13. Nuclear fission and energy relation

The difference in mass $m$, between the original and product nuclei, is converted to energy E in nuclear fission at a rate governed by Albert Einstein's famous equation, $E=m{c}^2$, first derived in $1905$, where c is the speed of light in vacuum.

 

Energy is commonly measured in electron $volts$ ($eV$) in nuclear science:

 

 

 From the above equation, we can see that $1$ atomic mass unit ($u$) equals approximately $931$ mega electron volts ($MeV$) of energy.

 

The installed capacity of nuclear power reactors at Tarapur (Maharashtra), Rana Pratap Sagar (Rajasthan), Kudankulam (Tamil Nadu), Narora (UP), Kakrapar (Gujarat), and Kaiga (Karnataka) is less than 3% of our country's total electricity generation capacity. Nuclear reactors, on the other hand, provide more than 30% of the electrical power in many industrialised countries.

 

The storage and disposal of spent or used fuels – the uranium still decaying into harmful subatomic particles – is a major hazard of nuclear power generation (radiations). Contamination of the environment occurs as a result of improper nuclear waste storage and disposal. Furthermore, there is a risk of nuclear radiation leakage by accident. Large-scale use of nuclear energy is prohibitive due to the high cost of building a nuclear power plant, the high risk of environmental contamination, and the limited availability of uranium. Before nuclear power plants were built, nuclear energy was first used for destructive purposes. Although the fundamental physics of a nuclear weapon's fission chain reaction is similar to that of a controlled nuclear reactor, the two types of devices are designed very differently.