More Radiation!

This week, we continued learning about radiation.

Nuclear reactions can cause a chain reaction that is self-sufficient. When a radioactive element gives off neutrons as it decays, those high speed neutrons can slam into other stable atoms and cause them to decay as well. This process continues on and remains self-sufficient as long as the number of neutrons and atoms balances out. In science, this balance is called the critical mass. If one neutron causes less than one reaction, the process dies off. If the critical mass is too high, the reaction will eventually generate enough heat to cause a violent explosion.

Radioactive elements release a lot of energy: incredible amounts of it that tower over the amount of energy released from combustion (burning coals, fuels.) That's why research has gone into exploring possibilities of creating a more environmentally friendly energy source using nuclear power. Uranium and Plutonium are popular elements to use in these nuclear reactors to produce energy.

Nuclear reactors produce energy by using the energy given off to power steam turbines that generate electricity. While this creates efficient energy, there are risks and extreme dangers of nuclear reactors. If a reactor overheats, it can potentially explode and spew radioactive waste into the atmosphere. This radioactive waste can spread across large areas, and remain radioactive for a very long time, thus making the surrounding area completely uninhabitable. In the disaster of the Chernobyl in Austria, the explosion of a nuclear reactor spread nuclear waste all across Europe and made the city where Chernobyl was uninhabitable. Many people died in the explosion, and even more were sick with radiation poisoning and cancer. Even with these dangers, the huge amounts of energy produced by radiation still fuels further research.