December Magic!

Lets celebrate many milestones in December! What many people don't know, was that there were a number of other important milestones that occurred in the month of December. The full list of early milestones that occurred in December are:

I know, its Christmas right?

• December 2, 1942: First controlled nuclear fission 
                                    (at CP-1 in Chicago) 

      • December 19, 1942: First demonstration of reprocessing 
                                                                  (bismuth phosphate process at Oak Ridge)  
           
     • December 26, 1944: First industrial scale reprocessing 

                                                                (bismuth phosphate process at Hanford)

Bismuth Phosphate Process

   • December 25, 1946: First reactor outside North America                                                                                                 (F-1 in the Soviet Union)

       • December 1950: First "swimming pool" type reactor 
                                                      (Bulk Shielding Reactor at Oak Ridge)                
                       

       • December 20-21, 1951: First generation of useful quantities of 
                                                                           electricity (at EBR-1 in Idaho)

   • December 3, 1956: First use of thorium in a reactor  
                                                               (BORAX-IV in Idaho)                                 

   • December 23, 1956: First purpose-built reactor to provide electricity for 

                                                                  a site (EBWR at Argonne)

The extremely stable Experimental Boiling Water Reactor(EBWR)

    • December 18, 1957: First peaceful commercial reactor      
                                                                    (Shipping port in Pennsylvania)                        

    • December 20, 1957:First peaceful multinational project

                                                                    (Eurochemic for reprocessing, in Belgium)                 

 Shippingport, Pennsylvania

      • December 17, 1967: First electricity from a pebble bed reactor    
                                                                 (AVR in West Germany)                

These are certainly not all of equal importance, and of course, there are important events that happened in other months of the year. Still, it is striking that so many key events took place in the waning days of the year.  

Perhaps some conscious, or even unconscious, effort to reach certain goals before the year was out. Is Nuclear power is in our wishlist for next year? 

Well, just look around guys, many countries put that in their new year goals! Anyway, its December, and its the last month and equally we are about to go into the new year. May I ask, are you ready for nuclear?

Crossroad~

***
Regards,

Nuclear Boy~

Dense is a virtue!

Regards,
Nuclear Boy

20 Interesting Facts About Nuclear Energy!

 The Cooling Tower, most famous building in nuclear power plan LOL!

1) Nuclear energy supplies electricity each year to serve 60 million homes.

2) Less radiation is given off by a nuclear power plant than a coal-burning plant.

Clearly, this is easy to choose!

3) Statistics show that it is safer to work at a nuclear power plant than in the manufacturing sector.

4) If 10,000 schools turned off their lights for one minute it could save RM245,655.

5) France exports electricity from nuclear power for profit.

France. She is still a very attractive country, right?

6) 17% of the world's electricity came from 442 nuclear power plants in 1996.

7) The economic activity of a U.S. nuclear plant generates on average around $20 million in state and local tax revenues.

8) You would have to live near a nuclear power plant for over 2,000 years to get the same amount of radiation exposure that you get from a single diagnostic medical x-ray.

9) There are nearly 100 different nuclear medicine imaging procedures available today.

10) Almost 3 million Americans live within 10 miles of an operating nuclear power plant.

Think Nuclear, Think Green

11) Nuclear energy comes from uranium, a nonrenewable resource that must be mined.

12) Every 18 to 24 months, a power plant must shut down to remove its spent uranium fuel, which has become radioactive waste.

13) Nuclear power plants generate nearly three-fourths of America's clean-air energy.

14) Nuclear energy is produced by a controlled nuclear chain reaction and creates heat—which is used to boil water, produce steam, and drive a steam turbine. 

15) Nuclear power plants need less fuel than ones which burn fossil fuels. One ton of uranium produces more energy than is produced by several million tons of coal or several million barrels of oil. 

16) In France, nuclear power is the most widespread, supplying 80 percent of the country's electricity. A protest movement exists, called Sortir du Nucléaire, or "Get Out of Nuclear," but it appears to have made little headway. 

17) Nuclear energy was first discovered accidentally by French physicist Henri Becquerel in 1896, when he found that photographic plates stored in the dark near uranium were blackened like X-ray plates, which had been just recently discovered at the time. 

Antoine Henri Becquerel

18) On June 27, 1954, the USSRs Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant became the world's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid, and produced around 5 megawatts electric power. 

19) Nuclear power is the only energy industry which takes full responsibility for all its wastes, and costs this into the product.

20) Nuclear energy would be dominant source of energy by now if it hadn't been Chernobyl and Three Miles island (nuclear disasters).

Regards,

                                          NUCLEAR BOY IS CHILLING AROUND!