The Viability Of Fission And Fusion For Our Planet

The Viability of Fission and Fusion

For our planet

As the global population increases exponentially, having passed six billion in 1999, the world population is expected to be 8.9 billion by the year 2050. The worlds energy consumption will increase by an estimated 54 percent by 2025. Energy demand in the industrialized world is projected to grow 1.2 percent per year. Energy is a critical component of sustained economic growth and improved standards of living. One of the major requirements for sustaining human progress is an adequate source of energy. As the world's technological enhancements and standards of living improve, so too does their appetite for electricity.

The largest sources of energy at the moment are the combustion of fossil fuels; coal, oil and natural gas. Fossils fuels account for nearly 88 % of the world's energy needs, with Oil at 41 percent, Coal providing 24 percent, and natural gas, the remaining 22 percent.

In the next five-hundred years, the globe will need a considerable increase of energy.

Nuclear Fission

Fission is a nuclear process that takes place in the nucleus of an atom. It is a process whereby a nucleus of a heavy, neutron enriched atom, usually Uranium-235 (U-235), splits into two or more smaller nuclei. This process releases substantial amounts of energy as a by-product.

In a common reaction in a nuclear reactor a nucleus of U-235 captures a neutron and then undergoes a fission event releasing two or three neutrons of about 14 MeV (Mega electron Volts) energy. A pair of fission products is formed which is accompanied by the release of huge amounts of energy (100 million to several hundred million electron volts of energy).

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fusion is the energy-producing process which takes place continuously in the sun and stars. In the core of the sun at temperatures of 10-15 million degrees Celsius, Hydrogen is converted to Helium providing enough energy to sustain life on earth.

On earth, the most suitable use of fusion occurs when the nuclei of heavy isotopes of hydrogen - Deuterium (D) and Tritium (T) join and form a larger nucleus. At the temperatures required for the Deuterium-Tritium fusion reaction, the fuel has changed its state from gas to Plasma. Scientific advancements on how fusion reactions can be contained need to be made before we can use fusion as a practical source of energy.

The basic principle in creating electricity from nuclear energy is whereby energy is created to heat water to steam, and in turn, channelled to turn a turbine. A diagram of a basic nuclear power plant is shown.

Power Source

Advantages

Disadvantages

Sustainability

Nuclear Fission * Relatively cheap to produce

* Does not produce greenhouse gases

* Can produce large amounts of electricity

* Is reliable. * Nuclear accidents are among the worst type of man-made disasters possible.

* Waste from nuclear energy stays radioactive for thousands of years. Great care has to be taken in storing this waste safely.

* Uranium is not renewable. * Uranium is expected to not run out for several hundred years.

Nuclear Fusion * Abundant, inexhaustible fuel supply

* Nuclear fusion, unlike the existing nuclear fission plants, would produce no radioactive fuel waste

* No greenhouse gasses

* No generations of weapons material * Is not possible at current. * Deuterium and Tritium, the two fuels required for Nuclear Fusion, are isotopes of hydrogen, which is the most plentiful element on earth.

Coal * Very large quantities of electricity can be produced in one spot.

* Coal is cheap and plentiful, especially in Australia.

* Is reliable. * Coal is not renewable.

* Burning coal produces CO2 - a greenhouse gas, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which can produce acid rain.

* Mining coal takes up large areas of land. And has a detrimental effect on the landscape * Coal is the most widely used fossil fuel, which will eventually run out.

Hydro-electric * Does not produce gas emissions or waste.

* Is renewable

* Is relatively reliable

* Is the