Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Stewart Brand at a 2010 debate, "Does the world need nuclear energy?" [31]At the 1963 ground-breaking for what would become the world's largest nuclear power plant, President John F. Kennedy declared that nuclear power was a "step on the long road to peace," and that by using "science and technology to achieve significant breakthroughs", we could "conserve the resources" to leave the world in ...
The nuclear shell model is partly analogous to the atomic shell model, which describes the arrangement of electrons in an atom, in that a filled shell results in better stability. When adding nucleons ( protons and neutrons ) to a nucleus, there are certain points where the binding energy of the next nucleon is significantly less than the last one.
The liquid drop model is one of the first models of nuclear structure, proposed by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker in 1935. [5] It describes the nucleus as a semiclassical fluid made up of neutrons and protons, with an internal repulsive electrostatic force proportional to the number of protons.
Nuclear matter is an idealized system of interacting nucleons (protons and neutrons) that exists in several phases of exotic matter that, as of yet, are not fully established. [2] It is not matter in an atomic nucleus , but a hypothetical substance consisting of a huge number of protons and neutrons held together by only nuclear forces and no ...
A fission nuclear power plant is generally composed of: a nuclear reactor, in which the nuclear reactions generating heat take place; a cooling system, which removes the heat from inside the reactor; a steam turbine, which transforms the heat into mechanical energy; an electric generator, which transforms the mechanical energy into electrical ...
A pragmatic need for secure energy supply is a leading reason for many to support nuclear energy. Many people, including former opponents of nuclear energy, now say that nuclear energy is necessary for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. They recognize that the threat to humanity from climate change is far worse than any risk associated with ...
By 2015, the IAEA's outlook for nuclear energy had become more promising. "Nuclear power is a critical element in limiting greenhouse gas emissions," the agency noted, and "the prospects for nuclear energy remain positive in the medium to long term despite a negative impact in some countries in the aftermath of the [Fukushima-Daiichi] accident ...
Energy is released when a heavy nucleus breaks apart into two or more lighter nuclei. This energy is the internucleon potential energy that is released when the nuclear force no longer holds the charged nuclear fragments together. [3] [4] A quantitative description of the nuclear force relies on equations that are partly empirical. These ...