Nuclear power (U-235)

Most nuclear reactors use Uranium, which is commonly found on Earth. Uranium is actually formed in stars, but a large amount of it was believed to have settled on Earth during its formation. Uranium-238 is what makes up most of the worlds uranium supply (~99%). U-235 composes 0.7 of the worlds uranium supply, with much of the remaining uranium being U-234.

U-235 is frequently used in nuclear bombs and nuclear power plants. Like other forms of uranium, U-235 decays naturally by alpha radiation. To a lesser extent, U-235 also spontaneously fissions. What makes U-235 so valuable is that it can be induced into fission.

• Free neutrons collide with the nucleus of a Uranium-235 atom
• the nucleus absorbs the neutron, gaining energy and becoming unstable
• almost instantaneously the atom splits into a couple smaller atoms (and gives off energy in forms such as beta, gamma, and neutron radiation)
• these neutrons that are given off spawn the next life cycle

the important factors in this cycle are as follows:

• U-235 has a high probability of fission from neutrons that pass near by
• this fission process happens extremely fast (1x10-12 seconds)
• a large amount of energy is given off from each fission. the byproducts of the fission often later fission again themselves. This large energy transfer is due to the difference of mass between the original atom and neutron as compared to the resulting fission products. (E=MC2) approximately 200 MeV (million electron volts) is released by the decay of one U-235 atom

Fuel used in some power plants, such as submarine or aircraft carriers is highly enriched and rich in energy. To understand the equivalent power we will use something that everyone uses, gasoline. In a single pound of this fuel has as much energy as about a million gallons of gasoline. Something smaller than a baseball can have more energy than a cubic 5 story building full of gas. To obtain the ability to use this energy, we must enrich the uranium such that there is at least 2-3% or more U-235 in the overall uranium stockpile. Weapons grade uranium is typically composed of greater than 90% U-235.

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