Quote from dsq:
Nuclear is not green.It is a FOSSIL FUEL that is non renewable,produces a deadly toxic by-product.Nuclear also is hugely socialist as it requires massive govt subsidies to build and maintain.No company is willing to build them without taxpayers insuring them and bailing them out if it melts.Corporate america is not interested in nukes thats why wall st doesnt bother pushing it.Financially, nukes are a toxic investment.
Just to help you out a little.
Oil, which powers the world via gas, diesel, fuel oil, kerosene, and many other types of fuel is called a fossil fuel because it is the decomposition of organic matter. Coal and natural gas fall into the same category.
These are all complex molecules that have carbon as the primary element but also have hydrogen and others as well. These are all created here naturally on earth from biomass that has died and decayed under the appropriate conditions (heat and pressures being the two main ones)
Uranium is an element that is formed when massive stars (roughly 5-6 times the mass of the sun or more) explode in a event called a super nova. During these events enough energy is released to fuse elements together higher than iron. No element higher than iron is formed by nature unless it came from a super nova. Why, because it takes more energy to fuse iron with other elements that you receive.
Yes we "dig up" both Uranium and oil/coal/nat gas, but they are vastly different in the makup and how the are created and Uranium is most definitely not a fossil fuel.
Continuing the lesson:
Nuclear power today's relies on fission, which splits an atom into two or more constituent atoms (that not are different elements). Uranium is popular because the higher up the periodic table an element it the more protons, electrons, neutrons in that element. The more of these in a atom the lower its stability which makes it easier to split. Also, the greater the neutrons, the easier it is to split making U238 the preferred element for fission.
Energy from fission is derived from a nuclear reaction whereas energy from fossils fuels is a chemical reaction.
Both nuclear fission and fossils fuels are create pollutants. What we need is nuclear fusion, which is the exact opposite of fission. In Fusion two lighter atoms are fused through heat and pressure to create a new element. Fusion is where Einstein created his famous equation E=MC^2 and is the principle behind modern nuclear weapons (the H-bomb). The original nuclear weapons were fission based.