Nuclear Production of Electricity Energy:

A Nuclear Electricity Power Plant produces electricity in almost exactly the same way that a conventional steam (fossil fuel) power plant does. Radioactive water is heated to above the boiling point resulting in super heated high pressure steam; this is fed onto a heat exchanger where normal water is heated to steam where it is piped off to the steam turbine that is driving a generator, producing electricity.

Fuel Source:

The difference is the fuel source; conventional steam plants use Gas, Oil and Coal as the energy source to heat the water, where as nuclear energy uses U3O8, the fuel form of uranium U235 (uranium).  U235 is processed from U-238 the natural form of uranium as found in nature.

The Uranium fuel U308 is in a narrow rod about 12 feet long, 100s of these rods are bundled together to make up one fuel cell. The fuel cell place in the reactor core, the U235 contained inside the U308 rods is a highly condensed structure of atoms, which make up of protons and neutrons (the nucleus) and is very unstable.

Nuclear Fusion - Uranium to Energy:

As the nucleus starts to break up, they release the neutrons which crash into other uranium atoms which are split and these release more neutrons of their own, this collision of neutrons generates enormous heat, this is called nuclear fusion. The hotter the reactor the more excited the neutrons become and if this process is not control a nuclear meltdown will occur. To control this uranium rods are placed in water (or heavy water) as a coolant to absorb the heat from the reaction. The coolant water (liquid) is in direct contact with the fuel rods and becomes highly radioactive; in this process the water is super heated to a very high temperature but is also under pressure to prevent the water from turning into steam. This super heated water is fed onto a heat exchanger where normal water is heated to steam where it is piped off to the steam turbine that is driving a generator, producing electricity.


This area of the nuclear fusion heating of the water and heat exchanger is called the core and because of high radioactive material requires a very special containment and is normally encased inside a thick concrete walls.

Nuclear Electricity Production:

Nuclear Electricity Power generates 20 percent of electricity used in the world today, but the use of nuclear electricity power plants is declining, due to the high cost of construction and operation, the drive of these high costs is the high safety standards required in handling the radioactive material. This is putting more demand on fossil fuel generated electricity.

The Nuclear Problem:

The ongoing problem of all nuclear electricity power plants is what is to be done with the radioactive waste. The spent fuel rods must be locked away from organic life for 1,000 years before become fully depleted of toxic radioactive material and safe to exposed to. By 2005, over 62,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste had been produced by American nuclear electricity reactors alone.

By the mid-1970s reprocessing the spent fuel rods became economical unfeasible and the waste was moved to underground storage, all existing deep underground storage areas where filled to capacity by 1980. Since then radioactive waste is being stored on-site at the nuclear electricity plants where it is produced and stored in a large steel-lined pools, as these fill up with wasted fuel rods and coolant water they are encased in a concrete casket. These are not designed to contain the radioactive waste for a long period (1,000 years) and if not moved to a more permanent storage site will like start leaking radioactive material. There is currently no solution to a long term plan for storage of this radioactive waste and many of these temporary storage sites are located close to populated areas. For addition Information on Nuclear Electricity Power visit the Union of Concerned Scientists web site.