Not only reversed the outcome of World War II, but also changed the world energy pattern!

The birth of nuclear power

Nuclear energy is also called atomic energy, as the name suggests, is the energy inside the nucleus, and its energy release and utilization must be carried out through nuclear reactions. As far as current technology is concerned, there are two main ways to release nuclear energy: one is nuclear fission, which is the way used by atomic bombs; The other is nuclear fusion, which is the reaction principle of hydrogen bombs.

The two seem to be completely opposite, but they are inextricably linked, and the discovery of nuclear energy began with the atom itself.

As early as the ancient Greek period, people had the concept of the atom, has been exploring it, and gradually found that the atom is composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are tightly bound together to form the nucleus, and electrons move around the nucleus, which also contains enormous energy due to strong interactions. The contributions of scientists in the past laid a solid foundation for the discovery of nuclear energy, until 1938, Germany's Otto Hahn bombarded the nucleus of uranium-235 with neutrons to produce a fission reaction, nuclear energy was truly discovered.

But such powerful energy initially became an excellent weapon for the United States to dominate the world.

During World War II, the United States developed the atomic bomb through the Manhattan Project in order to use nuclear energy before Germany. The world's first nuclear reactor was activated at the University of Chicago in 1942, followed by the detonation of two atomic bombs in Japan in 1945 and a brief period of peace. But after the peace, the people of the world are more afraid of nuclear weapons, and the United States has thus become a "hegemon"...

The development of nuclear power technology

In the 1950s, the development of nuclear energy began to shift from military deterrence to nuclear power technology.

In 1954, the former Soviet Union built the world's first commercial nuclear power plant, named "Oblingsk nuclear power Plant", which made a good start for the wide application of nuclear energy. Not to be outdone, the United States built the prototype nuclear power plant of Xiping Port in 1957, with a capacity 16 times that of the Oblingsk Nuclear Power Plant (5MWe), which has proved the feasibility of nuclear power generation. This represented the first generation of nuclear power technology, which was dominated by early prototypes, usually using natural uranium fuel and graphite moderator for energy conversion.

On the basis of the first-generation technology, the second-generation nuclear power technology has achieved commercialization, standardization, and a substantial increase in the power level of a single unit, so that its competitiveness in the power resource market has been enhanced. The third generation technology is already very mature, at that time by the 1986 Chernobyl incident, the international community issued a document requiring countries to rectify nuclear energy electromechanical equipment, Chinese-designed "Hualong One", "Guohe One" and "Linglong One" so famous at home and abroad.

The impact of nuclear energy, the future

Through the update of three generations, today's fourth generation of nuclear power technology has been considered pure, and it also makes us believe that nuclear energy has really changed the world.

From the perspective of nuclear weapons, the power of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs can not be underestimated, and the possession of this technology has become the embodiment of comprehensive national strength, it can be said that nuclear energy has played a deterrent role in world peace and stability. From the perspective of nuclear energy, the rational use of nuclear energy can reduce the loss of non-renewable energy, but also reduce environmental pollution to a certain extent, and may become a high-quality help on the road of sustainable development of mankind.

What we can master and control at the moment is nuclear fission, and the nuclear fusion used in hydrogen bomb explosions is not controllable. Although nuclear fusion has almost no radioactive contamination compared with fission, and its raw material deuterium can be obtained directly from seawater, it is more sustainable and useful. If the speed and scale can be reasonably controlled to achieve a balanced and stable energy output, then nuclear fusion must be the most ideal way to collect energy.

Sum up

Nuclear power was once misunderstood as the end of mankind because it was so destructive, but as technology advances, we are also digging deeper into its beneficial side.

Although it is a difficult path, it is human wisdom that holds the greatest potential, and one day we will realize it, just as we have realized every dream in the past.