Nuclear energy facts

25 Facts About Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy facts can be both good and bad, since the atom energy itself is useful, but dangerous. Let’s look over some of the most interesting nuclear power facts and nuclear energy facts.

1. This is the most discussed sort of energy supply, even though only about 20% of the whole amount of energy needed is provided by just a little over 100 nuclear power plants across the country.
   2. Most power plants were built before 1979, but with all the respect to their contribution into the development of the country, no new plant was built after 1979, when the Three Mile Island incident occurred.
   3. One of nuclear waste facts is that despite building a nuclear plant makes environmental pollution an issue, the actual process of producing and using nuclear energy doesn’t make such a bad impact on our environment.
   4. There are over 400 nuclear constructions in the world. They are providing energy for 31 countries around the globe.
   5. During the history of nuclear power there have been tree main incidents that caused tremendous impact – Three Mile Island, Fukushima, and Chernobyl. In comparison, for the last 25 years there were over 10 great disasters involving fossil fuel energy.
   6. The first facility to produce electricity using atoms’ energy was the Obninsk Power Plant, built in the Soviet Union in 1954.
   7. Right after the USSR, the US became the second one with the Shippingport Power Plant, which was built in 1957.
   8. One of the facts on nuclear energy that doesn’t involve power plants. The US was the first to build and use the first nuclear powered submarine – the USS Nautilus was first used in 1954. The submarine served the government until 1980 and was the one that allowed traveling under the North Pole.
   9. Over 3 million people live in the area of 10 miles near 104 US power plants.
   10. This one is of the facts about nuclear power plants. The construction uses atomic fission, which is more difficult and dangerous, instead of atomic fusion that is the fastest way to receive energy. The difference between them is that fission splits one atom into two, and fusion unites two atoms into one.
   11. Every power plant has to shut down once in 1,5-2 years in order to go through a cleaning cycle that removes radioactive waste.
   12. Despite the panic about the impact of nuclear power plants on human body, it was proved by scientists that people receive more radiation while being surrounded by electronic devices than while living near a power plant.
   13. The largest reactor in our Solar System is the Sun, as it uses the same reactions to get helium out of hydrogen.
   14. The most powerful nuclear device on the Earth is Tsar Bomba, constructed by the former Soviet Union scientists. Its’ testing was held in 1961 on Novaya Zemlya. The “mushroom” kind of cloud from the explosion was visible from nearly 600 miles away.
   15. The US is worried about two conflicts that may lead to nuclear war: the first one is India- Pakistan argue; the second is China-Taiwan conflict that could also impact the USA.
   16. In case of nuclear disaster remove all your closes as soon as possible – this will help to remove over 90% of all the radioactive material you got hit by.
   17. The Fukushima disaster in 2011 made many countries stop their plans on increasing the usage of nuclear power, but some of the governments didn’t react and continued to pursue the industry. For instance, India and China had decided not to stop.
   18. This incident also caused a great downgrade, so most probably, the planned amount of energy that nuclear plants have to give to the global economy won’t be achieved. That is why many countries have concerns about the gap that will occur by 2035.
   19. The biggest amount of nuclear waste in the country is located in the area known as Shearon Harris in North Carolina. This is also one of the most secured by the Homeland Security area. If anything happens there, it may become a global disaster.
   20. News rarely report about nuclear tests, so most of you probably don’t know that there are 55 tests being held annually for 30 years in a row.
   21. Why they don’t build new reactors? One construction for an existing plant may cost about 6 billion dollars!
   22. The largest nuclear powered ship is 1,122 feet long; it’s also more than 50 years old and still works! This is USS Enterprise, which is in service since 1960.
   23. Some facts about nuclear energy and space. There is such a project called Project Prometheus, which is the NASA’s start of nuclear power usage for long distance journeys into space. The goal is space exploration with less finances used and speeds increasing.
   24. There are facts about nuclear power and medicine, too. Isotopes are used to check the body, and radiotherapy is widely used to see and attack cells of cancer. This is the most powerful remedy for this awful disease nowadays.
   25. Uranium itself isn’t new to the world, it was known in Middle Ages, but was used only for changing the color of glass.