Nuclear Technology Past, Present, Future

Nuclear technology has many conventional uses from weapons of mass destruction to smoke detectors and eye sights. Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive metal. It has two principal uses: nuclear bombs and nuclear electricity generation. These uses are not mutually exclusive. In recent years, uranium has also been used as armour for tanks, bullets and artillery shells. There are 2 basic reactions in a nuclear device fission and fusion.

Nuclear Technology Past

Nuclear energy was first seen in 1945 when the United States of America first dropped the two atomic bombs which led to Japans surrender and the end of World War II. But what many people didn’t know this technology was taken by American and Soviet troops who entered Germany in 1945. Nuclear fission was first experimentally achieved by Enrico Fermi in 1934 when his team bombarded uranium with neutrons. In 1938, German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, along with Austrian physicists Lise Meitner and Meitner's nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, conducted experiments with the products of neutron-bombarded uranium. They determined that the relatively tiny neutron split the nucleus of the massive uranium atoms into two roughly equal pieces, which was a surprising result. Numerous scientists, including Leo Szilard who was one of the first, recognized that if fission reactions released additional neutrons, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction could result. Germany was developing nuclear technology and may have used it if the war progressed longer than it did.

Nuclear weapons were used as a wild card in the Cold War between America and Soviet Union. During this period nuclear technology was developed extensively. Nuclear missiles were placed in Cuba as a threat America.

Nuclear technology is spread across the world in every continent except Antarctica. Nuclear power is distributed as the map below shows.

Nuclear Technology Present

Nuclear technology has greatly advanced through the years. Efficiency of nuclear reactors has grown dramatically. Power of nuclear weapons has also been greatly increased in secret. The Cold War prompted Global powers to hide their military power in a veil of secrecy. There have been many updates on the efficiency of nuclear power plants and their increasing use due to climate change. But strangely enough there hasn’t been any news about nuclear weapon development, when it is clear that nations are spending large quantities of money in developing their nuclear arsenal. In this modern world nuclear weapons are a vital bargaining chip to many nations. Many countries remain active in developing nuclear power, including Japan, China and India, all actively developing both fast and thermal technology, South Korea and the United States, developing thermal technology only, and South Africa and China, developing versions of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). Several EU member states actively pursue nuclear programs, while some other member states continue to have a ban for the nuclear energy use. Finland has a new European Pressurized Reactor under construction by Areva, which is currently two years behind schedule. On December 20, 2002 the Bulgarian Council of Ministers voted to restart construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant. The plant's foundations were laid in 1987; however construction was abandoned in 1990, with the first reactor being 40% ready. It is expected that the first reactor should go on-line in 2013, and the second in 2014.

This physics of nuclear weapons and generators are still the same: fission and fusion, but scientists are exploring the possibility of further uses of nuclear power.

Nuclear Technology Future

          The Future of nuclear technology is unpredictable; it may lead us to a path of science, exploration and discovery or one of destruction death and devastation. If we are not careful and a terrorist acquires a nuclear weapon and uses it the consequence may be a nuclear war of global proportion:  the result being the obliteration of almost the whole human race. Nuclear power can also be used as energy for space ships. If a space ship was designed with a nuclear reactor as the engine it would be able to run for years to come and may lead to amazing scientific discoveries.

Nuclear Technology is a very dangerous thing. There a great risk following in its shadows and a great reward to be in sight of man’s dreams.