My knowledge about school level physics is admittedly not that fleshed out, but we were told that it is possible to convert mass to energy. My google-fu has sadly left me for my question here 🙁
So why can’t we just take e.g. nuclear waste and convert it to energy? After that so is my understanding it wouldn’t simply exist as matter anymore and wouldn’t require to store dangerous trash if you can convert it all to energy.
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Nuclear just means that it has to do with the nucleus of an atom(protons and neutrons). The elements we use for nuclear power are heavy and we split them into smaller elements releasing the energy that it took to bind them when they were fused. When they break apart those smaller elements are unstable will decay releasing electromagnetic radiation. This waste can stay radioactive for thousands of years.
Electromagnetic radiation is just different frequencies of light, microwaves, radio waves, the light we see or even the light that keeps us warm. Some of these frequencies of light energy can harm us, like gamma rays, and alter our DNA. So the things used in nuclear power plants can give off these harmful forms of radiation but they aren’t the types of elements we can split to get energy. Fission can also cause a chain reaction of splitting elements in a runaway reaction and cause a meltdown so it is very dangerous.
We are working on nuclear fusion that will put lighter elements together into heavier elements. Since this is a combining reaction rather than a breaking reaction we can use more stable elements that won’t decay. This will be a form of “clean” nuclear energy.
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