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How do nuclear power plants work? - M. V. Ramana and Sajan Saini

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Our ability to mine great amounts of energy from uranium nuclei has led some to bill nuclear power as a plentiful, utopian source of electricity. But rather than dominate the global electricity market, nuclear power has declined from a high of 18% in 1996 to 11% today. What happened to the great promise of this technology? M.V. Ramana and Sajan Saini detail the challenges of nuclear power.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Sajan Saini , M.V. Ramana
  • Director Will Mackenzie, Kat Gusarova
  • Animator Will Mackenzie, Kat Gusarova
  • Layout Artist Marlene Andersson
  • Producer The Animation Workshop
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by TED-Ed

Some people suggest that given the problems with nuclear fission based electricity, we should invest in fusion technology, which involves light nuclei combining to produce heavier nuclei. This is the process that powers the Sun, as well as hydrogen bombs. What does the case of nuclear fission power tell us about how we should think about nuclear fusion reactors as a source of electricity?

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Avatar for Tegan Bradley
Lesson completed

Based on what we know about nuclear fission power, I think that nuclear fusion based electricity is something that could be beneficial to look into as a more renewable energy source with a lot of positive potential, but it's something we should also be cautious about, given that it likely has a lot of potential to be dangerous, go wrong quite easily, or just not be a good energy source in the long run.


Avatar for Jasmine Garcia
Lesson completed

Nuclear fission is a good power source but it will not benefit us in the long run and it can harm the plant


Avatar for Paola Villagran
Lesson completed

nuclear energy is a reliable source of energy but cleaner options should be looked into


Avatar for JK K
Lesson in progress

Nuclear fusion is currently under development and is expected to be the best energy. Should we continue this development that may or may not be practical? I don't think we develop nuclear fission thoughtlessly because it's more influential than nuclear fission. However, development cannot be stopped without a clear source of energy. We need to think carefully about what ethical and efficient choices will be.


Avatar for Jonathan Latham
Lesson completed

Nuclear fission has proven unreliable in both practicality and social opinion. People don't like it in comparison with other energy production methods, and large amounts of radioactive waste aren't good for the environment. Nuclear fusion is thought of as a compromise. It would provide a large amount of energy, more than fission, and would be cleaner and renewable. Due to its sheer perfect appearance Nuclear fusion is often glorified as "saving humanity" problem solvers. However, we just don't know right now how practical it would be to build a fusion reactor.


Avatar for Maddie Grube
Lesson completed

Nuclear fission power is a good source of electricity because it can produce a lot of energy. However, it is not going to be good long term because it would produce a lot of waste which we could have to find a way to store it until it decays.


Avatar for Devin Chenail
Lesson completed

If we used fusion reactors it could end even more dramatically, they might blow up. This would make people not want them and have the far far away from any civilization it would have a terrible I'm
Act on the world if it did explode


Avatar for Emma Ciquera
Lesson completed

Nuclear fission power is telling us to use it for our electricity but it's not going to be beneficial in the long run. There has to be somewhere to dump the nuclear waste and that could be not beneficial to someone that lives in a nuclear waste site. It's not a good idea to use nuclear fission power because it will end up hurting people's lives.


Avatar for Alexis Garcia
Lesson in progress

I think it would be a very good option for nuclear energy since it can pre-empt a lot of energy in large quantities and be an alternative source, however there are also disadvantages with the use of this energy and can have effects on the environment and even on us as people , if we get to have some contact with some waste nucleus


Avatar for Halil İbrahim Kavuş
Lesson in progress

Not only nuclear power is a source of electricity, but also there are many possibilities to produce electricity instead of nuclear power. For instance, wind turbine is one of the most popular source of electricity and its the most characteristic is renewable and wind turbine never damages to environments and species in world

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