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History of Nuclear Energy Click for source article (1956 onward ("…

- - - - 1895- X rays discovered by Willhelm Rontgen
      - 1896- big year for radiation discoveries
        
        Henri Becquerel discovers alpha and beta rays.
        
        Villard discovers gamma rays.
        
        Pierre and Marie Curie name it "radioactivity".
    - - 1902 Rutherford discovered alpha/beta particles leaving the atom change it to a different element.
        
        1911 fired alpha particles into nitrogen and turned it into oxygen
      - 1911 Soddy discovered isotopes.
        
        de Hevesy "showed that radionuclides(isotopes) were invaluable as tracers"? What kind of tracer? How are they easier to detect than the normal element?
      - 1932 Chadwick discovered neutrons.
        
        interesting that isotopes were discovered before neutrons, since # of neutrons are what determine an isotope
      - Enrico Fermi's experiments lead to the discovery of nuclear fission: splitting atoms into smaller atoms.
        
        Lise Meitner, Otto Frisch, and Niels Bohr offer explanation as to why nuclear fission occurred.
        
        Nuclear fission released a lot of energy
        
        confirmed to be "200 million electron volts" by Frisch experiment in 1939.
        
        What is an "electron volt"? how does it relate to a normal volt?
        
        Confirmed Einstein's 1905 theory of "equivalence between mass an energy", meaning Otto Frisch confirmed E=MC^2
  - - - Diving deeper into nuclear fission
        
        Hahn and Strassmann discover that nuclear fission frees up neutrons
        
        Since nuclear fission is started with neutrons, this means that uranium atoms can split, and then the free neutrons from the first split could hit another atom and cause it to split, etc etc.
        
        Confirmed by Joliot and co. and Szilard/Fermi.
        
        Bohr theorizes that uranium-235 will produce fission much better than uranium-238.
        
        Other fine tuning involving neutron speed
        
        Publishes "the classical analysis of the fission process" 2 days before WWII
        
        U-235 is only 0.7% of all uranium in the world, with similar chemical properties to the U-238 it's mixed with.
        
        "Critical mass" i.e. how much uranium needs to be there to start a chain reaction, discovered in 1939 by Francis Perrin.
        
        Extended on by Rudolf Peierls
        
        Peierl's calculations became basis of nuclear bomb science
        
        Perrin's experiments became foundation for nuclear power plants
        
        Perrin was a student of Werner Heisenberg, leader of Germany's nuclear energy project.
        
        Germany abandoned their "Uranverein" project for practicality reasons, but the existence of it sparked USA/Britain developing atomic bomb.
        
        What was the "Uranverein" project?
    - - British scientists pushed the idea to the government
        
        3 page document called "Frisch-Peierls Memorandum"
        
        Estimated 5 kg(11 pounds) of uranium 235 could equal "Several thousand tonnes of dynamite"
        
        Outlined all the details necessary to produce it/ the devastation it could cause
        
        Britain responded, USA didn't really care yet
        
        HOW did Britain respond to the idea? Well? Poorly?
        
        Why didn't USA care yet?
        
        Because the USA hadn't officially entered the war yet. Initially the USA was mainly concerned with nuclear stuff as a source of power, but after Pearl Harbor they were officially in the war and decided they were gonna go after the bombs after all.
      - "MAUD Committee" supervised many universities in developing the actual technology needed
        
        Discovered that Uranium could be turned into two separate elements, later named Neptunium and Plutonium
        
        All work was kept secret
        
        Came out with two major reports as final work
        
        "Use of Uranium for a Bomb"
        
        Determined bomb was feasible
        
        12 kg of U-235 = 1,800 tons of TNT
        
        Interesting that the figures changed so much.
        
        Plant to make 1 kg of U-235 daily would cost 5 million... something
        
        Formatting error on page, assuming 5 million pounds since it's England we're talking about.
        
        They knew beforehand that it would make the surrounding area dangerous for a long time...
        
        Why were they willing to go through with that if they knew how much damage it would do?
        
        "Use of Uranium as a Source of Power"
        
        Energy via heat
        
        Something about "large quantities of radioisotopes which could be used as substitutes for radium".
        
        Which radioisotopes are we talking about here?
        
        What was radium doing that needed replacing, that these could do better?
        
        "Use of heavy water and possibly graphite as moderators for the fast neutrons"
        
        Slow neutrons work better
        
        What is "Heavy water"?
        
        "Regular water" could work if it was U-235 enriched uranium.
        
        Why only if it's enriched?
        
        USA was planning to make large quantities of "heavy water"
        
        Decided that uranium power wasn't urgent for the war and could wait until later, but that it might be useful in the future.
        
        Only existed for 15 months, but was dubbed "one of the most effective scientific communities that ever existed"
      - The Manhattan Project
        
        Post-pearl harbor project in America. Concerned with figuring out how to "enrich" the uranium 238, i.e. increase the percentage of U-235 from 0.7% to something higher and more useable.
        
        Three different methods being pursued at the same time
        
        Electromagnetic separation, lead by Professor Lawrence at UC Berkeley
        
        Centrifuge method
        
        Developed by Professor Beams
        
        Being studied by "E.V. Murphree of Standard Oil"
        
        Gaseous Diffusion, lead by Professor Urey at Columbia University.
        
        This was the only technique the British were looking into at this time
        
        June 1942-Army took over from the universities
        
        Assumed responsibilities of development, design, materials procurement, picking sites for the plants.
        
        Plants for making the radioactive material / "heavy water"
        
        4 different materials being considered at this point, none proven to be better than the others yet since enrichment of the uranium hadn't proven possible so far
        
        1 more item...
        
        What the heck is heavy water?!
        
        Government poured over 1 billion USD into nuclear bomb research
      - First "Atomic Device" successfully detonated on July 16, 1945
        
        Used plutonium in a "nuclear pile"
        
        What's a nuclear pile?
        
        Dropped in Alamagordo, New Mexico
        
        Did not test atomic bomb containing uranium before it was dropped on Hiroshima.
        
        Dropped on August 6, 1945
        
        Plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945
        
        USSR declared war on Japan on August 9.
        
        Japan surrendered August 10th.
  - - - General opinion was that it would be quick and easy
      - Three main goals of research program
        
        Achieve controlled chain reaction
        
        Investigate methods of isotope separation
        
        Look at designs for plutonium and enriched uranium bombs
    - - Main assignment was isotope separation
    - - Successfully tested in August 1949, already moved on to working on hydrogen bomb as well
- - - - US lead by Admiral Hyman Rickover
        
        Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR)
        
        Used uranium oxide and cooled with "ordinary (light) water"
        
        WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HEAVY WATER?!?!
        
        Mark 1 reactor
        
        March 1953, Idaho
        
        Led to a (presumably much bigger) reactor being built by US Atomic Energy Commission in Pennsylvania.
        
        Ran from 1957-1982
        
        First nuclear submarine was the USS Nautilus, launched in 1954.
        
        Russia and USA tied for first nuclear boats, both launching in 1959
    - - Other half of Frisch-Peierls Memorandum
      - First working reactor in 1951
        
        "Experimental Breeder Reactor", a.k.a. EBR-1, in Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho.
      - "1953 President Eisenhower proposed his "Atoms for Peace" program", basically let's use this for electricity kind of power, not "I can kill you" kind of power.
  - - - in Obninsk, closed city
        
        What exactly do they mean by "closed city"?
      - Modified their reactor used for producing plutonium into a reactor for producing electricity.
      - June 1954 the AM-1 (Atom Mirny/Peaceful Atom) reactor began operation, and was the first electricity-producing reactor in the world.
        
        Ran for electricity purposes until 1959
        
        Facility used for research / isotope production until 2000.
      - Paved the way for other reactors, including the kind eventually used in Chernobyl, RBMK reactors.
        
        Reaktor bolshoi moshchnosty kanalny- high power channel reactor
      - Other reactors with terms idk what mean in the names were produced as well. High school chemistry only goes so far in understanding this stuff. :P
  - - - First one was Calder Hall-1, ran from 1956-2003
      - 26 reactors built total, stopped in 1963
      - Experimented with another design but ultimately decided USA's PWR was better and stopped developing more.
- - - - PWR called Yankee Rowe, run by Westinghouse
        
        Ran from 1960-1992
    - - Argonne National Laboratory again. They were somewhere else in this mess of an article too.
      - Why doesn't this article explain what any of the terms they're throwing out MEAN?
      - First BWR was Dresden-1, by General Electric, also started in 1960
  - - - Use to "desalinate Caspian seawater"
        
        Do they not have a lot of fresh water in Kazakhstan? Why does it need the salt taking out of it?
      - But it says that other countries made experimental ones that ran between 1959 and 2009, with only one still running in Russia.
        
        contradiction?
    - - First one in 1962
      - "This CANDU design continues to be refined"
    - - First reactor in 1956
      - first commercial reactor in 1959
    - - first 2 power plants commissioned in 1964
  - - - At the same time, total power output was up 60%
        
        Not as much demand, because new reactors could make more energy?
    - - Existing nuclear companies conglomerated together
  - - - What kind of incentives?
    - - China alone has 100 reactors on the way
      - Probably the area of nuclear research focus in years to come