Living Green Barrie

Twin Dangers by Peter Bursztyn Two major worries around nuclear power are the twin dangers of nuclear proliferation and of terrorism. Nuclear proliferation refers to the increasing group of nations which possess and/or seek to possess nuclear weapons. Most thermonuclear

Some Thermodynamics by Peter Bursztyn Most nuclear power reactors have triple heat transfer loops. One heat transfer loop takes heat from the reactor core and transfer this to a heat exchanger. There a 2nd heat transfer fluid contacts the first

Nuclear Power and Greenhouse Gases by Peter Bursztyn Advocates of nuclear power like to suggest that atomic energy creates no greenhouse gas emissions, and that they should be built to protect the planet from climate change. This is an exaggeration.

Nuclear Power-“Too Cheap to Meter”? by Peter Bursztyn “It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter, will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only

Nuclear Waste by Peter Bursztyn Nuclear fission reactors produce highly radioactive waste which is hard to dispose of because it must be either well diluted (sometimes within a glass or ceramic block), or kept refrigerated for decades. One reason nuclear

Nuclear Fusion by Peter Bursztyn The 2nd type of nuclear energy is fusion. Two light nuclei, usually hydrogen, deuterium (heavy hydrogen), or tritium (heavy, radioactive hydrogen), are forced to combine at very high temperature to form helium. A small amount

Fast Breeders by Peter Bursztyn Certain types of reactors are called “fast breeders”. These use plutonium 239 (239Pu) as a primary fuel. They then add 238U rods into the core, or surround it with a “blanket” of 238U. (The plutonium

Nuclear Fission by Peter Bursztyn Atomic power was “predicted” by Albert Einstein in his 1905 paper on the Theory of Relativity. This postulated that mass and energy are related to each other. This relationship is described by the world’s best

Nuclear Energy In a nuclear power plant nothing “burns”, although fuel (uranium or plutonium) is consumed. Nuclear reactors are thermal (“thermonuclear”) power plants where heat is used to raise steam to drive a turbine. The heat comes from a nuclear