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

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Episode Transcript:

https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/ukkmfs/NuclearPower.pdf

 

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