What are the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy?

1, clean

Compared with thermal power plants burning fossil energy, nuclear power plants use nuclear fission reaction to release energy to generate electricity. Nuclear power generation will not produce harmful gases such as sulfur dioxide and will not pollute the air.

2. Environmental protection

Nuclear power generation will not produce carbon dioxide like fossil energy power generation. Developing nuclear power is helpful to reduce the greenhouse effect and improve the climate environment.

3, low consumption

Nuclear power plants consume much less nuclear fuel than coal-fired power plants with the same power.

4. Small floor space

Compared with renewable energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy, nuclear power generation has obvious advantages in terms of land occupation scale and energy supply guarantee.

For example, the area of solar power generation is about 20 times that of nuclear power generation of the same scale, and the wind power is about 80 times. In addition, wind energy and solar energy are greatly affected by the weather, and the annual full power operation hours are less than 1500~2500 hours, and the operation rate is lower than 30%, which is far lower than the operation index of nuclear power.

Second, shortcomings.

1, nuclear power plants will produce high-grade radioactive waste or used nuclear fuel. Although the volume is small, it must be handled carefully because of radiation, and it will face considerable political trouble.

2. The thermal efficiency of nuclear power plants is low, so they emit more waste heat to the environment than ordinary fossil fuel power plants, so the thermal pollution of nuclear power plants is more serious.

There are a lot of radioactive materials in the reactor of nuclear power plant. If it is released into the external environment in an accident, it will do harm to ecology and people.

Extended data

With the depletion of traditional fossil energy and the increasingly prominent negative impact of burning fossil fuels on human living environment, nuclear energy is an indispensable alternative energy source both economically and environmentally.

There are three main forms of nuclear energy release:

1, nuclear fission energy

The so-called nuclear fission energy is the energy released by fission of some heavy nuclei (such as uranium -235, uranium -238 and plutonium -239). ).

2. Nuclear fusion energy

Two or more hydrogen nuclei (such as hydrogen isotopes-deuterium and tritium) combine to form a heavier nucleus, and the reaction in which mass defects simultaneously release huge energy is called nuclear fusion reaction, and the released energy is called nuclear fusion energy.

3. Nuclear decay

Nuclear decay is a natural and much slower form of fission, which is difficult to use because of its slow energy release.

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