In today’s world, humans use a profusive amount of Electricity. People use it every day whether it is for charging a phone or turning on the lights to see. Electricity is viable part of the life style we live in. The big problem with this is the use of coal. One of the functions the fossil fuel coal is used for is, being burned in power plants to create electricity. The major problem with this is the coal supply is running out. In only seventy years the supply of coal is expected to be fully depleted. This is a major problem the world is facing today, however, one proposition is a type of nuclear energy called fission. Fission is a branch of nuclear energy that divides or splits and atom into two, creating energy. Nuclear fission will be one of the many ways to fix the energy crisis specifically, lengthening the supply of coal.
Fission has had its many problems, one of those problems being people not trusting it. It is on a global comeback after being shut down due to safety issues and financial issues. During the time nuclear fission was proposed to be an idea, scientist estimated it would have cost between twenty trillion and thirty trillion dollars to be able to harvest and create this type of energy. This form of technology was sought out to be a carbon free way of creating electricity. Instead of burning fossil fuels and releasing an excessive amount of carbon dioxide in the air, scientist can split an isotope called Uranium 235. It all started with scientists Frederic Joliot and Irene Curie. In 1935 both scientists won the Nobel Peace Prize for finding and testing their method of synthesizing radioactive elements. They used Aluminum and Phosphorus in their experiment. One of the most known physicists associated with nuclear energy is physicist Enrico Fermi. In 1938 Enrico Fermi won the Nobel Peace Prize for his discoveries in radioactive elements. After winning he built the first nuclear power plant in 1942 at the University of Chicago. The last group of important scientists are Otto Hahn and his collaborators Frtiz Strassman and Lisa Meitner. These scientists founded nuclear fission on December 17, 1938. In 1944 Otto Hahn and his collaborating scientist received the Nobel Peace Prize for the fission of an atom’s nucleus. From that point on, the world was changed. Humanity used the new findings to create atomic and nuclear bombs for warfare. The two most commonly known bombs are the ones that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These were dark times in our nation’s history, however there were a lot of scientific advancements. Sense World War II, there are over four hundred power plants currently running and operating in the world today, as a source of energy.
Hahn’s History:
Fission was one of the many German discoveries during World War II. Otto Hahn, a German chemist, was working at the Keiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, also known as KWIC. The KWIC had a laboratory dedicated to radio-chemistry for Dr. Hahn and fellow scientists. It was in this laboratory that they discovered nuclear fission. Heinrich Hahn and Charlotte Hahn gave birth to Dr. Otto Hahn in Frankfurt, Germany on March 8, 1879. He had three brothers named Karl, Heiner, and Julius. He had a love of chemistry that developed at the early age of fifteen. He continued his academic studies after high school at the University of Marburg in 1897 where he majored in Chemistry and Minerology. Dr. Hahn worked at University College to uncover a new radioactive substance called Radiothorium. It was only a few years after working with scientist Emil Fischer at the University of Berlin that he discovered two more elements called Mesothorium I and Mesothorium II. These elements were used in hospitals and doctor’s offices for radio therapy and X-rays which are known as medical radiation. Due to his findings, Dr. Otto Hahn was offered a teaching position at the University of Berlin where he became acquainted with Physicist Lisa Meitner. In 1908 and 1909 Otto Hahn exhibited and construed radioactive recoil to an alpha particle proving Harriet Brook’s experiment in 1904 was wrong. Fourteen years later Dr. Hahn was appointed as the Director of Radio Chemistry of the Keiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in 1928. Jewish physicist Dr. Lisa Meitner served as his assistant director for ten years before fleeing Germany due to her Jewish beliefs. Four years prior to this event, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassman, and Lisa Meitner worked on discovering the fission of Uranium. In December of 1938 they founded nuclear fission by splitting a Uranium atom into two halves. After his new discovery, Dr. Hahn realized that fission impacted physics more than it did chemistry. His impact on the science community earned him the Chemistry Nobel Peace Prize on November 15, 1945 for discovering nuclear fission and the splitting of an atom’s nucleus. This was his most famous award. Dr. Otto Hahn was also honored for a magnitude of his achievement earlier in his life. He has been a recipient of the Enrico Femi Prize, given to him by the USA Atomic Energy Commission. He has received honors varying from government prestige to academic prestige. Another famous award he received was the honor of joining the Peace Class as knight to receive a distinguished service order for his early experiments and discoveries. Sadly, he passed away on July 28, 1968 due to congestive heart failure. According to an article distributed by the Chemistry Business newspaper, Otto Hahn went down as the founder of the atomic age and was known for his work in radioactive chemistry.
Fission Chamber:
Uranium, Plutonium, Radon, and thirty-four other elements are considered radioactive elements on the periodic table. The process of nuclear fission utilizes Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239. The process these elements undergo is very destructive and violent towards the atom. The process of fission starts with the atom’s nucleus. A neutron will impact an isotope and divide the atom’s nucleus into two pieces, creating an explosion of energy with immense power. Using this method, a variety of experiments can be conducted with the nuclear fission process. One experiment in general is conducted with a miniature fission chamber. In these chambers there are Argon, Nitrogen, Plutonium or Uranium, and gamma rays. The Argon and Nitrogen are mixed in with the radioactive element while the gamma rays are used to detect the levels of energy conducted. The settings on the chambers are set to low possible to get a small fission reaction to occur within the chamber. Each element has a different wattage of electricity to create the low level of fission. The experiment that will be utilized in the comprehension of miniature fission is a report put out by the Jozef Stefan Institute in Slovenia. In the experiment two chambers were used, one with the element Uranium-235 and the other chamber had the element Uranium-238. They were testing whether the rod placement affected the axial fissial rate of each element. The experiment report was divided up into eight sections: introduction, experiment design, TRIGA Monte Carlo computation model, fissial rate axial profile, effect of controlled rod movement on the fission rate axial profile, determination of axial profile, evaluation of experimental and computation uncertainty, and the conclusion. The chambers that were used are called Monte Carlo TRIGA chambers. The designs of these containers consist of a thick concrete wall with a thermal column running through the chamber, a pool of water surrounding the core, and a layer known as the ex-core; which is used for exerting the energy needed for the fission to occur. The rod measurements used in the experiment were 215mm, 315mm, and 415mm. The rod measurements determined the neutron flux of the Uranium-235 and Uranium-238. The way it was conducted was the aluminum rods were placed in the chamber and each were marked where the calculation was to be taken. The rods had a neutron absorber (top part) and fuel storage (bottom part). The measurements marked on the rods were pre-determined using a formula scientist created after extensive research. When the element was split, scientist took the energy readings of the pre-determined places on the rods to see when the fission of each element produced the most energy. It was proven that the different measurements and positions on the rod were proven to make a difference on the amount of energy created. As a result, the local maxima of the fission chamber were changed due to the rods and the different energy readings on each rod.
Impact of Nuclear Fission:
When nuclear fission was first founded and introduced into the world people had no idea what it was or the power it contained. The public was intrigued and excited for Otto Hahn and his fellow scientists. The public was ignorant of how deadly nuclear fission is. The only people who knew the truth about nuclear fission were scientists and the German government. Ever since the discovery more and more scientist were creating and testing hypotheses about nuclear fission. There were rumors going around between scientists that this newly found process can be used to production of an atomic bomb or weapon of mass destruction. It started to raise the curiosity of the public, scientists, and governments. Those groups of curiosity were all silenced on August 6, 1945 when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and caused devastation. It was on this day that everyone in the world realized the devastation the atomic bomb can cause changing the public perception from this moment forward. People are now very skeptical towards fission and nuclear power. Viewing this from an energy perspective, people see nuclear fission as something that will not last. In Alvin M. Weinberg’s book, “Nuclear Reactor: Science and Trans science”, Weinberg points out the public view as skeptical. In a shortened version, Weinberg says people view nuclear fission as wasteful with no evidence to support the facts about its positive environmental impact and the improved energy efficiency of a nuclear reactor. People are also worried about the risk of a nuclear reactor. There was an equation presented within the text that gave an interesting argument for the people’s point of view. The equation, Risk=Probability*Consequences, demonstrates the risk of nuclear fission using analytical probability and the consequences from the use of nuclear fission. The striking facts involving this equation is that the consequences for using nuclear fission are high due to its power, but the probability has to be zero to have zero risk. People are looking for an “acceptable” decision that would cause no harm to other humans and the environment. This is an unrealistic approach because nothing can produce zero emission. People also view nuclear fission as obsolete. Nuclear fission is very expensive costing two dollars and ten cents for kW while solar energy cost ten cents. This is a significant difference between the two types of energy. The last reason the human population has a skeptical view on nuclear fission is because of the power plants production and health risk. Currently in the United States there are no nuclear power plants operating and for the next decade there has been no conversation about building a new one. The people believe that human risk is the reason why none of these nuclear fission power plants are being built or planned. In Alvin M. Weinberg’s book, he proposes an equation the public uses to calculate how many people will get cancer from working at a Nuclear Power Plant, H=αN*D. Using this equation, it can be calculated that in one year five thousand individuals will be exposed to radiation cancer if working at a nuclear fission power plant. This is large number considering the seriousness of radiation cancer. The analysis of fission by the people is a negative point of view, however nuclear fission, as the experts will testified, has come a far way. As the energy crisis is growing, experts have investigated nuclear fission as a source of energy and have deemed it very much needed. If the United States were to replace all of its oil powerplants with nuclear fission reactors the nuclear fission power plants would have given us a refund of seven to twelve billion barrels of oil used and store back in the oil supply. Experts will also agree that nuclear fission power plants are also environmentally friendly compared to fossil fuels. Even though a nuclear fission power plant deals with radioactive elements, it does not produce any radioactive rays instead it gives off a remarkable amount of heat. Radioactive waste is a bi-product of a nuclear fission reactor and as stated before, there are no sources of energy that can be burned without producing zero emissions. The radioactive waste was disposed thousands of feet below the Earth into bed rock by companies across the world. What this allows the waste to do is decay without interfering and cross contaminating any aquifers. This process sounds very familiar to the carbon disposal method. The methods are similar, but the only difference is instead of the rocks absorbing the carbon, the radioactive waste will decay. There is a ton of controversy between nuclear fission. The public looks at it from a negative stand point, however, experts look at the logistics of nuclear fission and see it as having a positive effect. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but the logistics and analytics of nuclear fission hold a strong argument for its success.
The radioactive elements of Uranium, Plutonium, and Thorium can all be found in their natural form on Earth. This source of energy is found beneath the Earth’s crust in the lithosphere in abundance due to the natural phenomena that happened billions and billions of years ago, the Big Bang. The Big Bang is when a supernova explosion occurred and created the entire universe. From the explosion, the remains of the supernova are trapped beneath the Earth’s core and is known as a radioactive material. This radioactive material is plentiful, powerful, and promising. Even though the mining of Uranium is very dangerous because of its radioactivity, nuclear fission is not hurting the environment because it is a part of it. Uranium is found at the bed rock level which is the bottom part of the Earth’s lithosphere. Down there nothing is living and for this reason Uranium is not a threat to humans. The radioactive supply needed to undergo nuclear fission is so plentiful that if the United States were to switch completely over to nuclear fission power plants, we would only be using a little sliver of the radioactive supply. In addition to using radioactive matter, another problem arises, the disposal of radioactive waste. The easy solution to this is to put it back where it came from. The radioactive elements will decompose back into the ground and over time will be reusable. Another big advantage to using nuclear fission is the process only releases a micro amount of Carbon into the atmosphere. This makes it relatively a Carbon-free resource, which is uncommon. In a journal released by the Science and Christian Belief, nuclear energy compared to coal, gas, hydro, solar, and wind releases the lowest amount of Carbon into the atmosphere. It is absurd to believe that an energy source that produces the least amount of Carbon across the board is not being utilized. The environmental impact of nuclear power is very little, and this can be used to our advantage.
Nuclear fission has been around since the big bang thirteen billion years ago. It is buried within the surface of the Earth and is ready to make an impact. Nuclear fission will benefit humanity because it is an efficient way to create energy without producing a lot of Greenhouse Gas. The major problem with nuclear energy is that no matter how much it could benefit humanity, it is going to be a gigantic change in the world and a new political worry. When looking into the building of a nuclear power plant politicians and world leaders see one thing, money. When looking into the cost of one power plant it will cost anywhere between two to nine billion dollars to construct one plant. This number does not seem too bad compared to the price of building a coal power plant, which will cost six billion dollars to build. This number is very close; however, everything would have to change. Instead of the transformers managing thousands of Watt energy, they will need to handle double or triple that amount. Maintaining a nuclear power plant does not cost a lot, it cost less than any other method of energy, and is just as productive as the leading fossils fuels. Although most people do not believe nuclear fission would be beneficial, I believe there is strong evidence to support nuclear fission and its potential to save the world.