What is Nuclear Energy ?

Every year and a half to two years, every nuclear plant goes through a cleaning cycle that shuts down the plant to allow for the removal of radioactive waste.

Since the nuclear disaster of 2011, many nuclear power plants have shut down operation due to safety concerns.

Ninety-nine commercial reactors help power homes and businesses in 30 U.S. states. Illinois has 11 reactors—the most of any state—and joins South Carolina and New Hampshire in receiving more than 50% of its power from nuclear.

Radiation and nuclear medicines are used to cure and treat many diseases.
Uranium is a rare earth metal that is commonly used for nuclear energy production.

The first developed country to follow through on the agreements to destroy nuclear weapon stockpiles and cease production of nuclear weapons was South Africa.

Because of this, the amount of used nuclear fuel is not as big as you think.

All of the used nuclear fuel produced by the U.S. nuclear energy industry over the last 60 years could fit on a football field at a depth of less than 10 yards.

A nuclear winter is a hypothetical situation in which the sunlight would be blocked causing extremely cold weather if too many nuclear weapons were used.

The former Soviet Union was “helped” by the US to create their first nuclear weapons.

The nuclear disaster of 2011 has caused many countries to shut down all of their nuclear power plants by as early as the year 2025.

A successful spy venture stole them the information they needed to complete their program from the Los Alamo laboratories in the US that created nuclear weaponry.

If a person is ever exposed to radiation during a nuclear disaster, the first thing they should do is remove their clothing because 90% of the radiation will be located there.

While concern about exposure to radiation is valid, some research shows that you will get more radiation over your lifetime from being around personal electronics than from being near a nuclear power plant.

The largest nuclear reactor is actually the Sun. It uses nuclear reactions, a natural process, to convert hydrogen to helium.

Africa is the first country in the world to destroy all of its nuclear weapons voluntarily.
Nuclear energy itself is not dangerous but the way in which it is generated gives off harmful waste products.

The Manhattan Project, a research team based in Chicago in 1942, produced the first functioning nuclear reactor design.

Although there have been three major nuclear power plant accidents, they are said to actually be quite safe places.

The US tests their nuclear weapons in Nevada and in the Pacific Proving Grounds. The Proving Grounds cover the Marshall Islands.

Tsar Bomba, from the former Soviet Union, remains the most powerful nuclear device ever created. It was tested in 1961 over Novaya Zemlya.

And the mushroom cloud it produced could be seen clearly from over 600 miles away.

Fourteen percent of the world's electricity is generated by nuclear energy.

There are 4 different tests used in developing a nuclear weapon. They are the atmospheric and underwater test, as well as the exoatmospheric and underground tests.

Scientists who study the interactions of atoms' nuclei are called nuclear physicists.

Nuclear power plants use “nuclear fission” (the process of splitting an atom in two). “Nuclear fusion” (the process of combining atoms into one) has the potential to be safer but has not yet been developed to operate within a large power plant.

Nuclear energy comes from uranium, a nonrenewable resource that must be mined.

The US has concerns about two points in ongoing world crises that have the potential to lead to a nuclear war. The first is featured in the conflict between India and Pakistan; the second is the conflict over China and Taiwan, which would also involve the US.