According to the World Nuclear Association, the USA is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power. Nuclear power from the USA accounts for more than 30% of the worldwide nuclear generation of electricity.
Over the next 20 years, the world will depend heavily on cleanly-generated electricity. Nuclear power is one of the most environmentally-friendly ways of mass producing electricity on a large scale.
Because nuclear power is a complicated process, many people mistakenly believe that nuclear energy is harmful. While the development of nuclear power has had its rough patches in history, it’s currently one of our best alternatives to using fossil fuels for power.
To better understand nuclear energy’s role in our lives, let’s take a brief look at how it works and how it came to be.
How Does Nuclear Energy Work?
A nuclear reactor works similarly to a typical power plant. It uses energy to produce heat, which then turns water into steam. The steam pressure turns a generator, which produces electricity.
Unlike other power plants that run on fossil fuels, a nuclear power plant produces heat by splitting atoms, also known as nuclear fission.
Nuclear power plants rely on enriched uranium, a radioactive element found in rocks. Each uranium fuel pellet has millions of uranium nuclei, and when equipment splits these nuclei, the process releases a massive amount of energy. Some of this energy is radiation, but most of the energy is kinetic, which produces heat for the generators.
How Nuclear Energy Got Its Start
While nuclear energy sounds like a concept pulled out of a science fiction film, it actually had its humble beginnings when Rontgen discovered X-rays.
1895: The Discovery of the X-Ray
In 1895, Wilhelm Rontgen was experimenting with a Crookes tube, a glass gas bulb that gave off florescent light when a high-voltage current passed through it. He noticed the beam turned the screen a slightly greenish color, despite heavy black cardboard shielding the tube. He believed he was dealing with a new kind of ray, which he dubbed the “X-ray.”
The discovery of the X-ray eventually led to X-ray photos and the scientific work of Henri Becquerel. Becquerel observed that uranium salts sitting on photographic plates would expose the images, and he noted the energy must have been coming from the salts. He named the occurrence “radioactivity.”
Later, Ernest Rutherford studied radioactivity and its role in the atoms. He learned that the majority of the atom’s mass is in its center, which led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus, as well as his eventual discovery of gamma radiation.
1939: The Discovery of Fission
While many scientists during this era were experimenting with neutrons and other parts of the atom, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, and Lise Meitner were the first to note that the uranium atom split when it was barraged by neutrons. They called this process fission, after binary fission in biology.
Physicist Leo Szilard speculated that fission was capable of triggering a chain reaction. While he originally tried to create this reaction with beryllium and indium, these elements were unsuccessful. After hearing of Hahn, Meitner, and Strassman’s success, he concluded uranium would be capable of sustaining this reaction.
Szilard drafted a confidential letter discussing the possibility of nuclear weapons to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He approached Albert Einstein to sign the letter as well. With the help of Enrico Fermi, Szilard successfully created the first nuclear reactor.
1951: The Creation of the First Nuclear Power Plant
The discovery of fission and the use of the atom bomb led to an explosion of experiments involving nuclear energy. By 1951, scientists created the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity: Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 or EBR-1. When it first started, it produced enough electricity to light four 200-watt light bulbs. It later generated enough electricity to power its building.
This led to the creation of Shippingport Atomic Power Station, which was the world’s first full-scale atomic electrical power plant in the USA. Over its 25-year lifespan, it produced nearly 7.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.
Nuclear Energy Today
Currently the USA has 62 commercially-operating nuclear power plants, as well as 100 nuclear reactors. According to the World Nuclear Association, 6 new units may be working by 2020.
Due to developments in technology and safety procedures, nuclear power plants are safer today than they’ve ever been, and no catastrophic events have occurred for over 30 years.
However, a few individuals still worry about the potential risks of nuclear energy generation. In March 2002, inspectors found a 6-inch boric acid-created hole in a reactor vessel in Ohio. Only the outer layer of stainless steel remained as a protective boundary.
In the future, the age of equipment will have a negative impact on nuclear power plant safety. Whether the USA will be able to properly maintain nuclear equipment for over 100 reactors remains to be seen.
But with careful maintenance, nuclear reactors could continue to be a reliable way to produce energy while reducing carbon emissions.