II. Some Facts About Nuclear Power 



The discovery that useful energy could be obtained from uranium 

 atoms initially attracted more academic than commercial interest, and 

 the first Government interest in its use was for naval propulsion rather 

 than commercial application. 4 This discovery, together with earlier 

 speculations that the enormous energy of the sun also originated in a 

 different nuclear reaction, laid the foundation for the peaceful, com- 

 mercial use of nuclear power, and for employment of this new tech- 

 nology as an element of U.S. foreign policy. 



Fission and Fusion : Two Sources of Nuclear Energy 



The two basic processes for the release of nuclear energy are fission 

 and fusion. Fission is a demonstrated and practical, although poten- 

 tially dangerous, source of energy. Fusion remains to be demonstrated 

 as a controlled source of useful energy, although its proponents expect 

 that this capacity will be achieved before the end of this century. 5 



Fission refers to the splitting apart, or fissioning, of atoms of ura- 

 nium and plutonium accompanied by the release of energy and the pro- 

 duction of intensely radioactive wastes. For present nuclear tech- 

 nology, the nuclear fuel in general use is atoms of uranium of atomic 

 weight 235, or the U-235 isotope. In nature, for each 1,000 atoms of 

 uranium, 7 are U-235 and the other 993 are the uranium isotope of 

 weight 238 (U-238) which is not directly useful for nuclear fuel. 



Breeding, or the Conversion of Useless Atoms into Useful Nuelear 

 Fuel 



In the fission process in a working nuclear power reactor, some atoms 

 of U-238 or thorium can be transformed into useful nuclear fuel, 

 namely, atoms of plutonium and U-233 respectively. If more of these 

 '"fertile" materials are transformed into nuelear fuel than are consumed 

 by the reactor, the process is known as "breeding. " Through breeding 

 it is possible, in principle, to use all of the U-23S and thorium in nature 

 as a nuclear fuel. As a practical matter, it is estimated that successful 

 demonstration of breeder technology would multiply the energy re- 

 coverable from uranium resources at least fifty-fold, would virtually 

 make nuclear power independent of the costs of mining uranium ores, 

 and would add the nuclear energy of world thorium deposits to world 

 energy reserves. 



Natural and Enriched Uranium as Nucleai Fuel 



In some types of nuclear power reactors, the uranium obtained from 

 nature can be used as a fuel. This was tin 1 approach favored by the 

 I nited Kingdom and France during the l!>50's and well into the L960'& 



'The lirst U.S. Government Interest was at the Naval Research Laboratory of the 

 Department of the Navy where research was proposed to explore the potential use of 

 nuclear energy fur naval propulsion, 



8 Details about tli«' scientific anil technological aspects of nuclear power are available in 

 such sources as Samuel Glasstone's two definitive imoks : Sourcebook on Atomic Energy 

 (New York: I) Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1967); and .\miinr Reactor Engineering 

 (New York : I >. Van Nostrand Company, inc., 1963) 



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