Question: How do we use nuclear power in life?

Colin Dick answered on 19 Jun 2013:

Hi James,

I can only think of 2 main uses for nuclear power – one is for renewable energy, the other is for military weapons.

Nuclear powerplants are used to take the heat released during nuclear reactions and turn this into electrical energy. This relies on a process called nuclear fission – the atoms nucleus is split into smaller fragments and releases heat at the same time. The electricity in your house could be from a nuclear powerplant (1 in 6 houses in the UK are powered by nuclear energy)!

The same nuclear reaction occurs with nuclear weapons. In this instance, however, the nuclear fission is not controlled so it spreads very quickly from atom to atom. This means that a lot of energy (and heat) is released in a short time, which is why these bombs are so destructive.

Just to make things a bit more complicated, nuclear weapons can also work using nuclear fusion. Fusion is the opposite to fission – smaller atoms join together to make larger atoms, and heat is still released. The reason I mention fusion is because this is how the Sun produces energy.

So you ask how we use nuclear power in life? Well the energy from the Sun originates from nuclear reactions and this energy is required for our existence =)

Cheers,

Colin.