Nuclear Energy

Nuclear Power in our Midst

Nuclear energy is being used today. It is, of course, being used by at least a dozen countries to make powerful nuclear warheads. Also, nuclear energy provides up to seventeen percent of the world's electricity source, with up to 400 nuclear plants around the world, and up to 100 of those plants is in the U.S itself. In France, nuclear energy helps to produce up to 75 percent of their electricity. In Sweden, nuclear power produces 45.8 percent of its electricity. It is also greatly used in India, producing at least 4460 megawatts of power. Also 23 out of the 28 reactors were made in Asia. Today, nuclear energy plays a big role in out lives.

Key Terms:

Ballistic: pertaining to or caused by projectiles

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Two cities in Japan that were bombed with nukes in repercussion of the bombing of Pearl Harbor

Ground Zero: The site directly below, directly above, or at the point of detonation of a nuclear weapon.

Thermal Radiation: electromagnetic radiation emitted by all matter above a temperature of absolute zero

Nuke: A nuclear weapon

Air Shock: A wave of pressure expanding from the place where a bomb hit

EMP (electromagnetic pulse): a burst of electromagnetic energy produced by a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere

Isotope: An element that has a different number of neutrons in its nucleus, but the same number of protons and electrons (atomic number)

Megawatt: A unit of power equal to one-million watts