Electricity production from nuclear energy

Excise taxes placed on specific energy sources tend to reduce the demand for these energy sources in both the short and the long run. The federal government imposes excise taxes on almost all petroleum products and coal (see Table I). The federal government also imposes excise taxes on many transportation uses of methanol, ethanol, natural gas, and propane and imposes a fee on electricity produced from nuclear power plants. 

Figure 5.54. Electric energy derived from nuclear energy (delivered as electricity or used to produce hydrogen, and including transmission losses). The figure shows average flows in each country. Note that countries with large hydro power production need no or little nuclear energy, as hydro is given first priority (Sorensen, 1999).

In nuclear power stations electrical current is produced from nuclear energy. Efficient operation requires provision of the nuclear power station with fuel elements and the disposal of spent materials. These operations are brought together in the nuclear fuel cycle, which embraces on the provision side the extraction and dressing of uranium ores to uranium concentrates, their conversion to uranium(VI) fluoride, enrichment of the uranium isotope from 0.7% in natural uranium to ca. 3%, the conversion of uranium(VI) fluoride into nuclear fuel and the production of fuel elements. 

Nuclear Power. Nuclear power is used extensively for electric power production, with more than 400 plants worldwide producing about 17 percent of the world s electricity. In Erance, about 75 percent of the electricity comes from nuclear plants. In 2008, about 104 nuclear power plants were operating in the United States. These plants produce nearly 20 percent of the country s electric energy. Because nuclear plants produce no carbon dioxide and no other airborne pollutants, the United States and other nations are looking to nuclear power to fulfill their future electric needs. There are several different types of nuclear power plants, but nearly all of them make use of steam energy technology. In these plants, the nuclear reactor replaces the boiler furnace as a heat source. Most of the rest of the plant closely resembles a conventional steam plant. Unlike conventional plants, nuclear plants use saturated steam rather than superheated steam because it is not feasible to superheat steam by means of a nuclear reactor. 

The practical importance of the actinide elements derives mainly from their nuclear properties. The principal application is in the production of nuclear energy. Controlled fission of fissile nuclides in nuclear reactors is used to provide heat to generate electricity. The fissile nuclides 233u 235u and Pu constitute an enormous, practically inexhaustible, energy source. 

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