Nuclear Energy Part 1: A Primer

Nuclear Energy Part 1: A Primer

First installment of:
Saving the World Through Nuclear Energy, Part One

This series comes out of my conviction that we need zero-carbon nuclear energy as a component of our energy sources in the short run, in combination with increased utilization of renewable sources of energy. The risk of worsening climate change by greenhouse gas emissions released in the burning of fossil fuels is a global emergency. This first installment presents a brief history of nuclear power, and offers a primer on how it works. Subsequent installments address the many issues, concerns and new concepts in nuclear power. I hope you enjoy!

Image Attributions:

Problems with carbon
US National Park Service, public domain
Boxer: Photo by Expect Best from

Modified by me

Earth on fire
Public domain - Pixabay

Fukushima Graffiti
thierry ehrmann
CC BY 2.0

Chernobyl Disaster Aftermath:very extensive damage to the main reactor hall (image center) and turbine building (image lower left)

Fukushima aftermath

New reactor
Galena Reactor modified by me

Sleeping dog
Public domain

Einstein 1905

E=MC2
Pixabay, public domain

Lise Meitner
Archives of the Max Planck Society

Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, 1913
Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn, Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute, Berlin • "...the National Archives identifies the man as Ernest Rutherford, but other sources agree in labeling this a picture of Meitner and Hahn...". The U.S. DOE Office of History
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.

Otto Hahn Bombarding uranium stamp, 1979
Deutsche Bundespost [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Uranium splitting with barium as decay product
Wikimedia Commons, creator requests no attribution

Trinity Test, 1945
U.S. Department of Energy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Nuclear chain reaction

Hiroshima after atomic bomb
U.S. Navy Public Affairs Resources Website [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Generic power plant
Tennessee Valley Authority [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Uranium enrichment by centrifuge
U.S. Department of Energy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
U.S. gas centrifuge plant in Piketon, Ohio from 1984

Control rods
Modified by me
Pbech [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons:
“Schematic drawing of control rods in a nuclear reactor. With the control rods down, the reaction is subcritical: too many neutrons are absorbed for a chain reaction to take place. Pulling up the rods makes the reactor critical, and the fuel rods start producing heat.”

Thermal nuclear reactor diagram
User:Aarchiba [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Water as moderator and coolant

Thumbnail:
Earth on fire
Public domain - Pixabay
Modified by me

[NomenNescio]

Actually, the moderator slows down neutrons to increase the likelihood of it causing a split.

The unit is called a "barn", and it tells us how big an atoms nuclear appear to be be from the viewpoint of the neutron. For a given isotope it varies with the energy level of the neutron.