Helium 3
Muhammet Raşit Akben KUTLUK ÖZGÜVEN
09.01.2012
Science and Technology
HELİUM 3
As we know, helium is a lightweight and non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. Also it sometimes called ‘tralphium’. According to many experts, helium-3 can be a clean nuclear power. There are many benefits of helium-3 but the most important problem is that there is very little helium-3 available on the Earth. First of all, I will give general some information about helium-3 isotope.
Helium-3 | General | Name, symbol | Helium-3, 3He, He-3,3He | Neutrons | 1 | Protons | 2 |
Helium-3 is sought for use in nuclear fusion. As we know, all nuclear power plants use a nuclear reaction to produce heat. This is used to turn water into steam that then drives a turbine to produce electricity. Current nuclear power plants have nuclear fission reactors in which uranium nuclei are split part. This releases energy, but also radioactivity and spent nuclear fuel that is reprocessed into uranium, plutonium and radioactive waste which has to be safety stored, effectively indefinitely.
PAGE 2
‘The nuclear fuel cycle is the series of industrial processes which involve the
production of electricity from uranium in nuclear power reactor’.
For many years, scientist have been working to create nuclear power from nuclear fusion rather than nuclear fission. In the nuclear fusion reactors, the hydrogen isotopes tritium and deuterium are used as the fuel, with atomic energy released when their nuclei fuse to create helium and a neutron. This nuclear fusion does not produce the radioactivity nuclear waste that is the by-product of current nuclear fission power generation.
09.01.2012
Science and Technology
HELİUM 3
As we know, helium is a lightweight and non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. Also it sometimes called ‘tralphium’. According to many experts, helium-3 can be a clean nuclear power. There are many benefits of helium-3 but the most important problem is that there is very little helium-3 available on the Earth. First of all, I will give general some information about helium-3 isotope.
Helium-3 | General | Name, symbol | Helium-3, 3He, He-3,3He | Neutrons | 1 | Protons | 2 |
Helium-3 is sought for use in nuclear fusion. As we know, all nuclear power plants use a nuclear reaction to produce heat. This is used to turn water into steam that then drives a turbine to produce electricity. Current nuclear power plants have nuclear fission reactors in which uranium nuclei are split part. This releases energy, but also radioactivity and spent nuclear fuel that is reprocessed into uranium, plutonium and radioactive waste which has to be safety stored, effectively indefinitely.
PAGE 2
‘The nuclear fuel cycle is the series of industrial processes which involve the
production of electricity from uranium in nuclear power reactor’.
For many years, scientist have been working to create nuclear power from nuclear fusion rather than nuclear fission. In the nuclear fusion reactors, the hydrogen isotopes tritium and deuterium are used as the fuel, with atomic energy released when their nuclei fuse to create helium and a neutron. This nuclear fusion does not produce the radioactivity nuclear waste that is the by-product of current nuclear fission power generation.
References: 1) http://www.asi.org/adb/02/09/he3-intro.html 2) http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf03.html 3) http://www.nasa.gov/offices/nac/members/kulcinski-bio.html 4) http://www.thespacereview.com/article/536/1 5) http://www.archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19900006527 6)http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/humanexplore/exploration/exlibrary/docs/isru/06energy.htm 7) http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/series/moon/why_go_back.html 8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3 9) http://www.explainingthefuture.com/helium3.html