Nuclear power
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"If you ask me, it'd be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy because of what we would do with it." --Amory Lovins (1977)
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Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant. As a nuclear technology, nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium. Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Generating electricity from fusion power remains at the focus of international research. This article mostly deals with nuclear fission power for electricity generation.
See also
- Atomic battery
- Hot spring#Sources of heat
- List of nuclear power stations
- List of nuclear reactors
- Nuclear power by country
- Nuclear weapons debate
- Thorium-based nuclear power
- Uranium mining debate
- World energy consumption
- Molten salt reactor
- Nuclear power in France
