The nuclear energy It can have a variety of uses: producing heat, electricity, conserving food, seeking new resources, or being used as a medical treatment. This energy is obtained from the reaction that takes place in the nucleus of atoms, the minimum units of matter of the chemical elements of the universe..
These atoms can come in different shapes, called isotopes. There are stable and unstable ones, depending on the changes they experience in the nucleus. It is the instability in the neutron content, or atomic mass, that makes them radioactive. It is radioisotopes or unstable atoms that produce nuclear energy.
The radioactivity they give off can be used, for example, in the medical field with radiotherapy. One of the techniques used in the treatment of cancer, among other uses.
Nuclear energy is used to produce electricity more economically and sustainably, as long as it is put to good use.
Electricity is a fundamental resource for today's society, so the lower costs that occur with nuclear energy, can favor more people access to electrical means.
According to 2015 data from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), North America and South Asia lead the world in electricity production through nuclear energy. Both exceed 2000 terawatt hours (TWh).
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) states in its 2015 report that there are “795 million undernourished people in the world”.
The proper use of nuclear energy can contribute to this problem by generating more resources. In fact, FAO develops collaborative programs with the IAEA for this purpose..
According to the World Nuclear Association, atomic energy contributes to increasing food resources through fertilizers and genetic modifications in food.
The use of nuclear energy allows a more efficient use of fertilizers, a rather expensive substance. With some isotopes such as nitrogen-15 or phosphorus-32, it is possible for the plants to take advantage of the maximum amount of fertilizer possible, without it being wasted in the environment.
On the other hand, transgenic foods allow greater food production through the modification or exchange of genetic information. One of the ways to achieve these mutations is through ion radiation.
However, there are many organizations that oppose this type of practice because of its damage to health and the environment. This is the case of Greenpeace, which defends ecological agriculture.
Nuclear energy allows the development of a sterilization technique in insects, which serves to avoid pests in crops.
It is the sterile insect technique (SIT). According to a 1998 FAO news item, it was the first pest control method that made use of genetics.
This method consists of the rearing of insects of a specific species, which is normally detrimental to crops, in a controlled space.
Males are sterilized through small molecular radiation and released in the plagued area to mate with females. The more sterile male bred insects there are, the fewer wild and fertile insects..
In this way, they manage to avoid economic losses in the field of agriculture. These sterilization programs have been used by various countries. For example, Mexico, where according to the World Nuclear Association, it was a success.
The control of pests from radiation with nuclear energy, allows a better conservation of food. Irradiation techniques avoid massive food waste, especially in countries with a hot and humid climate.
In addition, atomic energy is used to sterilize the bacteria present in foods such as milk, meat or vegetables. It is also a way to extend the life of perishable foods, such as strawberries or fish..
According to proponents of nuclear energy, this practice does not affect the nutrients in products or have detrimental effects on health..
The majority of ecological organizations do not think the same, which continue to defend the traditional method of harvests.
Nuclear reactors produce heat, which can be used for water desalination. This aspect is especially useful for those dry countries with a lack of drinking water resources..
This irradiation technique makes it possible to convert salty sea water into clean water suitable for drinking. In addition, according to the World Nuclear Association, isotope hydrological techniques allow more accurate monitoring of natural water resources..
The IAEA has developed collaboration programs with countries such as Afghanistan, to search for new water resources in this country.
One of the beneficial utilities of radioactivity from nuclear energy is the creation of new treatments and technologies in the field of medicine. It is what is known as nuclear medicine.
This branch of medicine allows professionals to make a faster and more accurate diagnosis of their patients, as well as to treat them.
According to the World Nuclear Association, ten million patients in the world are treated with nuclear medicine every year and more than 10,000 hospitals use radioactive isotopes in their treatments..
Atomic energy in medicine can be found in x-rays or in treatments as important as radiotherapy, widely used in cancer.
According to the National Cancer Institute, "Radiation therapy (also called radiation therapy) is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.".
This treatment has a drawback; can cause side effects on healthy cells in the body, damaging them or causing changes, which normally recover after healing.
Radioisotopes present in nuclear energy allow greater control of polluting substances that are emitted into the environment.
On the other hand, atomic energy is quite efficient, leaves no waste and is much cheaper than other industrially produced energies..
The instruments used in nuclear plants generate a much greater profit than they cost. In a few months, they allow you to save the money that they cost in the initial moment, before they are amortized.
On the other hand, the measurements that are used to calibrate the amounts of radiation also usually contain radioactive substances, usually gamma rays. These instruments avoid direct contact with the source to be measured.
This method is especially useful when dealing with substances that can be extremely corrosive to humans..
Nuclear power plants produce clean energy. According to the National Geographic Society, they can be built in rural or urban areas without having a great environmental impact.
Although, as has already been seen, in recent events such as Fukushima, the lack of control or an accident can have catastrophic consequences for large hectares of territory and for the population of generations of years and years..
If compared to the energy produced by coal, it is true that it emits less gases into the atmosphere, avoiding the greenhouse effect.
Nuclear power has also been used for expeditions in outer space.
Nuclear fission or radioactive decay systems are used to generate heat or electricity through thermoelectric radioisotope generators that are often used for space probes.
The chemical element from which nuclear energy is extracted in these cases is plutonium-238. There are several expeditions that have been carried out with these devices: the Cassini mission to Saturn, the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the New Horizons mission to Pluto.
The last space experiment that was carried out with this method was the launch of the Curiosity vehicle, within the investigations that are being developed around the Planet Mars.
The latter is much larger than the former and is capable of producing more electricity than solar panels can produce, according to the World Nuclear Association..
The war industry has always been one of the first to catch up in the field of new techniques and technologies. In the case of nuclear energy it was not going to be less.
There are two types of nuclear weapons, those that use this source as a propulsion to produce heat, electricity in different devices or those that directly seek the explosion.
In this sense, it is possible to distinguish between means of transport such as military planes or the well-known atomic bomb that generates a sustained chain of nuclear reactions. The latter can be manufactured with different materials such as uranium, plutonium, hydrogen or neutrons..
According to the IAEA, the United States was the first country to build a nuclear bomb, so it was one of the first to understand the benefits and dangers of this energy..
Since then, this country as a great world power established a policy of peace in the use of nuclear energy.
A program of collaboration with other states that began with President Eisenhower's speech in the 1950s to the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In a scenario in which pollution problems and CO emissions are more taken into accounttwo, Nuclear energy appears as a possible solution that gives so many headaches to environmental organizations.
As we mentioned in the first point, nuclear production helps to generate electricity for whatever use is desired, such as fuel for automobiles..
In addition, nuclear power plants could produce hydrogen, which can be used in electrochemical cells as a fuel cell to power the car. This not only means environmental well-being, but also significant financial savings.
Thanks to natural radioactivity, archaeological, geological or anthropological finds can be dated with greater precision. This means speeding up the collection of information and establishing better criteria when evaluating the remains located..
This is achieved thanks to a technique called radiocarbon dating, a radioactive isotope of carbon that may be more familiar to you by the name of carbon 14. This is capable of determining the age of a fossil or object that contains organic material..
The technique was developed in 1946 by physicist Williard Libby, who was able, through nuclear reactions in the atmosphere, to structure the mechanisms of this dating method..
Mining is one of the most polluting and costly resource exploitation activities, being questioned by ecologists and environmental societies for decades.
Erosion, water pollution, loss of biodiversity or deforestation are some of the serious damages that mining produces. However, it is an industry that, today, is totally necessary to extract minerals of great importance to humanity.
Mining requires huge amounts of polluting energy to function at a good level, something that could be solved with nuclear energy. Projects have been presented in which by building small nuclear power plants in places close to the mines, up to 50 or 60 million liters of diesel could be saved.
Some of the dangers of using atomic energy are as follows:
One of the biggest risks run by nuclear or atomic energy is accidents, which can happen in reactors at any time.
As has already been demonstrated in Chernobyl or Fukushima, these catastrophes have devastating effects on life, with high contamination of radioactive substances in plants, animals and in the air..
Excessive radiation exposure can cause diseases such as cancer, as well as malformations and irreparable damage in future generations..
Environmental organizations such as Greenpeace criticize the method of agriculture defended by the promoters of nuclear energy.
Among other qualifiers, they affirm that this method is very destructive due to the large amount of water and oil it consumes.
It also has economic effects such as the fact that these techniques can only be afforded and accessed by a select few, ruining small farmers..
Like oil and other sources of energy used by humans, uranium, one of the most common nuclear elements is finite. That is, it can be sold out at any time.
That is why many defend the use of renewable energy instead of nuclear energy..
Nuclear power production may be cheaper than other types of energy, but the cost of building plants and reactors is high.
In addition, you have to be very careful with this type of construction and with the personnel who will work on them, as they must be highly qualified to avoid any possible accident.
Throughout history, there have been numerous atomic bombs. The first took place in 1945 in New Mexico, but the two most important, without a doubt, were those that broke out in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Their names were Little Man and Fat Boy respectively..
It took place at the nuclear power plant in the city of Pripyat, Ukraine on April 26, 1986. It is considered one of the most serious environmental catastrophes along with the Fukushima accident.
In addition to the deaths that it produced, almost all workers at the plant, there were thousands of people who had to be evacuated and were never able to return to their homes.
Today, the city of Prypiat remains a ghost town, which has been looted, and which has become a tourist attraction for the most curious.
It took place on March 11, 2011. It is the second most serious nuclear accident after Chernobyl.
It occurred as a result of a tsunami in eastern Japan that blew up the buildings where the nuclear reactors were located, releasing a large amount of radiation to the outside.
Thousands of people had to be evacuated, while the city suffered severe economic losses.
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