Thursday Jan 21, 2021

Nuclear Power: Evil or Misunderstood? (It’s a Little of Both)

Nuclear power is about as popular as a three-eyed fish, but it still provides 10% of the world's electricity (and double that percentage in America). So how bad IS this stuff? And is there a possible future in which nuclear power provides almost ALL of the world's energy? (Spoiler: there is!)

Join the boys for an irradiated romp through the science, history, and future of nuclear power.

In this epidode:

Don't call it "nucular"
Statistics etc.
A nuclear reactor is a steam engine
Components of a fission reactor
Splitting the Adam (atom)
Nuclear rods
Uranium-235 and chain reactions
Cadmium control rods
History of nuclear power
- Willhelm Rontgen
- Marie Curie
- Ernest Rutherford
- Albert Einstein
- Enrico Fermi
- The Manhattan Project
- The Atomic Energy Commission
- Chicago Pile 1
- Experimental Breeder Reactor 1
Nuclear Submarines
Nuclear meltdowns (Chernobyl, 3-Mile Island, Fukushima)
Nuclear waste "mishaps"
The future of nuclear energy
Nuclear fusion
- Plasma
- States of matter
  - Bose-Einstein condensate
  - quark- glucagon plasma
  - neutron-degenerate matter
- Deuterium-Tritium reaction (D-T)
- Plasma containment: magnets
- Tokamaks
- ITER:
  International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory