Of all the different energy sources that we employ to keep the world supplied with the electricity, nuclear energy is the most controversial. In the 1930s, splitting the atom was regarded as a tremendous scientific breakthough, but since then the energy that this unleashed – nuclear power – has had [...]
Nuclear power stations represent an efficient means of producing electricity, and they produce no greenhouse gases. But toxic radioactive waste is left over from the process of nuclear fission, and this presents a problem. In the fifty years or so since we started using nuclear fission reactors, a lot of [...]
Nuclear fusion is the most powerful source of energy known to man. It is the process that creates the heat of the sun and the stars. Unlike nuclear fission, nuclear fusion does not involve high levels of radioactivity. We believe that if we could control the process of nuclear fusion, [...]
Britain has been using nuclear power to generate electricity for just over half a century. Currently, 19 reactors are in operation. Taking an average over recent years, they have produced around one-fifth of the UK’s electricity; their peak came in 1997, at 26 per cent. Nuclear reactors have a fixed [...]
