increasing need for energy caused by growth of universal standards of production and consumption global reliance on fossil fuels

s and large hydro trend will remain at least until 2020 year, but it will not be enough to satisfy the growing needs of people

The Manhattan Project

This project costs United States over $2

billions, all for the bomb, as no work was being done on other applications of nuclear energy

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 1945 December 1951, the first nuclear reactor to produce electricity and sited in Idaho, USA

 Nuclear fission splitting the atom The fission process often produces free neutrons and photons (in the form of gamma rays), and releasing a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactive decay.

A schematic nuclear fission chain reaction.

Fusion offers important advantages: no carbon emissions, no air pollution, unlimited fuel, and is intrinsically safe. While fusion technology is not at the deployment stage, the potential is substantial. The fusion reaction is about four million times more energetic than a chemical reaction such as the burning of coal, oil or gas. Nuclear fusion is the energy source of the future.

In a nuclear-fueled power plant much like a fossil-fueled power plant water is turned into steam, which in turn drives turbine generators to produce electricity. The difference is the source of heat. At nuclear power plants, the heat to make the steam is created when uranium atoms split called fission. There is no combustion in a nuclear reactor. There are two types of nuclear reactors in the United States:
Pressurized Water Reactors (also known as PWRs) Boiling Water Reactors (also known as BWRs)

Pressurized Water Reactors (also known as PWRs) keep water under pressure so that it heats, but does not boil. This heated water is circulated through tubes in steam generators, allowing the water in the steam generators to turn to steam, which then turns the turbine generator. Water from the reactor and the water that is turned into steam are in separate systems and do not mix.

In Boiling Water Reactors (also known as BWRs), the water heated by fission actually boils and turns into steam to turn the turbine generator. In both PWRs and BWRs, the steam is turned back into water and can be used again in the process.

Meltdowns
Three Mile Island 1979 Chernobyl 1986 Fukushima 2011

Waste disposal
Nuclear waste disposal will cost US $96B Waste will remain radioactive for 10,000

years

Little polution
Power plants on coal emit more radiation

into the air than a nuclear power plant

Reliability
Low consumption of fuel

 The

end.