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NUCLEAR POWER…WHAT WERE THEY THINKING ?
A DEADLY EXERCISE.
The processes that created the Atom Bomb have also been harnessed for power production. In hindsight and bitter experience, Nuclear Reactors for power, have proven to be an expensive and perilous concept that might have been better left alone. Especially since now, only a few decades on, they are becoming obsolete in favor of alternative and safer power sources,+ such as Wind farms, Solar power, hydrogen and others.
Nuclear fission in the reactor is a volatile and unpredictable event. Enriched uranium (enriching is the process that separates fissionable light U235 uranium from non-fissionable heavy U238 uranium) releases neutrons that collide with and split atoms of another uranium product. More neutrons are released, and more atoms split producing a chain reaction. The process causes the original uranium product to become extremely hot. This heating and the chain reaction are controlled by the insertion of rods which are an amalgam of neutron absorbing materials — such as silver, boron, cadmium and cobalt. Raising or lowering the rods controls the number of neutrons reaching the second uranium product — thereby controlling the chain reaction. The whole process is fraught with danger. The threat of a nuclear explosion always exists if a system fault or other event (eg earthquake) allows the chain reaction to get out of control.
