Nuclear Power

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14, 586) Nuclear power plants generate
only about eleven percent of the world's electricity. There are around 316
nuclear power plants in the world that create 213,000 megawatts of electricity.
(INFOPEDIA) Radioactive, or nuclear, waste is the by-product of nuclear fission.
Fission occurs when atoms' nucleus' split and cause a nuclear reaction. (General
Information) When a free neutron splits a nucleus, energy is released along
with free neutrons, fission fragments that give off beta rays, and gamma rays.
A free neutron from the nucleus that just split splits another nucleus. This
process continues on and is called a chain reaction. (World Book vol. 14, 588)
The fission process is used to create heat, which boils water inside the nuclear
reactor. The steam that boiling the water makes is used to turn turbines, which
in turn, generate electricity. Fission happens inside a carefully monitored
nuclear reactor, when being used in a nuclear power plant. The fission process
that ...

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nuclear materials production at
defense facilities. This high-level waste must be isolated in a safe place for
thousands of years so its radioactivity can die down and not be harmful to
people and the environment. The name of the "safe place" that the Department of
Energy is trying to make is called a repository. But until a repository is made,
spent fuel and high-level waste is being stored in temporary storage facilities
called dry casks and cooling pools. By the end of the year 2000, there will be
more than 40,000 metric tons of high-level waste in casks and storage pools.
There will also be more than 8,000 metric tons of high-level waste from defense
programs. The high-level ...

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