Nicolas Reed Science Blog

Nicolas Reed Science 7 Mrs. Garcia 4/23/18 Should We Expand the Use of Nuclear Energy?        Have you ever thought of nuclear energy as a way to positively affect climate change? Nuclear energy is a process in which neutrons crash into a certain uranium atom causing that atom to split. This fission produces a lot of energy, and it doesn’t just stop there, after the neutron splits the uranium atom, that neutron is free to crash into more uranium atoms causing it to go into a cycle that when controlled in a nuclear reactor can produce a lot of energy. We should expand the use of nuclear energy as a way to help fight against the climate change problem. Nuclear energy is much better for the environment and produces much more energy than any other source can. We also have the right technology to make producing nuclear energy much more safe and much more waste efficient. Climate change is a huge problem in today’s world and we have yet to find a solution, an...

Summary:        This week in science we researched for our 3rd Science WAC of the year, our research was to help us to figure out the answer to this question, "Should we expand the use of nuclear energy?" Through my research I have figured out the pros and cons of nuclear energy. First of all, nuclear energy is created "when a neutron crashes into a certain kind of uranium atom, that uranium atom splits into two smaller atoms. This fission releases a lot of energy, but it also releases more neutrons that are free to crash into other uranium atoms creating a chain reaction of lots more fission. When this fission chain reaction is carefully controlled in a nuclear reactor a constant supply of energy is produced." said in a PBS video . Just one uranium pellet that is just 1 inch long produces just as much energy as a ton of coal (2000 pounds of coal). Nuclear energy is produced in 400 operating nuclear energy plants worldwide. Nuclear energy is a very effective and ...

Summary:        This week in science we learned about climate change, but more specifically, how climate change affects Earth's Temperature. What I now know because of what I learned in science is one main thing that causes climate change, that thing is humans. Humans release a lot of out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which causes the temperature to increase because carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide gets released into the air in a number of different ways, oil spills, fossil fuels being burned, cars gas, and more. This heating on Earth creates two different systems, it creates the system of ice covering and temperature, and water vapor and temperature. The system of water vapor and temperature has two different parts, a positive feedback part, and a negative feedback part. The positive feedback process is when their is to much carbon dioxide in the air and the temperature increases causing water vapor to produce from the oceans. This...