Nuclear Power Plants: How Nuclear Power Works
Posted by Guest Author in Science
Scientists have long manipulated the process of fission, in which an atom splits into two smaller pieces. This occurs naturally as well as by human manipulation. The natural occurrence takes millions of years, but scientists now can speed up the process through induce fission.
The most common element used for nuclear power is uranium. Uranium’s natural fission process takes millions of years. For example, the half-life of Uranium, or the amount of time for Uranium to lose half of its mass, takes 4.5 billion years.
Uranium occurs naturally in three forms. These three forms are Uranium-238, -235, and -234. All three undergo natural fission when radioactive decay sets in, but scientists have found that they can induce fission when using Uranium-235.
Overtime, Uranium will experience decay by alpha radiation, a natural occurrence in which an alpha particle, made