![]() ![]() Most nuclear reactors use uranium fuel that has been "enriched" in uranium 235, an isotope of uranium that fissions readily. electricity comes from nuclear power plants, making it the third-largest source of electricity in the country after coal (45 percent) and natural gas (23 percent). produces more nuclear power overall, but nuclear constitutes a smaller share of its energy portfolio. Worldwide, nuclear energy accounts for about 15 percent of electricity generation Japan gets nearly 30 percent of its electricity from its nuclear plants. The Fukushima Daiichi station, which has been hit hard by the March 11 earthquake, houses six of those reactors, all of which came online in the 1970s. and France, according to data from the International Atomic Energy Agency. ![]() With 54 nuclear reactors generating 280 billion kilowatt-hours annually, Japan is the world's third-largest producer of nuclear power, after the U.S. How much electricity does nuclear power provide in Japan and elsewhere? The chain reaction becomes self-sustaining, producing a steady supply of heat to boil water, drive steam turbines and thereby generate electricity. If another atom absorbs one of those neutrons, the atom becomes unstable and undergoes fission itself, releasing more heat and more neutrons. They rely on harnessing nuclear fission-the splitting of an atom into two smaller atoms, which also yields heat and sends neutrons flying. "That's why the best thing is to prevent any release in the first place.Most nuclear reactors, including those at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi generating station, are essentially high-tech kettles that efficiently boil water to produce electricity. "So you can't do much about that except to either evacuate to avoid exposure or to shelter for a long time in a structure that's shielded against radiation. "In nuclear reactors, you have a sea of a soup of hundreds of different types of radioactive isotopes, all of which interact in different ways of the body," he said. While Dr Lyman believes it is a sensible precaution, he warned it would not be enough to protect people in the case of a leak. Iodine helps prevent radiation from amassing in the thyroid, leading to thyroid cancer a phenomena witnessed after the Chernobyl meltdown in hundreds of Ukrainian children. In recent weeks it has run emergency drills in nearby towns and distributed iodine tablets to residents. The Ukrainian government has begun preparations for the possibility of a radiation leak. "All these factors increase the risk that there could be damage to the plant that would potentially lead to a meltdown of one or more of the reactors and the spent nuclear fuel that's stored there." Ukraine prepares for radiation leaks "I think it's fairly resistant to a major leak, so it's unlikely to be a Chernobyl level incident and certainly not a Fukushima level incident," Dr Irwin said. ![]() He said key design differences make the Zaporizhzhia plant less prone to a radiation leak, even in the case of a meltdown. It predicted that the reactor would heat up so quickly that it would take less than five hours for it to break through the reactor vessel.Įven if that occurs, experts say a strong protective casing around the reactors means a Chernobyl-style disaster isn't likely.ĪNU's Associate Professor and lecturer in Nuclear physics, Tony Irwin, spent time working with Russian scientists in the wake of the Chernobyl meltdown. ![]() One simulation of the reactors losing power showed they would have just over an hour before the cooling systems stopped working. "If you lose both the offsite power and the backup diesel generators, there are other emergency measures that could be employed, but you only have a few hours to be able to set those up before the core might start to melt," he said. ![]()
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