If you have searched for ‘what is Nuclear Energy,’ then you might be interested in learning about nuclear energy. If so, then this article might just be what you were looking for.
In this article we have talked about nuclear energy along with other sources of energy in this article. Know what renewable energy is and which is nonrenewable energy.
Also learn which energy sources are renewable energy and which are nonrenewable energy. But before we start learning about nuclear energy, let’s learn what nonrenewable energy and renewable energy are.
What Is Nonrenewable Energy?
Nonrenewable energy is a source of energy that is derived from nature but isn’t found in abundance. Nonrenewable energy cannot be replenished or restored easily, and excess use of nonrenewable resources can make it extinct within our lifetime. Nonrenewable energy takes millions of years to form and with higher demand rates for its consumption than restore rate its nonrenewable resources of energy might completely run out.
Some examples of nonrenewable energy are coal, petroleum, natural gas, fossil fuel and nuclear energy. Post industrial revolution, nonrenewable energy was the main source of energy that countries used to develop themselves. Hence, nonrenewable resources were used continuously leading to depletion of these sources of energy leading to extinction. Hence, countries are rapidly looking for more sustainable sources of energy for future use. This is why renewable energy sources are becoming more popular energy sources in the present decade. Governments and organizations are actively encouraging people to stop using nonrenewable energy resources and start using renewable energy resources.
Different Types Of Nonrenewable Energy
Let’s learn more about different types of nonrenewable energy.
Nuclear Energy
If you searched for ‘what is nuclear energy,’ then you might be curious about nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is a renewable energy source, but nuclear power plants are not. A nuclear power plant uses materials which are not renewable. Hence, nuclear energy produced becomes nonrenewable energy.
Nuclear energy is a powerful energy sourced from the nucleus or core of an atom through nuclear fission. Through nuclear fission an atom’s nucleus splits generating nuclear energy. A nuclear power plant generates nuclear energy through nuclear fission using complex machinery and produces electricity.
Nuclear power plants use uranium in their process of controlling nuclear fission to generate electricity. Uranium is usually found on rocks worldwide, but nuclear power plants use a rare type of this element. Uranium U-235 is especially used in nuclear fission to generate electricity. This element U-235 is rare and a nonrenewable resource. This is why nuclear energy cannot be called a renewable resource.
Although nuclear energy does not pollute the air, destroy the environment, or emit greenhouse gases like other nonrenewable resources, it still cannot be called a renewable resource due to the process or element it uses to generate electricity.
Why Nuclear Energy Is Not A Reliable Source Of Energy?
Although nuclear energy has been a popular source of generating electricity across the globe, nuclear energy is hard to harvest. Again, nuclear plants are complicated to build and function. As scientists and engineers who can safely control the nuclear fission environment are rare to come by, hence, the process of generating electricity from nuclear energy isn’t reliable or safe process.
Although building a nuclear power plant in rural or urban areas does not harm the surrounding environment it does produce some harmful waste.
Nuclear energy produces not only electricity but also radioactive waste or materials. These radioactive wastes are extremely toxic which can cause death from diseases like cancer, bone decay, neurological disabilities, blood diseases, and even burns. So, all in all nuclear energy sources are not reliable or harmless sources of energy.
Fossil Fuel
Fossil fuel is the most common type of nonrenewable energy that has been consumed so much that fossil fuel might run out in the next few decades. Fossil fuel is sourced from dead flora and fauna that has been carbonized under our Earth’s surface for about 300 million years or more.
All fossils are formed due to extreme pressure resulting from extreme conditions under Earth’s surface during Carboniferous period which was 300-360 million years ago. These conditions to form fossils have not been possible for several million years. Hence excessive consumption of fossil fuel has almost depleted the source.
Fossils were formed even before dinosaurs existed and the landscape of the Earth was also different. Plants, animals, plankton and other organic matter that died on the Earth surface fossilized from extreme pressure. This stored energy of fossils gets transformed into fossil fuel.
Since fossil fuel cannot replenish or restore itself in a short amount of time and needs millions of years, this makes fossil fuel a nonrenewable resource.
Why Fossil Fuel Became The Main Source Of Energy?
Fossil fuel is inexpensive to extract, and it can be easily stored, shipped, or piped anywhere. This made fossil fuel popular among the masses leading to excessive use in the past decades that lead to fossils decreasing and expected to run out this century.
Coal
Coal is a carbonized rock used to power several countries, automobiles and appliances in the world. Coal is organisms carbonized to become coal under extreme pressure or conditions. Coal can have different levels of carbonization creating different types of coal.
Anthracite is the highest form of coal, while peat is the lowest form of coal. Peat goes through lowest carbonization and can be found in several places around the globe like Asia, North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Australia.
Anthracite goes through the highest carbonization and was found in greater amounts in The Appalachian Mountains.
Petroleum
Petroleum is another form of fossil fuel in liquid form, also known as crude oil. Petroleum is formed by getting trapped under rock formations creating oil bubbles underground. When these oil bubbles are found under Earth’s surface using advanced technologies they are extracted using drills.
Most petroleum or crude oil can be found underground, especially under ocean floors. Onshore drilling means when oil is found on land, while offshore drilling means oil is found under ocean floor.
Petroleum is converted into gasoline used to power vehicles, cook food and for heating purposes.
Natural Gas
Natural gas is a type of fossil fuel found underground trapped in reservoirs within the Earth. Natural gas mostly consists of methane gas. Under the Earth’s surface are trillions of tons of natural gas used to generate electricity. From heating to cooking many things are done using natural gas.
Natural gas can be extracted from the underground using “hydraulic fracturing.” Hydraulic fracturing means to split apart something using water. Using high-pressure water, the rocks are split apart underground which releases natural gas from the rock formations. This natural gas is collected and stored to convert into electricity using machinery.
What Is Renewable Energy?
Renewable Energy is a source of energy derived from nature and found in abundance. Renewable energy can replenish quickly from natural sources hence have much lesser chance of running out from over consumption.
To simplify your understanding let’s share some examples of renewable energy like sun, water, wind, geothermal energy or Earth’s energy, or biomass. Sun is a major source of energy on Earth which can be found in abundance. Sunlight is converted into solar energy that can help power our homes and offices.
In the last decade solar energy use has grown considerably and many countries are actively using solar grids or panels to power their households or workplaces. Similarly, biomass, geothermal energy or water and wind are other renewable energy sources found in abundance on Earth.
Different Types Of Renewable Energy
Let’s now dig deeper into some common renewable energy sources.
Solar Energy
Sun or sunlight is a natural source of energy which gets transformed into solar energy using advanced technology. You will find an abundance of sunlight to transform into solar energy.
Solar energy interception rate in the Earth’s atmosphere is 10,000 times greater than the rate of consumption by humans. This makes solar energy abundant and a great renewable source of energy.
Solar technology developed can power electrical appliances, offer natural lighting, power cooling or heating devices and fuel different types of applications. Solar panels or grids can help convert sunlight into electricity to power your home or workplaces.
Although not all countries get equal amount of sunlight throughout the year but some significant energy along with direct solar energy can help power any country. Solar energy is also sustainable as solar technologies like solar panels have a lifespan of 30 years or more. This makes your investment in solar energy and technologies worth it in the long run.
Wind Energy
Wind energy is sourced from moving air. The kinetic energy from moving air gets captured by wind turbines located near sea, fresh water or land where wind speed is good. Then wind turbines transform this stored kinetic energy of moving air into wind energy.
In the past decade wind energy has been used to power several cities across the globe. One such wind energy powered city is California, USA.
Although wind speed varies in different parts of our world, most regions have some potential wind that can help produce wind energy of varying amounts. The technical potential wind energy in the world is said to exceed global electricity production due to ample wind in the world.
Sea or offshore wind has higher potential to source wind energy than land or onshore wind. As at sea, wind speed is higher than on land, but onshore or offshore regions of the world have high potential wind to source wind energy.
Hydropower
Water is another source of renewable resources that can produce hydropower. Hydropower is harnessed from the energy generated from moving water from higher to lower level. Some of the places where hydropower can be generated are reservoirs and rivers. Hydropower plants located on rivers source the natural energy generated from the river’s flow. Hydropower plants placed in reservoirs source energy from stored water in the reservoir.
Hydropower reservoirs help provide water for irrigation, drinking water, control floods and droughts, navigation services along with supplying energy. At present, hydropower is the second largest source of renewable energy on Earth, and the largest source of electrical energy source in the world.
Hydropower is dependent on fresh water and rainfall is an important source of freshwater. With abundance, rain hydropower can easily help sustain our power consumption, but stable rainfall pattern is not reliable worldwide. With climate change, droughts and irregular rainfall patterns can impact hydropower energy.
Proper infrastructure is needed to generate hydropower from an ecosystem. Hence small-scale hydropower is a more sustainable and environmental-friendly way to source hydropower especially in remote regions.
Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy is the energy sourced from the Earth’s interior. The thermal energy that is found in the Earth’s interior gets extracted from geothermal reservoirs by using advanced technology like wells or other means. This energy is then transformed into geothermal energy.
Hydrothermal reservoirs are naturals spaces on the Earth that are hot and permeable. Enhanced geothermal systems are sufficiently hot spaces in the Earth surface that gets improved with hydraulic stimulation. Hydrothermal reservoirs are reliable sources for generating electricity.
Ocean Energy
Ocean energy is sourced from thermal and kinetic energy present in seawater like waves, or ocean current. This kinetic energy and thermal energy then get transformed into ocean energy through advanced technologies to produce electricity.
Ocean energy theoretical potential exceeds the present human energy need or consumption. But then, ocean energy is only in the initial stages of development phase. Positive news is that several prototypes of tidal current or waves devices are being tested and showing great potential for transforming ocean energy into electricity.
Bio Energy
Bioenergy is sourced from biomass or left-over organic materials after we are done using them. Biomass can include animal wastes, charcoal, wood, agricultural wastes, leaves, trees, crops and more such organic things found on Earth.
These biomasses are then used to generate heat and power to produce bioenergy. From agricultural crop waste you can source biofuels to produce power that can be used to do field work. Biofuels is also used to heat, cook, and light up rural homes in remote places.
Bioenergy is a great alternative to burning coal, natural gas or oil to power your homes although it does emit some greenhouse gases. So limited scale use of biofuel can help sustain remote areas until higher renewable energy reaches those remote areas like solar panels to power solar energy.
Conclusion
Now that your query on ‘what is nuclear energy’ has been answered, do you think it’s necessary to call nuclear energy nonrenewable energy. Share your thoughts with us. Also let us know what other great examples of nonrenewable and renewable energy are.
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