posted on Dec, 11 2008 @ 03:18 PM
Originally posted by ogbert
reply to post by Dutty_Rag
"Any kind of nuclear power is much more efficient than anything else - the strong nuclear force exploited is the strongest of all forces - 1000000
times stronger than gravity."
where does the tremendous power from nuclear sources come from? is it all potential energy? considering thermodynamics, will an atom eventually run
out of steam? what "fuels" an atom?
just curious,
regards
[edit on 10-12-2008 by ogbert]
[edit on 10-12-2008 by ogbert]
Yep; it uses the potential energy stored in heavy elements. It does so by breaking them apart in a controlled chain reaction. eventually, so many
atoms are split apart that the fuel is no longer usable. With fuel reprocessing, the decay products can be removed from spent fuel, so that we can use
it again, but was banned under the carter administration, iirc.
The atoms don't "run out of steam" They're unstable, and being hit by neutrons causes them to violently break apart into a pair of smaller atoms
and a few neutrons; usually krypton and barium. These cannot feasibly be broken apart to gain energy. Nuclear fission power is unsustainable. Fusion
is too, to extent; but seeing as the stars are fusing it all the time, we'd be far more efficient at using it than nature. Any power derived from the
sun is the result of fusion power, and is unsustainable too; since the sun will eventually use up all it's hydrogen. This includes wind, solar,
hydroelectric, and probably wave power. (but not tidal; that saps energy from the earth's rotation, and pushes the moon away)
In a fusion reaction, the components being fused actually have more energy than the end result, and so by fusing them, they emit the extra energy in
various forms of radiation. The cutoff point is around iron. Nothing heavier than iron can be fused for net energy; and the conditions for fusion are
so intense that we can barely fuse the lightest of elements.
in a breeder reactor intended to make more fissile material, fissionable material like uranium 238 or thorium is placed in a specially designed
nuclear reactor which will bombard them with low energy neutrons, so they absorb it. Generally the target is plutonium. While thorium and uranium 238
are fissionable, when fissioned, they don't produce enough neutrons with a high enough energy to split enough other atoms to sustain a chain
reaction, making them useless for nuclear power.