Atomic Power

Atomic Power

Today we are talking about atomic power stations, nuclear weapons and the problems with it.

Our first topic is

The history of the nuclear fission

In the year 1939 the german scientist Otto Hahn invented with the assistence of Fritz Strassmann the splitting of an uran atom. During the second World War the german scientists worked very hard to build an atomic power station. At the end of the war the germans were nearly able to build an atomic bomb.

In the year 1943 american agents in germany heard about the research of the atomic bomb. Two years later the americans dropped a bomb on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki. Thousands of people died, the citys were destroyed and till today many people died on the results of these bombs.

Atomic power stations

Atomic power stations convert nuclear power to electricity.

The nuclear reaction produces heat. With this heat water will be warmed and then it drives the generator. The generator produces lots of electricity.The hot water will be cooled in this huge cooling towers.

Atomic Power worldwide

Today in europe are 218 atomic power stations working. They produce more than 178 billions watt. In France there are 56 nuclear power stations which produce more than 75 percent of electricity who is needed there. The germans have only 20. Now europe is building 25 nuclear power stations. 20 percent of the electricity who is needed in europe is produced by the nuclear fission. Now in the whole world there are 442 nuclear power stations working.

The Danger of the atomic power stations

The procedure to get electricity with atomic fission is very dangerous because of the nucelear radiation, and the storage of nuclear waste.

The nuclear waste is a very dangerous substance who is produced by the atomic fission.

This substance is mostly transported by train. This transports are the so-called Castor-Transports. Lots of organisations like Greenpeace make demonstrations in support against this transports, because a crash with a train or another accident would be horrible, because the containers are not very secure. If that happens and the weather is not good a circle of more than 10km would be poisoned and the grounds could not be used for many years. Most of the nuclear waste could be stored in the atomic power stations because the rooms for the storage are mostly unused.

The Tschernobyl desaster

On the 26^th of April the technicians of the atomic power station in Tschernobyl started an experiment. They shut of the security system to try out how long the reactor will produce electricity when he is shut down. Six seconds after the start the cooling system broke down. The reactor was overheated and exploded.

The russian authorities didn´t tell the population the trough. They always said that the situation was under control. Specially the east of europe was nuclear radiated. A lot of people died on the accident and until today much more poeple died on the results of the nuclear radiation.

After this happened People thought that that is the end of the atomic age. But nothing happend. A bit of the nuclear power stations were closed but most of them are as unsafe as they were in 1986 and till today much more were built.

Nuclear Weapons

The first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico on 16^th of July 1945. On the 6^th of august 1945 the americans dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and ten days later on Nagasaki. The two cities were nearly total destroyed.

After the war the US nuclear research built new bombs with more power, for example the Hydrogen Bomb. The United States and the UdSSR began the cold war. They produced more and more tanks, planes, subways and atomic bombs. In 1991 the USA and the UdSSR stopped the production of this weapons.

Every day we hear a lots of terrible things about the atomic power. But nobody tells us some advantages of the atomic power.

A atomic power station can built everywhere and it produces a lot of energy. For a hydroelectric power station you need a river and it produces not as much as a atomic power station. But  the best advantage is money. Thats the reason why many countries have a lot of atomic power stations. And they don´t think about the environment. But there are two countries in hole europe who don´t have atomic power stations. And we are very proud to be one of them.