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Nuclear Power: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
Splitting Atoms
Nuclear power stations split uranium atoms, a process called fission. It releases heat that boils water and drives turbines, like other power stations.
Key fact
A fingertip-sized uranium pellet holds as much energy as about a tonne of coal.
Low-Carbon Power
Nuclear power releases almost no CO₂ while running and makes about 9% of the world’s electricity. France gets around two-thirds of its power from it.
Key fact
A single large plant can power millions of homes.
Radiation
Nuclear fuel gives off radiation, which can harm living things in high doses. Plants use thick shielding, and waste must be stored safely for a very long time.
Key fact
We all get small natural doses from rocks, air and space.
Accidents
Serious accidents are rare but major. Chernobyl, in 1986, and Fukushima, in 2011 after a tsunami, led to evacuations and stricter safety rules.
Key fact
An exclusion zone still surrounds Chernobyl.
Fusion: Power of the Stars
Fusion joins light atoms together, the way the Sun makes its energy. It could provide huge amounts of clean power, but controlling it on Earth is very hard.
Key fact
In 2022, a US lab first got more energy out of fusion than its lasers put in.
Nuclear History
The first nuclear power plant to feed a grid opened in Obninsk, in the Soviet Union, in 1954. Today about 30 countries use nuclear power.
Key fact
Marie Curie’s discoveries about radioactivity paved the way.
Nuclear Waste
Used nuclear fuel stays radioactive for thousands of years. Finland is building Onkalo, a deep underground store designed to keep waste safe for 100,000 years.
Key fact
All US spent fuel would fit on one football pitch, about 10 m high.
Fun facts
The first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, was built in 1942 under the stands of a university sports field.
Nuclear stations are usually built by the sea or big rivers, because they need huge amounts of cooling water.
Bananas are very slightly radioactive, thanks to the potassium they contain.
With people gone, wolves, bison and wild horses now thrive in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone.
The Sun fuses about 600 million tonnes of hydrogen every second.
In 1958, the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to travel under the North Pole.
Some countries reprocess spent fuel so part of it can be used again.
Story: A Walk in the Snow
A Walk in the Snow
Christmas 1938, Sweden. Physicist Lise Meitner, who had fled Nazi Germany, gets a puzzling letter: her old partner Otto Hahn has found barium in uranium.
On a walk in the snow with her nephew Otto Frisch, she sits on a tree trunk and scribbles sums on scraps of paper. The uranium nucleus must have split in two.
Frisch named it “fission”. Hahn alone won the Nobel Prize for the discovery; Meitner was left out, though element 109, meitnerium, now honours her.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
Nuclear power stations split atoms.
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True. That’s nuclear fission.
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Question 2 of 10
Nuclear power releases very little CO₂ while running.
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True. No burning is involved.
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Question 3 of 10
We receive small amounts of natural radiation every day.
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True. From the ground, the air and space.
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Question 4 of 10
The Fukushima accident followed a tsunami.
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True. In March 2011.
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Question 5 of 10
Fusion could provide huge amounts of clean power.
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True. But it’s very hard to control on Earth.
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Question 6 of 10
Nuclear plants have fed power grids since the 1950s.
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True. Starting in 1954.
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Question 7 of 10
Finland is building a deep underground store for nuclear waste.
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True. Onkalo, over 400 m down.
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Question 8 of 10
Nuclear power stations burn coal.
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False. They use the heat from splitting uranium.
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Question 9 of 10
Nuclear power makes most of the world’s electricity.
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False. About 9%.
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Question 10 of 10
Nuclear waste becomes harmless in a few days.
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False. Some stays radioactive for thousands of years.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Nuclear Power has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- World Nuclear Association — Nuclear power in the world today
- IAEA — Chernobyl and Fukushima
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — Fusion ignition (2022)
- Posiva — Onkalo spent fuel repository
- U.S. Department of Energy — 5 fast facts about spent nuclear fuel
- U.S. Department of Energy — Chicago Pile-1; Oklo natural reactors
- World Nuclear Association — Uranium enrichment; decommissioning
- NASA — Radioisotope power systems
