U-235 makes up less than one percent of the uranium in the world.Īlthough some of the uranium the United States uses is mined in this country, most is imported. However, the specific type of uranium used to produce nuclear energy, called U-235, is rare. Uranium is also a very common element, found in rocks all over the world. That's because uranium atoms split apart relatively easily. Uranium is the fuel most widely used to produce nuclear energy. Nations such as Lithuania, France, and Slovakia create almost all of their electricity from nuclear power plants. The United States has more than 100 reactors, although it creates most of its electricity from fossil fuels and hydroelectric energy. Removing the rods will allow a stronger chain reaction and create more electricity.Īs of 2011, about 15 percent of the world's electricity is generated by nuclear power plants. The more rods of nuclear poison that are present during the chain reaction, the slower and more controlled the reaction will be. Nuclear poisons are materials, such as a type of the element xenon, that absorb some of the fission products created by nuclear fission. Rods of material called nuclear poison can adjust how much electricity is produced. The turbines drive generators, or engines that create electricity. The steam turns turbines, or wheels turned by a flowing current. The cooling agent, heated by nuclear fission, produces steam. A cooling agent is usually water, but some nuclear reactors use liquid metal or molten salt. The heat created by nuclear fission warms the reactor's cooling agent. The energy released from this chain reaction creates heat.
Fission products cause other uranium atoms to split, starting a chain reaction. As they split, the atoms release tiny particles called fission products. In a nuclear reactor, atoms of uranium are forced to break apart. The fuel that nuclear reactors use to produce nuclear fission is pellets of the element uranium.
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In the process of nuclear fission, atoms are split to release that energy.Ī nuclear reactor, or power plant, is a series of machines that can control nuclear fission to produce electricity. Nuclear energy can be used to create electricity, but it must first be released from the atom. In fact, the power that holds the nucleus together is officially called the " strong force." There is a huge amount of energy in an atom's dense nucleus. Atoms are tiny units that make up all matter in the universe, and energy is what holds the nucleus together. Nuclear energy is the energy in the nucleus, or core, of an atom.
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