In nuclear energy, we have two choices: fission, breaking up large atoms such as Uranium, and fusion: sticking together or fusing very small atoms such as Hydrogen. In grade 9, and 10 Science students learn about the basics of such energy. In History 12, students learn of the awful consequences of nuclear war.
Fission is the technology that was developed during the Second World War and wasn’t chosen for least pollution but to develop bombs and missiles. Fission could have been developed in a way greener fashion. Fusion is a hope for the future because of its lesser polluting by-products. After all we all know about the energy of the sun that is one great enormous fusion ball. I have put together a bunch of videos here to illustrate nuclear energy. I hope you will find them as interesting as I did.
FUSION A GREAT HOPE FOR THE NEAR FUTURE:
http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1716
NEW WAY OF USING FISSION: Taylor Wilson
VERITASERUM
The sun has been producing light for about five billion years but where does all its energy come from? The most common idea is that the sun is burning gas – like a giant fireball in the sky. If this were true, the sun would have gone out long ago. So how is the sun actually fuelling itself? It is converting its own mass into energy. By combining protons (the nucleus of hydrogen) into helium, it squeezes some mass into energy – 4.3 billion kg per second. It is Einstein’s famous E=mc^2 which gives us the quantitative relationship between mass and energy, where c is the speed of light.
MINUTE PHYSICS:
THE GREAT DISASTER OF TCHERNOBYL (FISSION) as prepared by Seeker
Consequences:
5″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/mqFVuUSrGws” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
UN VLOGUEUR SUISSE SUR LE NUCLEAIRE EN SUISSE: Vincent vidéos