As Robert Oppenheimer "Father of Atomic Bomb" witnessed the power and destruction of the nuclear weapon on 16th July,1945 ,a verse from the Bhagavad Gita ran through his mind :-
'Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds'
Since the miracle year paper about "Electrodynamics of moving bodies" scientists were mesmerized. The mass being a direct measure of energy was unthought of. E=Mc^2 was something that people of that era couldn’t grasp. Researchers were struggling with its physical implications until they were struck by the power its possesed. An amount mass is condensed energy, in other words a small mass can be converted to immense amount of energy. This tremendous source was uncontrollable at that era and thus gave rise to "destruction" itself. The nuclear bomb was born.
The process of nuclear fission was discovered on 17th December, 1938 by German Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann. This nuclear phenomenon was brought into limelight after the infamous man made catastrophe in August 1945. Two atom bombs named "Little boy" and "Fat man" were detonated in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which marked the end of WWII. Despite of the fact that the world came to know about such potential of Nuclear Fission through these blood curdling events, it has been gaining constant development and popularity in the power generation sector.
"Einstein-Roosevelt Letter, Request for research on Nuclear Bomb"Nuclear Fission is a kind of Nuclear reaction in which a heavy, unstable(Radioactive) atomic nucleus splits into to two or more lighter atomic nuclei releasing enormous amount of energy along with gamma radiation and other particles.In the engineered nuclear devices, the main process used is Nuclear fission for power generation .These devices uses subatomic particle bombardment driven nuclear fission reaction. Harnessing the energy in an atomic nuclei by nuclear fission has been a foremost research field in nuclear engineering and nuclear physics.
New aspects evolve as we go beyond the natural radioactive regime of nuclear decay and study nuclear reactions by bombarding nuclei with other nuclear particles such as protons ,neutrons and alpha-particles.
Nuclear Power:-
Nuclear power is the use of heat produced in a nuclear reactors through fission reaction.This heat is used to drive a turbine for electricity generation in a nuclear power plant.The first instance of usage of nuclear power was done by the U.S. Navy, with the S1W reactor for propelling of submarines and aircraft carriers. The first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, was put to sea in January 1954.The first nuclear reactor to produce electricity was located near Arco, Idaho. The Experimental Breeder Reactor began its powering in 1951. The first nuclear power plant that was designed to provide energy to a community, was established in Obninsk, Russia, in 1954.
Presently the majority of nuclear power plants around the world use Uranium and Plutonium for nuclear fission.Thorium fuel cycles are also being developed.In Kalpakam Nuclear power plant, Tamil Nadu, India they have all three types of reactor operational at the same site, being the one and only of its kind.
As of April 2020 a total of 440 Nuclear power plants are commercially operational around the world. Additionally, there are 55 reactors under construction and 109 reactors planned, with a combined capacity of 63 GW and 118 GW, respectively.All these use Nuclear fission as their primary process for power generation in a Nuclear Reactor.
What is the Rationale behind putting effort into nuclear power ?
Some arguments will be their against such applications then again everything comes with drawbacks.The bright side of fission power is rather beneficial as compared to conventional sources of energy from fossil fuels.
Nuclear power has one of the lowest level of fatalities as compared to other fossil fuel based energy sources. Coal, Natural gas and hydroelectricity has caused more fatalities per unit energy production because of Air pollution and industrial accidents. Since its commercialization in the 1970s, nuclear power has prevented about 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and the emission of about 64 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent that would have otherwise resulted from the combustion of fossil fuels. Both nuclear and renewable energy sources have death rates hundreds of times lower than coal and oil, and are tens to hundreds of times safer than gas.Major accidents till date in Nuclear power sector were the meltdown in Chernobyl reactor, Soviet Union 1986,the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, and the more contained Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979.
World Nuclear Association and Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, has identified nuclear energy as safe and sustainable energy source with no Carbon-emission.Nuclear energy is as safe as any other renewable energy source in accordance to both fatalities and low carbon-emission.And for tackling global warming at present we need advancement in nuclear power.
They can be set up around both urban and rural settlements without affecting the ambiance radically .
The exothermic reactions which releases heat in combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas involves energies in the range of eV. On the other hand ,in the nuclear reactions the energy release is in order of MeV. Thus, for the same quantity of fuel ,nuclear sources produce a million times more energy than a chemical source.For instance 1 Kg of uranium gives out 10^14 J of energy compared to burning of 1 Kg of coal which generates 10^7 J.
Apart from advantageous prospects the main challenge with nuclear fission power is radioactive wastes.The products of nuclear fission are far more Radioactive than the parent nuclei.They have half life value more than the heavy fissile elements and may take several's decades to decay into non radioactive elements.
Unfortunately, concerns over accumulation of nuclear waste and over the destructive potential of nuclear warheads will become a counterbalance to the peaceful utilization of fission as an energy source.
Up next:- Detailed description of how energy is released in nuclear reactions.
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