Question

1. Explain the issue on either increasing or decreasing the number of nuclear reactors used for generating energy in the US.

2.A number of European countries that lack access to oil and gas reserves are implementing smaller (and newer) nuclear reactors. How do these reactors diminish the risks of nuclear energy? If the US were to adopt these, what will happen?

Answer 1

1) A nuclear reactor, formerly known as atomic pile, is a device used to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and inpropulsion of ships. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid (water or gas), which runs through turbines.Soon after the Chicago Pile, the U.S. military developed a number of nuclear reactors for the Manhattan Project starting in 1943. The primary purpose for the largest reactors (located at the Hanford Site in Washington state), was the mass production of plutonium for nuclear weapons.

2) Radiation

The principal risks associated with nuclear power arise from health effects of radiation. This radiation consists of subatomic particles traveling at or near the velocity of light---186,000 miles per second. They can penetrate deep inside the human body where they can damage biological cells and thereby initiate a cancer. If they strike sex cells, they can cause genetic diseases in progeny.