10 Facts about Nuclear Energy
10 Facts about Nuclear Energy 1. Nuclear energy comes from uranium, a nonrenewable resource that must be mined. 2. Every 18 to 24 months, a power plant must shut down to remove its spent uranium fuel, which becomes radioactive waste. 3. In 1905, Einstein discovered that mass could be changed into energy and vice versa. In 1918, Sir Ernest Rutherford showed that atoms could be split. By 1942, the world had its first nuclear reactor. 4. Today, 104 nuclear plants supply about 2 0% of the United State’s electricity. The oldest plants have been operating since before 1979. 5. Contaminated food was still sold in the Ukraine after the Chernobyl accident. One worker described the conditions after the accident: “Contaminated meat would come from the factory. The internal organs of the cattle would be black and rotten, but still, the meat was sold." 6. Currently, nuclear waste in the United States is stored in cooling pools of water and in dry storage casks at nu...