Nuclear Power In Australia

As populations grow, countries develop and industries boom, demand for energy continues to increase. Many countries see nuclear power as a way of meeting their electricity needs while reducing their CO2 emissions. There are many misconceptions in society about nuclear power. While it may be dangerous, nuclear can solve the energy demand for a country’s growing population, particularly Australia. The truth behind nuclear physics will be discussed in this report, the types of nuclear radiations and its effects, the enormous amount of energy a nuclear reaction can produce, the developments of nuclear generators, along with suggestions for Australia regarding the development of nuclear power plant in the country.

1. The Consequences of Nuclear

Some would interact with the body, so they are dangerous, but most would get straight out and make the body itself the source of radiation to the surrounding environment.

On April 26th 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The explosion sent a ‘cloud of radiation’ throughout the area, including Belarus, and much of the western Soviet Union and Europe, releasing 400 times more than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This is because a nuclear power plant contains a lot more nuclear material than an atomic bomb.
In the Chernobyl meltdown, most of the exploding was due to containment failure and explosions from steam build-up. The meltdown has produced a far higher amount of radioactive materials, because fission explosion at ground level creates more radioactive isotopes due to neutron activation in soil. Furthermore, the half-lives of the isotopes made in the Chernobyl accident are longer. Having more fissionable material increases the amount of radiation that can be produced as well as the amount of radioactive

Nuclear Fusion is a process where small nuclei can combine to make a larger nucleus. This is permitted when the binding energy per nucleon of the product is higher. The difference in mass/energy is released. The most common fusion reaction occurs in stars, involving two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium.
First, two hydrogen atoms split to produce deuterium, an electron and energy:
The deuterium will then fuse with a hydrogen atom to produce helium-3 and gamma waves:
Two of the helium-3 produced will then split to produce helium-4, two hydrogen atoms and gamma waves:

The theory behind nuclear fusion and fission is from the famous mass-energy equivalence formula by Einstein, E=mc2. According to E=mc2, energy and mass are interchangeable. The value of the square of the speed of light c2 is very big. Just a small change of the mass m affects greatly in the energy E. Therefore, the small amounts lost mass during fusion or fission translates into a very big amount of