Atom is peaceful: photo, symbol. Can an atom be peaceful? Is there a future for a peaceful atom?

At the end of the Second World War, two nuclear bombs were dropped over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The new weapon proved to be the most deadly in human history. The subsequent nuclear race between the USSR and the United States further exacerbated the fears of the world community over the nuclear factor. However, in addition to nuclear warheads, a peaceful atom appeared. This phrase refers to nuclear power.

Principle of operation of nuclear power plants

The operation of any nuclear power plant is based on the fission reaction of the atom. In order to cause it, it is necessary to conduct a neutron bombardment of the uranium-235 nuclei. The smallest particles are divided into fragments, while producing a huge amount of gamma rays and thermal energy.

Peaceful atom can remain peaceful only under strict control, mandatory for nuclear power plants. The fact is that when fission occurs, neutrons, which generate new chain reactions. The uncontrolled encircling of the nuclei leads to an explosion. It is this principle that underlies the operation of atomic bombs. At power plants, the process is controlled, and excess energy is channeled into a channel useful to people.

Uranium-235

Before use, nuclear fuel is placed in special rods. It is stored in the form of tablets made of uranium oxide. It should be understood that this substance is not uniform. 3% of such tablets consists of uranium-235 (the reaction is divided exactly by it), the rest is accounted for by uranium-238 (this isotope is not divisible).

Why do we need such a ratio? To keep the process under control. The operating reactor triggers the fission reaction. In the course of its development, the amount of uranium-235 decreases. At the same time, the volume of fission products increases. This is nuclear waste. They pose a serious danger to the environment, so they must be properly disposed of. Can an atom be peaceful? As can be seen from the described technology, only with the strict observance of instructions and rules of the production process.

Prerequisites for appearance

Nuclear (nuclear) energy was born in the middle of the XX century. Since then, hundreds of nuclear power plants have been built in the world (442 works today). Peaceful atom provides more than half of the energy needed by France, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden and South Korea. In Western Europe, nuclear power plants generate about a third of electricity.

It all began in 1939, when the fission of uranium nuclei was discovered in Germany. Investigations of the Germans were extremely interested in the USSR. Scientists immediately realized that the newly discovered process allows producing huge volumes of energy. If specialists could learn to control complex reactions, this would solve many economic problems. The first Soviet studies related to the peaceful atom were held in RIAN (Radium Institute of the Academy of Sciences) under the leadership of the outstanding physicist Igor Kurchatov.

The Nuclear Race

The work of Soviet scientists was hampered by the USSR's lack of its own uranium reserves. In addition, in 1941 the Great Patriotic War began, and it was necessary to forget about revolutionary discoveries for a while. Against this background, the agenda was intercepted in the UK, the US and Germany. The paradox is that nuclear power emerged as a branch of the militaristic project. Of course, the warring countries first of all tried to get the most powerful weapons, and only then they thought about peaceful ways of using their discoveries.

The first experimental nuclear reactor was launched in the United States in December 1942. The head of the project was the Italian scientist Enrico Fermi. In the USSR the first reactor appeared at the end of 1946 at the Institute of Atomic Energy. By that time, American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had already taken place . In the USSR, an atomic bomb was created in 1949, and a hydrogen bomb in 1953. The war has already ended, and scientists began to prepare a nuclear reactor for work on the national economy of the Soviet Union.

Construction of nuclear power plants

The first nuclear power plant in the world was launched in the summer of 1954. It was Obninsk NPP, located in the Kaluga region. In the US, with a little delay, they also began to implement an energy nuclear project. In 1956, the Americans for the first time managed to get electricity through the reactor. Gradually, in two superpowers, all new nuclear power plants were based. Each of them beat another power record.

The peak of the development of nuclear energy fell on the second half of the 1960s. Then the number of nuclear power plant construction began to decrease. In the US, the Congress and the scientific community began a discussion on the problems related to the safety of peaceful nuclear energy. Nevertheless, by 1986, the generation of electricity at nuclear power plants had reached 15% of the volume produced by conventional power plants.

Symbol of nuclear energy

In 1958, in Brussels, where the next World Exhibition was held, Atomium was opened. Above the concept of design worked architect Andre Vaterkeyner. Atomium looks like an enlarged crystal lattice of iron: nine atoms joined together. The weight of the structure is 2400 tons, and the height is 102 meters. Visitors can get into six of the nine spheres. These atomic models, magnified hundreds of billions of times, are connected to each other by twenty-twenty-twenty-meter tubes. Inside them there are corridors and escalators.

The photo of the "peaceful atom" that appeared in Brussels at the height of the atomic age quickly swept the world, and Atomium became a symbol of all nuclear power and the idea that revolutionary scientific discoveries should be used for the benefit of mankind, and not for wars and destruction. The Belgian landmark is mentioned in the novel of the famous Soviet science fiction writers of the Strugatsky brothers "Monday begins on Saturday." The symbol of a peaceful atom appears on a variety of drawings, as well as on emblems dedicated to nuclear power.

Ecological factor

The problem of environmental contamination with radioactive waste is becoming more important every year. For example, in modern Russia, 10 nuclear power plants are engaged in the peaceful atom. All these enterprises need special attention from environmentalists and government departments.

Each year, 50 thousand cubic meters of radioactive waste accumulate in the European Union. The key problem is that such garbage remains dangerous for thousands of years (for example, the decay period of plutonium-239 is 24 thousand years).

Recycling

Today, there are several concepts on how best to get rid of radioactive waste. The first idea is to create repositories at the bottom of the World Ocean. This is a rather difficult method to implement. Containers should be at a considerable depth, in addition, they can damage the sea current.

The second idea is considered in NASA, where they suggest sending nuclear waste into outer space. Such a method is safe for the Earth, but fraught with excessive expenditure. There are other ideas: to transport waste to uninhabited islands or bury them in the ice of Antarctica. The most acceptable today is considered a variant of construction of cemeteries in rock underground rocks. Studies related to this idea continue to be conducted in Germany and Switzerland.

The lesson of Chernobyl

For a long time, nuclear power was considered to be non-alternative. For several decades, the peaceful atom in the USSR and other countries continued its economic expansion. However, in 1986, a tragedy occurred in Chernobyl, which forced humanity to rethink its attitude towards nuclear power plants. At the station near Pripyat, an explosion occurred, which resulted in the destruction of the reactor and the release into the environment of a significant number of radioactive substances hazardous to health.

The famous Soviet slogan "Peaceful atom in every house" was compromised. In the first months after the accident, 30 people were killed. However, the true effects of irradiation affected later. During the following years dozens of people died in agony from a terrible illness. Thousands of citizens of the USSR were in the zone of infection. Significant territories of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia have become unsuitable for agriculture. The Chernobyl accident led to an outbreak of public phobia in relation to nuclear energy. After that tragedy, many stations around the world were closed.

Although over the past 30 years, security measures in these enterprises have improved noticeably, theoretically a tragedy similar to Chernobyl can be repeated again. There have been accidents before and after the Chernobyl NPP: in 1957 - in Great Britain (Windskale), in 1979 - in the USA (Three Mile Island), in 2011 - in Japan (Fukushima). Today, the IAEA has collected information on more than 1,000 extraordinary events at stations. Causes of accidents: the human factor (80% of cases), less often - design flaws. At Fukushima in Japan, an emergency situation occurred due to a powerful earthquake and the tsunami that followed.

Prospects for Nuclear Power

The question of whether there is a future for a peaceful atom, from an economic point of view, is complex and causes many expert disputes. Due to a large number of conflicting factors, its future is unclear and vague. The latest forecasts issued by the International Energy Agency show that if current trends continue, the share of electricity produced at nuclear power plants will drop from 15% to 9% by 2030.

Until recently, nuclear power was in demand, among other things, because of high oil prices. However, in 2014 they fell sharply. Thus, there was one more cheaper alternative to the NPP. It is also important that the peaceful atom provides people only with electricity (that is, even with widespread application it can not completely rid society of energy dependence).

Oil or electricity?

Oil, despite everything, is important for industry and transport. About 40% of the energy consumed by the US is provided by this resource. From dependence on oil, Japan and France could not get rid of (although they actively use nuclear power plants). So is there a future for a peaceful atom or is it doomed to remain in the shadow of "black gold"? The mentioned tendencies indicate that nuclear power plants can be in the past. However, some recent developments have given nuclear energy a new chance.

It's about the appearance of cars that do not work on gasoline, but on electricity. Today, such vehicles are increasingly winning markets in the US and Europe. In a few decades, electric cars will become the norm. It is at this point in time that the world economy can again come to the rescue of a peaceful nuclear energy. NPPs are able to solve the problem of the ever-growing need of different countries for electricity.

Thermonuclear power engineering

There is another perspective in which a peaceful atom can make an economic triumph. One of the most important problems associated with the operation of nuclear power plants is environmental safety. The issue of the complexity of the burial of radiation wastes and spent fuel gave rise to the idea of reformatting nuclear reactors into new atomic-thermonuclear ones. Such enterprises will be completely safe for the environment. But before this technology of peaceful atom will be introduced into production, specialists will have to make a significant way.

Today, teams from 33 countries are already working on a thermonuclear project. The global nature of the idea of thermonuclear fuels is determined by its many advantages. It is not only safe from the point of view of ecology, but also inexhaustible. The resource necessary for scientists is deuterium, which is obtained from the World Ocean. The main technological difference between a thermonuclear station and a nuclear power plant is that nuclear fusion will take place at new plants (nuclear power is split up at former nuclear power plants). Perhaps, it is in this technology that the future of a peaceful atom lies.