How do nuclear power plants work ?
A timeline of nuclear energy 1789 : Martin Klaproth discovered Uranium and named it after the planet Uranus , which was discovered .
1896 : Pierre and Marie Curie identified radioactivity and Henri Becquerel identified beta radiation ( electrons )
1938 : Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann researched uranium ’ s use in atomic fission . They discovered that the nucleus could be split into two and create energy .
1940 : The devastating link was drawn between this and manufacturing bombs .
1942 : The first controlled nuclear chain reaction took place at the University of Chicago .
1945 : The first atomic device is tested in New Mexico by the USA . Less than one month later , the first atomic bomb was used in warfare and dropped on Hiroshima , Japan . The second nuclear bomb – and hopefully the last – was dropped on Nagasaki three days later . The Second World War ended as the Japanese Government surrendered , having lost 105,000 civilian lives in one week . In comparison , 70,000 British civilians died in wartime bombing throughout six years of war . The world ‘ nuclear ’ would forever be yoked to death and destruction .
1951 : The Experimental Breeder Reactor , the world ’ s first nuclear reactor , opened in the USA and nuclear energy began its commercial journey . But with a desire to rebuild the world , many governments began investigating nuclear energy as
106 November 2021