#nuclear energy

Today in Science History:

The first nuclear reactor, dubbed Chicago Pile-1, was constructed on a squash court underneath the University of Chicago by a team led by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. It was made of of a “pile” of uranium, graphite (used as a moderator) and cadmium control rods, which act as neutron absorbers to “control” or “slow down” the reaction. It first achieved a self sustaining nuclear reaction on December 2nd, 1942 at 3:25 pm.

Learn more (article from 2017):

Remembering the Chicago Pile, the World’s First Nuclear Reactor

I’ve spent three hours now researching the history of nuclear energy, so if you have questions about that now would be the best time to ask. ☢️

Nuclear power is our best long-term reliable clean energy source. Many peoplw would like to argue otherwise, but it stands today that a single nuclear reactor can power ten times as many homes as solar panels in the same space or wind turbines in the same space. nuclear energy is often misrepresented as dangerous because the reactor could melt down or otherwise release radiation into the environment. This is false. These people will often cite the Chernobyl disaster as evidence that nuclear energy is unsafe and that solar/wind is the only way to go. The Chernobyl disaster was caused by improper maintenance of the facilities and improper training of personell responsible for preventing it from shutting down. those two factors are both caused by human error and not a direct result of the nuclear reactors being nuclear reactors. As a bonus, with the advancing technology of fusion reactors, nuclear power is safer than ever because fusion reactors will simply shut down in the event of failure as opposed to fission reactors which can overheat and melt down. Nuclear energy is currently the best option available to us to help slow down climate change. If you’re still not convinced that nuclear energy is safe, consider this: nuclear powered submarines (submarines with nuclear reactors inside them) and nuclear powered ships have been in active service for the US Navy for over 30 years without a single failure due to strict maintenance and training. Even nuclear reactors, as a whole, have a pretty clean record considering only 100 incidents where even just tiny amounts of radiation leaked out of 441 confirmed operating nuclear reactors worldwide, and over the course of 80 years (the first nuclear reactor was built in 1941 for the manhattan project.) The two most well known disasters, Chernobyl and Fukushima, were both caused by external influences and not because they were nucleae. In the case of Fukushima, a category 8 earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the facility and there was very little that could be done to prevent the disaster. Keep in mind that category 8 earthquakes are very rare and that this is not likely to happen again due to new advancements in earthquake-proof structures. As a whole, nuclear energy has proven to be very safe and reliable over the years and has the capacity to completely phase out fossil fuels (coal, gas, and oil power plants) where solar and wind cannot.

I may have gotten some details in this statement wrong, feel free to correct me or start discussions because this is an important matter that should be open to discussion and debate. If you for whatever reason believe my statement to be mostly or entirely false or otherwise disagree with me on teh topic of nuclear energy feel free to state why in a reblog or the comments.