NATS 1945 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Nuclear Reactor, Nuclear Fission, Uranium-235

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1945
• Professor: Robin Metcalfe

Document Summary

Nuclear reactors: release energy via controlled chain reaction of a fissile fuel. Only 1 neutron/fission allowed to cause another fission. (other neutrons absorbed by. Ne is relatively clean, in the sense, nuclear pp release very little co2 into the at(cid:373)osphere, (cid:272)o(cid:373)pared to ff. The s(cid:373)oke released fro(cid:373) the pp(cid:859)s is harmless steam. It(cid:859)s produced from the turbine that is converting the heat, produced from the nuclear fuel, into electricity. In fact, the fission of nf, produces 0 co2 because there is no burning of carbon based produ(cid:272)ts, i(cid:374)(cid:448)ol(cid:448)ed i(cid:374) nu(cid:272)lear fissio(cid:374). But, (cid:449)e (cid:272)a(cid:374)(cid:859)t sa(cid:455) that the full pro(cid:272)ess i (cid:1005)(cid:1004)(cid:1004)% (cid:272)lea(cid:374), there are carbon dioxide emissions involved in the processing of nf. Still though, when you compare the co2 for the nuclear power, compared to the production of energy from ff, we see that the ne emissions are significantly less than the emissions from ff. Oil would be between coal and natural gas.