Plutonium

Following a major earthquake, a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident on March 11th 2011 that would reintroduce to the world the question of “Should the use of nuclear energy continue?” Fukushima and many other critical junctures since the start of the first nuclear reactor in Idaho, in December 1951, have influenced changing attitudes towards nuclear energy throughout time. Nuclear power is one of the primary…

The Bomb and its Effects At the time it was being built they didn’t quite know what to make it out of. They ended up building it out of a plutonium core. In order to make the bomb go off they had to have fission occur . Of course to have this happen, you need a large space. Thus the nickname “Fat Man” . Fat Man got its nickname for a good reason, because it weighed over 10,000 pounds, was about 130 inches long, and had a diameter of close to 60 inches (3). When the bomb detonated it would have…

After his return to England, in 1941 Fuchs was invited by Rudolf Peierls, another German-born British physicist, to Birmingham to work on the British nuclear weapon project, codenamed Tube Alloys. While there were concerns regarding the security of hiring Fuchs, good scientists were in such short demand that Britain decided that Fuchs was worth the risk. He was cleared by MI5 and also by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for this position. This decision was later criticized in…

Nuclear Security: Following policy concerns worries about nuclear proliferation are perhaps the next biggest threat to the development of nuclear energy in Turkey. The crux of the issue is Turkey’s geographical location. Unfortunately, for much of the world Turkey is situated in a “dangerous neighborhood” where nuclear proliferation is a constant fear. Furthermore, Turkey has been depicted as a proliferation domino set to fall in a scenario where Iran develops or acquires nuclear weapons. As the…

coolant that remains liquid at atmospheric pressure. LFTRs are designed to convert Thorium, an inexpensive and abundant material, into Uranium-233 which can then undergo nuclear fission. Other types of MSR can use spent uranium, depleted uranium, or plutonium, eliminating nuclear waste from solid-fueled reactors. Most safety concerns of LWRs are from using water coolant; LFTR is a molten salt reactor (uses special salt…

Nuclear Energy Nuclear energy is energy stored in the bonds holding protons and neutrons together in an atom 's nucleus, when split the broken bon releases an enormous amount of energy—nuclear fission, according to Nuclear Energy. Nuclear energy has been a global energy alternative source for nearly half a century. Its predecessor, nuclear power, developed for military use in World War II became the biggest fear during the Cold War. After the Cold War, international use of nuclear weapons were…

One storage facility has already implemented the use of salt domes. This facility is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (Morrison). Currently this facility holds 85,000 cubic meters of high level nuclear waste (Morrison). A majority of this waste is plutonium originating from nuclear weapons manufacturing and not from any commercial reactors. This site also utilizes the way salt will seep into voids and cracks sealing the waste away for good (Morrison). The next step of finding a solution is to…

Perhaps one of the biggest breakthroughs in scientific history is the discovery of atoms, and later the splitting of atoms. This eventually lead to the use of atomic energy and its use to create a weapon far more destructive than any of those before it, the atomic bomb. This was a major breakthrough for the scientific and military community. In the 1940s, the United states created two atomic bombs that were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bomb changed the…

Thorium has long been the subject of scientific research ever since its discovery, and now it appears that this obscure element may now be the energy source which could fuel humanity for generations to come. While thorium has a complicated history, the element remains very important to humanity for many reasons. Discovered about the same time as uranium in the 19th century, thorium has been well known to the scientific community for many years (World Nuclear Association). In fact, famous…

ideas changed two models were made. The first one, made of uranium and dropped in Hiroshima, was called Little Boy. This was a sign to them that the war would be ending soon. In order to secure the end of the war they dropped another bomb made of plutonium in Nagasaki.This one was considered successful to Americans because 135,000 people died. According to the article titled “The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Both bombs were successful because 135,000 people died for Little Boy and…