Page - 85 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

Chapter7 Nuclearpower Nuclear power is a relatively recent development in human history and its long-term future is still to be determined. It is an outgrowth of nuclear weapons development during World War II. It comes in two different technology types, nuclear fission andnuclear fusion.Both are discussed in detail below. 7.1 NUCLEARFISSION Nuclearfissionpowerisanimportantenergyoptionfor thefuture, although highly controversial. It now accounts for 11% of the world’s electricity. Sixteen countries depend on nuclear power for at least 25%of their electricity supply. SeeFigure 7.1 (42). 7.1.1 Fission fundamentals I was first exposed to the basics of nuclear fission as an undergraduate engineering student, and at one point even considered changing my major to nuclear engineering. It is a ‘technologically sweet’ energy option from the point of view of ©2019TheAuthor. This isanOpenAccessbookchapter distributedunder the termsof the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits copying and redistribution for non-commercial purposeswith noderivatives, provided theoriginalwork is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This does not affect the rights licensed or assigned from any third party in this book. The chapter is from the bookWater,Energy, andEnvironment:APrimer, AllanR.Hoffman (Author). doi: 10.2166/9781780409658_0085