What Is Nuclear Energy?

To release the energy source, power plants carry out the process known as nuclear fission, whereby a uranium atom collides with a neutron, releasing radiation and heat. This energy can then be used to activate turbines that generate electricity.

Although not sustainable, nuclear energy is carbon-free and is more eco-friendly than the likes of natural gas or coal energy sources. It is set to play a vital role in the U.K.’s mission to eliminate carbon by 2050.

For businesses around the world, nuclear energy is harnessed primarily to produce electricity; however, there are a lot of other ways that nuclear power can benefit the runnings of the planet, from improving agriculture and food to water desalination. Here’s how nuclear can power our lives:

Electricity Generation

Nuclear energy can produce low-carbon electricity that can be used to power homes, shops, and facilities. It is the sustainable energy with the highest capacity, given that nuclear power plants can run constantly.

Unlike solar power, wind turbines, and other sustainable energy sources, nuclear plants don’t rely on specific conditions to operate. They can produce electricity through the night and on calm days. Nuclear power plants are, therefore, the only producers of energy that can create carbon-free energy 24/7.

With electricity demand set to double by 2050, in conjunction with the drive to have Britain decarbonised by the same year, nuclear power is one of the best, clean energy alternatives to fossil fuels. Nuclear power plants will be able to support the growing population with low carbon electricity.

Conversely, nuclear energy can also produce electricity on a required basis. If sufficient wind or solar energy is being produced, the production of nuclear power can be slowed down. For this reason, nuclear energy is considered to be a flexible component of a green energy future, working alongside other clean power sources.

Nuclear energy requires minimal fuel to generate a substantial amount of energy. Five grams of uranium fuel could power a standard home for six whole months! One fuel pellet can produce the same amount of energy as 1,000kg of coal.

The U.K. is currently home to 15 nuclear reactors, which work to produce 21% of Britain’s total energy requirements.

Agriculture and Food

Nuclear can greatly improve agriculture conditions and increase crop yields by providing soil, water, and insect management, amongst other benefits. Not only are healthy crops necessary to feed us, but they are also important economically for businesses that rely on the export of their produce.

Firstly, nuclear isotopes can be used to check soil quality before an attempt at planting crops is made. Based on how the isotopes react to the soil, farmers can determine the nutrients and soil water content of an area of land. This means that they don’t waste resources planting on unsuitable land, and increases crop yield as they can plant bountifully in healthy soil.

Secondly, nuclear technology can also be used as a pesticide to control insect infestations. Through a process called the sterile insect technique (SIT), insects are reared, and gamma radiation is used to sterilise the male flies to prevent them from breeding. The insects are then released alive, making this an environmentally conscious approach to pest control.

Nuclear energy can be used as part of a process called plant mutation breeding, where cuttings and seeds are exposed to a degree of radiation to bring about mutations in plantlets.

These mutations could make the plants better adaptable to warm climates and environmental changes and can even make them richer in nutrients. If a successful mutation is attained through nuclear mutation, the plantlets can easily be cross-bred, and the new mutation could be grown widely.

Nuclear has also been used to detect and control livestock diseases. Using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests – a nuclear-derived method of testing – farmers can identify zoonotic and other diseases in their livestock promptly and curb them before they spread.

Consumer products

Radioactive materials have long been a component of many consumer products and will most likely continue to be used widely. Products that typically contain nuclear material includes the following:

• Clocks and watches Most luminous watches likely contain hydrogen-3 (tritium), a product of nuclear fission, or promethium-147.
• Energy-saving lightbulbs Modern eco-friendly lightbulbs will likely contain americium-241 within the glow switch.
• Smoke detectors Smoke detectors contain americium-241, which is produced at nuclear power plants. This radioactive material is used to ionise the air surrounding the smoke detector, which makes the air conductive. The smoke detector can then easier identify smoke particles in the air.

Medical

Nuclear power is used within a medical context in lots of different ways, from diagnosis to treatment purposes. Nuclear medicine is essentially nuclear material that can be ingested, injected, or inhaled and can be used to assess how a patient’s tissue and organs are functioning.

Once the patient has consumed this nuclear medicine, a radiologist can assess how the body reacts to the nuclear material using a radiation detector. Through this procedure, heart, lung, kidney, thyroid, and gallbladder scans can be performed. Nuclear medicine is hugely beneficial as it means healthcare professionals can diagnose diseases early.

Once a diagnosis has been made, nuclear medicine can also be used to treat the patient. A nuclear tracer can be used to target and radioactively damage the disease or affected organ. This can either temporarily curb the spread of the disease or prevent the further growth of harmful cells.

Space Exploration

Nuclear energy is vital in making deep space exploration possible because it can function independently of sunlight. Nuclear power is most commonly used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which essentially work as a nuclear decay-powered battery.

These batteries are long-lasting and add minimal mass to the spacecraft. NASA has used nuclear power systems in over 25 missions since 1961.

Both nuclear fission and nuclear fusion are also used for propulsion purposes.

Water Desalination

Nuclear power can be used for water desalination purposes, which is the purification of brackish and seawater.

Insufficient drinking water resources has long been a global concern; it will continue to grow worse through population increase and the effects of global warming. Therefore, water desalination is necessary to support countries where water may not be readily accessible.

However, water desalination is currently predominantly achieved through the burning of fossil fuels, which is, of course, unsustainable and will likely cause further water resource issues in the future. Companies that desalinate with fossil fuels are reluctant to switch to clean energy resources, mainly due to the initial investment and maintenance costs.

Nuclear is a great water desalination alternative, as it can clean saltwater through evaporation as a byproduct of electric energy generation. Using excess heat produced by nuclear power plants alone, both reverse osmosis and multi-stage desalination could be performed.

Even small nuclear reactors could have the potential to produce up to 100,000 cubic metres of clean drinking water per day.

Although nuclear power may not be 100% sustainable, it is undeniably clean. Clean energy is defined as any energy source that emits no greenhouse gases or any other form of pollutants, meaning that the energy is 100% environmentally conscious. Other examples of clean energy include wind, solar, bioenergy, geothermal, hydro, and, arguably, natural gas.

Stricter definitions will state that the energy source has to be 100% renewable, meaning that natural gas is often overlooked. Nuclear power, however, should still be considered to be clean energy as, although it may also be technically a non-renewable energy source, it delivers 100% carbon-free energy and produces the same level of gasses as that of solar and wind.

Unlike fossil fuels, which release massive quantities of carbon dioxide into the air when burned, nuclear power generates electricity solely on steam power, meaning that no pollutants get released into the air by nuclear power plants. Nuclear power is, therefore, essential to the decarbonisation process and intrinsic to all climate change strategies.

Additionally, nuclear power plants require far less operation space than the likes of solar and wind farms. A 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant can be built within just 1 square mile of land. Wind farms can require more than 350 times as much land mass as that.

This means that nuclear power plants create less of a carbon footprint than wind farms, as they take up less of the natural landscape.

The nuclear waste problem

Although France, Belgium, Russia, and Japan are each attempting to solve their nuclear waste problem through recycling, these countries still need to deal with the ‘highly radioactive waste’ leftover. Plus, the rest of the world – the U.S.A. and U.K. included – does not attempt reusing their nuclear waste.

A byproduct of nuclear fission is the highly toxic radioactive material which, if not properly disposed of, can be extremely harmful to the environment, humans, and animals. This is where the nuclear waste problem lies: there is no environmentally-friendly way to dispose of this waste.

Generally, radioactive material is geologically disposed of, which means it is stored in an underground repository, where it is cooled by water. This shuts it off from contact with the environment.

The drawback of this disposal method is that it can take thousands of years for the radioactive material to decay, meaning that an increasing amount of storage will be necessary, which damages the natural landscape. Plus, leaks can occur, which could be catastrophic for the surrounding nature and wildlife.

Another byproduct of the nuclear fuel cycle is radioactive waste. This relates to anything that has been in contact with radioactive material, including tools and workers’ clothes. Radioactive waste similarly needs to be disposed of promptly, which can be harmful to the environment.

This further adds to the need for space, plus constantly having to make new workwear and tools will have some degree of impact on the environment. Some underground repositories are located miles away from the power plants meaning waste needs to be transported. Not only does this increase the risk of spillages, but it also emits carbon dioxide.

The impact of mining for uranium atoms

Although the nuclear fuel cycle does not release any greenhouse gasses, the process involved in the mining of uranium is far from being a low-carbon procedure. Not only does mining for uranium atoms emit CO2, but the process of creating uranium hexafluoride also emits additional greenhouse gasses.

Mining for uranium can also pollute local water supplies, cause the emission of radon gas, and also produce radioactive waste, causing irreparable damage to the surrounding flora, fauna, and people within the vicinity of it.

As it stands, nuclear only accounts for 15-20% of the U.K.’s energy needs. The majority of the country’s current energy is still produced by fossil fuels, with the rest being produced by renewable sources such as wind and solar.

For the U.K. to fulfil the Net Zero Strategy, which aims to completely eradicate carbon pollution by 2050, a prompt switch to greener energy sources is required, as well as the end of our reliance on fossil fuels. Coal-fired power plants are set to all close in the U.K. by 2025.

Adding to this challenge is our exponential need for electricity. As electric vehicles, central heating, and other necessities become electrified, the demand for stable, low carbon, and accessible electricity sources increases. This is why nuclear power is so vital to a greener future because it is stable, low-carbon producing, and accessible.

The next generation of nuclear power plants

By 2025, around half of the U.K’s current nuclear power plants are set to close because they have reached the end of their operational lifetime. Construction on the next generation of nuclear power plants is either ongoing or yet to start, with the following sites set to be the location of future plants:

• Bradwell, Essex
• Hartlepool (Old station set to close in 2024)
• Hinkley Point, Somerset (Set to open in 2026)
• Sellafield, Cumbria
• Wylfa, Anglesey
• Sizewell, Suffolk

Nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion produces much more power than nuclear fission and could be a more sustainable option for electricity generation.

Unlike nuclear fission, which splits a bigger atom into smaller ones to produce power, nuclear fusion joins smaller atoms together to form a bigger one. It uses hydrogen as fuel and does not produce active and long-lasting nuclear waste, the main byproduct of fusion being helium, which is non-toxic. It can produce 3-4 times as much energy as nuclear fission.

There are several sites currently being considered for the first nuclear fusion plant in the U.K. The sites being considered are:

• Moorside, Cumbria
• Severn Edge, Gloucestershire
• Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire
• Ardeer, North Ayrshire
• Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire.

New energy bill

To reduce the upfront cost of building nuclear power reactors, the British government announced a new funding model in 2021 designed to discount the construction price.

This funding initiative intends to encourage more energy companies to invest in nuclear reactors so that Britain can finally end its reliance on coal, gas, and oil and adopt green alternative energy sources.

This new energy bill has a lot of benefits for the consumer, too. As it becomes cheaper for energy companies to create nuclear facilities, they’ll be able to charge the consumer less for the use of nuclear electricity. This would make nuclear a viable option for U.K. households.