China is committed to spending $50 billion to increase nuclear
power generation capacity from 8.7 million kilowatts today to 40 million kilowatts by
2020. That's one of the largest buildouts in the industry's history. And by the time that
$50 billion is spent, some 30 new reactors will be pumping power to China's most important
cities, in addition to the nine operating today. Most are to be built along a rapidly
industrializing coastal arc stretching from Shandong province in the northeast to
Guangdong province in the south. Demand for power is growing so fast that even if China
builds all the nuclear plants on the drawing board, industry officials say atomic energy
will account for only about 4% of total electricity generation. China wants to move away
from the high-sulfur coal-fired plants blamed for its world-class smog and acid rain woes,
a goal that increases the value of nuclear power.
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The Australian government said it would start negotiations with China on a nuclear
cooperation agreement to ensure that any uranium it exports to the energy-hungry country
is used only for peaceful purposes. "The agreement will establish safeguards
arrangements to ensure Australian uranium supplied to China is used exclusively for
peaceful purposes," he said, according to Agence France-Presse. "China's plans
to meet this demand include a four-fold increase in nuclear energy production by
2020," Downer said. Australia, which has an estimated 40 pct of the world's
low-cost uranium resources, already has 19 nuclear agreements covering 36
countries and earns some 300 mln usd annually from uranium exports.
Nuclear Energy from power plants are in use today. Nuclear has a black eye from
Chernobyl and Three Mile Island...and as a side note the increased worry about terrorist
assaults on plants. This may be overlooked in the next few years as the worlds supply of
oil is depleted and prices soar.
How it happens: An atom's nucleus is split apart. When this is done, a
tremendous amount of energy is released. The energy is both heat and light energy.
Einstein said that a very small amount of matter contains a very LARGE amount of energy.
This energy, when let out slowly, can be harnessed to generate electricity. When it is let
out all at once, it can make a tremendous explosion in an atomic bomb.
A nuclear power plant uses uranium as a "fuel." Uranium is an element that is
dug out of the ground many places around the world. It is processed into tiny pellets that
are loaded into very long rods that are put into the power plant's reactor.
The word fission means to split apart. Inside the reactor of an atomic power plant,
uranium atoms are split apart in a controlled chain reaction.
In a chain reaction, particles released by the splitting of the atom go off and strike
other uranium atoms splitting those. Those particles given off split still other atoms in
a chain reaction. In nuclear power plants, control rods are used to keep the splitting
regulated so it doesn't go too fast.
If the reaction is not controlled, you could have an atomic bomb. But in atomic bombs,
almost pure pieces of the element Uranium-235 or Plutonium, of a precise mass and shape,
must be brought together and held together, with great force. These conditions are not
present in a nuclear reactor.
The reaction also creates radioactive material. This material could hurt people if
released, so it is kept in a solid form. The very strong concrete dome in the picture is
designed to keep this material inside if an accident happens.
This chain reaction gives off heat energy. This heat energy is used to boil water in the
core of the reactor. So, instead of burning a fuel, nuclear power plants use the chain
reaction of atoms splitting to change the energy of atoms into heat energy.
This water from around the nuclear core is sent to another section of the power plant.
Here, in the heat exchanger, it heats another set of pipes filled with water to make
steam. The steam in this second set of pipes turns a turbine to generate electricity.
A note to all who mispronounce NUCLEAR...it's pronounced NOO CLEE ER....not
Nuke U lar
If elected officials can't pronounce it...we wonder if they understand it...or have
researched it. |
