Prospects for nuclear industry

Over the last decade, there has been a trend of improving nuclear plant performance measured by energy availability. This has led, in recent years, to many countries generating record amounts of electricity (see Figure 1). For example, the countries experiencing record generation performance during 2001 include Argentina, Brazil. Bulgaria, Finland. France, Germany, India, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. [4]

Yet despite its maturity, widespread usage and steady progress, compared with other energy sources, nuclear energy has a level of governmental involvement and public concern that makes it unique among energy sources. Many factors contribute to this, including its military origins and potential to be applied to weapons purposes, technical complexity, the long-term implications of nuclear waste, its complicated safety, legal and insurance requirements, the consequences associated with potential accidents, the health effects of exposure to ionising radiation and the large-scale investments required for its exploitation. Understanding these issues is important, then, to understanding nuclear energy today. [3]

Figure 1: Worldwide nuclear power plant energy availability factor [7]

Conclusion

In the final I want to say that nuclear power is one of the most promising types of energy. As with all types of energy production, it has its disadvantages. But it is worth noting, if you choose the right path of development of nuclear industry, we get a huge supply of energy resources for the future and if this type of energy production will be the undisputed leader.

References

1. Policy Brief magazine. Article: «Nuclear energy today», February 2005

2. wikipedia.com

3. Jeremy I. Pfeffer, Shlomo Nir. Modern Physics. An Introductory Text: Imperial College Press, 2004

4. Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy, 2010

5. Nuclear Physics and Reactor Theory, v.1. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Energy, 1993

6. Physics 2. Cambridge

7. iaea.org

Glossary

Angstrom - unit of length used chiefly in measuring wavelengths of light, equal to 10-10 metre. It is named for the 19th-century Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Angstrom. The symbol is Å. The angstrom and multiples of it, the micron and the millimicron, are also used to measure such quantities as molecular diameters and the thickness of films on liquids

Atom - smallest unit into which matter can be divided without the release of electrically charged particles. It also is the smallest unit of matter that has the characteristic properties of a chemical element. As such, the atom is the basic building block of chemistry

Nucleus - the core of an atom

Alpha particle - positively charged particle, identical to the nucleus of the helium-4 atom, spontaneously emitted by some radioactive substances, consisting of two protons and two neutrons bound together, thus having a mass of four units and a positive charge of two

Spectrum - in optics, the arrangement according to wavelength of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light

Atomic number - the number of a chemical element (q.v.) in the periodic system, whereby the elements are arranged in order of increasing number of protons in the nucleus

Atomic weight - the quantity of matter contained in an atom of an element, expressed as a multiple of one-twelfth the mass of the carbon-12 atom, 1.9924 × 10−23 g, which is assigned an atomic mass of 12 units. In this scale, 1 atomic mass unit (amu) corresponds to 1.6603 ×10−24 g

Atomic mass - ratio of the average mass of a chemical element's atoms to some standard

Quantum - discrete natural unit, or packet, of energy, charge, angular momentum, or other physical property

Radiation - flow of atomic and subatomic particles and of waves, such as those that characterize heat rays, light rays, and X-rays

X-ray – type of radioactive rays. Discovered by Renthgen.

Radioactivity - property exhibited by certain types of matter of emitting energy and subatomic particles spontaneously. It is, in essence, an attribute of individual atomic nuclei.

Half-life - the rate at which a radioactive element decays is expressed.

Velocity - the rate of change of an object’s position, expressed as a vector whose magnitude is speed.

Fission - the splitting of an atomic nucleus resulting in the release of large amounts of energy.

Chain reaction - a series of events so related to each other that each one initiates the next.

Neutron - an uncharged elementary particle that has a mass nearly equal to that of the proton and is present in all known atomic nuclei except the hydrogen nucleus.

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