nuclear Energy
1: What is Nuclear Energy? | Nuclear energy is used of sustained nuclear reaction to create power such as electricity and heat. Nuclear power plants provide 6% of the world's energy and 13-14 percentage as electricity. There are levels from 1-7 of nuclear energy. 1 is the weakest. 7 is the strongest.
2: Nuclear energy works similar like fossil fuel burning except that chain reaction makes the heat instead, | How does Nuclear Energy work? | The reactor uses Uranium rods as fuel. The heat is created by nuclear reaction. Then, neutrons smash into nucleus which will split roughly in half and release energy to create heat.
3: The steam will allow it to move the turbines to generate power.
4: Real Life Examples | Some of real life examples are the explosions and nuclear fuel rods melting at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. This event occurred a week after the Sendai earthquake and tsunami. The nuclear alert level was raised from 4-5.
5: In history, only one nuclear explosion have got to level 7. That is the Chernobyl in 1986. | In 2010, another incident happened in Japan. The nuclear reactor was called Onagawa, level five nuclear reactor cause a fire after the Sendai earthquake and tsunami.
6: Short term effects that affect the environment | When nuclear energy is mishandled, it can be very harmful. It releases radiation. The radiation can burn skin and leave blisters for people. These waves can even kill people and animals miles away. When a meltdown occurs to the reactor, it can destroy a whole city.
8: The energy source when using the nuclear energy is uranium. Uranium is a scarce resource which can only supply for another 30-60 years. If people keep using uranium for nuclear energy, then uranium can't be use for other resource such as manufacture weapons and etc. Without these weapons, terrorist can invade and attack a country. | Long term effects that affect the environment
9: Another problem is that nuclear energy is build in the environment. This causes global warming. This will leave animals nowhere to live, causing some animals becoming extinct. Some animals extinct due to global warming are the Chinese river dolphin and the Woolly mammoths.
10: How safe is it when using nuclear energy? | When using nuclear energy properly, nuclear energy can be very safe. To keep safe for the workers while in the power plant, they wear special protective clothing. They also carry machines along with them to test the air. When the machine sense radiation, an alarm will go off.
11: When workers are handling fuel, they stay behind thick walls with glass windows. Then, they control robots that do the work near the radiation
12: What concerns are there if nuclear energy is disposed? | By the year of 2001, more than 430 power plant is operating around the world. More than a quarter of them are from the United States. If the power plants are disposed, then a quarter of America will not have electricity. That quarter of America will have to try to generate electricity using another resource.
13: Also, not only the Americans, but 50 percent of France and Belgium got their electricity by using nuclear power. It is going to be very controversial when the power plants are disposed in those areas. | Since 1955, United States Navy had used nuclear energy to power aircrafts. Without nuclear power, submarines can't travel long distances
14: Real Life examples of Nuclear Meltdowns | Back in December of 2009, Hamaoka happened in Japan. There was a leakage accident of radio active water. 34 workers were exposed by radiation
15: In 1975 at Browns Ferry, USA, an explosion cause fire burning for seven hours. More than 1600 control cables in the three power plants got damaged, disabling the core cooling system. The damage adds up to 240 million | In 1979, in Middle Town,Pennsylvania, The Three Mile Island cost more than 2400 million in damage due to Loss of coolant and partial core meltdown
16: Real Life examples of Nuclear Meltdowns, continue... | In 1989, Germany, a near core meltdown occurs at Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant. Three of the six pumps were switched off for a test. The fourth pump broke down and the control of the reactor was lost. This incident cost 443 million damage in total
17: In Mihama, Japan, 2004, a steam explosion occur at the Mihama-3 station in Japan. The investigation reveals that a lack of inspection in Japans' nuclear power plants. This led to a massive inspection program.
18: What Causes Nuclear Meltdowns? | A meltdown can only happen, if the power plant is unable to release heat from fuel. This happens when the cooling system in the power plant fails to work and failure of the reactor protection system to shut down the reactor for protection. ,
19: What Causes Radiation? | In order for a release of radiation, there has to be a major failure of the containment structure. For this to occur, the containment structure must get overpressure and failure of the containment isolation system such as valves, lines to close.
20: Causes of Containment Overpressure | When containment gets overpressure, a steam explosion can happen in the vessel, or dropping at least 20% of the fuel mass of a molten core. Also, heating of the containment atmosphere due to the failure of the containment cooling and spray systems.
21: How to prepare for a nuclear accident | To prepare for a nuclear incident, make sure there are survival food( can food) and water to ensure comfortability at your home without going out for weeks. If a radiation does happen, do not panic. Make sure that you have a plan of what you are going to do when a nuclear accident occur. For example, having a bug out bag packed. Finally, watching the news to get up to date on what's going on around you.
22: People Helping People | After a nuclear accident, victims might need rescue and food desperately, it is important to donate food to others. This can save many lives from the injured victims. Victims might also need to recover. It is important to lend them a place to live until their home can be rebuild from the nuclear explosion.
23: Measuring Nuclear Energy | The power level of nuclear energy are from the level 1-7. 1 is the weakest. 7 is the strongest. Scientists use detector chamber to test out the power level of the power plant Also, these instruments can detect reactor power increasingly too rapidly and can shutdown the reactor if necessary.
24: Disaster Countries | Nuclear meltdowns can happen worldwide, but the chances of happening are very slim. The nuclear power industry has improve the safety and performances of the reactors. They've even designed newer and safer reactors. However, there are no guarantees that a nuclear power plant can operate perfectly. Sometimes, even perfect machines do make mistakes .
25: The Future of Nuclear Energy | In the future, nuclear energy will be use more carefully due to accidents happen before. Experts will do more inspections frequently to make sure the power plant is safe when operating. If power plants get old, they might shut them down in case of another accident.