Nuclear power is uranium fuelled. One of the major advantages is that it is an effective and clean method of making steam by boiling water in order to propel turbine generators. Nuclear power is produced via a nuclear reactor which generates and regulates the discharge of energy. This done through a process which involves splitting uranium atoms. There is a reactor core which consists of a few hundred fuel assemblies. These house the fuel of ceramic uranium oxide in the form of small pellets in their thousands, and together, form the reactor’s core.

Here, a great deal of heat is generated in a perpetual process by the isotope fissions (U-235). A moderator which is often water, controls the process, and enables the production of more fissions by slowing the production of the neutrons by the uranium nuclei’s fission. A pressure vessel made of steel houses the reactor core, this way, that water that surrounds it stays in liquid form over 320°C. In order to propel the turbine to generate electricity, steam is produced via separate pressure vessels or on top of the core of the reactor, and subsequently condensed. The water then goes through a recycling process (World Nuclear, n.d.).

Advantages of utilizing nuclear energy include: the fact that not much land is required for the installation of the plant, it does not contribute to CO2 emissions or global warming, it it not reliant on a certain type of weather, it is the most concentrated type energy, and it is reliable. Disadvantages include: disposing of the waste which is hugely expensive because it is radioactive, the long and expensive process of decommissioning, and the very serious potential of nuclear accidents which can release highly dangerous particles over a massive area of the world (Cyber Physics, n.d.). The tragedy at Chernobyl in the 1980s is a prime example of this. It had devastating and far reaching consequences which involved the loss of life, serious disease, and global pollution.